William Harminsky (b 1855  d 1932) was a Polish immigrant who moved to Western Washington in 1875. He initially found work in logging camps across the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas but by 1879 he had established himself as portrait photographer, historian and documentarian. 

Not long after his arrival at the logging camps that had sprung up along the shores of the Puget Sound, Harminsky was informed by the locals of strange sightings in the area. The Gamble Creek Mill Authority along with the Territorial Management Office commissioned Harminsky to photograph and document the sightings in order to disprove any notion of supernatural activities. 

The results of his work caused an uproar and Harminsky's documentary mission was immediately shut down by the local officials. However, Harminsky continued to study and photograph the phenomena until his death in Forks, WA in 1932.