September-October, 2021
My friends knew about this old town museum from prior visits to the area, but they hadn’t been to see it. We all wanted to go, with good reason. It’s right in the heart of Winthrop, just one block up the hill from the center of town. It’s called the Shafer Historical Museum. It was fantastic! Way more than I expected.
We didn’t see everything … there wasn’t time. Even of the things we did see, I didn’t take pictures of everything. And I’m not sharing all the pictures I did take here, just too many photos. But here are some highlights. Click on photos to enlarge them.
In a different builing (not the schoolhouse!) was this display below.
Olivia Hall’s talents were greatly appreciated here in the sometimes rough western world.
The “Castle” was the very large home (large by standards in those days, and in these parts) … it was the home of Guy Waring, one of the first settlers here. That home was built in 1891 and was moved, intact, to this Shafer Museum. Here are some interior photos of the “Castle”.
The photo below is of the original woodstove in the master bedroom. Obviously, the woodstove is no longer working, but you can see the metal circle above the woodstove where the chimney/flue would have gone through the wall, then into the next room (the children’s room), and then finally up through the ceiling/roof. There were a number of ways they routed heat in order to heat several rooms … running the chimney through two rooms was one of them.
Another way of sharing heat between rooms is evidenced in the photo below. The solid tree “beams” were installed so that space was left in between them so at least some heat would be shared with a neighboring room.
The kitchen below, with the old wood stove. I bet fresh baked bread from this stove smelled like heaven.
And again, in the photo below, there’s a hole for the chimney to route between two rooms, and the spacing between lateral beams for shared heat too.
Ok, now we visit another building entirely … the doctor’s office which was also his home.
And then we moved on to the local newspaper publisher’s building/office.
Two successful weekly newspapers covered this area in the early 1900’s … two newspapers, that’s how many people lived here! The “Methow Valley News” started in 1903 and the “Methow Valley Journal” started in 1909. The equipment shown in the photos here produced the “Methow Valley News” which is still published today.
I loved the old tractors on display here. I wish they had a roof over them. Notice that some have front wheels that are close together, and some have front wheels far apart … different styles for different uses.
Yet another building here (there are so many, with so much history in them) … another building on the property here show-cased early journeys to this area and the equipment used to make those journeys.
The Weber Wagon Company (photo below), 1845-1904. The Weber Wagon Company, Chicago, Illinois, built wagons called “the King of all farm wagons”. The Dal Hope family in Winthrop donated the wagon in the photo below … their original Weber wagon … to the Shafer Museum. It’s likely the only one of it’s kind in existence.
What would a report of the old west be without saddles. Horses and saddles. Ok, and maybe some spurs jingling down the wooden walkway. But here are a few of the saddles shown in the Shafer Museum.
Take a good look at that woman’s side-saddle above, but also take a look at the horsehair saddle below. I had a horse in my childhood for many years. His hide/hair always seemed so soft to me.
This was a stupendous museum! As mentioned, we saw only a small part of it. If you are ever in the area, this would be a great place to visit. I’ll be back!
Loved this, excellent info and photos. I’ve read this through once but I know I need to read through it again. That original photo of the schoolhouse … and then your photo of the school match exactly. Here’s to a nice soft horsehair seat. 🙂
It was amazing how old and well-preserved the items inside the buildings were, but also how well-preserved these original buildings were. I loved that horsehair saddle too. 🙂
Thank you for the amazing tour of the museum – the quilts caught my eye. But I also shivered thinking of the cold winters and the holes cut in the wall to share the heat.
I also did a little research into Winthrop and wasn’t very surprised the discovery of gold helped build the town….
And, in 2012, the town was proclaimed the #2 of “Worst Speed Trap Cities” in North America by the National Motorists Association. Hilarious!
You are welcome! Thought of you when I saw the quilts … mine is still in use in my trailer. Oh, gold, I didn’t know about gold in the Winthrop area … guess I need to go back. 🙂
I love the tractors too. That grey one in the front reminds me of one I drove when I was a kid. Definitely not an antique, right?
Ha! No, those tractors are practically brand new and so very young! 🙂
Super museum. Thank you!
You’re welcome. 🙂
It’s amazing that the original buildings were saved and moved to this land. Someone was using their noggin. 🙂 If I had to pick a favorite room or building I couldn’t, well ok might not be popular but I liked looking at the rifles and thinking about their history of probably shooting for food. It’s amazing how the rooms share heat, we should do that!
Yes, someone/s had to have put in a great deal of forethought and energy and time and money to put this museum together. I had that same reaction about the heat-sharing in rooms … the way they did it made perfect sense.
Great history, really well done. I’d never seen a woman’s sidesaddle before.
I hadn’t seen a sidesaddle before either, Jamie. It didn’t look very comfortable, and you’d likely be always a little off balance, or at least feel like you are.
Wish we had old collections like this here in Montana. I don’t know of any. Most stuff here has been worn out, thrown away, or just dumped in the creek. It’s a fresh sight to see these old things still in tact. I liked the rifles too, but also the horsehair saddle, and the old tractors … one of them must of been my dad’s! ha! 🙂
I bet you saw and even drove a lot of those tractors in your childhood, don’t kid me! 🙂 The collection of buildings and of items was really fantastic.
Gosh that was interesting. I’m glad we don’t have to go see a country doctor these days. I’m sure they were as good as they could be, back then. I’d bet that doctor was probably the dentist too. Love the saddles. I had a horse for awhile as a kid, his name was Tony. Since my name is Tina, my friends would say “here comes TNT!” 🙂
I felt that way too when I was in that doctor’s room. Old mechanical surgical and dental instruments, even the furniture looked a bit scary. I’m glad things are better today. Hey you had a horse too, that’s great. 🙂 Loved your friends calling you TNT (Tina ‘n’ Tony), pretty cool.
Classic western music. Not necessarily the hoe-down stuff, but maybe that too. Where do I find that online?
Oh now there’s a good question, just plain old comfortable homey country western music. Maybe others here know of websites they can share with us. Otherwise, I’ll add this to my list of future blog topics. Thanks, Steve.
This was great, I really liked this. Cool stuff.
Thanks, Joe. 🙂