The Map Nobody Drew

The Map Nobody Drew

Set and Drift by Patrick Boyd
S1 · E10
Aug 12, 2026
13:28

Episode notes

There are around twenty inhabited islands in San Juan County and four get a ferry. Nobody chose those four. The state bought a bankrupt private company's routes in 1951, expecting to run boats only until bridges were built — and the bridges were never approved. Meanwhile Waldron quarried the paving stones for Yesler Way until concrete killed the market, and Decatur ran a shipyard that built some forty boats. This episode is about how a service map freezes, and why "decline" is a word worth interrogating.

Go look at: Shaw when the boat calls there. Ask what analysis in the present day would produce that stop. The answer is none, and the stop is correct anyway.

Keywords

ferry
san juan islands