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Puget Sound Ferries

Puget Sound, WA

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Background

Twelve destinations — from Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic backcountry to Vancouver Island in British Columbia — are printed across the bottom of this Washington State Ferries "Scenic Guide and Map," a folded passenger brochure whose large color photograph and bold sans-serif headline type point to the early-to-mid 1970s.

Washington State Ferries took over Puget Sound's private ferry routes in June 1951, buying sixteen vessels from the Black Ball Line (Puget Sound Navigation Company) for $5 million. The white-and-green livery — white superstructure, green hull stripe, green stacks — was adopted at that handoff and has remained unchanged for over seventy years. WSF grew into the largest ferry system in the United States by passenger count.

The "Scenic Guide and Map" was a long-running series; earlier editions from the 1950s used illustrated covers with a more mid-century tourism look. This example's large full-bleed photograph and oversized sans-serif headline read as early-to-mid 1970s state government print design. The ferry on the cover — double-ended (meaning it can dock either bow first, without turning around) with a tall, multi-deck passenger superstructure — may be one of the Jumbo-class vessels Spokane or Walla Walla, commissioned in 1972 and promoted at the time as the world's largest car ferries, each carrying more than 200 vehicles.

The listing of "Vancouver Island" reflects WSF's international Anacortes–Sidney route, which lands at Sidney, BC, on the Saanich Peninsula — on Vancouver Island but well south of the city of Vancouver itself. "Hurricane Ridge" is not a ferry landing but a scenic overlook inside Olympic National Park, reached by road from Port Angeles after crossing to the peninsula by ferry; its inclusion signals that this guide was aimed at regional touring, not just commuters reading a sailing schedule.

The brochure's coverage of the San Juan Islands — Orcas, Lopez, Shaw, and San Juan islands all named — reflects the inter-island route that WSF operates year-round from Anacortes, threading through the archipelago near the US–Canada border.

Researched with claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 on May 24, 2026. AI-assisted — verify before citing.

Highlights

  • The header reads "Washington State Ferries / Scenic Guide and Map" in black sans-serif type on a white band, with "Puget Sound" below in oversized bold blue type.
  • The ferry rides well above the waterline with multiple passenger decks visible, consistent with one of WSF's larger vessels rather than a smaller inter-island boat.
  • A green hull stripe — WSF's signature livery color since the state took over the Black Ball Line fleet in 1951 — runs clearly along the vessel's side at the waterline.
  • Twelve destinations are printed in white capitals across the lower photograph, ranging from mainland peninsulas to outer San Juan Islands.
  • "Vancouver Island" appears in the destination list — the endpoint of WSF's international sailing from Anacortes to Sidney, BC, which lands on the island's Saanich Peninsula rather than near the city of Vancouver.
  • 06The cover is in clean condition with color well preserved; horizontal fold lines characteristic of a distributed tri-fold travel brochure are faintly visible across the photograph.

Further reading