Category — History

With no fewer than 10 museums and interpretive centers, the rich history of Pacific County is on display. Three museums of the Raymond-South Bend area are detailed in ZEST in Cranberry Coast Part I. On the other side of Willapa Bay, even more sites deserve more than just a casual visit.

Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in downtown Ilwaco is a true community effort. What do you do with a massive telephone utility building? After the Ilwaco utility gave the building to the City, the Ilwaco Heritage Museum was created. The space was renovated in 1991 and renamed the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum three years ago.

Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum

In 2008, Betsy Dillard, who had moved to the area from Missouri, came out of a five-year retirement to become Executive Director. Previously, director of the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, she brought years of experience to her job. “Museums are my kind of touchstone,” she says.

Big institutions ask, what makes a museum relevant? she says. “It didn’t have to be done here,” she says. “It is relevant because it started from a community base.” The building is used constantly by community groups including “the hookers” (rug makers), quilters, an art group, the American Legion and a bridge club which has been playing at the museum for 25 years. An exhibit of vintage bridge tablecloths chosen from a local private collection of 169 cloths will by on display until mid-July. The 20,000 square foot museum includes special space for rotating exhibits. Upcoming exhibits will include World War I posters and quilts.

The permanent collection, which numbers 15,000+ objects, includes a village by the sea, the 1880s Nahcotta train Pullman Palace car from the Ilwaco Railway & Navigation Company (“The Railroad that Ran by the Tide”), a 26-foot lifesaving surfboat and an Exploration Gallery focusing on the 18 days spent by the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery in present-day Pacific County. The mezzanine houses a research library and model Shumway Railway. Admission fee. Free on Thursdays. There are lots of details at the museum Web site.

The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center is located high above the mouth of the Columbia and Cape Disappointment State Park. William Clark’s journal sums it up: “Ocian in View.”

Looking Out to Sea from the Interpretive Center

The views from the center are spectacular. Friendly interpretive staff like Aaron Webster are well-versed in the history of the area and the exhibits. A few items were part of the actual expedition including a whiskey flask, hatchet head and wooden box carved by Sacajawea.

Interpreting the Corps of Discovery

The award-winning film “Of Dreams and Discovery” is on view along with permanent and rotating exhibits. Two historic lighthouses—Cape Disappointment and North Head— can be explored. An added feature – the Discovery Trail, 15 miles of biking and walking paths from Ilwaco to Long Beach. Below the Interpretive Center, the waves crash at Waikiki Beach and the Confluence Project site at Cape Disappointment features Maya Lin’s basalt fish cleaning station. The Center is open daily. Admission fee. Details here.

Below the Interpretive Center and Lighthouse

More museums coming up including Fort Columbia State Park, World Kite Museum, the Cranberry Museum, Knappton Cove Heritage Center and Appelo Archives Center.

The year is 1903. Woodland resident Hulda Klager reads about Luther Burbank’s plant propagation work. Tired of peeling small apples for pies, she hybridizes a larger apple. From that work, she moves to lilacs and changes the history of the flowering shrub. After years of creating new varieties, she starts the tradition of annual open houses, sharing her plants with lilac collectors.

Thirty years later disaster strikes. Imagine that your life’s work is washed away. In 1948, a flood destroyed most of Hulda’s collection. At age 83, she started over. Many people who had purchased her many varieties came back with plant starts. She re-planted her collection and continued her spring open houses until her death at age 96 in 1960.

Today, the fragrant collection and the 1889 Klager home are maintained by the Hulda Klager Lilac Society. You can see the results of Hulda’s work, tour the Klager farm house and purchase plants every spring from mid-April through Mother‘s Day during Lilac Days . During the rest of the year, the grounds are open from 10 am to 4 pm, seven days a week. Details here .

Here are a few photos of Hulda Klager’s floral legacy:

City of Gresham

Katherine Havemeyer

Chrystle

Lilac Sunday

Glory

What would you do if you were developing a plan for the premier archaeological site in the Pacific Northwest – land and buildings that were a pivotal part of Northwest history? Share your thoughts!

The Fort Vancouver National Historic Site master planning process is starting for the East and South Vancouver Barracks. The Master Plan is scheduled for completion in 2011. With the upcoming transfer of the East and South Barracks, both the land and structures, to the National Park Service from the U.S. Army Reserve, a master plan is needed to determine the rehabilitation and public use of the Barracks.

Turn of the Century Vancouver Barracks Buildings

What a treasure trove! The site has:
• Nearly 30 military buildings, many of which were built at the turn of the 20th century
• Archaeological sites of various historic periods that could document Pacific Northwest life over hundreds of years
• Mature groves of Garry oak trees and expansive parade grounds
• Historic, cultural and visual connection to Fort Vancouver, the Pearson Air Museum and Air Field, and Officers Row

Parade Grounds from the Gazebo

Historic Garry Oak Grove

Barracks and War Memorial

Cupola

Parade Grounds from 5th Street

The East and South Vancouver Barracks will be managed by the National Park Service. NPS planners are asking citizens to answer these questions:

• What do you like best about the East and South Barracks?
• What opportunities do you see for these areas?
• What issues and alternatives do you think the plan should address?
• What challenges should we keep in mind?

Now is the time to share dreams and ideas for the buildings and grounds. How would you like to see the site used? Get creative!

Your ideas and comments are needed now! Comments will be accepted until May 1, 2010 at online or you can mail comments to Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, 612 East Reserve Street, Vancouver, WA 98661. For additional information, click here for Frequently Asked Questions about the project.

Comment here on ZEST but then, more importantly, send your ideas to the National Park Service at the address above. This is the time to dream. Share your ideas!

Where do eggs come from? How about bacon? If your children answer “Fred Meyer” or “Safeway” or if they haven’t fed a chicken or met a pig face to face, it’s time to take them out to Pomeroy Living History Farm.  

Welcome!

I love farms. With clear memories of summers and weekends on my grandparents Iowa farm, I was looking for some reminders of childhood this summer. They were there in form of gardens and animals, tractors and the smell of hay at the historic Pomeroy Farm. I fed the chickens and goats, talked to the snorting pigs (always my favorite farm animal) and made my very first cornhusk doll. Farm life in the 1920’s is on display. In 2010, it will be owned by members of the Pomeroy family for 100 years. 

“This house is full of memories,” Lil Freese told me as we stood in the diningroom of the original log home of her grandparents, E.C. and Adelaide Pomeroy who purchased the first 160 acres in 1910.  She graciously shares stories about 1920s log house at the farm, which over time expanded to 677 acres. Pomeroy family members started the living history program at the farm in 1988. Last year, 3500 school children visited the farm.

A spinner at work

On the porch, a costumed spinner turned wool into yarn while an “old time” band played. As I tried to churn cream into butter in the diningroom, I enjoyed the lesson but silently gave thanks for modern grocery stores. Upstairs, five bedrooms in the log house displayed the lifestyles of five different decades. Wandering through the farm, I toured the gardens, working blacksmith shop, historic barn and met the chickens, goats and pigs.

One of the residents at Pomeroy

A real oinker

Feeding the goats

October is a great time to visit. That is when Pumpkin Lane is in full swing including a mile long hayride past 70 “pumpkin people” and a stop at the Pumpkin Patch plus animals, children’s carnival games, entertainment and pumpkins available for purchase. Dates in 2009 are October 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24 and 25. For the latest information including admission fees and directions visit www.pomeroyfarm.org or call 360.686.3537.