Before the Deception Pass Bridge was built, people who wanted to get to Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island took a ferry operated by Berte Olson and her husband Augie. The first female ferry skipper on Puget Sound, the feisty and talkative Berte effectively lobbied state officials to single-handedly delay construction of the Deception Pass Bridge six years until 1935.

Berte’s story caught the fancy of storyteller and actress Jill Johnson, who spent two years researching and writing the play “Little, But OH My! The Story of Berte Olson.”

Now, five years after the play’s debut at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, Johnson has performed it dozens of times throughout the region. This week, the show comes home to a place that is part of the story, Deception Pass, for a free 50th performance and celebration Saturday.

“Before the bridge, Berte and her husband, Augie, ran the little Deception Pass Ferry Company,” Johnson said. “Those little ferries could only take 12 to 16 cars, but the ferry ran — rain or shine.”

Also known as the “Tugboat Annie of Hood Canal,” she skippered other Puget Sound runs as well.

According to the Anacortes Museum, where Berte is currently featured in the “Colorful Characters and Local Lore” exhibit, she saw an ad, put in a bid for a ferry line across Deception Pass and got the job.

She sent her husband a telegram: COME HOME STOP WE OWN A FERRY LINE STOP LOVE STOP. They used his fishing boat to tow a barge holding cars and people between Yokeko Point and Cornet Bay until they had another boat built. She was involved in everything from skippering to business, and she helped her husband with maintenance.

Music director Vern Olson will reprise the show’s original music. A special guest of honor will be Berte’s son, 91-year-old Ivan Olson of Anacortes. Ivan was a key source for the play and he and Johnson are friends.

“It will be very special to have him there,” she said.

“Little, But OH My!” was selected as part of the Inquiring Mind series of Humanities Washington. A CD of the show won honors in the national storytelling world competition.

The free performance is 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16 at the Deception Pass State Park Amphitheater. The presentation closes the annual Arts in the Park summer series sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington State Parks, the Washington State Arts Commission and Northwest Heritage Resources. Bring a cushion for the bench seats and a blanket.

For more information, call Adam Lorio at (360) 675-2417 ext. 31.