The OTHER Side of "Undiscovery Day" in Grays Harbor


I've seen local groups celebrating "Undiscovery Day" where George Vancouver's missing of Gray's Harbor is celebrated. However, less well known is that though Robert Gray was the first to mark the harbor after Vancouver missed it, the actual NAME was given by Vancouver (the same one of "undiscovery fame") as noted here. Undiscovery indeed if you think we live at Bulfinch Harbor...

From the source about the name, we have added information about where we live...



People of Gray's Harbor Gone With the Wind

Location 1 is the Minard Site. As in this reference

In my last post, I opined about the Westport Museum's "convenient as opposed to real" history about the so-called "hostile indians." Today, I have a little more about these people. Mostly, they have vanished off the earth, and no longer exist as the Lower Chehalis Tribe. There is a local (as in Ocean Shores) connection. As it turns out, an archeological site existed on the North Beach. The location is shown in the image at the top of this post. While reports suggest the site was discovered by a farmer plowing in the 1920's, "official" records date back to 1947 when Richard Daugherty reported the site. There may have been dozens of native graves; probably of the Lower Chehalis Tribe. Certainly, the site dates back to about 1000AD, and at least 11 individuals were buried there. See here and here for more details.

Sadly, there is no marker to note this site anywhere near Ocean Shores, and, since the Lower Chehalis Tribe no longer exists, the remains were eventually transferred to the Chehalis Reservation (mostly Upper Chehalis Tribe). Most Lower Chehalis people either were assimilated, or moved to either the Quinault or Shoalwater reservations. While the Consolidated Chehalis Reservation was intended to house both upper and lower tribes, the two tribes spoke different languages and the Lower Chehalis tended to migrate mostly to the Quinault Reservation once they realized there was no longer a place for them in their own homeland. There is more here, including the information that Hoquiam was originally a Lower Chehalis village.

As for Robert Gray, who was credited with discovering Gray's Harbor after George Vancouver missed the entrance - well, he was at least 1,000 years late...

Shoalwater Bay by Edmond Curtis in 1913, from here


Lies of Gray's Harbor

 

Lies Across America
in the Ocean Shores Library
I've recently read a pretty good book entitled "Lies Across America." The book depicts historical revisionism that goes on around the United States. One such example was the monument dedicated in the aftermath of The Centralia Massacre. However, this post concerns another lie. While our very own Gray's Harbor lie may not be as egregious as some of the giant ones in other places, this one is still unfolding.

Fort Chehalis Marker
photo by John Stanton 16 Sep 2015
You see, this lie concerns a monument that is scheduled to be rededicated less than a week from now, along with the fabricated story about the fort that is contained in the Westport Maritime Museum. It is not well known that Westport was home to Fort Chehalis, also known as Camp Chehalis. Probably it is not well known because it was a temporary camp that was established in early 1860. In 1861, all the soldiers were called away to fight in the Civil War and the camp was taken over by the settlers. This much is all true. The lie begins with the fort's purpose. According to the monument inscription, "... the site of Fort Chehalis ... was established in 1860 for the protection of white settlers." In truth, the fort was established in order to help push out remaining Chehalis Tribe members who had previously been decimated by disease and were destined to get relocated (against their will) from their homes to a reservation by an executive order starting in 1864.

The museum further elaborates on the "wive's tale" of the Indian threat with a dressed up artifact and the accompanying story. The museum goes far beyond the half truth on the DAR monument.


Photo of Stove Door taken on April 24, 2021. The gold paint is probably a fanciful addition

Unearthed at Old Fort Chehalis, Westport, Washington.

Top loading wood stove.

This pencil sketch gives a pretty good idea of how this stove looked in 1860 at Old Fort Chehalis. Evidence from the recovered top tells that it turned sideways to put in more wood and that there was no end door. The top exhibited here was exhumed from the sand dunes at the Old Fort site and must have been buried for more than 100 years. It was badly rusted and no other parts were recovered.

Fort Chehalis was established to protect the citizens from Indian attacks. During the Fort's existence, not a single shot was fired at the hostile Indians.

Description of Fort Chehalis - Protecting us from "Indian attacks." Indeed!

To make a long story short, white settlers started moving to what became Westport around 1850, and by 1853, the Chehalis Tribe was devasted by disease, in an event known as "the big sick." That story is related here. In 1855, the Indians were called in by Governor Isaac Stevens to sign a treaty similar to the Point Elliott Treaty. The Chehalis, whose name means "sand" lived near Westport. Unfortunately, they refused to sign when the LOCATION of their reservation was left unspecified, and being a "non treaty tribe" left them completely at the mercy of the invading white settlers. In 1860, the same year Fort Chehalis was established, they were directed to move to their current reservation, which is related here (along with the land later given away on their reservation). In truth, the so-called hostile indians were mostly gone by the time the fort was built and so it is no wonder that "not a single shot was fired at the hostile Indians."

The DAR Monument was a product of the societal attitudes prevalent around 1929 and it certainly would not make sense to relegate it to some attic or to try to remake it into something more accurate - a fort that was established to force the remaing Indians out of Westport. I hope that when the monument is rededicated, that mention is made that the Indians were actually being removed at the behest of the whites, not that the whites were being protected from the Indians. Perhaps the DAR would also consider joining with the Chehalis Tribe to add a second monument relating what really happened. It'd also be nice if the Westport Maritime Museum considered the implication of soldiers never needing to fire a single shot at "the hostile Indians." Indeed, the book Exploring Washington's Past: A Road Guide to History states:

Few actual functions were performed at Fort Chehalis (at the sandy point just inside today's Westport harbor ) other than Captain Maloney's attempts to enforce laws against selling liquor to native people. 
In June 1861 troops were ordered East to fight in the Civil War, and the fort fell silent . Settlers bought most of the buildings and moved them to various sites around the harbor.

The monument is being cleaned by the Robert Gray Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and is scheduled to re-dedicated at Harriett Dorland Municipal Park/Westport City Park on Saturday, May 8 at 2PM.

UPDATE ON July 17:

According to this site on page 17, among other items, states:

Early settlers on the Harbor ranched, farmed, fished, and began lumber businesses. Even though the Chehalis were friendly, the settlers still feared them. Edwin van Sykle recounts that a Grays Harbor settler, Martha Medcalf, remained with her children on the back hill of her property due to fear of an attack. This fear and incidents east of the Cascades prompted the creation of Fort Chehalis by Company A of the 4th Infantry at Chehalis Point (the site of Westport) from February 9, 1860 to June 19, 1861. Fort Chehalis is also known as Port Chehalis. Federal troops were removed from Fort Chehalis after the start of the Civil War. On August 3, 1861 Fort Chehalis buildings were sold. Several of the buildings are still in use in the neighboring community of Hoquiam.

Around Aberdeen

Recently, I walked around Aberdeen with our dog Fergus, as Nancy shopped. In no particular order:

Aberdeen's historic Electric Building at 100 East Heron Street. While not on the National Historic Register, the Electric Building was first lit up on February 1, 1913. Electricity in rural places was rare in 1913 and the Electric Building was a sight to behold. On the street, the The Grays Harbor Electric Railway and Light Company streetcar would pass by. Sadly, with the decline in the timber industry and the onset of the Great Depression, the Electric Building also fell into decline as did all of Aberdeen. Few remember there used to be an Aberdeen streetcar and fewer still remember the glories of the lit-up Electric Building.


  • Gray's Harbor Talk has a good article about the Electric Building; here.
  • Recently, the building was purchased by a Vietnamese immigrant with plans for a restaurant; story here.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars has been in Aberdeen for many years. The front of the building is at 105 East Heron Street. The back of the building is shown below:


As with the Electric Building, the VFW in Aberdeen have had trials and tribulations in recent years.

  • The VFW had major roof problems in 2012 that took until May of 2014 to finish repairs and move back into their building. KBKW had an extensive story about that episode, here.
  • After much soul searching, the post decided in 2018 that it needed to sell its downtown building due to continuing decline. That story was reported here.

Closing out the mini-tour, I was heartened to see that at least one building has new life. 105 West Heron was the home of Aberdeen's only shoe store, Harbor Shores until it closed in December 2017 so that the owner could retire. The space was soon the home of a microbrewery; Mount Olympus Brewing, which started up in 2018 and seems to be doing well. Of course, the new outfit doesn't sell shoes, but we can't have everything!


  • The story of the start of Mount Olympus Brewing is here.
  • The brewery also has a website, here.