On April 21, 1921, the State Parks Committee formally accepted a 2,731-acre land grant from Robert Moran. This was not a small parcel. It included Mount Constitution, the highest point in the San Juan Islands, and effectively launched Washington’s public land preservation movement.
Moran arrived in Seattle in 1875 with almost nothing. By 1906, he had sold his shipbuilding empire for a reported $3.5 million and retreated to Orcas Island. He built Rosario, a 54-room mansion, and refused to allow logging or hunting on his property.
The state initially rejected his 1911 offer because it lacked the agency structure to manage such a large tract. Moran reduced the size and dropped his conditions. The 1921 acceptance gave the nascent state park system a massive public land base, a move confirmed by Washington State Parks records.
During the 1930s, Civilian Conservation Corps crews at the park built the 53-foot stone observation tower designed by Seattle architect Ellsworth Storey. It was completed in 1936. New Deal funds and labor transformed Moran’s private vision into a public asset, adding roads, trails, and picnic shelters.
Moran died in 1943 at age 86, decades outliving a 1905 doctor’s diagnosis of a failing heart. Today, the park covers more than 5,000 acres and features five freshwater lakes. It stands as the fourth-largest state park in Washington, protecting a landscape Moran dedicated to public enjoyment over a century ago.