Pacific County Historical Society

10/15/2026

History Hivemind: Take Me Out to the Ball Game... Somewhere in Pacific County!
Two unidentified gentlemen, two baseball mitts, one rather unusual bat, and absolutely no information about who, where, or when.
Sometimes the mystery isn't what people are doing. It's everything else. ⚾

10/08/2026

**Pacific County History Hivemind: Who Remembers Tom Robbins?**

Back in the day, you could rent a storefront in South Bend for just $8 a month. And if you happened to be Tom Robbins, you could write your first novel in it!

A little while ago, a gentleman from Bay Center stopped by the Museum and asked whether we had a copy of *Another Roadside Attraction*, the debut novel by acclaimed author Tom Robbins. We didn't, but a few weeks later he returned with an old, well-loved, rather battered copy to donate to our collection!

That thoughtful gesture sent us down a fascinating historical rabbit hole.

As some of you may know, Tom Robbins and his then-partner, Terrie Lunden, lived in South Bend in the late 1960s while he worked on *Another Roadside Attraction*, published in 1971. The couple reportedly rented a storefront for just $8 a month, while Terrie worked as a waitress to help support them.

We began some preliminary research after receiving the donated book, but this week we've really started digging into their Pacific County years, and the discoveries are getting interesting!

Among our finds is a reference in the University of Washington's Mary Randlett photographic collection to photographs of Tom Robbins and poet Robert Sund at the **Bay Center Tavern in October 1968**. We're now reaching out to the University to learn more about these photographs.

**And here's where we're calling on ALL of Pacific County!**

Does anyone remember Tom Robbins or Terrie Lunden from their time here? Did you or your family know them? Do you remember where they lived, where Terrie worked, or who they spent time with?

Perhaps your parents or grandparents told stories about them, or you have an old photograph, letter, or newspaper clipping tucked away somewhere.

We're especially hoping to identify that mysterious $8-a-month storefront!

Our goal is to develop a locally focused biography of Tom Robbins for the Pacific County Historical Society Museum & Visitor Center, documenting the people, places, and experiences that were part of his life here before he became an internationally celebrated novelist.

**If you have a memory, a story, a photograph, or even a small clue, we'd love to hear from you!** Please share in the comments or send us a private message.

Sometimes the best local history begins with a donated book and a community willing to share its stories. Let's see what we can uncover together!

10/05/2026

One thing we do frequently at the Museum in our Visitor Center capacity is route-planning assistance. Some of our volunteers are well-traveled and very familiar with ferry routes, and have enthusiastically helped travelers enhance trips with ferry info, train info, scenic routes, short routes, road closures, and so much more.
We track info like this so that we can relay it to travelers, and for impactful events like these ferry route cancellations, we'll start sharing here.

Washington State Ferries warned riders Monday morning that system-wide crew shortages threaten to disrupt or halt service across multiple routes.

09/30/2026

History Hivemind: Somewhere in Tokeland...

This week's History Hivemind comes with one useful clue—and a whole lot of unanswered questions.

Written on the back of this photograph is simply:

“Tokeland.”

Inside, five people are gathered around a long counter lined with stools. Shelves behind them are packed with bottles, jars and other goods, and the room has some wonderfully distinctive architectural details.

But whoever wrote “Tokeland” didn't give us the part we really need:

**Where in Tokeland was this?**

Was it a store, lunch counter, soda fountain, or something else? Does anyone recognize the woodwork, doorway, shelving, counter or fixtures—or any of the five people pictured here?

Sometimes an old photograph gives us an entire story. Sometimes it gives us one word written on the back and expects us to do the rest.

Fortunately, we have the History Hivemind for that.

09/28/2026

This Is What Built Pacific County: S — North Head Lighthouse

Why does Pacific County have two lighthouses only about two miles apart?

The answer is hiding inside the S of our Greetings from Pacific County mural.

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse was already guiding ships at the mouth of the Columbia River when plans were made for a second lighthouse at North Head. There was a problem: for vessels approaching from the north, the geography of the cape could obscure the Cape Disappointment light until ships were dangerously close to the Columbia River entrance. Congress provided funding for a lighthouse at North Head in 1893.

Construction began in 1897, and North Head Lighthouse went into service on May 16, 1898. The 65-foot tower stands on a headland more than 190 feet above the Pacific.

But here's one of our favorite details: North Head didn't originally get a brand-new lens.

The enormous first-order Fresnel lens from Cape Disappointment Lighthouse was moved to North Head, where its greater visibility made it more useful to ships approaching from the north. Cape Disappointment was then equipped with a smaller fourth-order Fresnel lens.

The first head keeper at North Head was Alex K. Pesonen, who took charge the very day the lighthouse went into service and remained there for 26 years. From 1905 to 1907, Mabel E. Bretherton served there as second assistant keeper and was the only woman assigned as a keeper at North Head.

More than a century later, North Head is still an active aid to navigation. Washington State Parks calls it the most intact light station in the Pacific Northwest, and the surviving station includes the lighthouse and historic keeper's residences.

For our mural, artist Ryan Cunningham worked from this wonderful historic view of North Head, with the lighthouse perched above the Pacific and the path winding across the headland. Look closely at the S and you'll see how she adapted the photograph to fit the shape of the letter.

It's one of those images that represents both the beauty of Pacific County and the very practical reason this place mattered: helping people safely find their way through one of the most challenging entrances on the Pacific Coast.

Pacific County Historical Society Museum & Visitor Center

09/24/2026

History Hivemind: The Great Pacific County Levitation Incident

Sometimes we find a photograph in the collection that raises more questions the longer we look at it.

At first glance, this appears to be three women standing together on a plank walkway through a recently cleared landscape, with a very happy dog running toward the photographer.

Then we looked closer.

**Is the woman in the middle...off the ground?**

Her feet appear to be suspended above the boards while the two women on either side—both conveniently facing away from the camera—seem to be holding her up. Meanwhile, the dog is bounding directly toward whoever is taking the photograph, apparently unconcerned by the possible suspension of the laws of gravity behind him.

And then there are the other clues.

A hat appears to have been tossed into the brush beside the walkway. In the distance, there are buildings and several tall vertical structures that may be telephone or power poles—or something else entirely. What initially looks like an isolated logged-over landscape may actually be on the outskirts of a community.

So, Hivemind, have at it.

**Where was this photograph taken? What can you identify in the distant landscape? And, most importantly, what on earth are these three women doing?**

We have no names to go with the photograph, so we'd also love to hear from anyone who recognizes the women—or the enthusiastic dog headed straight for the camera.

Some historical mysteries are more serious than others. This one may simply document three friends, one dog, and an extremely well-timed photograph.

But until proven otherwise, we're calling it **The Great Pacific County Levitation Incident.**

09/23/2026

This Is What Built Pacific County: U — Chinook Canoes

The first U in our Greetings from Pacific County mural was inspired by a historic photograph of Chinook canoes under sail on Willapa Bay—known for much of our recorded history as Shoalwater Bay.

It's a beautiful image, but it represents much more than a scene from Pacific County's past.

The Chinook Indian Nation is still here.

The Nation is made up of five westernmost Chinookan-speaking tribes: the Clatsop, Cathlamet, Lower Chinook, Wahkiakum and Willapa, whose ancestral homelands include the country surrounding the bay represented in our mural.

Long before highways and railroads connected Pacific County, its rivers, bays and estuaries were transportation routes. Canoes connected communities and families and were essential to travel, trade and life throughout the region.

Today, the Chinook Indian Nation continues its generations-long effort to restore federal recognition. The Nation was formally recognized by the federal government in 2001, but that recognition was rescinded approximately 18 months later. The Nation continues to pursue restoration of its federal status and maintains its government, culture and community here in its ancestral homelands.

Federal recognition also has very real consequences in the present. According to the Chinook Indian Nation, its lack of recognition limits access to federal resources and services available to federally recognized tribes, including health care, housing and educational opportunities.

So when you look at the canoe inside the U on our mural, we hope you'll see more than Pacific County history.

You'll see people whose history here reaches back long before Pacific County existed—and a Nation that remains part of our community today.

To learn more about the Chinook Indian Nation's continuing effort to restore federal recognition, visit Chinook Justice, where the Nation shares its history, current recognition campaign and online petition.

https://chinookjustice.org/ — Restore Federal Recognition for the Chinook Indian Nation

Pacific County Historical Society Museum & Visitor Center

09/19/2026

Remember Lewis H. Rhoades?

We recently met him through a photograph of the Occidental Oyster Company—but at Thursday's Museum board meeting, another piece of his story came out of the collection.

This saw.

According to the label preserved with it, Rhoades used this very saw in 1863 to construct his sawmill on the North Palix River.

And, naturally, that sent us back to the archives...

And Archives West gives us an unusually good paper trail to go with the artifact.

Their Lewis Henry Rhoades Papers, held by Washington State University, record that Lewis and Catharine Rhoades arrived on Shoalwater Bay in 1862. In 1863, Lewis's father and younger brother joined them, and the family moved to the first falls on the Palix River, where they built a new mill and established their first homesite.

That makes the little typewritten label attached to our saw particularly interesting: “This saw was used by L.H. Rhoades in 1863 in the construction of his saw mill on the North Palix River.”

From there, Rhoades's story becomes intertwined with several chapters of early Pacific County history. He farmed at Sandy Point, settled at Bay Center, and became involved in the oyster industry. The Rhoades family would eventually operate the Occidental Oyster Company—which some of you may remember from a photograph we shared recently.

Even better, a remarkable amount of the family's history survives. The Rhoades papers include correspondence, photographs, journals, financial and legal records, oyster accounts and records of the Occidental Oyster Company.

That's one of the things we love about museum collections. An old handsaw can look like a fairly simple artifact until you start following the names, dates and places attached to it. Suddenly, you're holding a physical connection to a family, a sawmill built more than 160 years ago, and a much larger story of life and industry around Willapa Bay.

And in this case, someone before us clearly understood that. They attached Rhoades's portrait, biography, a photograph of his residence and the saw's history directly to the blade—creating a little exhibit that has itself now become part of the artifact's history.

Want to explore the Rhoades rabbit hole yourself? The Lewis Henry Rhoades Papers can be found through Archives West:

https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv66007?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Pacific County Historical Society Museum & Visitor Center

09/18/2026

History Hivemind: The Last Days of Summer

As we head into the last days of summer, here’s a look at some Pacific County summer fun in days gone by.

Bathing suits, beach umbrellas, swimming, diving, an impressive amount of kelp—and apparently no concern whatsoever about getting sand everywhere.

These photographs came to us with very little identifying information, which means we have another job for the History Hivemind. We’d love to know where these summer adventures were taking place, approximately when, and—best of all—whether anyone recognizes the people.

There are some tantalizing clues in the backgrounds, particularly in the photographs taken along the waterfront. Do any of the buildings, docks, boats, or shoreline look familiar?

One of the photographs also appears to bear the mark of Liddell Studio, which may give us another avenue to investigate.

Mostly, though, we just love seeing this side of Pacific County history. So many photographs document work, industries, buildings and important occasions. These capture something equally worth remembering: people having an absolutely wonderful summer day.

Take a close look and tell us what you see. And if these faces—or these places—look familiar, the Hivemind would love to hear from you.

Pacific County Historical Society Museum & Visitor Center

09/16/2026

We will have the Backyard Bird Chronicles in our Museum Bookstore soon!