KITSAP STORIES

Kitsap Stories is a short-form video series from the Kitsap History Museum that brings local history to life through the people, places, and moments that shaped our community. Using photographs, artifacts, oral histories, and archival records from the museum’s collections, each episode explores a single story—sometimes well known, sometimes nearly forgotten. Our goal is simple: to make Kitsap County’s history accessible, engaging, and relevant today, and to connect the past to the lives of the people who call this place home.

The Erland’s Point Murders of 1934

In March 1934, six people were found dead in a beach house at Erland’s Point, just northwest of Bremerton. The case went unsolved for more than a year and a half, until a barmaid named Peggy Paulos came forward. More than ninety years later, questions remain.

Rosamond Johnson

Rosamond Laurie Johnson (1876–1971), Port Orchard’s poet laureate, left a bequest that let the Kitsap County Historical Society buy the old Silverdale State Bank building for its museum in 1976. A story for Women’s History Month.

John Henry Turpin

John Henry “Dick” Turpin, a Navy veteran of the Spanish-American War, became one of the Navy’s first African American Chief Petty Officers in 1917 and later made his home in Bremerton.

Lewis Funeral Chapel

In 1909, Fred R. Lewis bought a Bremerton mortuary and founded what became the Lewis Funeral Chapel. A look at Kitsap’s early funeral history, when caring for the dead often meant a boat trip and a long hike through the woods.