PCHS Outing to Visit Willie Keil’s Grave, 1953
I wonder how many people are left in Pacific County who remember the Pioneer Picnics that took place in Bay Center every year from 1920 to 1972. They were almost always held on the 2nd Sunday in August and they were a time when the “old-timers” of the County (and their friends and families) would get together and reminisce. I remember going to several of them with my grandparents back in the forties and fifties – before I was old enough to appreciate those gatherings for much more than the fried chicken and potato salad.
PCHS Meeting August 25, 1953
There were always several hundred people there from all corners of the County. There was lots of visiting and speech making and the keynote speaker invariably told about an interesting and import aspect of County history. I think the first time I heard about the “Kidnapping of the County Seat” was at a Pioneer Picnic. I don’t remember who the speaker was – it could have been L.D. Williams or L.L. Bush or my Great Uncle Cecil or even my grandfather or Charlie Nelson. They would all have been there.
I remember being fascinated that my grandparents knew so many people from “across the bay” – from Nemah and Bay Center and South Bend and Tokeland. It never occurred to me then that these had been their closest friends in the days when transportation was primarily by water. Years later my mother would tell how the trip across the bay on the Shamrock or Reliable (or even in a neighbor’s boat) was much easier (and quicker) than getting to Ilwaco or Chinook by train. “Most of our friends were across the Bay in those days, not on the Peninsula,” she would say.
Oysterville Store, July 2015
Although the Pioneer Picnics are no more, two important ‘direct descendants’ are – the Bush Pacific County State Park (which began as the Bush family’s property on which the Picnics were held) and the Pacific County Historical Society (which began in 1949 as a way to formally gather ‘the memories’ of Pacific County history.) Today the Pacific County Historical Society is holding their quarterly meeting at the Oysterville Store from 9:00 a.m. until 11 a.m. We intend to be there!
How appropriate to have the meeting in historic Osterville and in store where information has historically been exchanged!