Bubble's dragon canoe, 1935.
Henrietta Hill Crosby Blaisdell was born May 23, 1903, in Minot, North Dakota. She was the daughter of Paula Olson Wold Wallace and Alfred Metcalf Blaisdell.
As a young girl she moved to Anacortes to live with her grandmother, Henrietta Blaisdell Bird. From a young age she had a way of living life on her own terms. Her grandmother bought Bubble her first canoe which she paddled in around the islands by herself. And her grandmother even bought Henrietta her first bit of land on Guemes Island. There she built her first cabin, which was later burned to the ground by rumrunners after she destroyed their stash of kegs. From there she built four more cabins on the land that she kept buying.
She spent much of her life traveling through the wilderness in Alaska and Canada and exploring the waters around the San Juan Islands. Bubble was a talented artist, cartoonist, self-taught carpenter and stonemason, hunter, explorer, quilter, and treasurer hunter. And most everyone loved her and had a story about her that they remembered.
She was married three times, to Birger Berlin, John Ervine, and Doc Finley, but had no children.
Bubble passed away on October 14, 1995.
