— from Sandy Strehlou —
The historic Olga Strawberry Barreling Plant
Congratulations Boyd Pratt, History Link and the San Juan County Writing Our History Project for Boyd Pratt’s latest local history essay published on HistoryLink.org! The essay is on the history of the Orcas Island Artworks (the historic Olga Strawberry Barreling Plant), which besides having a long and interesting history, was damaged by fire in 2013 and then became a successful restoration project by the non-profit Olga Strawberry Council (OSC).
Historic buildings and sites are important to the community. The OSC and the Orcas community have worked incredibly hard to save the Olga Strawberry Barreling Plant building, home to the Olga Café and art gallery. The entire San Juan County community will benefit from their efforts. Many thanks to Boyd for researching the history and documenting the story—and in the process making history interesting to anyone lucky enough to stumble upon the article. Thank you History Link for bringing the story to a world audience.
Boyd Pratt lives on San Juan Island. His latest essay, and other WOHP essays already published on www.historylink.org, demonstrate that WOHP is dedicated to capturing and sharing the stories of all of our diverse islands, not just one island, or event, or family, or one particular point in time. Together our history is rich and worth preserving.
To read Boyd’s latest essay CLICK HERE.
The Writing Our History Project (WOHP) is partnership between San Juan County local history researchers and writers, and organizations involved in researching, preserving, or archiving historic resources. The focus of our work is to produce and make widely available, essays on historical themes from San Juan county history that have yet to be well researched and documented.
The WOHP partners with History Link to bring our stories to the world. History Link is the online encyclopedia of Washington State History, a resource used by teachers, writers, museums, filmmakers and anyone interested in Washington history. Visit History Link’s website and subscribe to their weekly newsletter This Week Then by visiting https://www.historylink.org/.
For more information, or to find out how you can participate and support the local work of the Writing Our History Project, write to sandy@strehlou.com.
Sandy Strehlou, Writing Our History Project, and Town of Friday Harbor, Historic Preservation Coordinator
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
It would be fitting to also acknowledge professional legal services by Bill Bender, restoration design by Ben Trogdon, AIA, and Terry Gillespie of Sound Construction.