In 1893, JJ Brenner founded his oyster business near the current site of Bayview Market. Brenner relied on Squaxin and Japanese harvesters, who loaded the oysters onto barges at low tide and then brought them into Olympia. This photograph, of a tugboat hauling Brenner’s oyster barges, is from about 1935. The Brenner company still exists, now headquartered in Shelton.
Vibert Jeffers photograph, around 1935, Susan Parish Collection, Southwest Regional Archives, AR20090812-ph007809
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian, 2016 and 2026