❖ WEST, WEST, WEST, the Westernmost Point of the USA ❖

A sign at the fork in the road two miles west of 
 Sekiu points to Cape Alava, 25 miles by road 
 and three more by trail to the westernmost point
in the United States. Photo dated, July 1954.
Original photo by Eric Wahleen from the archives
of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

Indian Island, Washington, off Cape Alava, 1954,
is connected with the mainland by a sandspit
which is under water only at very high tides.
Tiny islets are offshore. The island is the north end 
of a 50-mile ocean strip added to the Olympic Nat'l Park in 1953.
Click image to enlarge.
Original photo by Eric Wahleen,
from the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

Elephant Rock
A natural formation on the Olympic Peninsula, WA.
Photo by Eric Wahleen for Smith's Scenic Views, Tacoma, WA.
from the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

Rapids on the Quinault River,
Olympic National Park, Washington State.
Card from the archives of the Saltwater People Historical Society©

The Olympic National Park, a World Heritage Site since 1981, features spectacular Pacific Ocean coastline, scenic lakes, mountains and glaciers, and magnificent temperate rainforest. These diverse ecosystems are like visiting three different parks in one. To learn more about the modern-day fees and regulations for this beautiful home to very clever animals looking for your camp food, and visited by guests from all over the world here is a link to the Olympic National Park site. 

❖ WEDDING ROCK ❖ Petroglyphs on the Washington Coast, 1955

Wedding Rock petroglyphs, Washington Coast,
with Bruce Stallard, archaeological surveyor, 1955
Original photo from the archives of the S. P. H. S.©

If there is an ancient Indian house pit, petroglyph, or deposit of kitchen refuse in Olympic National Park deserving future investigation, steps may be taken to preserve it.
      The 50-mile ocean strip of the park this year was the subject of an archaeological survey as a preliminary measure.
      Two University of WA students had the longest, most difficult walk of their lives in recent months while seeking traces of prehistoric occupation on Jefferson and Clallam Counties' uninhabited shores.
      Bruce Stallard and Clayton Denman, both undergraduates from Seattle, made the survey for the National Park Service, under supervision of Dr. Douglas Osborne and the UW Department of Anthropology. They looked at and reported on 11 sites, some of which were on offshore islands or inland on coastal streams. The bulk were on the beach front.
      The expedition entailed much wear and tear of shoe leather, wading streams, drenchings in downpours of rain, meetings with bears, and floating across a river on an improvised raft, paddled with a shovel.
      "The raft method was the only way we could get across the Ozette River," Stallard explained. "We tied several logs together and rode the raft one at a time. I held the rope while Clayton crossed. Then I pulled the logs back and followed him to the other side."
      Where possible the explorers followed the faint traces of trails cleared by the Coast Guard for patrolling during WW II. These were overgrown and blocked with windfalls. Travel over them was extremely slow and the blazes were difficult to find.
      "When we could keep on a trail like that we thought it a bit of good fortune," Stallard related. "We took shelter in the old patrol cabins when we could find them."
      The pair depended upon US Army topographical maps on their unguided forays. They do not recommend the stretch of coast between LaPush and the mouth of the Hoh River for pleasure hikes. South of Hoh Head they were thankful to be able to climb up from the beach on a rope left by earlier comers.

      "The most surprising thing to us," Stallard said, "was the lack of level ground for habitations on that part of the coast. A number of places where Indians formerly lived have washed into the sea. Indian informants would tell us of houses they remembered standing at certain spots when they were children. When we visited a place we often found it covered with slides or eroded away.

"The old site of Ozette village in time, I believe, will be gone. It is much narrower than it was when reported by early writers. In the 1850s the Indians bulkheaded the place to check erosion."
       Stallard told of seeing cultural materials such as shells, charcoal, ashes, and fire-broken rock sliding out of a wave-eroded cliff.
Above text by author, historian, Lucile McDonald for The Seattle Times, 22 October, 1955.
Regretfully, McDonald didn't recognize Dr. Richard Daugherty who worked closely with the Makah during this time. This was the largest, most complex archealogical site in the Pacific Northwest. For a tribute to the scholar, who the Makah called "Doc", please click here.

1970––This year began a 11-year excavation at the Ozette site by the Makah Tribe and Washington State University. A radio carbon test yielded data of a slide 500 years BP (before present). Six longhouses and contents with pre-contact, wood, artifacts were found in a tomb of mud. According to the University of Washington, the excavation yielded 55,000 artifacts that the tribe cleaned, identified, and stored on the reservation. 

1979––The Makah Cultural and Research Center, Neah Bay, WA,  was created under leadership of the tribal chairman Edward E. Claplanhoo. The Makah Museum site can be seen here.

❖ Japanese Glass Fishing Floats ❖

Vintage hand blown glass fishing floats
Saltwater People Historical Society collection.
Kindly donated by islanders 
Susan Bauer, J. C. Boyer, Irmgard Conley and M.L. Clark.

"Japanese fishing floats, like solidified bubbles of the sea itself, drift from Asia to America, where they are swept ashore onto the beaches of the Pacific Northwest. Beachcombers, picnickers, collectors, and children seek them or happen upon them unawares, and the fragile, air-filled glass balls that arrive intact end up in a roadside store, an antiques shop, a showcase, or somebody's attic––their mission fulfilled, their journey ended.
      The history and origin of these amazing little travel-minded spheres make possession more interesting to their finders and keepers. Nearly everyone living along the West Coast is familiar with the wood and cork floats used by local fishermen. But Japan, having little of either of these buoyant materials, yet abounding in a plentiful supply of cheap labor, has developed a fishing float unusual among its kind.
      To begin with, the balls are crudely made of glass that is blown by hand, easily recognized by the sea-green color, the imperfect shape, and the presence of air bubbles. Many of the balls have a Japanese character impressed into the thick 'blossom' end. These characters are the identifying marks of the fishermen, similar to a cattle brand.
      Handwoven net mesh is the only means used to confine the balls and fasten them onto the nets. This expendable cover rots away in time, allowing the float to slip out into the freedom of the wide open sea.
      Then begins the long journey to America. For the balls bob about like bubbles of foam, tossed by the winds as they ride the ceaseless current on a broad path that sweeps from Japan past the string of Aleutian Islands, down the coast of Southwestern Alaska and BC, to the coast of WA and OR––where they finally are skimmed onto shore by the prevailing westerly winds.
      These balls vary greatly in size. Some are but little larger than tennis balls, others graduate upwards through the sizes of indoor handballs, basketballs; a few jumbos have been found even larger. A second type, elongated instead of round with grooves for securing by rope on each end, also has been developed. The predominating color is the bluish-green aquamarine of sea water, but some have amber tints and a few are purple. The purple balls are the "ultra" of a collector's dream, for these were permitted to be used only by those fishing for the royal household.
      So practical and efficient have the Japanese fishing balls proven themselves that they now have been adapted by American enterprise and are replacing large numbers of our old-style floats. The American product, however, is different distinctly from the Japanese. The balls are machine made, uniformly spherical in shape and only in medium size. The glass is either the clear transparent of a milk bottle or the dark brown of a beer bottle.
      Fishing floats are not too difficult to find. There are seasons and areas for good float finding. The best season is winter or early spring, after a storm, and the best areas are the sandy ocean beaches. Rocky beaches mean sure destruction to glass objects.
      Our own beachcombing expeditions have met with varied success. The best luck we ever experienced was one winter at Tokeland. The sand beneath our toes was soft and yielding on the high dry spit and warmed by an unseasonal sun, but cool and firm as we walked the wave-tossed shoreline.
      Curiosity is a wonderful thing! Imagine the thrill of holding in your cupped hand a fragile ball with such history behind it!
      And the thrill was repeated sevenfold––for my husband picked up three Japanese fish floats in the space of the next few hours, I found two, and our two small boys, less than kindergarten age, found one each!
      So reluctant were we to leave the fascination of the uninhabited island, the tide slowly ebbed away then hesitated and turned, pouring the ocean back across the wet sands of the channel. Our return trip was made with the two boys riding on their father's shoulders while I carried the balls held high in my skirt as we half waded, half swam, back to the mainland!
      Beachcombing, like fishing, has other possibilities if one is bent more upon results than methods. Just as a fisherman may resort to a market and enjoy a fish actually caught by somebody else, so these souvenirs may be acquired in small towns along the ocean beaches from beachcombing natives.
      The biggest ball in our collection, and incidentally the largest one we ever have seen, was purchased from the attendant of a crab cart parked along the highway, and as we drove away his partner remarked: 'congratulations, George! So you finally unloaded the old white elephant!' 
      Such is the origin and romance of the Japanese fishing floats found in the Pacific Northwest––fragile, air-filled bubbles of glass, traveling thousands of miles on a sweeping path from Asia to America, before finally being washed ashore by the restless sea."
Above text by Charlotte Widrig
Published by The Seattle Times, 1951.

Tokeland, WA,  inscribed in upper left of map.
Detail of a postcard from the archives of S.P.H.S.
Click to enlarge.

    

Glass fishing floats found in Washington State.
Color photo by O'Neill of Long Beach, WA.
Other two photos by Ellis, all undated from
the archives of the S. P. H. S.