About 140 years ago, Isaac Ebey’s sons built the Ferry House on a scenic spot on the Central Whidbey prairie near both the beach and a natural ravine where fresh water runs.

Nearly 2000 years before that, people native to the land chose the same spot to camp and live on. There, in small pits with heated rocks, luau-style, they cooked the starchy camas bulbs that grow on the island. They may have been farmers of sorts, or they may have controlled the prairie with fire.

Ebey’s Landing Historical Reserve Director Rob Harbour said he’s recently discovered much more about this small popular stretch of land that has lured people for thousands of years and still bears remarkable evidence of the past.

Harbour said the reserve received funding from the National Parks Service to study and rehabilitate the historic Ferry House, which is located on Ebey’s Landing Road south of Coupeville. The Park Service is in the process of buying the building from the Nature Conservancy. A couple of archeologists, employees from North Cascade National Park, and a group of graduate students from Slovakia all joined the effort over the last 10 months.

The original plan, Harbour said, was to stabilize and reinforce the unique structure to a point at which it would be safe to open to the public, at least on a limited basis.

Unfortunately, in looking over the building, the group found it was just too far gone, Harbour said. In fact, the more they looked at it, the more they were amazed that it is still standing.

“It’s kind of dissolving,” he said.

So for now, the focus of the project has changed to saving the building from deteriorating further. It is in this effort that some pretty amazing archeological evidence has been discovered.

The team dug trenches underneath the Ferry House in order to insert giant beams to shore up the building’s sagging foundation. The building was originally built with large rocks and stumps supporting the entire weight of the house, but they have since shifted or rotted.

Because the Ferry House is an historic site, Harbour said, federal law required that the project had to be treated as an archaeological dig. That meant keeping track of all the dirt, using about a hundred buckets, and screening it all for artifacts.

“There was an interesting mix of historic and prehistoric artifacts,” Harbor said. The dig team found a bayonet from the Civil War era, Indian trade beads, hatpins, pottery, bottles, horseshoes, knives, pieces of opium pipes, pendants and odd bones. Perhaps the most significant find was a cooked camas bulb.

Bob Mierendorf, an archaeologist from North Cascades, also discovered pits of unusually dark earth in the area, with cracked “fire rocks” and ancient charcoal. The charcoal was carbon dated to 2030 years ago.

Putting together the evidence of the cooked camas bulbs and the pits, Mierendorf concluded that Native Americans were probably cooking camas bulbs in the large ovens. Such processing facilities were common in Eastern Washington, but this is the first evidence of the kind in Puget Sound.

Harbour said this opens questions about whether ancient people farmed the Central Whidbey area or managed the prairie with controlled burns.

Beyond the ancient history, Harbour said he discovered a lot more about the Ferry House and found that it is more important in an historical sense than previously thought. It’s a “museum piece,” he said, and one of the few remaining early Pacific Northwest structures left.

Back in the late 1800s, the Ferry House was a major transportation hub for people who were coming to the Puget Sound region from the water. Two sons of Isaac Ebey, the Whidbey pioneer who was killed by a party of Haida Indians, built the house on a road between Coupeville and Ebey’s Landing, which is where the ferry-type boats landed. It was built as a business at a time when Central Whidbey was booming. The men would bring the guests in a wagon to the house, where they could eat by the fire and stay the night upstairs.

The building itself was not a great feat of architecture or carpentry. It was built with rough 1-by-12 fir boards that extended from the bottom of the first floor to the top of the second. Harbour said the only thing holding up two floors are 2-by-4 nailers attached to the outside walls.

The house was built in three stages, probably over three years. Some of the interior walls were weathered, showing that they were once outside walls.

There are six different types of windows in the building. Each door is different.

“It doesn’t take a lot of skill to build something like this,” Harbour said.

The Ferry House is also part of very modern movie history. When the late Robert Pratt owned the building, he allowed a movie studio to use it for filming the movie “Snow Falling on Cedars.” The building still bears the Depression-era wallpaper that the studio purchased and then painted to look old. The authentic-looking front door was built by a prop person out of plywood and imported wavy glass.

Right now, the Ferry House looks pretty forlorn, with all the windows boarded up. The wind had been rattling the old glass in the rotting frames, causing them to break. Yet Harbour said the Reserve is hosting a field school next summer to teach students to refurbish the ancient windows while preserving as much of the original material as possible. Once that is done, the boards can be safely taken off.

In addition, the Ferry House needs a new roof, the chimneys need to be stabilized or rebuilt, and the doors will be reinforced.

“Then we can start really looking at the site,” Harbour said. “There’s chapter after chapter of history here.”Isaac Ebeys Ferry house begins to tell its stories

By JESSIE STENSLAND

About 140 years ago, Isaac Ebeys sons built the Ferry House on a scenic spot on the Central Whidbey prairie near both the beach and a natural ravine where fresh water runs.

Nearly 2000 years before that, people native to the land chose the same spot to camp and live on. There, in small pits with heated rocks, luau-style, they cooked the starchy camas bulbs that grow on the island. They may have been farmers of sorts, or they may have controlled the prairie with fire.

Ebeys Landing Historical Reserve Director Rob Harbour said hes recently discovered much more about this small popular stretch of land that has lured people for thousands of years and still bears remarkable evidence of the past.

Harbour said the reserve received funding from the National Parks Service to study and rehabilitate the historic Ferry House, which is located on Ebeys Landing Road south of Coupeville. The Park Service is in the process of buying the building from the Nature Conservancy. A couple of archeologists, employees from North Cascade National Park, and a group of graduate students from Slovakia all joined the effort over the last 10 months.

The original plan, Harbour said, was to stabilize and reinforce the unique structure to a point at which it would be safe to open to the public, at least on a limited basis.

Unfortunately, in looking over the building, the group found it was just too far gone, Harbour said. In fact, the more they looked at it, the more they were amazed that it is still standing.

Its kind of dissolving, he said.

So for now, the focus of the project has changed to saving the building from deteriorating further. It is in this effort that some pretty amazing archeological evidence has been discovered.

The team dug trenches underneath the Ferry House in order to insert giant beams to shore up the buildings sagging foundation. The building was originally built with large rocks and stumps supporting the entire weight of the house, but they have since shifted or rotted.

Because the Ferry House is an historic site, Harbour said, federal law required that the project had to be treated as an archaeological dig. That meant keeping track of all the dirt, using about a hundred buckets, and screening it all for artifacts.

There was an interesting mix of historic and prehistoric artifacts, Harbor said. The dig team found a bayonet from the Civil War era, Indian trade beads, hatpins, pottery, bottles, horseshoes, knives, pieces of opium pipes, pendants and odd bones. Perhaps the most significant find was a cooked camas bulb.

Bob Mierendorf, an archaeologist from North Cascades, also discovered pits of unusually dark earth in the area, with cracked fire rocks and ancient charcoal. The charcoal was carbon dated to 2030 years ago.

Putting together the evidence of the cooked camas bulbs and the pits, Mierendorf concluded that Native Americans were probably cooking camas bulbs in the large ovens. Such processing facilities were common in Eastern Washington, but this is the first evidence of the kind in Puget Sound.

Harbour said this opens questions about whether ancient people farmed the Central Whidbey area or managed the prairie with controlled burns.

Beyond the ancient history, Harbour said he discovered a lot more about the Ferry House and found that it is more important in an historical sense than previously thought. Its a museum piece, he said, and one of the few remaining early Pacific Northwest structures left.

Back in the late 1800s, the Ferry House was a major transportation hub for people who were coming to the Puget Sound region from the water. Two sons of Isaac Ebey, the Whidbey pioneer who was killed by a party of Haida Indians, built the house on a road between Coupeville and Ebeys Landing, which is where the ferry-type boats landed. It was built as a business at a time when Central Whidbey was booming. The men would bring the guests in a wagon to the house, where they could eat by the fire and stay the night upstairs.

The building itself was not a great feat of architecture or carpentry. It was built with rough 1-by-12 fir boards that extended from the bottom of the first floor to the top of the second. Harbour said the only thing holding up two floors are 2-by-4 nailers attached to the outside walls.

The house was built in three stages, probably over three years. Some of the interior walls were weathered, showing that they were once outside walls.

There are six different types of windows in the building. Each door is different.

It doesnt take a lot of skill to build something like this, Harbour said.

The Ferry House is also part of very modern movie history. When the late Robert Pratt owned the building, he allowed a movie studio to use it for filming the movie Snow Falling on Cedars. The building still bears the Depression-era wallpaper that the studio purchased and then painted to look old. The authentic-looking front door was built by a prop person out of plywood and imported wavy glass.

Right now, the Ferry House looks pretty forlorn, with all the windows boarded up. The wind had been rattling the old glass in the rotting frames, causing them to break. Yet Harbour said the Reserve is hosting a field school next summer to teach students to refurbish the ancient windows while preserving as much of the original material as possible. Once that is done, the boards can be safely taken off.

In addition, the Ferry House needs a new roof, the chimneys need to be stabilized or rebuilt, and the doors will be reinforced.

Then we can start really looking at the site, Harbour said. Theres chapter after chapter of history here.