The Rise And Decline Of The Ohjmpia Oyster 



Les Young owned oyster land near Old Kamilche. 

 x\lso a beautiful upland tract near the beds where he 

 built his home. The bay widens out at his place into a 

 cove, where there were native oysters. When the diking 

 and leveling era arrived he, in common with other oyster- 

 men, began to think of expanding his oyster land area. 

 He was faced with a very difficult problem; much more 

 so than in those areas in the upper waters of Oyster Bay 

 and Mud Bay where the tide flats v/ere level. But Les was 

 a hardy pioneer, and a lot of hard work did not discour- 

 age him. 



In planning this development, he did a wonderful 

 job of engineering. The results showed that he had much 

 knowledge of tidal flow and of the effect of the winds 

 and storms. Also of the dike level necessary to get best 

 results. One of his greatest problems was to construct 

 the dike in such a way that the silt or mud would not 

 collect behind the upper dike, and so the currents would 

 flow over the beds in such a way as to deliver food to the 

 oysters. These problems were caused by the contour of 

 the cove. 



To accomplish th^se things it was necessary to put in 

 a long, curved, high dike. In fact, it was too high to con- 

 struct with any material used in those days, so he m.ade 

 use of the nearest thing at hand — a sort of clay, gravel 

 and mud. Other oystermen predicted it would wash out, 

 but Les was sure of its holding qualities. He also knew^ 

 how the tide current flowed, and from whence the winds 

 came. (See picture). 



It required a tremendous amount of material both for 

 the dike and the long deep fill behind it. This was all 



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