Tales of a shipwreck, upper Hoh to be told during wild, wild West End history weekend

Paige Dickerson - 

The Jefferson County Historical Society hopes to draw locals to visit the wild, wild West End this weekend with storytellers, historic photographs and the chance for residents to record their stories for posterity.

A video exhibit of historic photographs for the society's upcoming book, Images of America: Olympic Mountains, will be mounted and available for viewing in the Kalaloch Lodge library from 5 p.m. today through 10 a.m. Sunday.

Three presentations by storytellers are planned Saturday.

The lodge is at 157151 U.S. Highway 101, about 35 miles south of Forks.

"We like to say that history didn't end sometime in the past," said Bill Tennent, executive director of the historical society.

"The West End is an important part of our history. Even if people just get out there for the day, it will be a great experience."

The weekend's first storyteller presentation will be at the Peak 6 Store, which is 4.6 miles up the Hoh River Road that leads to the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center.

Gary Peterson will tell tales of the upper Hoh River at the Peak 6 Store from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

He will describe the first recorded shipwreck along the Washington coast, the wreck of the Nikolai, which brought the first nonnative woman to the North Olympic Peninsula.

He also will share the history of his family, including Minnie Peterson, who ran horse-packing trips into the high Olympics from the family homestead for some 50 years.

Peterson is the author of Gods and Goblins: A Field Guide to Place Names of Olympic National Park and the co-author of High Divide: Minnie Peterson's Olympic Mountain Adventures and Women to Reckon With: Untamed Women of the Olympic Wilderness.

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