Sealand-Nahcotta 1890s – Morehead’ & Co, General Merchandise at middle right

In the on-going discussion about the closure of Nahcotta’s Post Office, someone wrote to me:  … It’s pretty hard to make the argument that the community will lose service, which is the case with some of these contract offices in extremely remote areas. (If anything, we on the peninsula have a lot of post offices to chose from!) So it’s really the historic aspect that’s the sticking point. From that point of view, are postal customers “entitled” to receive mail service in a charming, historic environment? Maybe another blog? “At What Price Charm?” 

I’d prefer the title:  “Charm Ain’t In It.”  While “charm” might be the take-away about historic connections for some people — newcomers to our area, I’d suspect — the history of Nahcotta and of Oysterville and of every other settlement on the Peninsula has to do with people — their dreams, their grit, their amazing accomplishments.  Those people are my pioneer ancestors (perhaps yours, as well) who lived and died right here.  They worked hard to tame this wilderness and to bring “civilization” to this far western region so that their descendants might have a better life.  One of the those civilizing influences was the establishment of a reliable mail service

Oysterville Stagecoach, 1885

Ironically, the very building that has been housing the Nahcotta Post Office for 115 years was just steps away from Morehead’s General Merchandise Company.  John Morehead had been a stagecoach driver for Lewis Alfred Loomis before Loomis developed his railroad company.  The stage ran along the weatherbeach from Oysterville to Ilwaco and was a necessary link in the transportation chain that delivered mail between Astoria to Olympia. Of that service, Morehead himself later wrote:

The operation of three steamers and three stage lines was necessary in the carrying of mail and passengers from Astoria, Oregon, to Olympia, the capital of Washington Territory.  The first leg of the journey was by steamer.  The General Canby, a tug of considerable size, built in South Bend, was run between Astoria and Ilwaco by way of Fort Stevens and Fort Canby.  The next leg, from Ilwaco to Oysterville, was by the Loomis Stage Line.  The stage coach travelled right along the ocean beach!  Part three of the journey was by the little steamer Garfield which crossed Shoalwater Bay from Oysterville to Bay Center, South Bend, Riverside, Woodard’s Landing, and North Cove.  At North Cove, passengers and mail were again transferred to a stagecoach for the run to Peterson’s Point, now known as Westport.  The fifth leg of the journey, from Peterson’s Point to Montesano was again by water on the little stern-wheeler Montesano.  The sixth, and final leg of the trip was by stage line from Montesano to Olympia.  Total time for this incredible mail run – 60 hours!  Bet that beats today’s record!

J.A. Morehead House, Nahcotta – 1890

Morehead went on to  say: The beach driver was obliged to get out of bed at the unholy hour of two o’clock in the morning, go to the barn and feed, groom and harness his horses, eat his breakfast, hitch up and drive around the town and out on the oyster beds gathering up his load so as to leave the hotel door promptly at four o’clock a.m.  All this by the light of a smoky lantern and very often in a driving storm.  As the steamer awaited the return of the stage to Oysterville, before leaving, and another was awaiting his arrival at Ilwaco, he was hurried at every point of the trip.

The driver’s seat was perched on the outside where it had no protection, whatsoever, from the storms.  There were no springs, either, under the seats or the body of the stage.  The road was confined to the hard sands of the ocean beach, and it made an ideal road when the tide was out, but a very unsatisfactory one when the tide was high. The incoming swells would be allowed to come as high as possible around the stage before it would be swerved off the hard sand, then back as the water receded.  This would be repeated with each incoming swell until the trip was completed.  Care was always needed to watch for the drift logs being carried back and forth on the swells, which would work havoc with the horses and the stage, should they be struck by them…

Those faithful drivers…Jack Winchell, Bill Denver, Bill Taylor, Lew Slack, and Charlie Burch have passed to their reward, leaving a record of devotion to duty seldom equaled.  Many of their descendants still live on the Peninsula.  Charm???  No… I don’t think that’s the historic reason that  the Nahcotta Post Office is important.  Historic importance goes far beyond charm.

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Mapus Terra Sydney by Nancy Lloyd

When I was a kid I went through what I think of as my “Treasure Island” stage —  looking for old maps that might lead to buried treasure, or even drawing my own maps for the neighbor kids to find.  That shivery old skull-and-crossbones feeling still surfaces these days  when I run across a hand-drawn map even if  there’s no “X” to mark a spot.    Especially if it’s a map of this very area — Pacific County. or more especially, Oysterville, or even of a specific nearby acreage.

Take the old leather map made for me in 1980 by Nancy Lloyd.  It is framed and hanging in our kitchen — quite faded these days despite a refurbishing done by Nancy, herself, some years back.  It’s  title “MAPUS-TERRA-SYDNEY” is still clear, however, as are the picture of “Sydney’s House,” “Mr. Bear’s Turf,” “Bowser’s Prowl” plus Ossie’s “Magic Gate”, and the marsh with its resident blue heron.  I love it!  It is a treasure map of a different kind — the map, itself, is the treasure!

Pacific County Map by Arnold Shotwell

Then, there is the map drawn by Arnold Shotwell for one of the Sou’wester issues.  He gave the original to Editor Larry Weathers who had it framed and hung it in his office.  When Larry died, suddenly and unexpectedly, his family gifted me with the map.  I treasure it for all sorts of reasons — none of which has to do with X-Marks-the-Spot.  And I never cease to pause and wonder when I look at the familiar slogan Mr. Shotwell used as its title:  “Pacific County Washington: Nature’s Best Effort.”  What exactly does that mean?  Wasn’t the best effort quite good enough or…?

From Maureen Mulvey’s 1964 Shipwreck Map

And then, of course, there is the Shipwreck Map by Maureen Mulvey and the old composite map of Oysterville by Charles Fitzpatrick.  Also, the huge North Beach Peninsula map by Joe Knowles that now lives at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum.  My favorite all-time map story goes with that one.  Never mind that Knowles was famous and that his paintings and etchings had become quite collectible.  And never mind that the map was displayed prominently in the Washington State Exhibit at the Chicago’s 1933 Century of Progress Exposition.  Mr. Knowles never got paid for his twelve-by-three-foot oil “North Beach Peninsula” map.  Though the city fathers of Long Beach had commissioned him to paint it, they refused to pony up, claiming it was incorrectly named; Mr. Knowles stood his ground because the official name of the Peninsula (then as now) was North, not Long, Beach.

They certainly don’t need to be associated with treasure, these hand-drawn maps.  I love the details that each mapmaker included — how they saw the area and what things they thought it important to note or to sketch or even to omit.  They each tell wonderful stories and are treasure troves all by themselves!