Dungeness, a morning indoors

September, 2020

This morning started out dark and cloudy so I decided to head to some place where I could be indoors. The first place I tried was closed. The second place I tried was the Sequim Museum. Truth-be-told, I’m not usually fascinated by museums. Museums definitely can be interesting, but they don’t thrill me like real life does. Nevertheless, I looked forward to seeing some interesting old stuff in this small-town museum. I was not disappointed. There were some cool things here!

In fact, there were a lot of really curious and enchanting and interesting things here. But before I start showing you what I saw, let’s get in the front door first, ok?

The woman in the photo above is the museum’s Executive Director, Judith Reandeau Stipe. She met me at the door, just as I was about to enter, and just as a man was leaving. She and the man who was leaving had been in a business meeting for about an hour, then she was escorting him (very cordially) out the door. It just so happened that I showed up at the door at that exact same moment. She hesitated a bit. She told me they were closed because of COVID19.

Immediately, I gave her my business card with my email address on it, a photo of my truck and trailer on it, and the website address of this blog. I told her I would create a blog post for the Museum and then it would become famous worldwide. We both chuckled at that.

And then she said, “well, honestly, there’s no one else in the building except me … hmmm, well, hmmm … well … ok, come on in!” I did not hesitate!

I expected she would be busy so I was prepared to happily wander around the Museum on my own. But she and I got to talking about many things and so she started talking about the Museum generally and about many of the individual items and exhibits. I wished I had turned on my phone to record her, but I didn’t think of that until later. She was a font of information … all of it fascinating!

In the background of the photo above, you may have noticed an old car. I sure did, and I made a beeline for it as soon as I graciously could.

It was a 1907 REO, model B. “REO” stands for the name “Ransom E. Olds”. The man named Ransom Olds is considered to be the founder of the automotive industry in the USA. He built his first steam car in 1894, then built a gasoline powered car shortly after that. Ransom started the Olds Motor Works Company (which later became the Oldsmobile division of General Motors Corporation). It was his idea to use a stationary assembly line before anyone else was doing that. [Henry Ford started using a moving assembly line shortly after that.] Ransom then sold that business and started the REO company. REOs were built from 1905 through 1936. In their heyday, REO was one of the four largest auto manufacturers in the USA. In 1938, REO declared bankruptcy (the Depression did that to a lot of businesses). The REO name was purchased and used by other manufacturers well into the 1990s.

This 1907 REO in Sequim was in excellent condition!

I tore myself away from the REO and moved on around the small museum in search of other interesting items.

I’m sure all of you have heard of a ten-key adding machine. Well, this (above) was an 80-key adding machine. It was built by the Monroe company in the early 1950s and, according to the sign just above it, this one still works.

The item above was sitting in a very dark corner so the photo isn’t very clear, but it was quite a machine. It’s a Postal Typewriter. The Postal Typewriter company was located in New York, USA, and made these typewriters between 1902 and 1908. This typewriter has an interchangeable hard rubber type wheel and it has a double shift. It sold for $25 in 1902.

The next item that caught my interest was the item in the photo below. What the heck is it?!

I thought it might have something to do with ravioli … or maybe it was a spinning machine for wool … or maybe it was a miniature steam generator. I didn’t have a clue.

I looked deep inside. I still didn’t have a clue. Maybe it coagulates blood … or UNcoagulates blood. Heck, maybe it makes music.

Ok, here’s the sign that was on the wall next to it …

Ha, yes! A Cherry Burrell Butterfat Testing Centrifuge! Everyone knows that! 🙂

Here’s a little info about butterfat testing … The Babcock Test, developed in 1890 by Dr S. M. Babcock of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, satisfied the requirements for a rapid, easily performed, inexpensive, and accurate test of butterfat content in milk. Small, equal amounts of milk and sulphuric acid were mixed, the acid dissolving all solids except butterfat. The fat was separated by centrifugal force and then hot water was added to raise the fat into the graduated neck of a bottle where it could be measured.

The Babcock Test proved to be a practical means of determining butterfat production from each cow. It ensured fair payment to farmers for their cream, and it could detect milk adulteration such as watering or skimming. Babcock equipment suitable for milk testing on farms was available in a range of sizes from four-bottle models to much larger units capable of testing twelve tubes at once, such as the electrically powered testers advertised in the 1930 Cherry Burrell catalogue.

Ok, back to the Sequim Museum and things to be seen here.

Not surprisingly, this museum had photos and information and exhibits about the history of dairy farming in the greater Sequim area. Some photos and documents were more than 100 years old and told about dairy farming hereabouts back in those early days. Judith, the Executive Director of the museum, said that groups of school kids come here for tours, and that, more and more, as the human population density increases, fewer children say they’ve ever seen a cow. So this museum now has two cows (one Holstein and one Jersey, above) and a third one will be arriving soon (a dark brown and white Ayrshire). Of course, these museum cows don’t smell like real cows, and they don’t mooooo, or do other cow things, but at least kids (and adults) can get up close to them and get some idea of what a cow is all about.

Oh boy, here’s a big truck! Judith said it had just arrived in the museum a week ago. She said the truck was purchased new in 1939, was immediately brought to the Sequim area, and has been owned by one family the entire time … passed down from father to son to grandson.

The truck is a 1939 Autocar flatbed truck. Autocar was one of the first truck manufacturers that placed the engine under the cab, under the seats, which made the cab taller for better visibility and made the truck shorter in length for better maneuverability.

If you’re interested in more information about the Autocar company (still making trucks today!), then read the next paragraph here … or just skip ahead to the next photo.

Autocar’s history began in 1897, in the USA, when Louis Semple Clarke built “Autocar No. 1”, a tricycle powered by a one-cylinder gasoline engine, now in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Later that year, “LS”, as he was known, founded the Pittsburgh Motor Vehicle Company, supported by his two brothers, their father, and a friend, William Morgan. Autocar No. 2, a four-wheeled runabout car they called “The Pittsburgher”, was built in 1898 and is now in the Henry Ford Museum. In 1899 they moved the company to Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and renamed their business the Autocar Company. Clarke and his partners knew they were at the beginning of something big. But even they couldn’t have known how their innovations would go on to shape all modern American cars and trucks, and how the motor vehicle industry would change the course of American history. Autocar thrived and, over a century later, is proud to be the oldest surviving vehicle nameplate in the United States. Autocar was at the heart of an industrial revolution when it built the first motor truck commercially available in the United States in 1899. The Autocar delivery wagon boasted a payload capacity of 700 pounds and optional 5 or 8 horsepower motors. The “engine-under-the-seat” design maximized area for freight and was the precursor of Autocar’s Cab-Over-Engine design used on every Autocar truck manufactured today, including their severe heavy duty trucks with engines that burn CNG/LNG instead of diesel.

This next photo/item/exhibit in the Sequim Museum is the last one I’m going to show you. It was spectacular.

The photo above shows a section of wall inside the Museum that had been painted with the image of a full-size Mastodon. There’s a clear plastic two-foot high barrier in front of the wall/painting that prevents anyone from getting close enough to touch anything. Attached to the wall/painting were the bones of a Mastodon found near Sequim in 1977. Husband and wife farmers, Emanuel and Clare Manis, were digging a pond on their land with a backhoe in 1977 when they unearthed two sections of one of the tusks. They stopped digging, called for expert help, and the results are here for everyone to see. All of the bones attached to the wall are real … they came from the Mastodon that was unearthed here.

The height of this Mastodon was about 7.5 feet tall. Given its height and the way the tusk curved, it’s thought this Mastodon was a full-grown female.

An object was found in the rib of this animal. The object was studied microscopically and digitally at Texas A&M University, and is believed to be a sharp human-made object that was used to attack and kill this particular Mastodon. Evidence of human activity around a Mastodon is rare. This particular Mastodon is estimated to be 13,800 years old, which means humans, who made tools, were here in the upper Olympic Peninsula area that many years ago too.

Behind that wall (the wall with the painting and the bones on it) … around behind, on the back side of that wall were lots of photos and info about the dig and about the research done. But also, there was a tank here with one section of the tusk in it. The tank was filled with liquid, although there was no information about what the liquid is.

The diameter of this part of the tusk averaged about seven inches.

Think about it … 13,800 years old.

There were many more fun things, fascinating things, and some rather odd things here at the Sequim Museum, as these types of small museums tend to have. It was a great place to spend a cool and cloudy morning. I’d go back any time!

Then, to top it off, after I thanked Judith for letting me come in, I walked out the door to find that the day had turned from dark and cloudy to bright, warm sunshine. What a delight.