- Boy with Oyster Box
Back in the 1930s and ‘40s oyster seed was shipped from Japan in sturdy wooden boxes. Those were the days before oyster hatcheries and oystermen couldn’t always count on a ‘natural set’ in the Willapa Bay; hence oyster seed in oyster boxes.
(A little background information: oysters begin life as free swimming larvae but, within a few days, need to attach themselves to a hard surface. Conditions such as water temperature and weather conditions have to be just right in order for that to happen. When it occurs in the bay it is referred to as a “natural set.” Ideally, the larvae attach to old oyster shells. The shells with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of baby oysters attached are called “seed.”)
Oyster seed was imported from Japan, the baby oysters coming across the Pacific Ocean riding piggyback aboard the shells of previously harvested oysters. When the “seed boats” arrived, in February or March, oystermen picked up their orders which came in wooden packing cases, each containing about two bushels of seed. By the spring of 1933, 15,207 cases were shipped to 45 individuals and corporations on Willapa Bay including many of Oysterville’s growers. Those wooden packing cases, or oyster boxes, were everywhere – there for the taking!
Oysterville kids used oyster boxes for everything. We built forts with them; we sat around campfires on them; we cleaned them up and stored treasures in them; we dragged them down to the bay and used them as homes for baby crabs. Oyster boxes even became garden containers for planting nasturtiums and geraniums.
At Dorothy Elliot’s Camp Willapa in Nahcotta, every camper had at least two oyster boxes one of which was a large one with a divider in the center.. Those were the kind that were upended to form supports for the planks that were our wash stands. Those boxes were used as a place to stash our soap and toothpaste. The smaller boxes were turned sideways and nailed to the cabin walls – perfect shelving for books, stationery, flashlight and, perhaps, a treasure trove of sand dollars.
Their uses knew no limits. We took them for granted. They were so much a part of our everyday life and landscape that it is hard to realize that they are no more. Or, perhaps there are a few out there somewhere… It only stands to reason.
Wow, thank you for taking me on a little morning’s journey back in time, Sydney! I knew about the seed oysters coming from Japan, but hadn’t thought seriously about how they arrived. When I’m prowling antique malls in the future I will keep an eye out for oyster boxes!
As a kid growing up in the Yakima Valley the most common general purpose boxes were “apple boxes.” We kids used them extensively in our play to create forts, trains (a string
of apple boxes with a kid in each with locomotive box up front and caboose box in back), as a source of small pieces of wood for many projects, and so on. Once in a while we’d get an
“orange crate” from the local grocer. Orange crates (from California) were of a different
style and shape with a built-in divider down the middle.
I used a double layer orange box as a night-stand. My mother sewed a bright patterned skirt for it. It appears to me the oyster boxes were much sturdier. Put two of them together and we had a grand sedan for playing in.