The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

NOT BAD--We haven't had a lot of sunshine this past week but I guess we should be thankful for the cloudy, drizzly days we have, it could be a lot worse! Our Valentine's Day is not only a little soggy, but there's also snow showing up off and on out here in West Valley--yikes!

SPECIAL DAYS--Those celebrating birthdays from February 16-22 are Vickie Reid, Chuck Parker, Betty Brown, Brody Brown, Melody Brown, Selah Hoven, Christa Hoven, Tiffany Montgomery, Sara Buennagel, Jennifer Quigley, Kristan Quigley, Rebecca Castillo, Terry Everman, Stan Everman, Angela Stensland, Angel Thompson, Jade Hauff, Milli Elven, Wanda Evenson, Justin McCarthy, Mac Johnson, Julie Chamberlain, Logan Blain, Kris Baldwin, Morgan Spieth and 67'er Shari Gorman Parker.

Happy anniversary wishes to Mr. and Mrs. Stan Thacker and Mr. and Mrs. Dale Strueby this week.

PRAYERS--We seem to have a lot of folks who could use our thoughts and prayers and some well wishes sent their way, and they include Jeanne Paulsen, Mary Nettles, Karen Lawrence, Hoby Thacker, Jim Barton, Dale Heiner, Frank Karboski and Jim McMahon. We hope you'll all be fit as a fiddle in no time!

FOS EXHIBIT--The Friends of Skamokawa have opened a new exhibit of crafts from seven local people at Redmen Hall. Folks are showing off their knitting, weaving, photos, wood-carving, fabric art and more in the Interpretive Center located on the second floor. So check it out before this exhibit is gone.

ALL SCHOOL REUNION--Susan Kuhn is hoping to set up a meeting for all interested WHS Alumni who want to be a part of the all school reunion that is being set up at the high school on August 4 this year. Many details have yet to be worked out so please contact Susan and let her know what you'd like to see, and better yet, come to the upcoming planning committee meeting; this will take place in March, with the date to be determined. Contact Susan at sjmcq1@yahoo.com or go to the Mule Train All School Reunion page on Facebook and get included in all the news.

DUCK--Work continues on the Duck Inn and from the sounds of it, we're going to have a wonderful new establishment to go to when it's all done. Logan Britt Enterprises is keeping the Bjorge Construction outfit very busy with this huge remodel job and we're all anxious to see it come back to life, as we're missing this central spot to gather and meet and greet our neighbors.

CELTIC DOING--The Irish are coming, the Irish are coming! Yes indeed, those fiddle players, with their lively music and their fun Irish dances will be here and they've invited you to come and join the fun on March 3 at the Skamokawa Grange Hall at 8:30 p.m. for a little dance instruction and then take part in the dance. Teresa Baker and Betsy Branch and others will be offering workshops for their group through the day, which group members are urged to sign up for, but the public is invited to the dance part in the evening. You can check them out at: https://sites.google.com/site/skamokawairishmusicweekend/home.

CRAB FEEDS--It's almost time to dine on crab and oysters and join in the fun of the gabbing with your friends and neighbors while we enjoy these tasty treats! The first feed is in Rosburg and with only 225 tickets available, they go fast, so contact a Legion member and get your tickets today! This feed is March 3 at the Rosburg Hall with tickets costing $28 and that includes the dance afterwards, which is always a lot of fun. There are some great prizes given away to the lucky ticket holders, so be sure to buy a batch of those while you're there. This feed benefits the American Legion Deep River Post #111, and your support is crucial to help them continue their good works in our area.

The crab and oyster feed on Puget Island will take place the following weekend and they have three seatings, beginning at 3:45 p.m., then again at 5:30 p.m. and the last one at 7:30 p.m., so hopefully one of those time slots will fit your schedule. Tickets are $30, which you can get at the Cathlamet Branch of the Bank of the Pacific with the proceeds to benefit the Wahkiakum Chamber.

GREAT TIME--The Skamokawa Grange Hall looked fantastic last Saturday night for the annual Valentine Diamond Dinner held by the Wahkiakum Fair Board and a packed house made for a lively hum of voices throughout the evening. We got lucky with the weather as there were no downpours during the event and everyone seemed to really be enjoying the evening. Becky and crew did a great job; it's a huge amount of work to put one of these dinners on and the fair is lucky to have such an organized person in charge!

GAS STATIONS--Hans Fluckiger gave me some more information on the station that I mentioned last week that had been south of Our Saviour's Lutheran Church by the Albert Kehrli place. According to Hans, the original building was sold to Bill Canham from August Allen and moved down the road to what was the beginning of the Canham Store and it housed appliances and things before the cement/block store was built later on and is what we see today. Hans said he used to work for Mr. Allen back in the day and the little store sold some convenience items and cigarettes and such, and August paid him in ice cream--what a deal! The block style building that is now by the Kehrli place was actually built by a couple of friends, one of which was Bob Somes (sp?) with plans for a bigger station and such, but it never took off for one reason or another. Hans also mentioned that there was a store on East Sunny Sands; the Bowman Store, but it did not have any gas pumps that he recalled.

A call from Hemet, Calif. from LouAnn (Ken) Pederson told of another kind of station as her parents, Elmer and Jessie Danielsen operated a fuel dock for the boats during the depression era on the river side, near the Hendrickson farm; some may know that area as the Churchill place or maybe where the Tostes lived or Chuck Emerick lived; it depends on when you were around, but in that general area anyway. LouAnn came to Puget Island in 1931 and can remember helping her mom when she was fueling up boats. She said it was here where she met the Wika family for the first time as they fueled up their boat to go over to the theater in Cathlamet one day. There was no bridge to Cathlamet in those days and boat travel was the only way to go, so fuel was delivered by boat to their place and then dispensed from there. Ah, the good ole days! Thanks for the info, LouAnn! She tells me they'll be up this way in June so I'm hoping to talk more about her memories of life on the Island when she was growing up. Definitely a different world then.

OLD BUILDING--Just last week, I was asked by Susan McClain Kuhn if I'd ever heard of the Wiseway Building. I knew about it through my Grandma Elsie Everest's diaries, and an article I'd seen, which basically said that it had burned down in the late 40's, so that's why many of us would not remember it. Then, lo and behold, I got a call from my former classmate, Dale Jacobson and he tells me that he has an old Eagle newspaper that belonged to his folks, from 1949, and that he'd drop it by if I'd like to see it, and on the front page, there's the story about the old Wise Building--cool! The paper, dated December 23, 1949, states that Fire Chief Mitchell Doumit reported the "raging blaze" began at 4 a.m. Four businesses housed in the building were put out of operation. George Kosokar, owner of the Cathlamet Sportsman Store, sustained $8,000 in damages, while "The Wiseway," operated by Doug Frick and George Witham, was a complete loss.Buck Christian's taxi office was made unusable and Hazel's Beauty shop suffered a lot of water damage. The Kelso fire department came to help Cathlamet's fire trucks as the Columbia Hotel next door was in danger of being lost, but they really poured the water to it and saved it. However, at one time, there was three feet of water in the upper story of the hotel! The Osbornes owned the building and they made plans to have the wooden structure torn down. During the fire, phone service was suspended for a time as the smoke drove operator Harriett Johnson out of the adjoining building where the phone office was located.