Saturday provided a unique opportunity for people who headed over to 118 W. Wishkah St. — to run into a famous town discoverer — Capt. Robert Gray.

Gray, who spotted Aberdeen, was in attendance for the 40th anniversary of the Aberdeen Museum of History and he looked to be holding his age — 268 years-old — quite well. Gray was born in 1755. He spotted Grays Harbor in 1788. His job Saturday was to bring history alive, as well as be a booming voice who made numerous announcements about door prizes for lucky attendees, as well as the rules for other prizes throughout the room.

While the museum hasn’t been constructed at 118 W. Wishkah St., Saturday afternoon was a preview of it, with archival photos of yesteryear and artifacts through Grays Harbor. Les Bolton, who portrayed Gray on Saturday, said succinctly why it’s important to share the area’s history.

“The history of Grays Harbor is really so connected with the history of our nation and the history of our state,” Bolton said.

Judging by the crowd size, a lot of people agreed. About 170 people showed up to the event, according to Chuck Meskimen. And about $1,700 was raised through a raffle for a basket of wine and other goodies. Grays Harbor Genealogical Society and a couple other groups, were involved in the event too.

While the space wasn’t huge, that may have been an asset. With each step you could run into someone with a new fact. Patti Binski-Walden, who along with another volunteer was serving coffee and hot chocolate donated from Tinderbox Roasters, and two cakes that Safeway donated, shared a bit about her family history.

“My great-grandparents were bootleggers on Terrace Avenue,” Binski-Walden said. “I’m very proud of them being bootleggers. They had a three-story house with a secret fourth story where they did bootlegging.”

Sharon Balin, a long-time Harborite who has lived in the same Aberdeen house for about 50 years, shared her reaction to the museum anniversary event in two parts.

“I’m disappointed there are not more young people here,” said Balin. “I think history is important as this is their heritage. If young people don’t understand their history, the same things will happen as far as mistakes, and inventions.”

Nancy Airhart-Cuyle, whose family was part of starting the former Aberdeen Museum of History, shared similar thoughts to Balin about the absence of youth at Saturday’s event.

“I totally agree with her,” Airhart-Cuyle said. “I think it is disappointing we aren’t seeing more youth and I think it’s one of the things we truly want to focus on as we do the new museum.”

Airhart-Cuyle said Friends of the Museum has talked to other organizations about similar ventures

“One of the things an organization mentioned to me that I thought made a lot of sense was you reserve a little part of the museum,” Airhart-Cuyle said. “You say to the high school or class, or whatever group wants to do (a tour,) ‘What is history to you?’ I realize lots of times history to them might be last week, last month, they’ve never seen a rotary-dial telephone, so what is history to them? You let them build that display so they truly are a part of it.”

And for Balin, despite the discontentment from seeing a lack of youth she seemed to enjoy herself on Saturday. It’s clear she has a hope that the new museum will have some of the old museum’s charms.

“The old museum was fantastic,” Balin said. “They had (Kurt) Cobain’s couch.”

Balin also added her own view of Cobain, which was positive.

“Some people say Kurt Cobain was a drug addict, but his music influenced a lot of people,” said Balin, who also told a story about a cross-country connection one of her relatives made in Washington, D.C. The relative, from Aberdeen, connected with a driver because the relative was from Aberdeen. According to Balin’s story, the driver was a Nirvana fan and he asked a few questions about Cobain and Cobain’s time in Aberdeen.

It’s clear from hanging out around Aberdeen, Cobain is still a much-discussed person in the city’s history. Stories that support a positive view, or negative view, of Cobain, still swirl throughout the city’s watering holes and restaurants.

Balin told another story about seeing a father take photos of his son as they enjoyed the exhibits the day before the museum burned down. She was happy to see them enjoying themselves. Balin also took her young relatives to the museum then, too.

“They could sit, ride and fly on the exhibits, all of that was good for young kids,” Balin said. “They were enthralled with it.”

Apparently the love of a good museum still exists.

“I think the enthusiasm of the people who were here (tonight,) that’s the best part,” Balin said.

Meskimen was glad to see how the large room became more of a museum space.

“I think it came together really well for being a pop-up four-hour event,” Meskimen said.

Airhart-Cuyle said she thinks the event turned out “wonderful.”

“People have been very, very generous,” Airhart-Cuyle said. “We appreciate them coming. The full venue turned out better than we actually ever hoped it would. We have some very innovative people. A lot of these slideshows and all that put together by Doug Orr. He’s just such an incredible artist, so we really appreciate having him come up with all his ideas for us.”

Airhart-Cuyle said her favorite exhibit Saturday night was one where a great uncle of hers — a high-climber, was photographed topping a tree. The photograph was presented on a 9-feet by 8-feet sheet. Airhart-Cuyle was glad to discover the photographs were so much larger than once thought.

“When we got here and started looking at them we realized they hook together, so they’re really 9 by 8,” Airhart-Cuyle said. “They’re such gorgeous pictures coming together like that. So we’ve really, really enjoyed them. And we appreciate the city allowing us to bring over these artifacts.”

Airhart-Cuyle said it’s “really important,” for people to see a lot was saved from the old museum.

“We probably lost 75% of the collection, but the things we saved are pretty nice,” Airhart-Cuyle said. “We’ve got some very nice things and we’re really hoping after people see the museum’s coming together that we start getting more donations.”

Orr, a big supporter of the museum and Aberdeen mayoral candidate, was working as the museum’s doorman. He greeted the attendees and was glad to see so many people enjoy themselves Saturday.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to keep our town engaged with the museum, the possibilities of the new museum,” Orr said. “I think the Friends of the Museum has done a really wonderful job of trying to keep the museum in the eyes of the public since the fire. You’ve got to have things in the building to keep people excited about the possibilities of what’s gonna come. This is our second time doing something in the building. We’ll probably keep doing this kind of stuff.”

Regarding the museum, Orr said he sees excitement from the community.

“The museum board has kind of been working in the dark as far as they’re not out in the public doing a lot of stuff,” Orr said. “I think we need stuff like this to excite the people so they know that there is something happening.”

Orr said he thinks events like Saturday’s give people an idea of what the museum could be, adding he liked being the doorman on Saturday.

“I get to say hello to everybody,” Orr said. “And if they have something they want to talk about I’m right there. I like that.”

Orr is thankful for the Friends of the Museum for all its help with Saturday’s event. He hopes the event is a reminder the city needs a museum sooner than later.

“We love the museum and we’re really wanting it to happen probably a lot quicker than the museum board wants it to happen,” Orr said. “But hopefully I’ll be the mayor one day and I’m gonna do whatever I can to make it happen sooner than. … I’m not just gonna drag feet and keep kicking the ball down the road. I think we need to jump on getting something done right now. I know they’re doing financing and getting all their ducks in order. But something like this is to show people you don’t really have to spend $1 million or $2 million to get the building functional. Just get the bathrooms going, take care of some of the major (issues) like the roof. And then get the thing going and fix it as you’re going. I think that’ll probably get us a museum years sooner than waiting for the whole thing to be perfect and meticulous before we move in.”

Fran Allen, of The Salmonberry Band, spoke about playing at Saturday’s event. The band played John Denver’s “Country Roads” with re-written lyrics. They replaced a few of the lyrics with various Grays Harbor cities.

“It was fun to play,” Allen said. “There were a lot of people. We enjoy going out and playing for events. We’ve been playing for about 12 years.”

Norm Callaghan, who is on Polson Museum’s board, and his wife Gloria, also gave their views of the event and they sounded positive about the future of the new Aberdeen Museum of History.

“It’s a great start,” Norm said. “The museum needs to keep going. I hope they can keep this going. It’s a needed entity.”

Gloria explained why she thinks the new museum would be necessary for Aberdeen.

“The history needs to live on and that’s what a museum is all about,” Gloria said.”

Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.

“Capt. Robert Gray,” who Les Bolton portrayed, reads from past “community focus interviews” about the old and new Aberdeen Museum of History. The pages, presented on one wall of the museum’s exhibit on Saturday, showed what people loved from the old museum, what they think could have been improved from the old museum, and what they’d like to see in the new museum, along with other suggestions and comments. (Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World)