❖ MEMORIES of KIND FERRY CREW ❖

M.V. EVERGREEN STATE
& M.V. STEILACOOM 
Hanging out in Olympia, WA.
Click to enlarge.
Photo by M. Woltjer
27 December 2018

 "These two proud old gals are being mothballed and are waiting at the Port of Olympia to be shipped or towed to the east coast where they have been sold to private interests. They are the EVERGREEN STATE and the STEILACOOM,  at first misidentified as the RHODODENDRON, [which resides up in British Columbia] both of which Maggie and I have ridden many times over the years. Once, in the mid-1970s, I was working on the LIZARD KING in Dockton on Maury Island, WA., and living in Multnomah, on the edge of Portland, OR. I built a toolbox to carry all my tools on my back and would stuff some extra underwear and toothbrush inside of it and catch the train or bus to Tacoma where I would transfer to a bus out to Tahlequah to catch the ferry to Vashon Island where I would hitch-hike to Dockton and row out to the LIZARD KING. I would stay a week or so working and living on the big schooner. One day I got off the bus at Tahlequah only to see the ferry RHODODENDRON start to leave the dock. I was about a hundred yards up the hill and I started running. Believe it or not, the RHODODENDRON stopped about thirty feet from the dock, reversed engines and returned to wait for me. That was a once in a lifetime experience. Those days are long gone now. And so will our beloved RHODODENDRON and EVERGREEN STATE. So is being able to run a hundred yards with an 80-pound toolbox over my shoulder."
Submitted by Aho'i & Maggie, spidsgatter PIA, Olympia, WA.