Pacific Beach, a super surprise

 

July, 2018

The next morning I drove about 40 minutes down the coast to the town of Ocean Shores on the edge of Grays Harbor to seek out the ever elusive Brown Pelicans that live in the area.  I found them!  Photos will be coming soon.  But first …

[The map on the right shows where I am.  The X with a black circle around it is the Pacific Beach State Park campground.  The red lines are the roads I explored while I was out here.  Home (Tacoma) is on the right side of the map.  Click on the map and photos to enlarge them.]

On my way through the town of Ocean Shores, wandering through various parts of the town in order to see what there was to see, I just happened to drive past the “Coastal Interpretive Center.”  What’s that, you ask?  Well, I didn’t know.  And, to be honest, the name didn’t pique my interest.  But I needed a “rest stop” so to speak, and the sign said it was a public building, so I parked and went in.

Oh my gosh, what a find!  You have to come here!  And I don’t mean just to use the bathroom.  This place was wonderful.  It was FULL of all manner of things (animal, vegetable, mineral, geography, geology, human history, etc) … just about everything that has anything to do with this part of the Pacific coast.

It was a rather unassuming building, so I wasn’t prepared for what greeted me when I walked in the front door … a huge, six-foot long Sea Otter!  It absolutely stopped me in my tracks.  It took me several moments to figure out it was a taxidermy display.

I’ve seen many dozens of wild Otters (Sea and River) in the water, floating on their backs with just their heads visible and their little paws on their chests.  I had no idea how large Sea Otters were.  The internet says they weigh up to 100 pounds.  As mentioned, this Sea Otter (above) was at least six feet long including the tail.

In the same room with the Sea Otter were displays of many different mammal skins and fur, all purposefully displayed to encourage touching.

Sea Otter pelt on the left; Beaver pelt on the right.

Fur Seal pelt.

At first, I was a bit put off by the animal skins and taxidermy here, but signs everywhere said that none of the animals or birds on display were killed for the purpose of display.  All were found deceased or were taken from illegal poachers (who were then locked up in jail).

Skulls from sea creatures and from land animals.  These were delicate so were kept in locked display cases.

Whale bones and baleen and other whale-ish stuff.

I was overwhelmed by everything on display.  It was an excellent exhibit with lots of information, exceptionally well-labeled, clean, and with samples of more types of bones and shells and rocks and birds and mammals than I ever imagined existed in this area of the Washington coast.  I took almost 100 photos, but I’m posting here only one photo from each collection.  Each type of collection had its own room full of shelves and drawers and cabinets with hundreds (thousands?) of items in each collection.

Sea shells and Sea Stars (or starfish as we often call them).

Coral, fossils, and such, including a lump of coal from a shipwreck.

A room full of rocks.

 

Mammals.

Birds.

In the same room with the taxidermy displays (above), but on the opposite wall, were photographs and drawings of hundreds of other mammals and birds native to this area.  Included on that wall was the drawing below.

When Little Towhee saw this photograph (above) later in the day, she couldn’t stop tweeting and cheeping … she was in my face for quite some time trying to convince me that we needed to spend THE ENTIRE REST OF THIS CAMPING TRIP out in the shrubbery looking for her relatives.  Can’t say I blame her; I’ve been to Scotland where my relatives are from after all.  I promised her we would keep a sharp eye out and our ears attuned to the call of the wild Spotted Towhee.

In another part of the “Coastal Interpretive Center” building, the displays focused on human history in this area of the Pacific Ocean coast.

 

The U.S. Coast Guard on patrol in 1942.

There have been all manner of ships that have grounded and/or sunk along these shores.  Grays Harbor is huge and creates additional weather patterns and water currents that reach far out into the ocean, along with underwater shoaling that stretches for miles.

In 1892, the Ferndale (a three-masted, square-rigged barque) was one of the most famous ships to run aground here.  In the photo above, her bow continued to point out to sea as though she was still trying to sail free of the sand that entrapped her.  Before the grounding, she was heading into the Columbia River, in between Washington and Oregon.  In spite of all efforts by her Captain and crew, a storm blew her north to Grays Harbor (about 50 miles north!) where she eventually grounded and where she was eventually destroyed.

 

The next room in the “Coastal Interpretive Center” was the final room I visited …

Long before Europeans realized North America existed, the people who lived in this coastal area enjoyed a bountiful life.  Parts of the lives and culture of the Quinault people were described here at the “Center” and, again, the display filled an entire room.  I spent more time in this room than any other.

Today, the people of the Quinault Indian Nation continue to own and live on a portion of the land that they originally occupied before Europeans appeared in the area.  There were documents displayed here in the “Coastal Interpretive Center” that talked about the Quinault people ceding land to the USA in 1855, which was most unusual.  Usually, the US government “gave” land to native people, and most often it was not their native land.  In this case, however, the Quinault gave some land to the US government and kept most of their land for themselves.

Negotiations were handled only in English, however, and the documents that created the agreements were written solely in English as well, not using any of the local tribal languages, so some of the written legal details were likely different than what the Quinault people understood them to be.  A few years after those agreements were signed by the Quinault and by Washington State officials and by the US Congress, it’s reported that President Grover Cleveland used “executive privilege” (bypassing all three entities that had signed the agreements) and reduced the size of the “reservation” significantly “with a stroke of the pen”, without any negotiations with the Quinault Nation, and with no monetary compensation to the Quinault people for the loss of their land.  There continue to be unresolved legal questions about the area of land owned by the Quinault Indian Nation and money owed to the Quinault Nation by the US government.

I also learned that the Quinaults have applied for federal funding to move their largest town, Taholah, upriver and away from the ocean since global warming has caused ocean levels to rise significantly in the past 15 years.  Taholah’s income-producing fish processing plant needs fresh river water, but the rising ocean has caused the lower portion of the Quinault River to become brackish (salt water and fresh water combined).  So far, the federal government of the USA has not responded to requests for financial assistance from the Quinault even to move just the fish processing plant.  The plant is now operating at a loss because they need to truck water down from upriver.  One supposes that if the Quinault Indian Nation receives funding, then other similarly-affected ocean-front communities would follow suit in asking for and expecting financial assistance.

 

 

Later during this camping trip, I drove to the town of Taholah … it’s in a beautiful location right on the ocean and at the mouth of the Quinault River.  It was interesting to me to hear from people in Taholah (at the general store there) that they consider themselves “Americans” because they live in North America, not because of any attachment with/to the USA, whether because the US claims it has authority over the Quinault or just because the US government awarded citizenship rights in 1948.  I’ve heard the same from people who live in Central and South America too … being “American” has nothing to do with the USA, but rather the continent on which they live.  It’s rather like being both European and Swedish.  The Quinault people consider themselves a separate Nation from the USA, just as Canada is or Peru or any other country.  The US government seems to think differently, and that certainly makes a puzzle out of many issues.

I’ve shared this information with you folks, not for “Political” reasons, but because most of it was new information to me and came directly from documents at the “Center” in Ocean Shores or directly from people I talked with in Taholah.

The Quinault people feel great pride for their ancestry and history and for their land.  I felt humbled to walk where they have walked for thousands of years and to learn even just a tiny portion about their lives.  I kept thinking about my two trips to Scotland and how much that land of my ancestors means to me and the fact that Scotland is still owned and settled by the descendants of the original people who lived there.  I hope the Quinault people can say the same about their land and their people far, far into the future.

In the end, the “Coastal Interpretive Center” was an extraordinary gem, a surprise find that took me all morning to explore.  Despite that much time there, I didn’t see even half of it.  Early in the afternoon, I ate my lunch in my truck and then headed out to the Grays Harbor jetty to see if I could find those elusive Brown Pelicans … stay tuned!