In 1898 the Esary brothers, with assistance from Porter Garrison and his sons, established one of Camano's major logging companies in the area surrounding the schoolhouse, and they also collaborated as landowners and developers. From 1908 to 1910 the Camano Commercial Company operated a narrow-gauge logging railway that climbed the hill along the north side of nearby Chapman Creek. Between 1900 and 1910 local entrepreneurs promoted Camano as a growing, vibrant metropolis with unlimited potential, with inland acres selling for $20 to $40 and waterfront acres for $75. When the schoolhouse was built around 1905, Camano City was a thriving community with two hotels, a general store, post office, a blacksmith, several shingle mills, a boatyard, and Saratoga Passage wharf. Steamers provided frequent ferry service west to Whidbey, south to Seattle, and to points north on Camano Island and along the Skagit River. By 1927 the Camano Commercial Company had dissolved, and hopes that Camano City would become a major metropolis had long since faded.