It’s ironic how active a “laid back” place such as Mariners’ Cove can be.

There’s the gourmet club, a reading group, the community garden club nautically named “crew,” walkers who gather for jaunts, not to mention the everyday boating activity.

“People are always heading out on their boats and inviting each other out on boating trips,” said cove resident Margaret Self.

The cove, its canals, private and community docks are home port to a variety of craft from small dinghies to 50-foot plus yachts. Crabbing and fishing are just a walk down the dock from your back door. From the cove, it’s an easy cruise to Roche Harbor or Friday Harbor. Coupeville, La Conner and Oak Harbor are day treks even closer to home.

Mariners’ Cove is a bowl-like area laced with canals and waterways eight miles east of Oak Harbor.

Self considers the cove Whidbey Island’s best kept secret. She has become so smitten with her neighborhood that last year she completed a book, “A History of Mariners’ Cove,” which gives a glimpse at life in the cove from when the Olsons first settled into the area to today’s growth. Another Cove resident, Bob Christopher, contributed photos and helped with the layout and design.

Researching the area came naturally for the hobby genealogist. In the book, she begins by delving into the early settlement of Whidbey Island itself, painting a picture of Ship’s Master Joseph Whidbey and his crew first spotting the island and its Native American inhabitants.

Today, the Cove is home to many retirees and “snow birds.” A good number of residents settled in the cove, built their nest, had children and now those children have grown and flown off to things like college and families of their own.

“Let’s face it, there’s a bunch of moldy oldies,” Self says with a laugh. “But there’s also a good number of young families moving in and that’s the future of the Cove.”

The residents are a unique bunch living in a unique neighborhood and they know it. So while Venice, Italy, places in California and Florida, and even other parts of Whidbey Island have canal communities, Self stands by the uniqueness of her canal neighborhood.

“As regulations get tighter you’ll hear about fewer and fewer places like Mariners’ Cove,” she said. “There are so many agencies that have to oversee an area such as this.”

And while there are other canal communities on island, Self said the cove’s coffer dam sets it apart.

“There is always water in the canals,” she said.

Early days in the cove

Swede Olson’s grandfather, Hans Olson and his wife Katerina were the first family of European descent to settle in the area now known as Mariners’ Cove.

In 1906, the couple brought their four sons and a daughter over from Milltown, Camano Island, when they purchased 60 acres in what became known in the early days as Olson’s Landing.

Hans was a talented carpenter who built the original family homestead at what is now the intersection of Mariners’ Way and Mariners’ Beach Drive.

The family farmed the land, raising crops like strawberries and tomatoes. Hans built a series of dikes to provide water during the change of tides. They raised dairy cows for cream. They gill netted the Skagit Bay for plentiful runs of salmon.

“Any place in Skagit Bay was a good fishing spot in those days,” Olson said.

The children attended the Silver Lake schoolhouse and headed into Oak Harbor by horse and buggy.

The family took their produce and cow’s cream by boat to La Conner where they purchased goods and groceries for the farm.

Swede Olson’s father, Ole, also raised his family on the land. Swede and his three sisters continued the farming heritage.

“Life was good,” Olson said.

When they weren’t helping tend the cows or crops, Swede and his siblings caught perch under the canal docks.

A ferry route was established in 1924 between the Cove and Utsalady on Camano Island. The Acorn ferry — operated by August, Albert and Oscar Olson (no relation to Swede and his family) — sailed a regular route between the cove and Camano until 1936, shortly after the completion of the Deception Pass Bridge.

Electricity came to the Cove in 1930.

“Each person who wanted power dug a light pole hole ten feet deep,” he said.

A time of big change

In the early 1960s developers Bob Fisher, Charlie Reisdorff, Wayne Chapman and Milo Norton came to the Olson family farm with the vision of a marina and summer resort area. In 1965 they bought much of the Olsons’ land and the initial excavation of canals and marina construction began immediately. They paved streets, brought in utilities, built boat launches, tennis courts, a clubhouse and picnic area. An entranceway welcomed people to what was then dubbed “Mariners’ Cove.”

At first, lot sales were slow but soon picked up. Initial homebuilders included Hank Davis and Charlie Reisdorff, and each new person was welcomed on the Cove block with a party in those early days.

Margaret Self and her late husband, Warren, came to Mariners’ Cove in 1980 from Burbank, Calif. In California the Selfs had to drive at least 30 miles to a marina so the logistics seemed irresistible.

“It’s safe, the people are fabulous, the water’s nearby, what more could you ask for,” said Ellie Marvin, a Cove resident.

Marvin, along with her husband Joe, moved to the Cove nine years ago from Seattle. They bought their corner lot home as a weekend and summer home, but soon fell in love with the everyday life in the Cove.

From their patio they can sip their morning coffee and watch the wildlife of the Cove awaken. Otters scurry and swim about, a harbor seal or two have been known to cruise through, eagles soar overhead, deer meander on the hillside and great blue herons swoop through getting their catch.

“I plan to live here my whole life — or at least until they take me away to Maple Leaf Cemetery,” Ellie Marvin said.

Swede Olson agrees — the view is irreplaceable.

“The best thing is the view,” he said. “You see the sun rise in the morning and the moon rise at night.”

As Olson looks out over the bay, he sees change on the horizon.

“I look out there now and see the Indians fishing and we can’t,” he said. “Back in my dad’s day he was fishing right there next to them, they’d tie up together with no problems.”

Skagit Indians camped in the area for years on the way to the Coupeville canoe races.

Cove legacy lives

Olson and his wife, Marlene, now own 20 acres in the Cove, on the hill overlooking the canals. They raised two sons and two daughters there and don’t see a time when there aren’t Olsons in the Cove.

Olson’s cousins, the Hunskors, still have homes and property on the opposite Cove hillside where they, along with another family branch, the Langlands, farmed for years.

Self sees newcomers to the area as a good thing.

“They come from all walks of life, bring new energy and new enthusiasm for the Cove,” she said.

When the Cove was platted in the 1960s, the developers initiated covenants and bylaws that laid the ground work for today’s homeowner’s association.

A board of trustees oversees the development and improvement of Mariners’ Cove with committees such as architectural control, parks and grounds, a harbor master and more. Self hopes some of those new neighbors coming in are willing to join in taking care of the neighborhood.

“We can always use new bodies,” she said. “We are the moldy oldies, you know.”