Ocean Shores History Pages

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Many entries were provided and authorized by Margaret Rasmussen
and her book "The Exciting Growth Years of the City of
Ocean Shores" which can be found at the Ocean Shores Library. All proceeds are for the benefit of the Ocean Shores Public Library.

Linda Love was the first baby born to Ocean Shores residents, Larry and Beverly Love, October 17, 1961.

"In 1963 one pioneer drove through town at 3 a.m. with a LOUD recording of a coal-burning steam engine and cars with all the crossing bells, and whistle blowing and bell-ringing and pulling a long grade. There are no railroads here and the land is level. Needless to say, lights in motels and homes were turned on all over the town with everyone wondering what was happening! Whan finished, he hid the sound truck."

"Undiscovery Day" was celebrated for the first time by a group of enthusiastic local citizens, who met in the Horizon Room of the Inn and at midnight went onto the beach, in blustering wind, faced west and yelled out, "HEY, GEORGE" to the open ocean, while holding a long banner with the same words. This call was to explorer Captain George Vancouver of the English Royal Navy, who sailed past this peninsula in the HMS Discovery without notice, 181 years ago on April 27, 1792, around midnight.
This "exceptional" bit of fun was so unusual that it was published over the UP International news and brought much comment in messages from various areas, including the Detroit Free Press, Vancouver Province, New York, Mexico; Playboy magazine, radio and TV coverage, including Walter Cronkhite; and telephone calls lasted about three days; even at the peak of "Watergate" and other work problems.

Captain Robert Gray, in the trading ship Columbia (one of the first to fly the flag of the new United States of America) discovered Grays Harbor...May 7, (1792); first named it "Bulfinch Harbor". He remained until May 11, trading with Indians who came to the ship in canoes.

1959-1960 A huge carved wooden replica of a razor clam that stood at the corner of the Executive Villa was a symbol of Ocean Shores, and was used in pictures for brochures and newspapers.

1973 "McQ," a John Wayne movie, with a 75-member crew of Batjac Productions which was stationed in Ocean Shores motels for 28 days, beginning July 2 with producer Michael Wayne. The leading lady was Coleen Dewherst, and other stars - Diana Muldaur and Eddie Albert. While casting on the north beaches, many Ocean Shores residents were included in the filming. Bobby Widmer, Ocean Shores fireman, was the ambulance driver. "JOHN WAVE" was designated to be hereafter the big seventh ocean wave, in dedication to "Big John" Wayne and his crew.

         The S.S. Catala "Boatel" was grounded by a freakish combination of a
70-mph wind along with a high tide during a wild southwest storm out of the Pacific, around noon on New Year's Day of 1965. Yards of sand were swept from under the vessel's starbourd side. Refloating the Catala proved impossible. Much material was salvaged, but a great deal was stolen..."Piracy" was active; small boats came acress the bay, furnishings were stolen and the thieves could be gone before Ocean Shores deputies could get to the ship. Incendiary fires caused further damage.
         In 1925, Queen of the Union Steamship Fleet, the S.S. Catala plied the Canadian Coastal waters carrying miners, loggers and adventurers; was retired in 1958. She was a floating hotel in Seattle during the 1962 World's Fair, then was towed to California to become a floating restaurant, and in 1963 brought to Ocean Shores to become a floating base for the Ocean Shores Charter fleet and a "Boatel" to fishermen, with 52 staterooms, a ship's restaurant and a friendly lounge. Electricity and telephone service had been extended to the ship; a bridge and roadway made easy access to the ship's parking area, at her bow. Heavy seas removed these conveniences and gradually sand built up to join the two bodies of land, except during extremely high tide when there can be some water flow between the two.
       The Catala's registry dated June 1925, the original official machinery registration, registered in Glasgow, Scotland, was found under a house on the North Beach several years after the ship was grounded. The finder left it with Mr. and Mrs. Ben Morgan, operators of the Museum. The Morgans donated the registry for exhibit to the Ocean Shores Public Library in 1973.

1972-Anchovies, a few dozen of them, fell into the yard of Tom and Evelyn James on January 10 in Division 3. Speculation was that a water spout sucked the anchovies out of the surf and into the air at least 100 feet in order for them to travel the distance of at least 2,000 feet inland.

Kay and Larry Tommer, among the Jeep beachcombing "honkers", found one of the purple glass balls that, it is said, come only from the nets of the Empereor of Japan.

The beach was loaded with Japanese fish-net floats; some boasted 45-inch circumference glass balls, along with other beach findings, resulting from ten days of heavy onshore winds combined with high tides in january. Early New Year's morning, following the Beacon-Burger fire-fighting, Larry Tommer, Nick Tommer and Harley Bottorff picked up 52 spheres. They stopped when they could stuff no more balls in their International Scout. Quantity awards went to Mike Fisher, Robert Potts, Simon Potts and Don Potts who snared 57 balls between 1 and 6 a.m. on January 8 1966.

1961-In the area of the Executive Villa and the shopping Mall, on a typical day, would be seen horses pawing the ground close to parked helicopters, automobiles near donkeys and a surrey full of visitors, ready for a ride on the beach.
Hundreds of Canadian Geese were noted on the airstrip on their trip northward. A big black bear took an unplanned stroll up the Mall.