The Great Clam Bake of 1885
A Seattle party crosses the Sound to Port Blakely, where local Indigenous hosts treat the visitors to a massive, traditional clam bake that captures the awe and appetite of the pioneer era.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Seattle party, joined by a group from Tacoma, crossed the Sound to Port Blakely to witness a genuine, old-fashioned clam bake—a treat most of the visitors had never before enjoyed. Extensive preparations had been made for the event: fifty bushels of clams were gathered by the local Indigenous people, placed on the beach, and covered with seaweed and damp canvas to steam. The feast was a marvel, complemented by roasted salmon, baked hams, pyramids of bread, and a great tub of butter. Everybody ate until they could eat no more. The Seattle folks, impressed by the grandeur of the Port Blakely mill and the generous hospitality of the hosts, declared it the most 'happy day' in recent memory.
“Fifty bushels of clams were gathered by the Indians, placed on the beach, covered with seaweed and damp canvas... and the crowd that sat down to the meal was just as 'happy as clams in high water.'”
This account captures a moment of cross-cultural interaction at a colonial industrial site (the Port Blakely mill) that is now largely vanished. It mirrors today's tension between Seattle's rapid urban expansion and the enduring, underlying presence of the region's First Peoples, whose traditional foodways are increasingly recognized as part of our shared regional heritage.
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