Maury Island is a small
islandAn island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
in
Puget SoundPuget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
in the
U.S. stateA U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Washington. It is connected to
Vashon IslandVashon is a census-designated place in King County, Washington, United States. It covers an island alternately called Vashon Island or Vashon-Maury Island, the largest island in Puget Sound south of Admiralty Inlet. The population was 10,624 at the 2010 census. At , it is about 60 percent larger...
by an
isthmusAn isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas usually with waterforms on either side.Canals are often built through isthmuses where they may be particularly advantageous to create a shortcut for marine transportation...
built by the
United States Army Corps of EngineersThe United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
. Before construction of the isthmus, the island was connected to Vashon only during low tide. The island is rural with large areas of excellent farmland, forest, and relatively undeveloped shoreline. Currently,
South Maury Island environmental issuesSouth Maury Island environmental issues are linked to broader Puget Sound environmental issues, which include concerns regarding declining salmon and forage fish populations, degrading critical marine and shoreline habitats, and threatened species such as the Orca.Many of these concerns are...
are under considerable scrutiny.
Maury Island was named during the Wilkes Expedition in honor of William Lewis Maury, who between 1863 and 1864 raided Union ships on behalf of the Confederacy and is buried in Caroline County, Virginia. It was the site of the
Maury Island IncidentThe Maury Island Incident is said to be an early modern UFO encounter incident, which allegedly took place in June 1947, three days before the famous sighting by Kenneth Arnold, widely considered the original encounter with flying saucers. It is also one of the earliest reported instances of an...
, an unusual case of an alleged encounter with a
UFOA term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
.
Point Robinson Light is located on Point Robinson, the easternmost point on Maury Island.
Maury and Vashon Islands are home to the
Vashon-Maury Island Community Council. In the 1940s, Vashon had a
chamber of commerceA chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
which acted more like a community council than a traditional chamber. By the 1950s, the precursor to today's community council was organized and called itself the "Civic Assembly." Today, the Community Council is charged with working to preserve the rural nature of Vashon and Maury Islands.
Maury Island also is the center of controversy between the locals and
Glacier NorthwestGlacier Northwest is the Pacific Northwest’s largest supplier of ready mixed concrete, sand, gravel, rock, cement and building materials.-History:...
, a company that supplies ready-mixed concrete owned by the
Taiheiyo Cementis a Japanese cement company, and is the biggest of its kind in Japan. It was formed in 1998 with the merger of Chichibu Onoda and Nihon Cement ....
Company of Japan. The company intends a 300-fold expansion of their existing gravel mine on the island, which is currently permitted to extract up to 20,000 tons per year. With the expansion, the company would have gained the capability to extract up to 40,000 tons per day, an incredibly significant increase from state allowed levels. The opposition group made up of local islanders is known as Preserve Our Islands and staunchly advocates gathering more information before continuing mining operations on the island. The affected shoreline is located within the state's only existing aquatic preserve for notably diverse marine ecosystems. The company's project
website provides additional information on the project and how it will be conducted. Opponents of the mine dispute many of the claims made by Glacier Northwest and allege that the project will severely impact sensitive shoreline habitat
http://www.preserveourislands.org.
On December 30, 2010 King County took possession of the land, including the keys to the property gate.
The council adopted King County Executive Dow Constantine's proposed purchase and sale of the property on December 6, including the adoption of his financing package.
The King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks will now work to with the community to improve the property for public open space, while restoring the ecological habitat for wildlife. The mile of shoreline that is part of the purchase is the longest undeveloped stretch of shore in King County, and will be a critical part of the region's wildlife habitat for fish, birds and Puget Sound marine life.