A campground at the south end of the island has 12 primitive camping sites. That's it for public overnight facilities. It's a pitch-in community, where volunteers run the privately endowed library, the historical society and the fire department. Gilson and other retired physicians volunteer on a First Responders emergency medical team. There is no medical facility, no mail delivery, no school bus, no sewage disposal plant and a limited aquifer.
Some islanders have to buy water and have it trucked in.
The wells here used to have sweet water. Dams are not. Ellis, who with his brother Bob donated hundreds of acres for a University of Washington Biological Preserve, calls his inland homestead The Garden of Eden. The 8-acre pond outside his 1883 home is stocked with trout and frequented by ospreys, kingfishers and bald eagles. He hates to leave it, even in the dark of winter.