New name, new look at Redmen Hall's gift shop

What’s got into those Redman Hall volunteers? They’ve been re-energized. The downstairs portion of the Hall has been reorganized to give the merchandise a pleasant and inviting look.

“Heck! Even I’m buying something today,” said volunteer Bernadette Goodroe as she placed her check in Redman Hall’s cash box. Goodroe had just purchased one of the Hall’s new “Smoke on The Water” tees. The shirt, designed by area artist Don Nisbett, depicts a sophisticated salmon smoking a cigar swimming up stream.

“It’s a little politically incorrect,” Pam Emery said with a little chuckle, “but it’s such a funny take on the meaning of Skamokawa (smoke on water) we just had to put it in our line of merchandise.”

Today Emery and Goodroe are volunteering their time to help restock shelves and set things to rights in the Hall after a busy Memorial Day weekend. The Hall is also sporting a different look.

Emery and Goodroe have spent many hours over the last few months reorganizing and adding new merchandise. “In our quest to redefine the gift shop in Redman Hall, we are changing the name of the shop to The Smokey Water Gift Shop,” said Emery.

“Well … really … it never had a name in the first place,” said Goodroe. Both women chuckled rather devilishly at the though of creating a new business simply by giving it a name. Both agreed that making a distinction between Redman Hall – the interpretative center and Redman Hall - the gift shop, would be beneficial to the Hall’s pocket book.

“It’s always been Redman Hall - The River Life Interpretive Center,” said Bernadette, “and we’d like to change that. Heck, when I first heard the name I thought it was like a performance arts gallery were people learned to dance.”

“Besides the wearable fish tees, we have a new line of hand painted wine glasses and we’ve started to sell a small amount of custom made furniture by local artist Mitzi Christensen,” said Emery. Emery said Christensen and her husband, who does the metal work, also do custom orders.

Goodroe said initially the gift shop’s reorganization came about because the Hall needed to rethink its marketing strategy.

“What we’re trying to do is get more unusual things to sell,” Goodroe said. “We’re looking for unique things visitors can’t find anywhere else.”

Besides the wily cigar smoking salmon, Don Nisbett has also designed custom wine glasses, with line drawings of Redmen Hall on each glass.

Redman Hall also now sells ceramics designed and made by Cathlamet glass artist Ruth Doumit, “...and we have a good display of wood sculptures by Frank Loomins,” said Goodroe. “We recently sold one of his wood bird sculptures.”

The shop also offers organic soaps and lotions made by Little Island Farm. The newly reorganized shelves also hold organic jams and jellies made by Island's End Farm owned by Carol Carver and George Exum.

Emery said the organic foods sold in the Smokey Waters Gift Shop sell quickly. The cans and jars are small and people like merchandise they can carry away easily.

“Women in particular like the things we have in the shop because they buy them and stick them in their purses.” said Emery.

The gift shop is the only place left in Wahkiakum County where people can buy books about life on the Columbia River, both past and present. “It’s a great place for historians, anthropologists, bird watchers and artists to find really unique books,” said Goodroe. A new book buyer is taking over the helm from long time volunteer Thea Pyle. Cathy LaBerge, owner of Cathlamet’s Trillium Books, now closed, will now oversee the shop’s book selections.

Emery and Goodroe say they are focusing on making people aware of what Redman Hall and The Smokey Water Gift Shop have to offer. They are adapting and trying to find a market price point for their items that will help bring in customers. “We want our local people to think of coming here when they might need a unique card or some small gift for someone,” said Goodroe.

The dynamic pair say they are positive about Redman Hall’s future.

“We are also working on putting together tours of the Hall and gift shop,” said Goodroe, "and in the future we hope to include other vendors in our tours.”

Some of their ideas are still in the planning stage but Goodroe and Emery both agreed that Redman Hall is a unique community asset. “We also have a plan to utilize our historical archives for history research of the area,” said Goodroe.

“This building is a community asset,” said Emery, “and people should use it.” They also want the public to know that groups can call the hall’s manager Lisa Moore on Thursday or Friday from noon to 4 p.m and make arrangements to tour the hall on days when it’s closed.