Miss Lottie Bode, Mystery Woman

Postcard - Astoria, Oregon

"The bridge across the mouth of the mighty Columbia River linking the southwest corner of Washington State with Astoria, Oregon."

1960s.

This photo was taken from the Oregon side. Driving on this bridge can get pretty exciting when the wind is kicking up.

Morty Comix # 2644

Morty Comix # 2644 was left in a dead phone booth at a long dead grocery/gas mart in Satsop, Washington, a town in danger of becoming extinct, along with several other villages and municipalities in eastern Grays Harbor County, including my town, McCleary.

A local asked me what I was doing and I said I was recording places soon to be gone. Out here everyone wants to know your family connection, and I told him I was no connection to the well known dairy family around here with the same surname. My Willis family relatives migrated to Grays Harbor and Pacific counties early in the 20th century and many of them engaged in a variety of nefarious activities. I am the sole surnamed Willis left from my branch still living in either county. So I guess I should photograph myself to fit in with the rest of the subjects I capture.

Phone photo 2130

Sea Haven, Washington

Along the Willapa River, Pacific County

Phone photo 2129

Stuart Slough

Pacific County, Washington

Phone photo 2126

 

Teal Slough in early morning

Pacific County, Washington

Morty Comix # 2466

Morty Comix # 2466 was left at a deserted house that looks like it could've been used in a Northwest version of The Blair Witch Project. This was close to the Mid-Nemah River, Pacific County, Washington.

Phone photo 931

Oysterville, Washington

The marker reads:

Pacific County was the third county in Washington Territory, and Oysterville served as county seat from 1855 to 1893. In 1875, taxpayers built a courthouse and jail at this location and it served for all county business until “South Bend Raiders” came here on Sunday morning, Feb. 5, 1893, and carried away the records. This first county owned building then served for two years as the Peninsula College.

The school was also known as Peninsular College, directed by August Bernhardt Louis Gellerman, who later ran for Washington State Governor as a candidate for the Prohibition Party in 1916. The actual building blew down in a storm in 1940.

Phone photo 927

Round Island, also known as Baby Island
Willapa Bay, Pacific County, Washington

Phone photo 926

Phone photo 924

Apparently this sign is the only physical proof of the one-time existence of Bruceport, Washington. The historical marker reads:

The deserted site of a famous pioneer village, once a county seat, is one mile northward on Willapa Bay, formerly called Shoalwater Bay. The crew of the oyster schooner "Robert Bruce" settled here in December 1851; after that craft had burned crewmen built cabins, filed land claims, and named the settlement "Bruceville." It was changed to Bruceport in 1854. This site recalls the lively oyster industry of 1851-1880, when enormous quantities of native oysters were gathered by local Indians and loaded aboard schooners for San Francisco

Phone photo 923

Phone photo 922

The town of Sea Haven, Washington was pretty much gone by 1900

Today the area is populated by more oysters than people

Moonshine: How It Works

A diagram I drew under my Dad's expert supervision about how to make moonshine. He built an authentic still as a display for the McCleary Museum many years ago. He's gone but his exhibit is still with us to this day. Illegal booze was a very big part of the history of McCleary, Washington.

The Willis family were involved in the trade both in Dickenson County, Virginia and Pacific County, Washington. Dad served as a lookout for his older brothers in Virginia.

Bootleg

A poster I drew for the 1989 production of Bootleg, a play written by my brother.

The content of this dramatic work was partly based on the exploits of the Willis family concerning their activity in distilling illicit booze and then employing a very libertarian philosophy in the free market distribution of said product, both in Dickenson County, Virginia and in Pacific County, Washington.