Community observes 100 years of ferry service

An estimated 225 people came out to Little Island Creamery last week to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ferry service that connects Puget Island with Westport, Ore. With so many in attendance already filling the venue to capacity, volunteers in the Little Island Creamery parking lot had to turn vehicles away. "This event was a major success in celebrating our community," said Wahkiakum Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ryan Murillo. "To be able to showcase the ferry, its history, and the crews who've worked it over the years is an honor. We could have never anticipated this incredible turnout."

Concurring with Murillo, event host and Little Island Creamery owner Kathleen McDonald said, "We are so grateful for the support of this community, including the awesome work by the Chamber of Commerce, Wahkiakum County Historical Society, and everyone who came out for the celebration. We were honored to be a part of it."

Serving as the event's keynote speaker was the Clatsop County Historical Society's Jim Aalberg. A third great grandson of Westport founder John West, Aalberg shared many important dates during his presentation, including June 25, 1925, when the "Cathlamet ferry" began its first run. Aalberg also noted a connection between Cathlamet and Westport was first forged in the early 1850s by "two pioneering Scotsmen," referring to James Birnie on the Cathlamet side and John West on the Westport side. According to Aalberg, the ferry service between Puget Island and Westport is not only the longest continually running ferry operation in the northwest, it is the only interstate ferry west of the Mississippi River.

Aalberg's historical recap entered a lighter note when the timeline reached former ferry owner and operator Elmer Danielson, a man the keynote speaker referred to as "an interesting guy." Mentioning incidents such as when Danielson ran aground the ferry and tried to light it on fire, Aalberg admitted his favorite such story was when two Oregon Tax Commission agents taking the ferry tried to subpoena Danielson for back taxes upon arriving at the Puget Island side. Danielson docked the ferry, tied it up, and refused to take the agents back over to the Westport side. The agents had to hitchhike back to Longview, cross back over to the Oregon side, and return to the vehicles they had left in Westport before boarding the ferry. "Finally, the Oregon legislature gets involved in this," said Aalberg. "They passed legislative laws for interstate ferries coming into Oregon [that] they don't tax them. They learned it from the Great Lakes. The ferries go into all different kinds of states. They don't tax every state. It doesn't make sense."

Though the day's theme centered around the ferry as far as the Washington/Oregon connection, Aalberg also noted the massive electrical turbines that powered the Westport Mill, the lights in Westport, and so much more. "They still had excess power because they had so much hog fuel, so they ran a power line across the Westport slough, Westport Island, the channel, all of Puget Island, the other channel, and into Cathlamet and supplied all of their power," said Aalberg, who also noted the turbines powered the Cathlamet PUD, ran cables to and powered Long Beach, and ran cables all the way to Clatskanie, turning on every light in the neighboring town as well.

In attendance for the event was Danielson's granddaughter, Ann Treger, who admitted to riding the ferry "hundreds of times" over her youth. "We'd do it just for fun," she said. Her grandfather having operated the ferry long enough that she saw the transition to the "Wahkiakum" vessel, Treger, noting the contrast between old and new, said, "You really didn't want to sit in one of those cabins because they were right over the engine and you were yelling at each other just to converse because those engines were so loud. The very first MRI [that] I had, that ferry got me through it. I rode that ferry through the MRI because the mechanisms in the MRI sounded just like the engine in the Wahkiakum. In my mind, I just picked a beautiful, blue-sky day with the little white caps on the water and had a great ferry ride across the river while I had this MRI."

Dignitaries in attendance for the event included Washington Senator Jeff Wilson, Cathlamet Mayor David Olson, Wahkiakum County Commissioner Lee Tischer, Clatsop County Commissioner Courtney Bangs, U.S. House Representative for Washington's 3rd congressional district Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez. Also present at the event was Ora Loraine Bjorge Bauer, whose grandfather, Walter Coates, captained the ferry when it originated in 1925. Addressing the standing- room-onlycrowd, Gluesenkamp-Perez said of the ferry, "You see this slow homogenization of our country and this sort of amnesia of our culture and where we came from and the real erosion of what our children want, shifting from things they can make themselves to things you can buy and post about online and that loss of identity and self sufficiency and cultural heritage is a real thing to mourn. I am so proud of you all for [what] I would argue [as] the correct positioning of priorities and of demand of what is honorable; what is worth having in life. A relationship to place and a respect for the things that our forebearers did for us and the accountability that conveys on us to move things forward. It's an immense honor to be with you to celebrate the connection that the Oscar B has provided in our country and the relationship to our communities and the things that real democracy is predicated on: self sufficiency, pride, relationship, knowing your neighbors. It's an incredible honor to be here with you all celebrating something that is truly worth celebrating."

Prior to Gluesenkamp-Perez's comments, Tischer said, "Wahkiakum County is proud to have this ferry. One thing that does make us even prouder is the state funding 85 percent of it. We recently were able to get that in place thanks to our legislators in District 19 working with us. To get that accomplished, that really saved our bacon because every money that is being spent is money being taken from our public works. Nobody likes driving through potholes."

Speaking on the industrial connection the ferry service provides, Bangs said, "This ferry has been quietly doing something for 100 years, and that's been bringing people together on both sides of the river. It's not just a piece of transportation. It is a part of shared history. It brings a little touch of adventure to our tourism, but it also, again, brings people together, not only our workforce for Wauna but our workforce for other mills on the Washington side."

Olson, who had been promoting the event for months on both sides of the Columbia River, said, "What a wonderful turnout and what a wonderful event. The ferry means everything to us. It's a great honor to see everyone here."

Closing out the program before turning the event over to the Skamokawa Swamp Opera, Emcee Marissa Schillios, who serves as branch manager for Bank of the Pacific, gave a collective thank you to all those involved in the ferry service both past and present. "The ferry is not just a vessel," said Schillios. "It is a lifeline, and that lifeline has always been powered by people who worked through storms, holidays, and decades of change to keep the crossing alive. Today, we thank you, we remember you, and we honor you."