Explore the Stump House

Nestled in a 200-year old maple grove, just 4.5 miles outside of Seabeck is a well-hidden gem, Guillemot Cove Nature Reserve. With several easy loop trails and beach access offering views of the Hood Canal and the Olympic Mountains, this park is a great place to bring small children.  Imaginations are inspired by the Stump House, a large hollowed out Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) stump that has been outfitted with a door way, window openings and a split-shingle roof.  

Local legend holds that the Stump House was originally built by Dirty Thompson an escaped convict.  The notches carved in the large stump also gives evidence to springboard logging practices, which dates the stumps creation to the 1890s.  Loggers would carve notches in the tree to insert springboards above the flare of the roots on the tree so that they could stand on them while they laboriously cut the tree down with large handsaws.  

The park was originally a labor of love of the Reynolds family who bought the property in 1939.  Avid bird watchers, the Reynolds renamed the cove Guillemot after the black and white birds that frequented the cove.  In 1993, after many years of enjoying and caring for the land the family sold the property to the Trust for Public Land to preserve the natural beauty. 

The 184 acre park can be found at  19235 Stavis Bay Road NW, Seabeck.

Photo: George Stenberg 2019