Fay Bainbridge Park is a locally operated, public recreation area situated immediately south of the Point Monroe sandspit on the northeast tip of

Bainbridge Island Bainbridge Island is a city and island in Kitsap County, Washington. It is located in Puget Sound. The population was 23,025 at the 2010 census and an estimated 25,298 in 2019, making Bainbridge Island the second largest city in Kitsap County. ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and is open from dawn to dusk. The park comprises of land, including of

shoreline A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past a ...

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

.The park offers beach activities and camping in addition to views of

, the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, a ...

and two volcanoes: Mount Rainier and

Mount Baker Mount Baker (Lummi: '; nok, Kw’eq Smaenit or '), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount ...

History

In 1944, the state purchased the land for the park for $5,000 from the estate of Temple S. Fay with the stipulation that the

Washington State Park System The Washington State Park System is a set of state parks owned by the state government of Washington, USA. They are managed by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. There are over 140 parks throughout the state, including 19 marin ...

maintain the name ''Fay''. Temple S. Fay was a

neurosurgeon Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...

who introduced the use of

hypothermia Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe ...

in medical and

surgical Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

illnesses and who also developed rehabilitation procedures based upon analysis of

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

movements. Fay taught at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

. His two children honored their father's desire to make the area a park. At the park entrance is a display of a bell donated by the Kitsap County Historical Society. This bell was purchased for the community by

Port Madison Port Madison, sometimes called Port Madison Bay, is a deep water bay located on the west shore of Puget Sound in western Washington. It is bounded on the north by Indianola, on the west by Suquamish, and on the south by Bainbridge Island. Port Ma ...

citizens through public subscription to be used as a "town crier" to proclaim important events. At the request of G.A. Meigs, the bell was brought from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

around 1883 by Captain Jeremiah W. Farnham, allegedly to become the school belfry. As

needed to provide a courthouse on short notice, they converted the nearly-finished school and the bell was placed on the old public community hall on mill property. It was later moved to A.R. Lintner's Historical Association, and it was moved to the park on March 23, 1953. The park was formerly known as Fay Bainbridge State Park. It was among several state parks turned over to local authorities by the

beginning in 2009. The park was officially transferred to the Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park and Recreation District in May 2011.

Facilities

Fay Bainbridge Park has 15 tent sites for overnight camping and 26 utility sites. As a stop on the Cascadia Marine Trail. Picnicking facilities are also available.

References

External links

Fay Bainbridge Park
Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park & Recreation District
Fay Bainbridge Park Map
Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park & Recreation District {{Authority control Bainbridge Island, Washington Parks in Kitsap County, Washington