PORT TOWNSEND — Isolated women, festivals, the fight for the bridge — and even a murder on Marrowstone Island will be the subject of Jefferson County Historical Society’s First Friday talk today at 7 p.m.
Marrowstone Island historian Karen Russell will speak about her 1978 historical book, “Marrowstone,” at 540 Water St.
Attendees are encouraged to bring a $5 donation to the talk.
Russell co-wrote the book with fellow islander Jeanne Bean. What started as a small project to discover the history of the Nordland Garden Club became an extensive research project.
“I was the program chairman and I thought it would be interesting to find out the history of the club because I was a new member to the community,” Russell said. “I couldn’t find very much information on the island.”
So, she set out interviewing charter members of the garden club. Because the club was founded in 1937, many of the charter members were still “very much alive” and had interesting stories to tell, according to a press release.
Jeanne Bean, another island newcomer, volunteered to help with the project.
The short history kept growing as Russell and Bean searched courthouse records, conducted interviews and thumbed through early editions of the Port Townsend Leader. Two and a half years later, they published “Marrowstone.”
Although the book was published in 1978, Russell continues to gather Marrowstone Island history.
“You can’t help but research sometimes,” she said.
