Delightful finds often go discovered in small towns, and Raymond is no exception.
Just a few blocks off Highway 101 in the southwest Washington town stands a mini-complex including the Willapa Seaport Museum, Northwest Carriage Museum, public market, public dock, 100-foot-long eight-sail ketch and access to the Willapa River Trail.
The trail wanders along river and slough to South Bend, part of the 57-mile-long Willapa Hills State Trail project still in the works.
The seaport museum is home to Pete Darrah’s maritime collection. The city provides a 5,000-square-foot building and dock space for his ship, Kristine, built about 100 years ago as “a nautical truck” in the Baltic and North seas, Darrah said.
While it’s billed as a seaport museum, many exhibits focus on the Raymond area’s logging history.
During World War I, for instance, airplanes were made of spruce. The U.S. government federalized the spruce industry, creating the Spruce Division of the U.S. Army Air Corps, complete with uniforms and bugles, Darrah said.
“They saluted and picked up their saws and went into the woods.”
A thick tree slice shows how a tree was milled for lumber, with lines drawn on the slab to show the production of 4-by-4s and an 8-inch-by-17-foot stringer.
An oyster dredge represents the Willapa Bay oyster industry; a ship’s chronometer is from the U.S. Revenue Marines, the forerunner to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Also on display: a ship’s radio room, a replica berth of a chief petty officer in 1939 on the USS Arizona and a ferry ticket office filled with old suitcases and a cockroach.
The exhibits are cleverly laid out, making the most of the space and ceilings that soar more than 20 feet high.
At the other end of the complex, the classy Northwest Carriage Museum is a visual treat. Many of the 20 carriages, dating from 1880 to 1910, were restored.
The Shelburne Landau carriage, with two folding tops that locked together in the center, was used in the movies “Gone with the Wind” and “Jezebel.”
There’s also an elegant C-Spring Victoria carriage popular with wealthy women; a Spider Phaeton used for pleasure and competitive riding; a black stage coach with red wheels used to transport mail; and an opera bus with a short passenger compartment.
An adjacent public market sells handmade items, fresh produce, quilts and herbs.
If you’re driving through on the way to the Long Beach Peninsula, enjoy some of more than 200 life-size steel sculptures in the Raymond Wildlife-Heritage Sculpture Corridor.
“The sculptures are the essence of what makes Raymond Raymond,” said Summer Johnson of the Willapa Harbor Organization.
The logging town was incorporated in 1907. Picture early downtown on stilts several feet above the tidelands, complete with elevated sidewalks and streets.
One historic building is the Raymond Theater (323 Third St.), a 360-seat movie house built in 1928 that has been restored and boasts a Wurlitzer theater pipe organ.
The Willapa River has its own star quality, miles of sloughs and main channel, wildlife and scenery. Although there are no rentals, kayaking maps are available at the visitor’s center.
Use a bit of caution: tides going against you can be difficult to paddle against, and boaters have been stranded in the mud flats.
If You Go
Directions: At Olympia, turn off I-5 to U.S. 101, then Highway 8 to Montesano. Take Highway 107 for eight miles, then U.S. 101 to Raymond.
Raymond Visitor’s Center: 415 Commercial St.; 360-942-5419.
Willapa Seaport Museum: 310 Alder St.; 360-942-4149.
Northwest Carriage Museum: 314 Alder St.; 360-942-4150.
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