PULLING 250 MILES EACH SUMMER –– FOR FIFTY-ONE YEARS

 

Arthur O. McCormick,
Rowed the San Juan Archipelago 
for 250 miles every August.
His vacations were enjoyed for
fifty-one years in his 15' boat.
He passed at age 81, in Seattle, WA. 
Gelatin-silver original photograph 
from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

"A. O.  McCormick rowed a journey of 250 miles each summer for his three-week camping trip in the islands. He did this every August without fail for 51 years. Often his excursions made news in the weekly newspaper in the islands.

His mode of transportation was a 15-ft rowboat, of the old type that does not move unless someone is pulling the oars. McCormick said in 1947 when this photo was taken he pulled his oars just as hard as 45 summers ago. "Not as fast, maybe, but just as strong," he says.

McCormick attributes his robust health to all the Augusts of rowing in the sun.

He tried a sloop once––in 1905, his third junket into the islands––but sold it that fall. "I couldn't go where I wanted," he explained.

McCormick preferred to pull silently along the crooked shorelines of the San Juan Islands, putting in here and there wherever it struck his fancy. Often in the heat of the day, he hauled his craft above the tide line and scrambled off into the woods or rock to make pictures with one of his two ancient cameras.

McCormick said he would rather prowl along a shady shoreline with a camera than sit in a boat on the sunburned end of a fishline.

The oarsman shoved off from the same spot about a quarter of a mile west of the Deception Pass Bridge, which oldtimers of the region have named "Mac's Cove."

CANOE PASS,
Deception Pass State Park, Washington.
48°24'30"N, 122°38'40"W

Signed original gelatin-silver photo
by photographer James A. McCormick,
who might have been catching his brother Arthur
down below in his small craft working the tide   
from "Mac's Cove" to camp on island beaches.
Arthur was still rowing in 1935 when a 511.2'
bridge was built across this scene  
to carry vehicles and foot traffic 
on WA-20 from Fidalgo Island
 to Pass Island (on right),
then to the next bridge   
over Deception Pass to Whidbey Is., WA. 
The views are a major attraction
for visitors to the area. 
from the archives of the Saltwater People Log©

Every night during his three weeks trip, McCormick pitches his tent on a different beach, just out of reach of high tide, where he can hear the waves washing and there are no ants to crawl down his neck.

McCormick and his older brother, J.A. "Mac" McCormick, a noted photographer of Seattle and San Juan County came to Puget Sound in 1901 from Denver, 1,500 miles on foot for 14 months. 

'Part of the time we walked, and part of the time we shoved the burros.'

The brothers came across the Rocky Mountains in the dead of winter, but they feared not because those were the days when young bucks laughed at danger the way young fellows today sit by the radio and laugh at Bob Hope. 

Arthur O. McCormick was a picture framer in the University District, widely known for his rowing tours. Proud of his physical strength and health, he declared he had never taken a nickel's worth of medicine in his life."
Lenny Anderson, for the Seattle Times.

Two salty scenes captured by  
James A. McCormick.
Click the double image to enlarge.

 Mac also took summer vacations in a small craft 
loaded down with glass plate negatives,
tripod, camera, and camping gear.
When he got back to shore, he would process
at his seasonal photo studio in the county
 seat of Friday Harbor, Washington.
Two gelatin-silver original photos from 
Saltwater People Historical Society archives.©