Cedar Creek Grist Mill
There is a wish list on our refrigerator that is titled “Possible Field Trips.” We add to it every time we hear about an interesting place we’d like to check out ‘when we have time.’ Of course, there is never time and new items are added much faster than the old ones are checked off. Mostly, they are day trips or, perhaps overnighters. We try to go on two or three a year, usually in spring or summer.
We’ve been to the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens in Woodland and to the Cedar Creek Grist Mill, also in Woodland. (Different trips, different years.) We’ve been to the Tulip Festival in Anacortes, to the LeMay Car Museum in Tacoma, and to the Concord d’Elegance in Forest Grove, twice. We’ve taken more extensive field trips to Victoria and to Vancouver B.C. and to the End of the Oregon Trail Museum in Oregon City.
Makah Museum, Neah Bay
Earlier this week we headed north for a long anticipated trip to Neah Bay to see the Makah Museum and Cultural Center. While we were at it, we nipped out to Cape Flattery, the most northwesterly point in the continental United States.
It was one of those “I’m not sorry I went” trips, though it would not be high on my list of recommendations to others. It was interesting to actually see some of the artifacts from the Ozette Archaeological Site and while the museum facility (built in 1979) and the exhibits were pretty much state-of-the-art, we were disappointed in the interpretation. Most of the information seemed to be identification of the artifacts – very little explanation as to the how or why of usage. While the range of sizes and delicacy of designs on artifacts still intact after 500 years buried in the mud was truly amazing, the educational opportunities inherent in the displays seemed to be ignored.
Makah Museum Exhibit
Plus (and here the teacher in me kicked in) the signage was totally inconsistent, ranging from technical textbook descriptions to explanations using just plain incomprehensible grammar. In one display, for example: Bone and antler technology was a very highly industrial arts by which the Makah provided themselves with. Or, in another display: Seagull eggs are mentioned because they were so common to the Makah diet yet at the same time so uncommon. And couldn’t spell check have caught octupus on yet another panel? For a million dollar facility and with the assistance of top-of-the-line archaeologists and museum consultants, I expected more.
Sad to say, it was one of those field trips that was more exciting in the anticipation than in the execution. Still… we saw more of Washington’s fabulous coast and enjoyed the friendliness of many people along the way. On a scale of one to ten? Perhaps a five.
AFTERTHOUGHT: The hour-long film depicting the impact of the Ozette discoveries on the present-day Makah community may have been the very best part of our museum experience. The ramifications as shown onscreen have been truly phenomenal. Would that we could all have such a concrete look at our past and have it resonate so fully!
Thank you for the review! It might be worthwhile if one was in that direction in the first place, but we won’t make a special trip of it.
Back the summer of 1972 I made a trek out to the archaeological site at the Ozette Village with an old high school friend who was interested in archeology. We took a road trip around the Olympic Peninsula with a major stop to see the Ozette Village. The road only went within 2-3 miles so we had to walk the rest of the way, mainly on an elevated plank walkway. They had just started to uncover the mainly wooden artifacts but I do recall that they had just uncovered a large dugout canoe buried in the mud. I am sure after more than 30 years that the museum must have the best of what we only saw a few items in the raw archeaologial dig and I would definitely like to see what they have collected at Museum at Neah Bay. My main memory of the event is that for the next week I could hardly walk due to the strain that plank walkway put on the calf muscles of my legs—almost like walking on the gymnast’s balance beam!
In all, they recovered 55,000 artifacts from the Ozette dig. We were amazed at some of the teeny-tiny, beautifully decorated items that they found — as in not a grain of sand left unsifted or, in this case, not a bit of mud that wasn’t washed away with salt water. It was an amazing accomplishment and took eleven years to complete.