The Enduring Legacy of the Bird Island Kindred Spirit Mailbox
The Kindred Spirit Mailbox of Bainbridge Island (c. 2023) is part of the enduring legacy of sharing stories of life and love which began over forty years ago with Claudia Sailor of North Carolina who envisioned a lone mailbox on a secluded beach where people could write their stories for safe keeping. Claudia affixed a standard mailbox to a piece of upright driftwood on a sandbar between Sunset Beach on the mainland and Bird Island. A simple act of kindness, a daring act of hope. Legend has it that this is where she met a special passerby, Frank Nesmith who helped her get the thing in the ground and soon became her beau. Together over many years they nurtured the mailbox through shifting sandbars, storms and potential development of Bird Island. The development never happened and today Bird Island remains a bird sanctuary and home to the first Kindred Spirit. We recommend a visit next time you’re on the Carolina Coast!
About Kindred Spirit Bainbridge
Kindred Spirit offers respite and renewal for those who visit and write in its journals. The journals are populated with stories of love, loss, gratitude, reflection, regret and triumph. Set in upper Fort Ward Park on the south end of Bainbridge Island, a unique landscape just 35 minutes from downtown Seattle by ferry, Kindred Spirit is nestled in a small clearing on a ridge with a bird’s eye view of Rich Passage. A place of quiet contemplation where gentle sounds of the water below and the birds above imbue the forest with a sense of wellbeing. Two adjacent benches offer seating where you might even be visited by local wildlife! Within the first week of Kindred Spirit’s installation, a fawn dropped in island resident Clarence Moriwaki while he wrote in the journals.
From Bird Island to Bainbridge Island
In 2022 Bainbridge resident Denise Stoughton learned of the storied Kindred Spirit while working on her book, Meet Me at the Mailbox: The Fabulous Mailboxes of Bainbridge Island. Intrigued, Denise visited Bird Island to experience the Kindred Spirit firsthand. Swept away by the sheer depth and range of human emotion and experience as told through the journal entries, she felt placing one on the opposite coast but also on an island would provide a west coast opportunity for those searching for a similar cathartic and uplifting journey.
After presenting the idea to the Bainbridge Island Metro Park and Recreation District who enthusiastically agreed to host the Kindred Spirit Mailbox, Denise enlisted the help of island metal artist Dick Strom to build the base. Dick often incorporates found objects into his sculptures and had not one but two old, galvanized mailboxes in his shop so he suggested affixing a lower mailbox for kids to use. Great idea! Denise then collaborated with Rachel Knudson of Scrappy Art Lab to give a kid friendly feel to what she began calling, Kindred Kids. Rachel selected eight-year-old Frannie Fuhrman who did an amazing job of lettering and painting a colorful butterfly along with a leaf vine design. The Kindred Spirit Mailbox setting, sculpture and kids box reflect the beauty of the PNW landscape. Dick also created the similarly design posts for the Kindred Spirit wayfinding signs on the trail.
Kindred Spirit Mailbox Design and Creation
Kindred Spirit Journal Archives, Reading Room and Accessible Outpost
Located downtown, just steps away from the ferry terminal, the Bainbridge Historical Museum is where you’ll find the archived Kindred Spirit journals. Step into their reading room for a private moment with the entries of those who have dared to share their stories. Outside on museum grounds, a Kindred Outpost mailbox is accessible to those who can’t make the journey to Kindred Spirit on the Fort Ward Blakely Harbor trail.