Disappointed in his quest for California gold, John Tukey, a ‘state of Mainer,” headed north on a tramp lumber schooner. Life aboard the ship was unpleasant at best and when the vessel anchored in Discovery Bay in 1850, Tukey jumped ship and became the first white resident in the area, taking a claim of 500 acres on the eastern shore. During the boom years of the 1880s he sold half the land and with the proceeds built an Italianate style home on the bluff overlooking the bay. Boom turned to bust, and in 1897, he and his wife, Linnie Chase, opened the gates of the splendidly situated farm to paying guests. They named the vacation hideaway Saint’s Rest. The venture was a success; small cabins were built, and the main house (white victorian/Inn) was expanded to ten bedrooms.



While Mr. Tukey concentrated his energies tending 500 sheep, thirty cows, horses, and poultry, Mrs. Tukey served as a hostess in the house. The working farm provided the ideal retreat for well-to-do vacationers from Victoria, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Spokane who longed for a bit of rural charm and relaxation. In many cases the families would stay for weeks or months.



In 1913, following the deaths of her mother and stepfather, Mary Chase modernized the facility and in 1923 changed the resorts name to Chevy Chase Inn (after the Cheviot Hills in England where the family originated). A nine-hole golf course was carved out of Tukey’s pasture and a cement tennis court was laid. The comfortable atmosphere brought guests back year after year, generation after generation.

In 1963 Bailey closed the Inn to refurbish it as a family summer retreat. Many of the cabins were moved off the property, although guests would still rent the remaining cabins for longer stays in summer months. After their father’s death, Bailey’s eldest children, Bruce and Barbara, added a second nine holes to the golf course and rented out the Inn and cabins for family and business retreats. In 2003, Barbara Bailey her brother, Thatcher, and his partner Phil Kovacevich, moved into the Inn and undertook a much needed “fluff-up” of the facilities and launched Chevy Chase Beach Cabins.

In December 2012, Jennifer Dickey and Jeffrey Betinol purchased Chevy Chase Beach Cabins from Barbara, Phil and Thatcher and are the current proprietors of the historic resort.

In 2022 we celebrated 125 years of hosting guests and 10 years for Jenn and Jeff as owners and stewards.

On a spring afternoon in 1862, John Tukey watched a canoe plying the waters toward his property, known as Tukey’s Landing (just at the bottom of the Chevy Chase beach trail). After beaching, three men climbed out, lugging an apparently heavy chest, and disappeared into the dense timber nearby. Soon, two men re-emerged from the forest empty-handed, silently slipped into their canoe and paddled rapidly away. The third man appeared a half hour later, empty handed, and requested a mount for Port Townsend, where he aimed to catch a steamer to Olympia. Tukey gave him a horse, and the man galloped furiously away. Tukey tramped into the timber in search of the stash but found no trace. The stranger was eventually recognized as the paymaster from Victoria who had relieved his employer of six thousand gold sovereigns. He was tried and convicted and died in prison. Since then authorities—and countless fortune seekers—have searched in vain for the buried treasure

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