Historical Society reopens for summer business

May 1 was the re-opening of the Wahkiakum County Historical Society at 65 River Street in Cathlamet after being closed for the Winter months. We are now open Friday to Sunday 1-4 p.m.

One of the changes you will notice as you walk in the front door is the host area. We have a new counter top desk area to replace the Sea-First wooden counter and the Groves Store Roll-top desk (both were moved to another area), which allows for better greeting of visitors and much needed office supply storage. Another change is that there will be different hosts; after many years of employing Linda Ougendal in this position we had to make some changes because of our dwindling finances. We are now staffed by all volunteers including board members.

You will also see a photo frame, on loan from Greg and Kari Kandoll, at the front counter that we are trying out since we have about a half to three quarters of our photo collection now digitized. We will be changing out photos fairly often to showcase our photograph collection.

During the winter the curator prepared photographs for the Cathlamet Library to scan into a computer under a Washington Rural Heritage Library Grant (WRHL). We tried our best to make sure we had proper information with the photos and very soon you will be able to see the photographs on the WRHL website for the Historical Society.

Peg Willis from Pendleton, Ore. spent the day in the Museum looking at documents and newspapers from 1907-1908 for a fictional book she is writing on the Cathlamet/Puget Island area. Peg grew up in Longview and has a special interest in the sternwheelers that provided transportation between Portland and Astoria during that time period.

The photograph that was published in last week's Eagle received a response from Laura Thomas Jones on her uncle Elmer and Viola (unknown) Thomas so instead of having Mr. and Mrs. Thomas we have a bit more information. We are now trying to identify the Thomas son in the photo through census records because Laura did not know his name.

The Museum is open Friday-Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. or by appointment for your out of town visitors. If you would like to volunteer to be a host call Bob Hendrickson at 795-8631. If you would like to become a member or make an appointment call Kari Kandoll at 849-4353.