Circle of Elders

Image courtesy of Susan Lionhart - click to enlarge

Pat Perreault of Port Townsend Television is editing her latest project at the WSU learning center. Pat is working on a six part documentary series entitled "Circle of Elders" which will consist of six half hour stories.

Each segment will feature a different guest speaker ranging in age from 75 - 91 years. These people give moving accounts of history as they lived it, and describe how these events changed their lives.

A long time advocate of the environment and human rights, Pat has a history of giving her community a voice and understands the importance of documenting this information. These first hand narrations give us a version of history that we never may otherwise see. They share how their lives and the way they they lived them were forever changed. The first two shows to air will showcase Grace Chawes and Jerry Chawes.

Karen Russell Marrowstone Island History Project

Karen Russell

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Karen Russell moved to Marrowstone Island in Jefferson County in the early 1970's. Having been raised on an island herself, Oahu in Hawaii, she was intrigued by the history of the people and places of her new home. In 1978, along with Jeanne Bean, she co-authored a book on the history of the island. In a partnership with the WSU Learning Center-North Olympic Peninsula and the Jefferson County Historical Society, thirty years later she is employing modern technology tools to add to the knowledge of the area. Working with NOPLC Director, Robert Force, together they interviewed residents and created archival quality, high definition digital videos that preserved invaluable pictures and stories of the island's past. DVDs of the interviews are available at the Historical Society for research. To further the use of this medium, the LC provides classes in videography and editing in its state-of-the-art computer lab.

Horse Park Development Project

We are pleased to announce that the information publicity DV that the NOPLC made for the new Jefferson County Horse Park is now finished. The 15-minute DV will be used by members of the Jefferson Equestrian Association as part of their fundraising presentations to public and civic groups.

The goal of the promotional effort is to begin gathering people and resources for the planned 1/2 million dollar facility located on 40 acres off Loftus and Cape George Roads. The DV features many local youth horse champions from Jefferson County talking about how the facility will help them and others to hone their skills. The Washington State Department of Agriculture estimates that horse parks are potentially a 1.2 billion dollar income area for the state with regional horse parks, such as this one in Jefferson County, expected to provide hefty boosts to local economies.

View online!

Historical Society Learns FC Pro

Image courtesy of Ann Welch - click to enlarge

Seven members of the Jefferson County Historical Society are pioneering methods by which historical information will be gathered and preserved for future generations. Previous archiving relied on voice recordings, written transcripts, and photographs. With the aid of the digital technology available at the NOPLC, these archivists are learning to capture people, stories, and locations using high-definition video. Narratives are recorded with wireless microphones. Priceless photograph albums serve as memory prompts for the interviewees and scripts for the Society's interviewers. The 20-hour class in camera technique, editing and DVD manufacture was taught by NOPLC staff, Kris Raikes and Robert Force.

George Nordby Talks Turkey

George Nordby

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George Nordby (WSU 1966) shares stories with Karen Russell about his childhood spent on Marrowstone Island, where his father, George, was the uncontested champion turkey grower. A thriving local industry now little-known to today's residents, in the fifties, farmers on the island grew, slaughtered, and shipped thousands of turkeys to markets in the Pacific Northwest. George recounts the many challenges of getting birds ready for market before the days of refrigeration. He is shown holding one of the trophies presented to his father by the Jefferson County Fair Association for the "Best Display Poultry by One Exhibitor." One of the pictures he supplied for the Historical Project archival filming has the prize-winning bird standing next to the trophy, three times as tall! Among many other tales, he tells of his father winning a car in the 1938 Port Angeles Salmon Fishing Derby.

Jefferson Historical Society Project

Clara Lybeck

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Karen Russell's 10th interview in the Marrowstone Island Jefferson Historical Project is with long-time resident, Clara Lybeck. Clara continues the research project by verifying previously collected data and adding observations of her own based on her lifetime on the island. As in previous interviews, Clara brings to the project family photographs that add valuable backgrounds and settings for the narrative.

Visit www.jchsmuseum.org for information on the organization

Jefferson Historical Society Project

Pat Fieldler

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Pat Fielder, along with Karen Russell, is shown holding an old, sepia-toned family photograph of the Nordlund Ferry. Pat discusses with Karen the influence of the 7th day Adventists on Marrowstone and provides pictures of the separate, non-public school she attended for Adventist children. Many close-ups of her photographs were included in the ongoing documentary being filmed by LC Director, Robert Force. Many smaller-than-postage sized photographs were included is this interview. When the footage is edited, it will make it possible to see these rare photographs and hear Pat's recounting of the people in them in high definition, full-screen, motion picture quality.

Visit www.jchsmuseum.org for information on the organization

Jefferson Historical Society Project

Al Johnson

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Al Johnson, with his sister-in-law, Mary Catherine, helps Karen to record more of the history of the Marrowstone Island area. Al's family were settlers on adjacent Indian Island, now a US Navy base. He tells stories and reminiscences about the characters of the bachelors who lived on the islands and helps to untangle the bloodlines and marriages of the many Johnson families, related and not. He describes the Native American encampment on the north end of Indian Island and recounts having seen their chief, The Prince of Wales.

Visit www.jchsmuseum.org for information on the organization

Jefferson Historical Society Project

Cee Rowe

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Karen Russell interviews Cee Rowe, whose family lived on Oak Bay across from Indian and Marrowstone Islands. Cee, with pictures and tales, paints a picture of the 50's and 60's in the area when her family owned 10,000 chickens and ran an egg business that stretched across the north end of the Olympic Peninsula. Later as an adult, Cee moved onto Marrowstone, built a house, and raised a family with her husband, Gary. Most of the historical record of this interview focuses on her childhood memories of the Island.

Visit www.jchsmuseum.org for information on the organization

Jefferson Historical Society Project

Pat Burns

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Pat Burns is pictured outside of one of the oldest family homes still standing on Marrowstone Island, the Solie house at mile number 8 on highway 116 East in Nordland. This fine old house overlooks the southern end of Mystery Bay, connected to the the main road by a causeway. Tales in the kitchen of this home and of the Solie Family who lived there (and still do!) is the subject of Karen Russell's 6th interview.

Visit www.jchsmuseum.org for information on the organization

Jefferson Historical Society Project

Carl Johnson & Family

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Karen Russell begins her 5th interview in the Jefferson County Historical Society' documentation of Marrowstone Island with tales of turkeys and the dire consequences (tongue in cheek) of interfering with one of the Island's main economies of the 40's and 50's. Carl Johnson and members of his family gathered at Karen's home bringing numerous photographs and anecdotes of growing up on the Island. Robert Force of the WSU NOP Learning Center again provided the camera work.

Jefferson Historical Society Project

Bob Brown

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Bob Brown shows Karen Russell how the big guns were fired at Fort Flagler, located on the north end of Marrowstone Island. Named after Brigadier General Daniel Webster Flagler and established in the late 1890's, this old federal fort was one of the three bases creating a "triangle of fire" that protected the entrance to the Puget Sound.

Now a Washington State park, Bob is a volunteer there who has his hand in everything from historical tours to restoration of the fort. A walking encyclopedia, Bob's tour took us down into the gun emplacements, powder magazines, the power station, and around the various buildings. This is the fourth in a series of interviews by Karen on behalf of the Jefferson Historical Society documenting the history of the island.

Jefferson Historical Society Project

Paul Heinzinger

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Pictured above is historian, Karen Russell, of the Jefferson Historical Society. With her for her third interview in this series is Paul Heinzinger, whose personal history with Marrowstone Island goes back more than 75 years. After earning his Masters in Engineering from Stanford University, Paul spent many years off of the island but retained the family land just north of Mystery Bay, visiting often. Karen's video interview includes snapshots from the family album documenting the changes in the environment of the island.

Jefferson Historical Society Project

Carl Johnson

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Historian Karen Russell is pictured with Carl Johnson, lifetime resident of Marrowstone Island. This is the second in a series of interviews of a collaboration between the Learning Center and the Historical Society on the history of the island and its residents. In the background is Mystery Bay, as seen from Carl's clam and oyster shed.

Jefferson Historical Society Project

Aubrey Redling

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Aubrey Redling, a resident of Marrowstone Island for nearly 70 years, is interviewed by Karen Russell of the Jefferson Historical Society. In cooperation with the North Olympic Peninsula Learning Center, the Society is beginning a county-wide, video documentation project on local history and the people who have lived it.