Gene Woodwick - Ocean Shores

Ralph Minard sacrificed his dream of a cattle ranch for the developers dream of a city of the future. Minard sold 1,200 acres, including accreted tidelands, to Ocean Shores Estates. The family had owned the land since 1878. (MFP.)

The serenity of the Point Brown Peninsula swales made travel across the Oyehut area pleasant and safe. The Southwest swale systems led to a canoe drag. Native American travelers from the Columbia River could avoid the dangerous river bars of both the Columbia and Grays Harbor by traversing swales and river systems to the South Beach peninsula of Grays Harbor. They could cross the bay, portage across the narrow neck of Point Brown Peninsula swale, and continue their northward Pacific Ocean journeys to visit coastal Olympic Peninsula and Canadian tribes. (PM; Cliff Summerlin.)

The largest of the Copalis Indian camps was near the present-day S.R. 115 curve into Ocean Shores. The importance of the razor clam is shown by the huge drying racks at work in this photograph. It is believed that the man in the canoe is Old Man Pope, holding the rifle is Johnny Johns with his brother, and Sampson Johns is seated in front of his brother. The other persons are not identified. The Johns brothers first received life-saving medals and large land awards for the rescue of sailors from the Lillie Grace and for other late-1800s shipwrecks. (MFP.)

Basketry as an art form and as a utilitarian purpose was greatly admired by early ethnographers and served as trade items between the tribes, explorers, settlers, and the early coastal tourists. Some of todays Quinault Nation basket makers are related to this Copalis artisan. (MFP.)

Capt. James Swan, who traveled through the Point Brown Peninsula, wrote in an 1852 diary about Caslahhan who lived on the North side of the Bay and how quahogs could be plucked from the banks of the creeks and swales. (CHSGWC.)

Capt. Robert Gray, the intrepid Boston sea captain, was the first American to enter Grays Harbor on May 7, 1792. (CHSGWC.)

The Lone Tree that stood near the mouth of Grays Harbor is often, erroneously, thought to have guided Captain Gray across the bar. The Robert Gray Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) placed a bronze marker commemorating Grays achievement at the site. The marker was saved by the Minard family when the Lone Tree was eroded in 1921. The marker was then placed at the junction of U.S. 109 and S.R. 115 in a small triangular park. Ocean Shores Development Company donated land to the west of the Beach Club (now Community Club) where the marker is now located. (CHSGWC.)

Matthew McGee, the first settler on the Peninsula, paid fellow sea otter hunters in whiskey to tear down an officers home and one of the barracks from U.S. Army Fort Chehalis on the South Peninsula, raft it across the harbor, and to help build his new abode. His four-bedroom home with a great room, kitchen, and storage had a fireplace in each room, but there was no furniture to be purchased. Still it served as the first overnight accommodation for travelers to the North County. It was later home for the A. O. Damons and several other families. When Ocean Shores was developed remains of an orchard were still seen near the Community Club. (CHSGWC.)

Tripod sea otter hunting towers lined the North Beaches from October through April each year; one tower was located near the present Ocean Lake Way beach approach. Hunters marked their bullets, thus identifying their prey when it washed in on the tide. The last of the old otter hunters was Charlie McIntyre. The last commercially hunted sea otter was killed in 1923. (CHSGWC.)

Sea otter restoration efforts were carried out locally in 1972 by the Washington State Department of Game. These three otters, shown aboard a ship, were part of the California denizens brought to the area in the transplanting efforts. (CHSGWC.)