The Friendly Isle – Lopez Island

Lopez Island is truly a magical place, eliciting in many an almost ethereal response to its sheer beauty, its substance, and its peace.  It is a different way of life: the pace is slower, the world quieter, the people approachable. Many from near and far have discovered Lopez and found it irresistible.

A rural patchwork quilt of fields and pastures, interrupted by sections of velvety forest rolling down to the edge of the sea, with its quiet pace, reminiscent of days gone by, Lopez boasts a well-developed sense of community.  To understand the present, you need to understand the past – understand the island’s history.

In the beginning, Northwest Coastal Indians spent Winters in cedar-planked loghouses and used the warmer months for hunting, fishing, and cultivating/gathering plants.  Later people came to Lopez for a variety of reasons – prospectors returning from various gold rushes and passing through the islands, relatives and friends of residents, respondents to advertising – those hoping for a better life.

As people moved to the islands, three main communities formed:  Port Stanley, Richardson, and Lopez Village. These communities all boasted steamer service, a store, and a post office.  A smaller area known as Mud Bay also had a post office and a school. People were, by necessity, self-sufficient. Survival depended upon community; they bartered and shared.  And now, as then, the best way to make a living on Lopez is to wrest it from the land or from the sea.

The story of Lopez is the story of community.  Living self-reliant lives while helping friends, neighbors, and newcomers.  Lopezians created a unique community character that abides today. It is this which has shaped the island’s history, far more powerfully and significantly than we may realize.  The island continues to echo those early times.