UNION CITIZENS banded together last year to move the venerable landmark Dalby Water Wheel so it could be seen from relocated State Route 106.

Welcome to Mason County.

You’ve come to a place more than 53,000 people call home, and where thousands of people visit and vacation each year.

Here you’ll find 900 miles of shoreline, 11 mile-high mountains, six islands (seven if you count the islet in Island Lake) and thousands upon thousands of acres of trees. All that’s located in 967 square miles arranged around two major saltwater bodies, Hood Canal to the west and Puget Sound to the east.

Visitor centers here to help you There are several visitor centers in the county where you’ll find helpful maps, brochures and more information on local activities. • Shelton: The visitor center here is also a historic site: the red caboose on Railroad Avenue between Second and Third streets. The chamber of commerce office is across the street at 221 West Railroad. Both are reachable by calling 426-2021. • Belfair: Visitors can check out the North Mason chamber of commerce office, at the stoplight in town across from Safeway at 23910 NE State Route 3. The number is 275-4267. Visitor information is also available a bit farther south at Theler Center, at 22871 State Route 3; the phone is 275-4898. • Hoodsport is home to the newest visitor center operated by the Shelton-Mason County Chamber of Commerce at the site of the old ranger station on Lake Cushman Road one block west of Highway 101. Call 877-2021. • Kamilche, just south of Shelton where State Route 108 meets Highway 101, has an information kiosk. A visitor center there is open part time

Mason County’s largely rural population – about 9,000 live in the one incorporated city – is as diverse as its landforms. It incorporates two Native American tribes assigned to reservations in the county, the Squaxin Island and the Skokomish. Today, after a century and a half of settlement by various waves of pioneers and immigrants, census figures indicate that a 10th of the population is Hispanic.

Mason County’s settlement was prompted by natural-resources industries, chiefly the abundance of trees close to waterways and the abundance of fish and shellfish. Some local families boast grandparents or great-grandparents who came to live in the logging camps and stayed; others lived on floathouses, moving from bed to bed of the native Olympia oysters, harvesting the succulent bivalves for markets in Olympia and as far away as San Francisco and the East Coast.

Now shellfish, timber, trees and floral evergreens share economic billing with high-tech operations that include the development of vibration-free sports equipment, heated clothing and aircraft components. Gourmet offerings range from smoked seafood to organic fruit leather to award-winning vintages from artisan wineries. In the north end of the county, a majority of commuters head for the naval shipyard in Bremerton and the submarine base in Bangor; from the south end of the county, many of the out-of-county workers are off to jobs with state government in Olympia. One of them is the lieutenant governor.

There’s no digital dividing line between this rural county and our urban neighbors on the other side of Puget Sound. Amidst and beneath Mason County’s scenic splendor is a network of high-speed broadband services that connect businesses, information providers and the international marketplace.

But that’s all about work.

If you came for the pleasures of vacation, for getting away from it all in a beautiful setting, you’ve come to the right place. You’ll find accommodation from luxury waterfront resorts to backcountry campsites. You’ll find sheltered bays for moorage and coming ashore, beaches for combing and open water for cruising. You’ll find variously challenging peaks for climbing, trails for cross-range trekking and destinations perfect for beginning and day-hikers. You’ll find museums for musing on the past, interpretive centers for the here and now, and festivals, large and small, for frivolity.

We challenge you to get off the beaten path and find some of Mason County’s unspoiled treasures. On the page to your left is a sampler of Journal staff favorites.

Stay a few days and you’ll find your own.