Chamber Looks to Tourism to Lift Island Economy

Our goal is to tell Vashon's story, through visuals, graphics, audibles, and positioning. It'll be a call to action to come to Vashon, to shop on Vashon.

Amy Herbig, President

Blonde Ambition

Treasure Discovered?

Yep, it's true. Two young treasure hunters converged on the buried treasure, almost simultaneously. In the end, they agreed to split the fortune.

The winners may become Treasure Masters and are eligible to help develop next year's hunt. Thanks to everyone that participated!

Lost Luggage

Sunday's Clue

She knows where the red valise is kept.

Friday's Clue.

Also, don't forget to visit Gusto Girls tonight. Important clues will be revealed. Ask for the "Savoy Hotel Special No. 2."

If you are an underage drinker, ask them to substitute the absinthe for Yoo-Hoo. Let us know how this tastes. Maybe this will become Special No. 99.

You should be forewarned. Here's the recipe for Special No. 1:

Savoy Hotel Special Cocktail No. 1

2 oz dry gin

1 oz dry vermouth

2 dashes quality grenadine

1 dash absinthe

lemon peel

Who knows what might end up in Special No. 2?

Please visit the Valise and Two-Wall Galleries this Friday evening or Saturday afternoon for some great art, including the fine exhibit Land/Structure/Impact by soul-mates Heather Joy and Matthew Olds.

Today's Clue: Pinex

Used by the folks in Vermontville.

An Aficionado Discusses the Finer Points with the Artist

Best Done Under Cover of Darkness

By Nels A. Jr.

1954: Vashon Island, Washington

Startin’ on the Farm to Market Road from the 1951 Washington license plate stuck on an ol’ pole, near the Eyot farmstead, travel south (77/4) towards the Thorsen Place (78/5).

Dodge Old Man Thorsen’s dogs over to Bank (79/2), then east towards Center. Near the pond (79/9), look for the trapper’s trail going north and then west. Tie up your pony here because the trail gets too narrow.

From the trailhead, it’ll be 266 paces to our old camp site in the grove. Go about 400 paces to the corduroy bridge and 200 more paces downhill to a miraculous stand of tall firs. Count slowly from here and look for the salal trail north to the Chilcat village. No more counting. At each wye, always take the rightward trail to the old trappers shack.

You’ll need to sneak up quietly as not to arouse the tribe nearby. Watch out for Indian sentries.

Historian Rachel Bard might recall the right way.

Treasure Hunt: Rumors and Clues

Update: By our count, Team Jesse was leading the pack, having located four map sections. Team Jesse was followed closely by Team Thunder Cloud. A fifth map section will likely be discovered today. This piece can be reached by surveying the section from a high vantage point with a spyglass. Seekers who are tough enough to reach this map section from mud level, they will likely discover a bonus clue for their efforts.


For those of you catching up, there’s buried treasure on Vashon Island. Yep, that is the truth.

Treasure hunters amassed in Vashon’s town center last night, scouring for clues. They are looking for twelve fragments of an ancient map that will lead a lucky team to the prize, fabulous gems looted by Napoleon’s army.

Let us indulge in a bit of history: In 1812, Napoleon’s Grand Army entered Moscow. As winter approached, the Grand Army realized that they were running out of food. The army’s supply lines had been cut-off. The Russians had burned all the food in the city left the cupboards bare. They abandoned their city and hid in the countryside.

However, the sensible Russians left behind treasures and gold. After all, you can swallow a small sapphire but it doesn’t taste very good.

With the Russian winter coming, the Grand Army began to retreat. Some of the foolish soldiers thought they could carry looted gold bullion and other imperial treasures. It wasn’t long before Napoleon’s men discarded the heavy treasures as they tried to walk home to Paris.

In Napoleon’s Army was a group of Saxons. Fifty or so Saxons deserted Napoleon’s army during the retreat. With them, sewn into their clothes, were the Baranov gemstones.

HOLD Studios Conspires with Valise

In a multi-media exhibit entitled Land/Structure/Impact(LSI), artists Heather Joy and Matthew Olds (aka HOLD studios) explore the relationship between humans and the land from a micro and macro level.

Heather uses photography to document human-made ecotones (ecology + tension), representations of human attempts to control natural systems. Examples include the sharp lines between farmland and watershed, farm and city, port and wetland, among others. The images are from a series of Heather's aerial photographs, taken over the past five years. She shoots while traveling on commercial flights, and some of her images are obscured by jet fuel, smog, cloud cover, frosty or cracked airplane windows, uncontrolled lighting and weather conditions.

Matthew uses painting to document the rise and fall of structures in the landscape. He has long been fascinated with buildings and bridges in various states of deterioration, from use, neglect, or both. To better understand the dynamics of the built environment, Matthew has erected several structures of his own and installed them in the landscape. He uses these structures as source material for his paintings and will install a related structure in the gallery space.

An additional component of the show is an ongoing collaborative project titled Land-Grab, which was inspired by the recent economic collapse, as well as the historical U.S. land rush of the late 1800's. Heather and Matthew selected hundreds of Heather's aerial photographs and created an installation of them in a "parcel-like" grid. Each photograph will be available for "on-the-spot" purchase and will leave the gallery with the buyer. Throughout the show, Heather and Matthew will document the evolution of this interactive project, as each element of the installation is sold, leaving a void where there once was land/art. By the end of the Land-Grab project, they hope that only the abandoned infrastructure that was supporting the pieces will remain.

This July exhibition is the third iteration of the Land/Structure/Impact project. The first was installed in the fall of 2007 at the Tacoma Contemporary Woolworth Windows. The second was installed at Seattle's Fetherston Gallery May 15 - June 13, 2009, which included the addition of the Land-Grab project. At this third stop Heather and Matthew will install Land-Grabat the Valise Gallery as it was at the end of the Fetherston show. Future Land-Grab locations to be announced.

The gallery has extended its hours to Fridays 6 to 8 pm and Saturdays 12 to 5 pm.