News 2-1

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Issue 2 Volume 1

Ahoy Mate, it's the Catala!

The past has come alive at Damon Point in Ocean Shores. Around New Years, the S.S. Catala emerged from its sandy grave. It seems fitting that it happened at this particular time of year for it was New Year’s Day 1965 that this 218 foot vessel sank in a major winter storm. Thirty-seven years later, after being ransacked for its prize possessions, after countless kids and adults climbed her rusting shell during the sixties and seventies, and after the majority of it was removed for scrap, the once majestic Catala has returned. Although only the keel was left behind, she is letting us know that
she is still there.

For more info on the demise of the Catala, see the December, 2001 issue of the Moclips Ocean Wave.

Meetings

Our first general meeting was held on January 19 at Paddie’s Perch Restaurant in Pacific Beach. Forty were in attendance for this meeting and dinner event! We were quite surprised at the turnout. We kept the meeting to one hour with the dinner shortly after. THANK YOU Ed & Patty for a great dinner!

The by-laws were approved with one additional statement regarding dates of our meetings. It was motioned and approved that our general meetings be the last Saturday of January & September and our annual meeting be the first Saturday of June. Virginia Nordman, Linda Kelley and Jackie Davis were nominated and elected for Vice President, and members at large respectively. Speaking of Virginia, it was announced that she had completed her transcription of the 4 hour Roy Tottie interview. Roy was a long time resident of Moclips. Sadly, his wife Evelyn passed away on February 13, 2002. Our condolences to Roy and his family.

Several artifacts for the museum were on display including Kathy Jaquet’s framed copy of the Moclips Beach Hotel poster and numerous items on loan from Lee Marriott and Kelly Calhoun. An award of appreciation was given to Dolores May of Dolores’ Antiques in Ocean Shores. She has promoted our organization and has signed up new members. We also held a raffle for 3 North Beach/Moclips related items. A highlight of the evening was a computer presentation of numerous historical North Beach photos. Several members signed up for various committees including assistance in remodeling the museum space. If you can help, we would like to hear from you. Our goal is to open the museum this summer.

To those of you who made it to the meeting on a stormy night in January...... THANK YOU!

Mission Statement

Moclips-By-The-Sea Historical Society and Museum was founded for educational and cultural purposes including the collection, preservation and interpretation of artifacts, photos, documents, sites and buildings relating to the history of Moclips and the North Beach of Grays Harbor County, Washington (from Pt. Brown to the Quinault River) for
present and future generations to come.

New Members

December, January & February new members:

RUBY BALDOCK
SID CURTRIGHT/ARLENE DE LA CRUZ
PAUL & DEL DOCKENDORFF
JIM & RITA (NORTHUP) EVANS
FRED HEGGE/SUSAN FINDLAY
IRENE & JOHN JOLLY
GINNI & BRUCE KRUGER
GARY & CINDY MURDOCH
NAILS BY MARJORIE
MCDEAVITT, SAM
MECONIS, CHARLIE/SHERMAN, ROBBIE
GENE & BETTY NYE
PHOTO LAB EXPRESS
G. THOMAS SCHAFER
BOB & MELODY SCOTT
THE SCURVY DOG GALLERY & GIFTS
LINDA SHARRATT
CHLOE M. TAYLOR
MICHAEL & CINDYLEE WHITE

Total membership to date: 123
Thank you very much for your support!

Business Support

Moclips-By-The-Sea appreciates the support from our local businesses. Their interest and concern are a big part of what makes the North Beach a great place to live! We have included a list of those member businesses in a special insert within this newsletter. THANK YOU!

A Note of thanks
We want to thank John Larson of the POLSON MUSEUM in Hoquiam for his help. He has been a wonderful source of information and assistance to our museum goal! THANK YOU!

Will you take a $1 for it?

On Memorial Day weekend we plan on holding a garage sale to raise extra funds for museum purchases. The sale will be held in Ocean Shores. If you have items to donate or if you can spare a couple hours during the weekend to help out, we would appreciate hearing from you! Hours will be 10:00am to 4pm Saturday, Sunday and possibly Monday. Please contact us at 360-276-4826 to arrange for pickup or drop-off of garage sale items or to schedule volunteer time. We need volunteers to man the garage sale otherwise we won’t be able to hold it. THANKS!

Internet Business

If you haven’t seen the great website created by Kelly Cline of Truckin’ Express, you should! This is the Pacific Beach/Moclips site found at www.pacificbeachwa.com. The webpages are user friendly and very creative!

In addition to interesting news, facts and figures, Kelly has added Moclips-By-The-Sea to this site. As a result, we have acquired 7 memberships.

We thank Kelly again for a super job in helping promote our organization.

From Rain Forest Country

Member Florence Miles of Forks has been pouring over her father’s diary. Florence’s maiden name is Northup, a very well-known family from the Clearwater-Forks area and the eastside of Puget Sound. Northup Way in Bellevue is named after her family. Her uncle was Dale Northup, one of the photographers who took photos of the Moclips Beach Hotel before and after it was destroyed.

In late November, Florence forwarded excerpts from Benson Northup’s diary pertaining to Moclips and the Grays Harbor area.

Florence is the President of the West End Pioneers Club. She donated the last copy of the book they published, “Memories of a Quillayute and Sol Duc Pioneer” to us. The book makes mention of Moclips and Pacific Beach several times. It will be in the museum as a reference book. THANK YOU Florence!

Moonstones

We mourn the recent loss of one of our charter members. Edward Lycan of Tenino, Washington passed away on December 16, 2001.

He served in the Air Force in Korea and married Marjorie Tibbets in Olympia in 1956. He was active in Lycans Fuel Service and Tenino True Value Hardware. He also had served as chief of the Tenino Fire Dept.

He and his sisters, Elaine McDonald, Enid Dempster and Eleanor Ward were the grandchildren of Dr. Lycan who built the Moclips Beach Hotel. Edward Lycan’s passing is a great loss to Moclips. We extend our sympathies to the family.

Gems and Gemstones
Your membership dollars go into a general fund which helps pay for printing our newsletter and other mailings in addition to postage. We rely on donations to help with museum costs and acquisitions. Donors can specify where their money goes.

Recently, MOCLIPS-BY-THE-SEA received cash donations. Beverly & Everett Callaway, Marilyn Cardoza and Mary & Harold Schmidtke sent checks to help us with postage, museum acquisitions and museum remodeling costs. Synchronicity Stained Glass in Ocean Shores donated to the museum acquisition fund from percentages of their sales of vintage photos. THANK YOU all for your generous donations!

Ever wonder about that little house at the “Y” on Ocean Beach Road in Copalis Crossing? We sure have. It seemed to us that it must have had something to do with
the railroad since it sits next to where the tracks used to be. We finally found out the answer in an old newspaper article. It was used to house the railroad workers.
According to the article, once the rail was built at a certain distance, the railroad house would be torn down and rebuilt at a new location. This particular building was built in 1898. It is now for sale by the current owners.

We wanted to talk to Larry and Ann Burgher about the history of the building but unfortunately, Mr. Burgher passed away on January 6, 2002 - the same day we were
given his name to contact.

Search and Research

Here is the question of the new millenium. What ever happened to the giant wood carving of the razor clam in Ocean Shores? Some of us had our picture taken with this wonderful North Beach icon back in the 1960’s. Rumor has it that this big bi-valve was stolen. If so, by who?

Another story says it is buried somewhere. Do you know the truth? We’d LOVE to have it outside the museum - we promise we won’t tell where we got it.

Search and Research

We have a very puzzling question for you. In a 1924 World Atlas, we discovered on a map of the state of Washington, the name of GORDONVILLE which seems to be located in the area between Copalis Crossing and Carlisle. This name was also included in an 1895 Rand McNally map of the same area but with an additional name we have not heard of: TUNNEL CITY. This one appears to be further south and east from GORDONVILLE. At first we thought these were whistle stops along the Northern Pacific Railroad route. The system did NOT exist between
Hoquiam and Moclips until 1904-1905. Logging trains were in the area at the time however. So what were these names? If you know, please tell us!

Museum: Moclips & NB Artifacts

While in Seattle recently, Kelly & Lee found two more wonderful vintage brochures from the Pacific Beach Hotel - they are in perfect condition!

We have a wooden chair that was used in the cardroom at the rear of Max’s Cafe in Moclips. Edna & Max Matsen owned the cafe which was located on the “bluff”. This information was supplied by Lee Pickett. Thank You! NOTE: Edna, 87, passed away on February 16th, 2002. We extend our sympathies to the family.

Katie Detrick donated the book, “Land of the Quinault” in late November. It will be available in the museum as reference material. THANK YOU!

In December, Kathy Jaquet donated a large 19” x 30” aerial view of the old viaduct in Moclips. It is an awesome image! THANK YOU!

Also in December, we received a Minced Clam Mohawk canning label from Wally Weidman of the North Beach Historical Society. THANKS!

On eBay, Kelly & Lee acquired another German made Wheelock souvenir plate. This one features the Moclips Beach Hotel. There are now three versions of this plate in their collection.

Mary & Harold Schmidtke sent us copies of the Moclips Beach Hotel stationary, billing statement from Robert Chabot, and a photo of the Moclips depot and horse & wagon team on the beach at Pt. Grenville. THANK YOU!

At our general meeting in January, the Wacky Warehouse donated several very nice vintage Pacific Beach and Moclips photos. THANK YOU!

Some of these items will be on permanent display. Others will be on loan with proper credit given to the owner. If you have items to donate or loan, please let us know!

This just in
Enclosed is a copy of a letter in response to our email regarding the auto trophy. This artifact was listed on eBay back in September. We lost it in a frenzied bidding war with several other bidders. THANK YOU Dolores May of Dolores’ Antiques for making copies at no charge to MBTS!

Our First Board Meeting

Moclips-By-The-Sea Historical Society and Museum held its first board meeting in Moclips on February 28, 2002. The primary purpose was to sign the adopted Articles of Incorporation. Secretary Lee Marriott will be forwarding this document along with our approved by-laws to the State of Washington. We will then notify the Internal Revenue Service. We hope to have some news regarding our non-profit 501(c)(3) status by the next newsletter in June.

This newsletter is named after the first newspaper from Moclips; the MOCLIPS OCEAN WAVE. Published in 1909 it only lasted a few issues. We intend to be around a lot longer!

NOTE: If you would like a back issue of our quarterly newsletter, please send $2.00 and the issue (month and year) you are ordering to the above post office
box. Our first issue was JUNE 2001. Thank you!

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