125 years ago
Oct. 30, 1891
The Montesano Dramatic Club went to Elma last Friday evening to give the play of “Woman Against Woman,” for the benefit of the Elma band. About fifty excursionists from Montesano — the Northern Pacific running a special train.
The attendance from Elma was small and had it not been for the crowd that went from this place the club would not have made expenses.
The Chronicle says of the play that it was the best entertainment ever given in Elma. It is hardly probable that the club will again go away from home to present any of their plays.
100 years ago
Oct. 27, 1911
Governor Ernest Lister visited Montesano Monday and made an address on Main street.
The Governor opened with a discussion of national issues and defended the action of the administration. He then took up the state issues and outlined his work as governor and asked consideration of his record in the office. He answered the attacks of misuse of public funds charged to him and denied the various charges as campaign stories warped to fit the occasion.
He strongly opposed the wet bills and took his stand firmly against any weakening of the present dry laws. He explained the payment of his $10,000 note as a voluntary contribution by state employees, unsolicited and strictly in the nature of a donation to campaign funds. The governor is a good speaker and drew quite a crowd.
75 years ago
Oct. 30, 1941
Tree farmers will plant
The first extensive planting of the trees on the Clemons tree farm is scheduled to begin soon.
A crew of 10 men is being recruited here and another crew in the Vail area, where the second tree farm of Weyerhaeuser Timber company, known as the Skookumchuk tree farm, has been established.
The combined crews of 20 men will work first on the Skookumchuk farm for about six weeks and then will spend the same amount of time on the Clemons farm.
Last year, about 100,000 Douglas fir were set out on the Clemons tree farm, near Weikswood, farm headquarters. This season a much larger planting will be made, although the exact number has not been determined. The seedlings will come largely from the Snoqualmie Falls nursery of the Weyerhaeuser Timber company. The planting will extend last year’s plantation and also will include an area on an extensive burn near Blue Mountain.
Planting experiments are also being made in a brushy area, to determine the best varieties of trees that develop there.
50 years ago
Oct. 27, 1966
Halloween parade holds answer
How many Batmans? How many Robins? How many Green Hornets?
Those should be the questions of the hour Monday evening, October 31, when Montesano Eagles Auxiliary No. 363 stages its annual Halloween parade, for these televised heroes surely will outnumber the goblins, ghosts and witches, costumed favorites of yore.
Children 12 and under will march from a mustering point in front of City Hall to the Eagles building at Main and Marcy. Once inside the hall, they will be judged for best costumes in a number of categories — and, of course, best-carved pumpkins.
The parade will kick off promptly at 7 p.m., although youngsters are asked to start forming ranks at 6:45. In case of rain, all of the festivities will take place inside the Eagles building.
25 years ago
Oct. 24, 1991
Rest stop moves slowly
Momentum towards converting Montesano’s former sewage treatment plant into a rest stop for highway travelers eased a bit this month when only a few people showed up for an organizational meeting.
Committee chair and city councilman John Tennefoss said neither Weyerhaeuser nor the State Department of Transportation representatives attended the Oct. 15 meeting.
Montesano private banker Stephen Redman reported by phone that he has found banks which are willing to loan money to the city to build the rest stop so long as the proposed state contract is in place.
“That’s an important thing to make clear,” said Tennefoss. “Money for this project is not coming out of local pocketbooks.”
The plan is to have the city build the rest stop with borrowed funds. The state would then lease the facility, paying for it over time. “Instead of having the state plunk down $3 or 4 million dollars, it permits the state to pay it over a longer period of time,” said Tennefoss. The lease money would cover engineering, interest and maintenance costs over the contract period, which has not been settled.
10 years ago
Oct. 26, 2006
The Moose Lodge in Montesano is celebrating the international organization’s centennial this weekend with an open house at 6 p.m., Friday, Oct. 27.
It’s also the birthday of the man credited with “reorganizing” the lodges 100 years ago.
The public is invited to come to the lodge at the east end of town “to see what the Moose organization has to offer,” said Carol McCowan of Montesano, the chapter’s unofficial press secretary and informal historian.
Guests won’t feel like strangers. Moose membership in the Montesano area is high and visitors to the lodge will certainly run into people they know, McCowan said.
Also on Nov. 11, the Moose will recognize Veterans Day with an appreciation Day at the lodge. The public — especially veterans — are invited to drop by.
Montesano’s Moose Lodge No. 1210 was chartered Nov. 26, 1978, and leased space from the Oddfellows in the Sylvia Center.
It wasn’t long before they outgrew the space. In 1984, the lodge’s 48 members purchased the former Playhouse Tavern at the east entrance to town and soon outgrew it, too. The lodge building as it stands today was built by volunteers and dedicated in 1996.
In a 1996 article celebrating the completion of the lodge, a Vidette article notes the attending dignitaries included District President George Stamper, State Director Dick Surry and Junior Supreme Gov. James Dore. Gov. Gary Fulkerson also inducted 20 new members into the lodge.
The fraternal order built the lodge entirely with volunteer labor, headed by Eugene Warne, a contractor and past governor, who received a “Golden Hammer” award during the ceremonies, The Vidette article states. Warne and his wife also received a year of free steak dinners, which are held monthly at the lodge.
“He was our slave driver and our shop teacher,” the lodge administrator, Bruce Huey said. “He put thousands of hours into this building.”
The plain-looking exterior of the 7,000 square foot lodge was built from a $28,000 kit. On the inside of the building, the Moose used logs salvaged from the Playhouse Tavern to line the walls of the members -only bar and give it a rustic look. Kitchen facilities and a banquet room that accommodates 260 people take up about two-thirds of the building.
