Throughout 2023 the Sunday Olympian’s Looking Back theme was origins of area place names. Woodard Bay and Woodard Avenue are named for Harvey and Salome Woodard, and their three sons, who first settled in what is now Woodard Bay on Henderson Inlet. They lived there for only a short time, moving to Olympia before 1860. Son Alonzo Bixby Woodard, pictured here, became a dentist and photographer, and lived on West Bay Drive. His home is on the local heritage register.
possible self-portrait, around 1870; Courtesy State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C2017.0.46
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2023