I have been tossing around the idea of volunteering for a worthy cause here in Pacific County for some time. I considered HAVA animal rescue and shelter, but my heart is too soft and weak to witness homeless or abused animals. I think I have a kinder heart for animals than I do for people. Is that good or bad? I can’t even watch a movie about animals being mistreated, no matter how good the movie is. After I watched “Gorillas in the Mist,” I couldn’t eat for a week thinking about those poor gorillas. So, HAVA was out.

If You Go

The PCHS Museum and Visitor’s Center are located at 1008 W Robert Bush Drive in South Bend, WA. Summer hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., March through October. Winter hours are 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., November through February.

Website: www.pacificcohistory.org

Facebook: PacificCountyHistoricalSociety

I thought about reading to the elderly at Alder House in South Bend, but I no sooner contemplated doing so when the facility closed down. There are the Eagles and the Elks, two friendly communities looking for someone to help with the weekly meatloaf or salmon dinner… breakfast on Sundays. I’m still on the fence for that. I don’t feel that comfortable in large groups, like I never feel that I have anything interesting to say, and I feel conspicuous somehow. Not sure I can check that box either.

So, I was skipping (okay, walking) down the sidewalk to downtown South Bend from my house on Eklund Park on a beautiful rainy day (I love the rain). I was lost in thought listening to a podcast with my earbuds. The problem with earbuds is that other people can’t see them and they start talking to me. I don’t mind, but I wonder how many times someone reaches out and I don’t hear them, and I keep walking and they say, wow, what a rude woman. I was stopped at the gas station by a man who asked if there was a place in town to get stamps. I directed him to the post office. He replied that he knew that, but was wondering if he could get them anywhere else. Odd, I thought. I asked if maybe the post was closed. “No,” he answered. I still can’t figure that exchange out.

I proceeded down 101 toward the Pacific County Historical Society and Museum, and the door was open with a flag hanging outside. This was the first time I walked downtown when the museum was open. Usually, I just peer into the window at all the historical documents and treasures. Might as well go in. I love museums, particularly small ones, though my favorite ever was the New York Museum of History and Industry. So, I entered, pleased to have it open, and was greeted by a lovely lady named Parma. She was very warm and inviting. She said she was a volunteer, and just like that, ding-ding, a little bell went off in my head. I was granted keys to the palace on Wednesdays from 12 to 3 o’clock. There are displays of Chinook Indian crafts, artwork and photographs. There is a large display of historical relics and items depicting the lumber, oyster and fishing industries of the area. In order to get funding from the county, the museum and PCHS also is a visitors center, thereby promoting tourism.

Giddy history

I was giddy looking around at all the history of Pacific County… old chainsaws and logger boots (cork boots) and helmets. All these things that are done by machine today took blood, sweat and tears, with chokers, and yarders — the whole she-bang. How hard they must have worked to cut down trees so enormous that one tree could fill a whole log truck. There are displays of crosscut saws and spring-boards used to cut timber. It was not unusual for loggers to use as many as three springboards on each side of the tree to raise them into position for cutting.

I saw a documentary on how it is done today in bigger companies. A huge machine that looks like a dragon grabs the tree from the ground, shuffles and tosses it about like it’s a pool cue. It strips it and stacks it into the truck in seconds. And just like that the tree goes from its cozy deep roots in the forest, to being savagely ripped out and thrown onto a heap of logs.

Old wood and wallpaper

As I opened the door for my first shift, I was welcomed with that familiar smell wafting through the air; the smell of old wood and wallpaper. It is the same smell that I remember as a child when entering the South Bend Library. I got a chance to look more closely at the artifacts as well as the books and paper clippings. I sifted through some of the names in the files looking for someone I might recognize. I looked at old articles in the Harbor Pilot, a newspaper in South Bend from 1891 to 1968. I remember it as a young girl.

Here are a few of the news articles and ads from 1911:

• Mrs. Ella Shay made a shopping trip SB Wednesday

• Ladies silk petticoats for 3.98

• FURS are more popular this season than ever before. You can save money by buying from us

• Mens ties 19 cents

• If you wanted something most stylish, how about a turban?? If you wanted one, it was 1.98

• Ladies and children wool hose 23 cents

• Children’s school handkerchiefs 1 cent each

• New dressmaking parlors have been opened in room 4, over the Raymond Toggery, dressmaking and plain sewing done

• Cholera is now spreading in western Persia and an epidemic is feared

• C.M. Rutherford was down from Pe Ell this week. His presence makes Lebam seem almost homelike

• F.R. Brown was a caller here Monday. (Guess they didn’t get many visitors)

• For sale: A few good dairy cows. Inquire of J.D. Holden, Lebam WA

• Need a piledriver? Call Leander Lebeck at Willapa Hardware & Supply Co Phone Main 42

• Are you in the market for a cream separator or manure spreader or plow — come see Felts & Gailey

Warm, energetic

I met the museum’s manager, Christine Balcom, as well as the Pacific County Historical Society president, Steve Rogers. Christine is a warm, energetic individual who smiles a lot. She is making remarkable changes to the museum. Her vision is to have a place to gather with a seating area for reading or research. Steve adds a friendly touch to the museum and has vast knowledge of the history of our area.

The museum provides a bookstore that emphasizes Washington and local history, travel books for the Northwest, and Northwest flora and fauna guide books. There is a small selection of local products for sale, but Christine and Steve would like to add to that. Christine will be adding more books about Pacific County and more local products for retail. Members receive a 10% discount on purchases. Christine has a creative mind and is constantly redecorating and moving pieces or furniture to a better location. I helped her move an old Victrola to the front so we can play old records during the day. It really gives it a “museumy” feeling and the scratchy sound cascades into Robert Bush Drive. Christine wants to spruce up the outside area with pots with plants and perhaps a quaint table and chairs for possibly eating Willapa Bakery scones (if they will have us) while slipping coffee. Christine bought a rocking chair for the corner and is tossing around the idea of a couch or loveseat to give it a more bookstore-like vibe.

Steve has been busy setting up a research center where folks can come and check out their genealogy or just sift through information on the computer and find tidbits of their ancestry. His vision is to have patrons able to access the research files and schedule hour-long sessions to search in apps like ancestry.com and other sites. It is free to members and $25 an hour for nonmembers. Membership to the PCHS is $25. I wonder if I could locate my dad’s jail records from when he poached a deer and it was found in our washing machine.

Evolving society

Steve tells me about the history of the PCHS and museum as the three of us sit at the small table in the center. The Pacific County Historical Society started back in the 1940s and ‘50s with an annual old-timers picnic in the park at Bay Center. It was quite popular and well attended. As stories were exchanged, the project slowly morphed into a historical society, and the museum moved onto Robert Bush Drive in downtown South Bend, in a small building that wore many previous hats as once a drugstore and then a dry cleaners, among others.

Steve took over as president when Vincent Shaudys stepped down in 2005. He does it for free and he puts a lot of time and effort into this position. He says, “I worried about not being able to get the job, but no one else wanted it.” Steve is responsible for publication of the small pamphlet, the Sou’wester. He likes to write about things that interest him and hopes to increase the membership and annual fund drive. Having lived here on and off since the mid-40s, Steve has many memories from the area, so he writes about them in the Sou’wester. Currently, he is working on a publication about the Rose Ranch and also has plans to write about the old local radio station, KAPA. I remember listening to that as a child — “KAPA —13-40 ON YOUR DIAL,” they would say.

The Pacific County Historical Society and Museum acts in a way analogous to the family photo album — and so much more. It is the repository of an entire geographic area’s “family album.” The family is larger, but the function is similar: telling the history, in text and photographs, of the people, places and events of our particular region, in all the specific ways that make it unique. It is the “keeper of the flame,” making sure that history is recorded correctly, archived where it can readily be accessed, and preserved for all time.

There are libraries, photographic collections and personal and occupational ephemera too many for this small museum. The overflow is currently being held in the county annex building in South Bend, with donations still arriving.

The PCHS and Museum is a private, not-for-profit, charitable organization devoted to keeping alive and presenting the history of Pacific County, Washington, USA. It is governed by a board of directors and was organized by members of Pacific County Pioneer Association in 1949. The museum was established in 1970. The society was incorporated with the State of Washington as an institution in 1966. It is supported by roughly 350 dues-paying members around the world, as well as donations, grants, and book sales. The PCHS, Museum, and Visitor’s Center are open to the public and welcomes volunteers.