WTF is Gorst pt. 1
Gorst. Wtf is gorst. It even sounds kind of crass, doesn’t it? Gorst. I’ve heard it called the armpit of kitsap county. But I’ve also heard Gorst was a person. But who? The Best friend of J.P. Patches? What kind of a name is Gorst, anyway? Oh you mean Gorst the place? But, where is that?
In all the years that I have been traveling up and down the Kitsap Peninsula, From the southernmost point of gig harbor all the up to far reaches of hansville, I have never seen an address for Gorst, WA. Everything nearby to the area we call Gorst is labeled as Bremerton or Port Orchard. Why is that?
Gorst is the local name for the area at the head of sinclair inlet, where Bremerton comes in to meet Belfair and Port Orchard. That sounds like it could be a good joke. Bremerton, Belfair and Port Orchard walk into a bar… Anyway, it’s only about a mile long and has hosted some popular and some controversial business in it’s day. That includes Jimmy D’s restaurant, the Wig Wam Tavern and the now defunct strip club, toys topless. Don’t worry though, the sexy history of gorst lives on in the bikini coffee stands tucked in between the used car lots.
Yeah, you’re probably starting to get a feel for the kind of area gorst is.
According to wikipedia, Gorst is a “Census-Designated-Place”. A census designated place is “a statistical geographic entity representing closely settled, unincorporated communities that are locally recognized and identified by name”. I mean, I guess that fits. At the time of the 2010 census, it had 592 residents. Wikipedia has a list of all of the incorporated Cities and Towns in Washington State and Gorst is not listed among them. It is listed as having the same Area code and Zip code as Downtown Bremerton.
The last of the SCANT information that the internet could give me was that the area was settled by the Gorst family in the 1890’s, and included notable residents Vern Gorst, Edward S. Curtis and Asahel Curtis. Not much to go on.
After a few days in the history books, here’s what I learned.
Gorst used to be a real town. Like the rest of Kitsap county, it was filled with logging operations and family farms. It used to have a post office and a school district. It even had a different name. It was called “Pleasant valley”. And wow, does Pleasant Valley have some history!
But how did we go from Pleasant Valley to Gorst? How does an unincorporated place that is only recognized locally decide to legally change it’s name? Did the residents of Pleasant Valley all decide unanimously that from now on, they would rather live in…Gorst? And… wait. Wtf is the…infamous tree octopus hoax of 1998?!
I have way more questions now than I started with. Oh god, I thought this was going to be a simple episode. I thought I was going to hop on google, determine that Gorst isn’t legally a real place, declare it the bastardized step child of port orchard and bremerton that we all know it is, play my catchy theme song and peace out. But I don’t think I can live with that. So, prepare yourself for at least two more episodes because we are going to have to take a trip to Pleasant Valley, and possibly go on the hunt for the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. We’ll need to stop for some fishing at Gorst creek… and maybe even hit the strip club on the way home.
I never knew there was so much to know about Gorst.