![]() ![]() But for the most part, the perfectly paved cul de sacs lay eerily empty the next two decades, leading only into the woods. "They were being sold a bill of goods that was not realistic." "We would call that puffing today," says Joni Johnson. Developers reportedly implied there would be constant ferry service and that project permits would be easy to come by. Both were built, although some islanders still question whether Anderson Island needed such a luxury. The developers promised a country club and a golf course. The land went quickly, at prices of $4,000 to $12,000 per lot, mostly to older people with dreams of retiring. ![]() The developers, who no longer are on the island, ran free trips out to Anderson, complete with offers of pots and pans. They called their vision of a model community "Lake Josephine Riveria." Islanders just call it the Riveria. In the late 1960s, developers had subdivided the land around the island's two fresh-water lakes, laying out roads and 3,000 parcels, many only one-third of an acre, in the thick woods around Lake Josephine. The Johnsons found a realtor's dream when they discovered Anderson Island four years ago. Nationwide, the average realtor can expect to make about 35 such transactions in a year Joni Johnson made 174 last year - exclusively on Anderson Island. The walls of the couple's A-frame office are covered with sales awards, including a 1992 "Centurion" award to Joni Johnson for having had the fifth-highest number of sales and listings in the country last year. ![]() The island not only soothes, it has provided ample business opportunities. "You could have the worst day, but you get on the ferry - and it's just over." "The island soothes," says Century 21 realtor Denis Johnson. The transplants, both realtors, say they love Anderson Island as much as anyone. The drive down Larson Road is no exception - wood frames of houses under construction seem to be everywhere.Īt the center of this activity is a couple from California. The threat this time is not to furniture but to a valued lifestyle. They got on their phones and word spread.īy the time the man got to the ferry landing, a group had assembled to ensure that no piece of Anderson Island treasure, however unwanted it might have appeared, made it off the island. ![]() Peering out of windows and doors, islanders saw what he was doing at the closed-up homes of their neighbors. One day he returned with two pickups and began to help himself, piling the trucks high with things that could bring a good price in Tacoma or Seattle. While visiting he noticed the number of antiques stashed away in old barns, disregarded on porches, stowed in garages. Anderson tells a story about a man related by marriage to an islander. They take note of each other's coming and going, but they don't butt in unless there is a threat to person or property. Patches of cleared land and new construction are becoming common on this small island south of Tacoma named after Hudson Bay trader Alexander Caulfield Anderson.įor longtime residents like Betty Mae Anderson - who married into an old island family unrelated to the namesake - getting used to the sight is an unwelcome adjustment.įor years, a few hundred year-round residents have taken care of each other with a blend of intense privacy combined with familiarity unique to island life. "This used to be the best place for mushrooms." "The chanterelles that were in there," said Anderson, shaking her head. "Gosh, Bernice, this makes me sick," she said to her companion, Bernice Hundis, as the two stared at newly cleared land - roughly a half-acre filled with jagged stumps, torn-up ground and broken brush. They hoped to keep it that way, but rapid development drawing hundreds of new residents threatens to forever change the island's personality.īetty Mae Anderson pulled her car onto the shoulder of the Eckentstam-Johnson Road and surveyed the damage. Still, for its inhabitants, it was a bastion of small town life amid a sprawling metropolis. ANDERSON ISLAND isn't exactly an island paradise - ask anyone who bought property there but couldn't afford to develop it, or retire to it. ![]()
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