CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Skagit County veterans' stories come to life with museum exhibit

Skagit Valley Herald - 2/5/2017

Feb. 05--LA CONNER -- Bathed in light of the cool winter sun, Karen Summers, curator at the Skagit County Historical Museum, gently opened slim, rectangular boxes, sifting through the tissue paper to see what's hidden inside.

"It's like Christmas," she said.

Removed from the tissue paper were relics of a bygone era -- memories from Skagit County residents who lived -- and fought -- through World War II.

In the shadow of the Cascade Mountains, Summers arranges the artifacts -- belt buckles, hats and metal matchbooks-- on a table. Nearby, exhibit panels are being hung, each detailing the account of a different survivor from Washington.

"It's very patriotic," Summers said.

The "Washington Remembers WWII" exhibit, which features the stories of 12 WWII veterans from Washington state, is on loan to the Skagit County Historical Museum from the Secretary of State Office. The exhibit opens this week, and will remain in Skagit County for six months, Summers said.

"I just read this one and got goosebumps," said Natalie McCuskey, a museum volunteer as she read one veterans account. "We've never experienced anything like this."

It's not just the state history that visitors will find at the exhibit, it's local history as well. About 25 percent of the exhibit features stories and objects from Skagit residents.

The Skagit County Historical Society has been collecting artifacts from Skagit veterans since 1968, Summers said. That includes about 60 uniforms of both men and women, personal accounts and memories collected by the museum from residents during a 2002 exhibit, and even an ashtray with the words "U.S.S. Skagit" emblazoned on it.

"We have our own stories to go along with this one," Summers said. "We're going off (the Secretary of State's) themes, but what happened in Skagit County."

Many of the stories told about life in Skagit County during the war years were just just as important then as they are now, Summers said, like the stories of the "braceros" -- workers brought from Mexico to work the fields while the county's young men were away at war.

"It really is an important story for Skagit County," Summers said. "They held the home front down."

The exhibit will also feature the stories of local Japanese-American families, like the Sakumas and Nagasakis who were forced into internment camps during the war, including some of the trunks and suitcases they took with them.

"It's basically what they packed their whole lives in," Summers said.

In between hanging exhibit panels, museum facilities manager Warren Gravley, a Vietnam-era Army veteran, said it was the perfect time to showcase the exhibit, while there are still WWII veterans among us.

"So we can understand where our lineages come from," Gravley said. "This is bringing out how they gave of each other for a common cause."

The exhibit opens on Feb. 10, with an opening reception on Feb. 9 at 6 p.m.

-- Reporter Kera Wanielista: 360-416-2141,

kwanielista@skagitpublishing.com

, Twitter:

@Kera_SVH

,

facebook.com/KeraReports

___

(c)2017 the Skagit Valley Herald (Mount Vernon, Wash.)

Visit the Skagit Valley Herald (Mount Vernon, Wash.) at www.goskagit.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.