Belfair February 6, 2010

Dalby Waterwheel - Union, WA Built in 1922, the first Dalby Waterwheel was a wooden cultivator wheel that broke during a heavy winter snow two years later. In 1924, Ed and Ethel Dalby brought this wheel by boat from Seattle to Dalby Creek. It had been used in the Seattle cable car system, most likely on Queen Anne hill.

Ed and his father, Will Dalby, mounted the wheel and attached dredge buckets which had been used on the Denny re-grade in Seattle. When the massive wheel was assembled, it produced electricity for the Dalby home and several cabins on their property until the 1940's. Though no longer providing electricity, the wheel has continued to turn throughout the decades, adding to the pleasure of many a passerby.
In 2003, SR 106 was realigned, and the Dalby Waterwheel was left out of public view. The family of David H. Dalby, the son of Ed and Ethel, donated the waterwheel and this land to the Hood Canal Improvement Club, which, with the generosity and hard work of many people, relocated the waterwheel to this site in 2005.
Hood Canal late afternoon from SR 106

Mary E. Theler Wetlands Trail - Belfair, WA

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