1959 ❖ 1951 L-190 International with a full load ❖❖

The Yansen Store freight truck
Shaw Island ferry dock, San Juan Islands,
Photo dated 1959.

Don and Gwendolyn Yansen were proprietors of the Shaw Store adjacent to the ferry landing, at the time this photo was taken in 1959. The driver of the freight truck was their (then) employee, Jim Leidig, who told of being out on this area of the dock to drive inside the warehouse for the night.
      The truck could hold 160 sacks of cement with empty egg crates tied down on top, coming home. Jim remembers the truck was licensed for a 36,000-lb load, in this case, a load of feed being a legal 36,000-lbs (as inscribed on the reverse of the photo.) The freight truck was the one that replaced the truck smashed in the accident on board the VASHON in Friday Harbor.
      The rig was a 1951 L-190 International with a 450 Red Diamond Motor, 5-speed, a 3-speed Brownie with a 22-ft flatbed.
      Gwen remembers that the freight hauling was a major part of their business; feed, fencing, cement, etc. being hauled from the mainland and then delivered on to Waldron and other islands from the central hub of Shaw Island.

"Old Reliable", the ferry VASHON
Top b/w photo, at point of departure at Anacortes.
The lower photo, the same much-loved ferry at the
new-ish dock on Shaw Island, Harney Channel,
San Juan Islands, Washington.
c. 1941.

      The Anacortes ferry landing was at one time located in town near Sixth Street where Jim recalls driving aboard the VASHON with a 50,000-lb load. The freight truck was parked on the starboard side with 13 cars parked on the port. Jim chuckled remembering the ferry having a definite list to starboard.
Source: 
Gwendolyn Yansen and Jim Leidig telephone conversations with the web admin.