“Journey Stories” Come Alive at Orcas Island Historical Museum Tomorrow

Satko's Ark -- the Journey Story of the out-of-work steelworker who journeyed from Virginia to Alaska will be told on July 22 as part of the Historical Museum's 'Journey Stories' exhibit

Local Journey Stories also told in Destination: Orcas Island

Orcas Island Historical Museum invites you to attend an  opening celebration of the Smithsonian Exhibit  Journey Stories,  this  Saturday July 17 at 11 a.m.

“Please come by and check this exhibit out, you will want to book time to come back again with friends,” says Journey Stories project manager Andrea Cohen. “Our own local Orcas islanders’  Journey Stories, an addition to the Smithsonian traveling exhibit, will capture your attention!”

The Journey Stories exhibit arrived yesterday in its 14 containers and “We managed to get it assembled by the end of the day!” says Cohen. “Luckily we had a Smithsonian person on hand to help, which was an unexpected treat.”

The American story is a complex patchwork of many stories woven over time from the voyages – voluntary and involuntary – of people who traveled across the continent, from state-to-state and around the world to build new lives.  Journey Stories explores the history of American travel from immigration to migration, the role of myriad transportation modes and the search for freedom.

The Smithosonian exhibit includes modules  describing six major aspects of Americans’ journey stories:

• One Way Trip and We Were Here First
• Pushing the Boundaries
• Across the “Great Desert” to the West
• Railroads Span the Nation
• Accelerated Mobility
• Our Expanded World

Each person attending the Journey Stories exhibit will receive a special souvenir passport which they can bring to any or all of the Journey Stories-related events (listed below). Passports will be stamped at each event and passport holders will receive another entry in the drawing at each event attended. Each time the passport is stamped, the owner will receive a free entry in a special drawing to be held at the end of August. The grand prize winner will receive two round-trip tickets between Eastsound and Boeing Field, courtesy of Kenmore Air.

“I’ve been putting in some majorly long hours working on ‘Destination Orcas,’ the local portion of the exhibit,” says Cohen. Destination: Orcas Island contains local submissions of art, stories, plus a documentary video put together by Paul Evans’ class at the high school, which Cohen says the museum will “use forever.”

The public is invited to add their own individual stories to the archive, either at the Museum or at the Orcas Island Public Library (See “Tell Us Your Stories” accompanying article in Orcas Issues).

On July 22, Michael Sullivan, State Scholar, historian and storyteller will relate the remarkable journey story of Paul Satko. In 1934, the Great Depression had cost Satko his job and property in Richmond, Virginia, when he decided to build a boat in which to transport his pregnant wife, cat and seven children to a homesteading community in Alaska.

Unschooled in shipbuilding, Satko made an enormous boat frame out of steel, welded it to an old truck chassis and drove it and the family across the U.S. to Tacoma, which was just the beginning of “a most peculiar and eventful odyssey,” says Cohen. It is an amazing real-life story which epitomizes the spirit of American ingenuity and wanderlust captured in the Smithsonian’s Journey Stories exhibit.<

The Journey of Paul Satko’s Ark – from Virginia to Juneau via the San Juans, by Michael Sullivan of the Washington Historical Museum, will take place at the Orcas Senor Center at 7 p.m. on July 22.

Other events will follow, including:

July 28 — Children’s Tour of the Journey Stories Exhibit 10 a.m.. at the Orcas Island Historical Museum, register with the Orcas Island Library, 376-4985.

July  30 — Musical Journey Stories – Woody Guthrie, by Carl Allen of the Wanderers, at the Orcas Senior Center at 7:30 p.m.

August 2-30 — The Art of the Journey – creative expressions about journeys of all kinds, art photography and poetry. Open to all Orcas Islanders, regester by July 26 at 376-4849 or email orcasmuseum@rockisland.com, Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Orcas Senior Center. Opening Reception on August 7, at 5 p.m.

August 7 — Journeys that Shaped our Lives – Live journey storytelling organized by the Eth-Noh-Tec Story/Theater 3 to 5 p.m. at the Orcas Senior Center

August 13 — Ancient Peoples’ San Juan Journeys, Amanda Taylor from the Burke Museum and Stephanie Jolivetter from the University of Washington, 7: 30 p.m. at the Orcas Senior Center

August 15 – Four Winds Westward Ho – Childrens’ Journeys to Orcas since 1927, 2 p.m. at the Odd Fellows Hall.

August 21 — Captain Wilkes’ San Juan Voyage of 1841, Tom Welch, Orcas Historian, 7 p.m. at the Grange

August 27 — Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip — a documentary film by Ken Burns, 6:30 p.m. at the West Sound Community Hall

Cohen says of  Journey Stories, “I like to think of history as a seamless fit with art and culture, not necessarily synonymous with ‘the past.’  Everybody has a story of how they got to Orcas, as well as amazing stories of their own travels around America.”

Journey Stories is made possible by Humanities Washington; local sponsors include Kenmore Air, the Anders Foundation, Eclipse Charters, the Orcas Island Grange and Cruise Control.

Journey Stories will be at the Orcas Island Historical Museum from July 17th through August 29th, open every day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.