More people are discovering this tiny island oasis

By LARRY LANGE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Clinton, the place where ferry riders first set foot when traveling to Whidbey Island, entertains thoughts of becoming a place where more and more people stop and stay.

Population, business and ferry traffic are rising in this community, perched at the island's southeast corner and blessed with quaint beaches and majestic views of Possession Sound and Cascade Mountain peaks.

Separated from the mainland, residents here can have it both ways: a job on the other side of the Sound and the peace and quiet of an island. "I love living on the island," said Paul Eckert, a United Airlines mechanic who commutes by car pool and ferry to his job at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, 40 miles away. "The crime rate's low . . . it's just a good place to bring up a family."

Eckert is a lifelong resident, but more and more people are discovering Clinton as a community, pushing it toward a future not yet guided by a strong central vision.

The unincorporated town now has about 1,200 residents served by its water system, but the population is expected to more than double in the next 20 years as more people follow the lure of life on an island and try living within easy reach of ferries that can take them to jobs on the mainland.

Growth already is forcing expansion of the state ferry dock, a project that for four years will worsen traffic backups on state Route 525 until the work is done.

The highway itself is crowded with traffic, the scene of more and more accidents as it becomes riskier for pedestrians to cross.

Transportation problems are a headache in Clinton, which is bisected by the highway and dependent on ferries for quick access to the mainland. Solving them will help shape the future of the community, but its residents also must decide how big the community should be.

The answer, local people say, may mean creating more jobs in town to reduce traffic to the ferry dock.

But that may mean more commercial and industrial developments that require a sewer system, and many fear a system would unleash unparalleled growth and destroy what is now a pleasant way of life away from urban hassles.

Island County Commissioner Mike Shelton, whose district includes Clinton, calls it a community "teetering on the edge, where we're either going to do some innovative things with our transportation system or we're going to see the area decline."

Until now, Clinton has been a pioneer outpost of sorts. The town was founded in the 1870s by two brothers, Edward and Henry Hinman, who were impressed with the stunning setting "but even more with the commercial potential of providing fresh water and cord-wood for steamers plying Puget Sound," wrote local historian Lorna Cherry in her 1985 book "South Whidbey and Its People."

The two brothers named Clinton for their hometown in Michigan.

Ferries soon became "Clinton's common denominator," Cherry wrote, with two privately owned lines serving the community into the 1930s until one bought out the other. The state took over cross-Puget Sound ferry service in 1951.

Other settlers came to grow crops and raise cattle, carving farms out of the woods they slowly logged off.