Blue Hills (Washington)

The Blue Hills just west of Bremerton, Washington, also called the Bremerton Hills, Bald Hills, and Wildcat Hills, consist of Gold Mountain, Green Mountain, and several informally named hills.[1][2] Reaching an elevation of 1761 feet (537 meters), a thousand feet above the glacial till that fills the Puget Lowland,[3] they form a prominent landmark visible around the region.[4] They are formed of uplifted blocks of marine basalts, the steep-walled canyons between the various summits being the fissures between the blocks (particularly prominent at Gold Creek and Union River). In addition to Gold Mountain and Green Mountain (the named members of the Blue Hills[5]) are several other prominent peaks unofficially named according to their elevation (in feet):

• Kitsap Lookout, el. 1,360 feet[6]
• Peak 1330 (also known as Peak 1320),[7]
• Peak 1291.[8]
• Peak 730.

This article is about the hills in Western Washington. For the mountains in Eastern Washington and Oregon, see Blue Mountains (Pacific Northwest).

Blue Hills
Location of the Blue Hills
Highest point
Peak	Gold Mountain
Elevation	1,761 ft (537 m)
Coordinates	47°32′55″N 122°47′10″W
Geography
Country	United States
State	Washington
Region	Western Washington
Range coordinates	47°33′00″N 122°48′00″W

For a more complete list of hills see List of mountains and hills of Kitsap County, Washington. The name "Blue Hills" is said to come from the green trees appearing blue at a distance due to atmospheric optics.[9]

View from Betty Bowen viewpoint (Queen Anne Hill, Seattle) west-southwest across Puget Sound and Bainbridge Island to the Blue Hills. Prominent summits from left to right are: Kitsap Lookout, Gold Mountain, Green Mountain, and Peak 1291. Behind these peaks of the Olympic Mountains trend to the south. From the right: Mt. Ellinor, Mt. Washington (elevation 6,250'), and Mt. Pershing. Barely overlooking Green Mountain: Lightning Peak and Dry Mountain. In the gap next to Gold Mountain the twin summits of Chapel Peak (~4,000') peek over Prospect Ridge (overlooks Lake Cushman). Visible to the left of Kitsap Lookout are several unnamed peaks in the vicinity of Vance Creek. Mouse-over for labels. See Peakfinder.org for more details.

Geology

Location of the Blue Hills ("OP") at west end of the Seattle Fault, and the similar Cougar, Squak, and Tiger mountains ("CL") at east end. (Excerpt from DGER Geological Map (GM-52).)

The Blue Hills are perched on the north edge of the Seattle uplift, an east-west trending syncline or arch between the Seattle Fault and Tacoma fault formed by north-south compression of the bedrock. (See Puget Sound faults#Geological setting.)

Geological map of central Kitsap County, Bremerton on the right. Purple is the uplifted bedrock that forms the Blue Hills. Distinct west-east fissure (Gold Creek) separates Green and Gold Mountains (north and south, resp.).

Gold Mountain (on the south) is composed mainly of marine basalt flows and related volcaniclastic rocks (such as breccias and sedimentary interbeds) of the Crescent Formation, part of the Siletzia terrane that formed around 50 million years ago (early Eocene). Green Mountain is formed of slightly older formations of gabbro and pegmatite, intruded by dikes of basalt and diabase. Most of the dikes are oriented north-northeast (NNE), suggesting they formed at a time of east-southeast–west-northwest (ESE-WNW) extension. This is parallel to the Olympic-Wallowa Lineament (OWL), a major regional feature that passes just north of Bremerton which some believe shows strike-slip (horizontal) motion, but a connection with the OWL is yet to be shown. Sharp downwarping of these formations has created numerous faults, including the dip-slip (vertical movement) Gold Creek fault that separates the two mountains. Strands of the Seattle fault, which east of here trend nearly due west-east, appear to turn to the southwest in the vicinity of Green Mountain.[10]

Mining

Popular lore says Gold Mountain was so named on account of the presence of gold. However, state geological documents make no mention of any gold or gold mining in Kitsap County.[11]

On Green Mountain, an old and much photographed adit near the headwaters of Tin Mine Creek is probably from the Chico "tin mine" the creek is named after.[12] In 1895 it was reported that ore of three to five percent tin had been found in this vicinity, and the Cook Kitchen Mining Company had been incorporated with $2,000,000 of capital to develop the claim.[13] An optimistic report in 1897 mentioned four shafts, one eighty-five feet deep,[14] and there was report at the end of 1898 of a new shaft.[15] However, in the 1897 report the means of reducing the ore were only "proposed"; there are no indications that any ore was produced or shipped. Neither the site nor the company is mentioned in reports at the turn of the century on mines and mineral resources in the state. A report in 1918 said that there had been "no subsequent developments to indicate the authenticity of this deposit", and that a careful examination in 1906 failed to show any tin.[16]

The only other known metalliferous mining claim in all of Kitsap county – the "Elmer Nelson Property" – is on the south flank of Green Mountain, just above Gold Creek.[17] Very little is known about this claim except its reported location and that development appears to have been limited to a surface trench. Cobalt is reported as the primary mineral of interest, with no mention of gold, silver, or any other mineral.

Hydrology

The hills contain the headwaters of the Union River and Tahuya River, draining into Hood Canal south and southwest respectively. A number of creeks also rise in the hills, draining directly north into Hood Canal (e.g. Big Beef Creek, "the largest and most productive salmon stream on the northeast shore of Hood Canal"[18]), northeast into Dyes Inlet (Lost Creek/Wildcat Creek/Chico Creek, "the most productive salmon stream in Kitsap County, producing as many salmon as all other streams combined"[19]) and east into Sinclair Inlet (Heins Creek/Gorst Creek).[20]

Municipal water supply

The hills have long been identified as an important watershed for Bremerton and the surrounding area, as the Kitsap Peninsula has no major lakes or rivers, no access to mountain reservoirs fed by snowmelt, and the groundwater is limited in quantity and quality.[21][22][23]

[The Kitsap Peninsula] approaches the description of school geographies – almost completely surrounded by water. Watersheds are limited and streams small and scattered...The [reservoir] most recently developed is the Union River, which has a watershed area of only 3.2 sq. mi but which, as a result of topographic conditions, is quite productive...

— Cliff Casad and John W. Cunningham, Construction of the Union River Dam at Bremerton, Wash., 1957[24]

Moist Pacific air reaches the Blue Hills through a gap in the coastal ranges called Chehalis Gap.[25][26][27] The Union River, which rises in the hills, was impounded in a deep valley on the eastern flank of Gold Mountain by Casad Dam, completed in 1957. The dam creates the Union River Reservoir supplying over half of Bremerton's annual requirements.[28] 95% of the watershed's land was purchased by Bremerton in the 1920s, and is entirely within the Blue Hills.[29][30]

Recreation

Girl bicycling on forest trails a few miles from Green Mountain

A number of developed and undeveloped areas for recreation exist in and near the Blue Hills. The largest that is open to the public is Green Mountain State Forest, a multi-use, over 6,000-acre (2,400 ha) state forest containing Green Mountain itself and owned by Washington State Department of Natural Resources. The state forest allows camping, off-road vehicles, horseback riding, and hiking.[31] The Bremerton watershed contains the eastern half of Gold Mountain with an associated restricted protective buffer, and is somewhat larger than the state forest.[32] Entry to the watershed by the general public is restricted, but Gold Mountain Golf Course was built on city watershed property on the south side of the hills.[33] Together the watershed and Green Mountain State Forest represent over half of Kitsap County's open space.[32]

The Mountaineers maintain an outdoor theatre, Kitsap Forest Theater, in their 386-acre (156 ha) Rhododendron Preserve on the north side of the hills.[34]

There is one 386-acre (156 ha) former shooting range, Camp Wesley Harris, owned by the U.S. Navy, and the private Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club.[35]

Other facilities include county and city parks, as listed below.[32]

City of Bremerton

• Gold Mountain Golf Course
• Newberry Hill Heritage Park[36]
• Otto Jarstad Park
• Pendergast Regional Park

Kitsap County

• Wildcat Lake Park
• Central Kitsap Greenways[19]
• Navy Yard City Open Space[37]

References

Notes

1. The United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System lists Blue Hills as a "variant name" for Gold Mountain.
2. A geological survey published in 1916 describes: "The Bald Hills constitute a prominent topographic feature of central Kitsap County. When viewed from a distance they stand in marked contrast to the prevailing level bench topography to the greater portion of the Puget Sound Basin ... Accessible exposures may be seen along the shores of Sinclair Inlet immediately southwest of Bremerton." Weaver 1916, p. 133
3. "The Puget Lowland is a north-south-trending structural basin that is flanked by Mesozoic and Tertiary rocks of the Cascade Range on the east and by Eocene rocks of the Olympic Mountains on the west." Barnett et al. 2010, p. 2, and see Figure 1.
4. Sceva 1957; Bretz 1913; USDA 1979 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFUSDA1979 (help).
5. Yount & Gower 1991.
6. "Kitsap Lookout". Peakbagger.com.
7. This ridge is identified as "Peak 1320" at PeakBagger, and "Peak 1330" at List of John. The latter value is used here as LIDAR derived data indicates an elevation of 1340.
8. "Peak 1291". Peakbagger.com.
9. Reese 2011. sfn error: no target: CITEREFReese2011 (help)
10. Geology from the Wildcat Lake geological map of Haeussler & Clark 2000 and the revised version (showing major faults) of Tabor et al. 2011.
11. Landes et al. 1902; Huntting 1955.
12. USGS MRDS database, item 10229098.
13. MSP 1895 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMSP1895 (help). The source says the Cook Kitchell Mining Company, a company with operations in the state of New Jersey, apparently a mistake for the Cook Kitchen Mining Company, incorporated in the state of Washington in 1895 with offices in Seattle. (See Hodges 1897.) Whether there was any relationship between these two companies, or with the Cook's Kitchen Mining Company in England, is unknown.
14. Hodges 1897,
15. The Metal Worker 1898 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFThe_Metal_Worker1898 (help), p. 36.
16. Fischer 1918, p. 27.
17. Western Mining History.com, "Kitsap"; USGS MRDS database, item 10180116.
18. May & Peterson 2003.
19. WWRP 2013.
20. District 3 facilities map (PDF), Kitsap County Department of Community Development, July 2007, archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05, retrieved 2014-10-13
21. Ecology 1981.
22. Climate Change: Climate Impacts in the Northwest, United States Environmental Protection Agency, September 9, 2013, archived from the original on October 20, 2013, Much of the region's water is stored naturally in winter snowpack in the mountains.
23. USDA 1956, p. 23: "The Blue Hills remain forested and are important as a watershed for the defense industries and population concentrated at Bremerton and in its vicinity." Kitsap Country Profile 1956, p. 21 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKitsap_Country_Profile1956 (help)
24. Casad & Cunningham 1957.
25. The Great Northwest 1973.
26. Trandum 2013.
27. Kitsap PUD 1997.
28. Farley 2013.
29. Bremerton's water history, City of Bremerton, archived from the original on 2012-11-11, retrieved 2014-10-23
30. Zoning Code & Map, City of Bremerton, archived from the original on 2014-08-22, retrieved 2014-10-24
31. Romano 2007, p. 99.
32. Open Space Plan 2012.
33. Stark 2010.
34. Baurick 2014.
35. Dunagan 2013.
36. Newberry Hill Heritage Park, Kitsap County Parks
37. Undeveloped Kitsap County parks, Kitsap County Parks & Rec, archived from the original on 2014-11-05

Sources

• Barnett, E. A.; Haugerud, R. A.; Sherrod, B. L.; Weaver, C. S.; Pratt, T. L.; Blakely, R. J. (2010), "Preliminary atlas of active shallow tectonic deformation in the Puget Lowland, Washington", U.S. Geological Survey, Open-File Report 2010-1149, 32 p., 14 maps.
• Bretz, J Harlen (1913), Glaciation of the Puget Sound Region (PDF), Washington Geological Survey.
• Brown, E. H.; Dragovich, J. D. (December 2003), "Tectonic elements and evolution of northwest Washington", Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources, Geological Map GM–52, 1 sheet, scale 1:625,000, with 12 p. text.
• Fischer, Arthur Home (November 1918), A Summary of Mining and Metalliferous Mineral Resources in the State of Washington, with Bibliography, Engineering Experiment Station Series, University of Washington Bureau of Industrial Research.
• Haeussler, P. J.; Clark, K. M. (2000), "Geologic map of the Wildcat Lake 7.5' quadrangle, Kitsap and Mason Counties, Washington" (PDF), U. S. Geological Survey, Open File Report 00-356, 1 sheet, scale 1:24,000, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-02-19.
• Hodges, Lawerence Kay (1897), Mining in the Pacific Northwest: A Complete Review of the Mineral Resources of Washington and British Columbia, with maps, Seattle: The Post-Intelligencer.
• Huntting, Marshall T. (1955), Gold in Washington (PDF), Bulletin No. 42, State of Washington Department of Conservation and Development.
• Landes, Henry; Thyng, Wm. S.; Lyon, D. A.; Roberts, Milnor (1902), "Part II: The Metalliferous Resources of Washington, except Iron", Annual Report for 1901 (PDF), Vol. I, Washington Geological Survey, pp. 39–157.
• "Scrap", The Metal Worker, p. 36, December 3, 1898.
• "Tin Ores Found in Kitsap County", Mining and Scientific Press, 71 (9), p. 306, November 9, 1895.
• Sceva, Jack E. (1957), "Geology and Ground-Water Resources of Kitsap County Washington" (PDF), Water-Supply Paper 1413, U.S. Geological Survey.
• Tabor, Rowland W.; Haugerud, Ralph A.; Haeussler, Peter J.; Clark, Kenneth P. (2011), "Lidar-revised Geologic Map of the Wildcat Lake 7.5' Quadrangle, Kitsap and Mason Counties, Washington", U.S. Geological Survey, Scientific Investigations Map 3187, 1 sheet, scale 1:24,000 12 p. text.
• "Kitsap County Agriculture", County Agricultural Data Series (originally published as Crop and Livestock Bulletin), USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 1956, archived from the original on 2014-06-13.
• Reese, Gary Fuller (2011), Peebles, Annette Bame (ed.), Place Names of Kitsap County, American Local History Network – Kitsap County.
• Weaver, Charles E. (1916), "The Tertiary formations of western Washington", Washington Geological Survey, Olympia: State of Washington.
• Yount, James C.; Gower, Howard D. (1991), Bedrock Geologic Map of the Seattle 30' by 60' Quadrangle, Washington (PDF), U.S. Geological Survey, Open-File Report 91-147.

• May, C.W.; Peterson, G. (October 31, 2003), 2003 Kitsap Salmonid Refugia Report (PDF), Kitsap County Department of Community Development, archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016, retrieved October 13, 2014, p. 151.
• WWRP Projects: Central Kitsap Greenway, Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, archived from the original on 2014-12-03.
• W.W.I.R.P.P. Series Number 5: Instream Resources Protection Program: Kitsap Water Resource Inventory Area (PDF), Washington Department of Ecology, June 1981, ...most of the readily accessible water supply resources will have been appropriated by the year 1990, and recommended seeking sources outside the basin (WRIA 15). The City of Bremerton has applied for water rights totaling 250 cfs on the Duckabush, Hamma Hamma, and Skokomish Rivers....
• The Great Northwest: The Story of a Land and Its People, American West Independent Publishing, 1973, ISBN 9780910118323, Because of the Chehalis Gap and the Olympic Mountains, precipitation decreases markedly from southwest to northeast through the Puget Sound. The gap allows moist winds to enter the southern part of the sound, giving Olympia fifty inches of annual rainfall., p. 38.
• Farley, Josh (February 17, 2013), "In Bremerton, cascade of utility rate hikes awaits", Puget Sound Blogs, Kitsap Sun.
• Casad, C. Cliff; Cunningham, John W. (May 2, 1957), "Construction of the Union River Dam at Bremerton, Wash.", Journal (American Water Works Association), American Water Works Association, JSTOR 41254984.
• Trandum, William I. (May 1, 2013), "The Chehalis Gap, The Coriolis effect, and the Aleutian Low", Key Peninsula News, archived from the original on 2017-02-07.
• Kitsap County Initial Basin Assessment (PDF), Kitsap Public Utility District, October 1997, pp. 2–3, Winter storms generally approach the County from the southwest. The southwestern portion of the County receives relatively high winter rainfall from storms which enter the area through a topographic gap between the Olympic Mountains and the Black Hills..
• Romano, Craig (2007), Day Hiking Olympic Peninsula: National Park/Coastal Beaches/Southwest Washington, The Mountaineers Books, ISBN 9781594850479.
• Baurick, Tristan (October 23, 2014), "Mountaineers plan learning center at little-known preserve", Kitsap Sun.
• Dunagan, Christopher (January 25, 2013), "Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club ranked as hazardous site", Kitsap Sun.
• Stark, Chuck (June 19, 2010), "The Business of Golf—Gold Mountain, City Look to the Future", Kitsap Sun.
• "Current Open Space and Park Inventory" (PDF), 2012 Kitsap County Parks, Recreation & Open Space Plan, Kitsap County, Washington, March 28, 2012, archived from the original (PDF) on March 18, 2015, retrieved October 24, 2014.

Further reading

• William Reeve (1979). Bedrock Geology of the Blue Hills, Kitsap County, Washington (M.S. thesis). Colorado School of Mines. OCLC 6513069.