What is the history of Ocean Shores, Washington?
The City of Ocean Shores had its beginnings before recorded history, when the area now known as the Point Brown peninsula was used by the various local tribes for trading and other purposes. The Chinook, Chehalis, and Quinalt Tribes used the area, as well as others that now make up the Quinalt Indian Nation. On May 7, 1792 Captain Robert Gray (sea-captain)Robert Gray sailed into the bay and named the area Bullfinch Harbor. Later, Captain George Vancouver re-named the area after Captain Gray, now called Grays HarborGray’s Harbor. The first white established settler on the Point was Matthew McGee, who settled in the early 1860s. He sold the southern portion of the peninsula to A.O. Damon in 1878 for a trading supply center whose dock extended into the Oyehut channel. A.O. Damon took over the entire peninsula from McGee with the land passed along to his grandson, Ralph Minard, who used the area as a cattle ranch from 1929 until he sold to the Ocean Shores Development Corporation in 1960 f
