Fishing has been one of those things that I always thought I’d like to do, but never did. I grew up on the South Prairie Creek which, being a salmon spawning creek, was always closed during my childhood. There have been times when I’ve been invited to go, in fact I even did a bunch of printing for a guy who was going to be my guide on a fishing expedition, but it never happened and I guess I wasn’t too disappointed.

A year or two back I came by some pictures that were taken in and around Orting about 1889 to 1892. Who the photographer was I’ll probably never know, but Charles Blinn appears in several of them, and they came from his estate, via the estate of someone else in Michigan. There were pictures of them building the Stampede Tunnel, the pre-tunnel switchbacks, and bear hunters. Several pictures were taken in Orting. The houses in the background are still there! But perhaps the picture I likes the best was called “Salmon fishing in Orting 1892. In this picture we have a stream, perhaps Voights Creek, with a bridge over it, a box wagon such a vendor might use on the bridge along with a bunch of fishermen. The fishermen weren’t using conventional 21st century fishing tackle. No sir, they were using spears with barbs on them. Kind of like straightened gaff hooks. Anyway there are salmon hanging all over this picture. I’ve heard the stories of fish so thick you could walk across the stream without getting wet, well, this looks like it might have been the place. The print was so old and brittle that a lot of the emulsion had been chipped off. I had to do a lot of restoration in photoshop, including replacing one mans head. I used another guy in the picture for my model, so no if one looks close it looks like there are twins in the print. Anyway, it’s a delightful print and I really enjoy it.

Aug 7, 2008

It's Just Nostalgia - Enumclaw

The Enumclaw Street Fair was a lot of fun this year. Usually Friday's are kind of slow, but this year both Friday and Saturday were busy. The weather was in the 80s and comfortable, albiet several times in the afternoons I needed to stand in the shade of a tree opposite my booth. But again it was fun with lots of excitement! Several times times people complemented me on the booth, saying it was real cool. One couple, the Barbara Mihelich and her husband got into the excitement and brought me a couple original pictures of the paving of Cole Street. We confirmed the street was paved in 1915 with the use of Louise Poppleton's book, "There is Only One Enumclaw." So for the nostalgic we now have two more prints of Enumclaw. They also brought me another original photo of Dauns Poolroom, Lunches, Cigars, and Confectionery. On the brick building next to it we can read the letters "NK" with 00.00 beneath them leading us to believe it is a bank, but the brick work doesn't match the old Enumclaw National Bank / Steve's Shoe Store building on Cole & Griffin. The sidewalk is wood plank. Does anyone have any ideas. Although Barbara believes it is Enumclaw I'd hate to publish it only to find out I'm wrong. I'll post it on this blog however and maybe somebody can help me out.

It's Just Nostalgia - On the road again

August 5, 2009

Talk about fun! I've been having so much fun this summer I'm just about exhausted. But every weekend Judy and I have been someplace showing our historic prints and books. We got home Sunday night around midnight from the Union County Fair in La Grande, Oregon. Truly, it wasn't the most enjoyable experience. With temperatures running into the triple digets most every day, people stayed away in droves. It wasn't until 6 o'clock or so before people started venturing out to the good ole fair. So we sat around there all day and visited with other vendors until we knew each others business quite well. I went to that fair primarly to promote "The Hot Lake Story", the book by Richard Roth. It created a lot of interest, and although we didn't sell all 4 cases of the books that I took down, it was well worth being there.

My logging collection of historic prints certinally received a lot of attention. La Grande is an old logging and milling town. In fact the County Fair site is on an old saw mill site. In fact I took the print down of the mill that used to be there, the Palmer Lumber Company's sawmill. The other La Grande pictures created interest and I sold nearly every one of the 1930 picture of La Grande after a snowfall.

This week is a gravy week. We're spending it at home getting things caught up for Auburn's Good Old Days this weekend. I'm really looking forward to it. It's not supposed to get too hot, and that sounds real good to me. I already have several pictures sold of Auburn. A customer from the Enumclaw Street Fair a couple weeks ago called today because he'd given away his prints and wanted more. When I told him I'd be there Saturday and Sunday he really got excited. If you anywhere close drop in and see me.