Grays Harbor County Museums are starting a Passport to Grays Harbor History program. The kickoff date is June 3, 2017. The ultimate goal is to provide information to the citizens and visitors of this county about our twelve museums in Grays Harbor County. You buy your Passport at the first Grays Harbor County museum you visit, get it stamped and then start your trek. There is no time limit to this quest. When you have visited all 12 museums, you get a tote with the museum names on the back and a picture of a steamer trunk on the front.

I just ran through the list and all but the Quinault Tribal Museum had a website or a Facebook page. But Quinault sent me a note telling me they have a large collection of local artist work on display. There you will see basketry and carvings depicting the native heritage of the area.

The Polson Museum is extremely proud of their locomotive and other items that give a glimpse of what a Railroad Camp was like 100 plus years ago. Having visited this museum personally for the first-time last year, I certainly recommend this as a “must see” as soon as possible. I’ve passed this treasure many times. It took visiting friends from Maine to make me slow down enough to visit. Ask about the continuous boards that make up the main floor. As you climb the steps to the second floor, enjoy the wheeled items on display. I’d never see the like.

Westport Maritime Museum has a first order Fresnel Lens on display. The only other one in the country, maybe the world, is on display at the Smithsonian.

Grays Harbor Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in Washington state and the fourth tallest on the West Coast. You can, and should, climb to the top.

The Running Anvil Carriage House, run by the Rice family, has more than 25 beautifully restored horse drawn vehicles, including: carriages, sleds, wagons, sleighs, and buggies. Many of these treasures are from Grays Harbor families. Other collections here include hundreds of tokens, matchbooks and Old ironsides memorabilia.

At the Aberdeen Museum of History, you can find a focused setting on Aberdeen and the harbor. A big draw to this museum is the firetrucks that go back to the turn of the century. Logging, of course, is a big part of Aberdeen’s history and you’ll find scads of information here. Kurt Cobain is also remembered in this archival storage building.

The Museum of the North Beach has a comprehensive website at www.moclips.org. From this site, I learned one of the primary goals of the society is to rebuild the railway depot. They are hoping to build a replica of the Northern Pacific Railway Depot from 100 years ago. Their goals are to create rooms to accommodate classrooms and production rooms. Community functions and meeting rooms are a part of this dream. Currently they have a wooden caboose that they rescued from the wrecking yard.

The Chehalis Valley Historical Society Museum memorabilia includes: logging, farming, businesses, and schools. The Chehalis Valley historic logging operations are also given their place in the museum with sections devoted to Schafer Bros Loggings, Clemons Logging, as well as other logging pioneer companies in the area.

The Coastal Interpretive Center has an impressive website. Under ‘Our Exhibits” is listed: Shells, Rocks and Minerals, Habitat Room, Tsunami, Quinault, Catala and Interpretive Trail. While most of these are self-explanatory, you might question a couple. Catala was a 229-foot ship built in Scotland in 1925 and used as a floating hotel for Seattle’s 1962 World’s Fair. It was towed to Ocean Shores in 1963 and operated as a charter fishing base, hotel and restaurant – until it wasn’t. A severe storm of 70-plus mph winds on Jan. 1, 1965 grounded the Catala and it ended up stranded on the shore.

The McCleary Museum houses a still (for making whiskey) from the 1920s. From the early days of the telephone to the 1960s, phone calls went through an operator who had to connect each call by hand. There’s a switchboard on display in McCleary. There’s an early post office cancelling machine on display also. Although small, this museum tries to change its display annually.

Grays Harbor Historical Seaport is the home port for tall ships Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chiefton, and future site of Seaport Landing, a multi-use waterfront gathering space and maritime heritage center.