History Lives Here in May

Roche Harbor Maypole, circa 1910 - SJ Historical Society photo

SJI His­tor­i­cal Muse­um shares their His­to­ry Col­umn for May…

This month’s pho­to­graph from the San Juan His­tor­i­cal Muse­um archives fea­tures lit­tle girls in fan­cy white frocks, danc­ing around a cir­ca 1910 may­pole at Roche Har­bor. You may have seen this scene before. It’s in the Images of Amer­i­ca: San Juan Island book by Mike and Julia Vouri. You can pur­chase signed copies of this book and its com­pan­ion book on Fri­day Har­bor when the Vouris present “A Pho­to­graph­ic His­to­ry of San Juan Island” on May 17, 7:00 p.m., at the San Juan Island Library. The event is free and the book sign­ing is a fundrais­er for the San Juan His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety & Muse­um.

Anoth­er free event at the Library is on May 19 at 7:00 p.m. when Robin Jacob­son presents “From Odd Fel­lows to Orcas” and shares an illus­trat­ed time­line of Fri­day Har­bor com­mu­ni­ty news inter­twined with the his­to­ry of the Odd Fel­lows Hall, now home to The Whale Muse­um. Come hear some of the more inter­est­ing sto­ries, his­tor­i­cal and super­nat­ur­al, orig­i­nat­ing from this icon­ic build­ing tow­er­ing high on the bluff.

On May 27 it’s anoth­er Know Your Island Walk, this time with a vis­it to the St. Fran­cis and Val­ley Ceme­ter­ies, led by Boyd Pratt and Robin Jacob­son. Join the walk­ers, start­ing from Skag­it Val­ley Col­lege at 1:00 p.m. or meet at the ceme­ter­ies at 1:30 p.m. for the bio­graph­i­cal tour of the ceme­ter­ies, fea­tur­ing some of the more well-known island pioneers.

For these His­to­ry Lives Here events and oth­ers in May, see the spe­cial sec­tion of the San Juan Islands Vis­i­tors Bureau web­site at www.visitsanjuans.com/history.

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