Olga Daze: Celebrate a 100-year Anniversary

UPDATED REMINDER: Olga Daze IS happening and support is more IMPORTANT than ever!

Saturday, July 20, beginning at 10 a.m., parade at noon!

By Jan Ehrlichman

The Olga community is celebrating the fact that the Olga Community Center is 100 year old this year, with festivities planned for Saturday July 20 — Olga Daze!

You know you’ve arrived in Olga when you see the Orcas Artworks building, originally a strawberry-packing plant

The first Olga Daze festivities included a parade, a bakesale and hot dogs. Twenty years later, the 2013 Olga Daze has blossomed into a full day of fun for everyone.

The festivities begin at 10 a.m. and there will be something for everyone throughout the day until 3 p.m. Come for breakfast at the Bake Sale which will feature fresh maple bars made on the spot, along with lots of other goodies. Stay for lunch at the Food Pavilion and enjoy baked potatoes, hot dogs, Italian sausage and strawberry shortcake. A fantastic “Barn Sale” and Silent Auction will be happening all day, and there will be live music performed by our excellent, local, talented musicians all day, as well. Some of the musicians who will be featured are Kellen Comrie (winner of Orcas Has Talent, 2013), Local Folk, Wally Walrath, Crow Valley Family String Band, Robb Eagle, Michael Hurwicz & Sharon Abreu, and Parking Angels!

Many, many Olga residents have volunteered hours and hours to make this the best Olga Daze ever.

An Olga Daze tradition is the raffle of a beautiful handmade quilt by Betty Marcum. Raffle tickets can still be purchased during the day, prior to the drawing at 2:30. Another tradition is that everyone is part of the parade through Olga. The Grand
Marshall of this year’s parade will be Jane Barfoot Hodde, Olga’s very own centenarian.

Olganians cherish their historic Post Office: zip code 98279. One of four zip codes on Orcas (San Juan Island only has one)

Some special new traditions are being established this year. One is a Olga History booth: our local historian, Tom Welch, will be on hand to share his vast knowledge of Olga’s past. Another will be some fun activities and food for children: cotton candy, a sac race, an egg toss, and a three-legged race. And for some great laughs: a pie-eating contest for both children and adults.

Here is the schedule for Olga Daze:

• 10 AM Olga Daze begins.
• Noon Parade through Olga
• 12:30 Children’s activities
• 1:30 Pie-eating contest
• 2:30 Raffle drawing
• 3 PM Olga Daze ends

Some History of Olga and the Community Clubhouse

Olga is a community rich in history. Ancient bison bones were found near Olga, which places human activity there some 12,5000 years ago. In the 1850’s the Lummi Nation considered Olga to be part of their territory. The First Peoples had a longhouse at the bay, which they only occupied during certain seasons of the year.

The first white settler in Olga arrived in Olga around 1859. This settler, William Moore, married a native woman, who was the niece of Chief Seattle. They settled on a homestead claim of 160 acres just north of the bay. Within a year or so, John Bowman settled nearby and set up a sawmill at Cascade Creek. This sawmill was later moved to Newhall, which we now refer to as Rosario.

After the resolution of the Pig War in 1872, settlement proceeded at a greater pace. Olga is named for the mother of Anton Ohlert, the first storekeeper in Olga. Olga was granted a post office on March 3, 1890. Mailboat service was a huge factor in Olga’s growth and development. Residents of Whatcom (now called Bellingham) began acquiring land here for summer cottages.

It was common in the early days of settlement for people to row to Whatcom or Victoria for groceries and supplies, but most relied on the mailboats once they began to deliver mail.

In the early days, the only road up Mt. Constitution was near Olga, and local men (Cecil Willis among them) operated businesses giving tourists wagon rides to the top of the mountain.

Roads into Eastsound were in such poor condition that Olga children attended school in a one-room school house in Olga. (This building still exists as part of a private residence.)

An old-time Olga resident remembers that the roads were thought to be too dangerous for the children to travel back and forth to Eastsound. Olga’s public school began in 1874, but school sometimes had to be cancelled for the year, due to lack of funds. It wasn’t until 1937 that Olga joined a consolidated school system on Orcas Island.

The original Olga Energetic Club clubhouse was built on land donated by Mr. and Mrs. Jack Snowden: he was the local Justice of the Peace, and she was a charter member of the Energetics. The women who formed the club were all quilters, and none of them had room in their own homes to spread out a quilt while it was being made. They needed more space, and thus the idea for a clubhouse was born.

The club members raised funds to begin construction in 1913, several of whom even pitched in and helped to mix the cement for the foundation. Snowden built an outhouse for the club, with the expectation that he would be compensated for the cost of materials. When no payment was forthcoming, he padlocked the outhouse door. The women quickly paid the judge his money.

Sunday School, school programs, funerals and social gatherings all were held at the clubhouse. Smaller get-togethers, card parties and 4-H meetings were held in the downstairs rooms.

In 1995, the few remaining members of the Energetics presented the deed to the building to the Olga Community Club.(see photo) It stands as one of the only remaining building from the early days of Olga.

Jane Barfoot Hodde, the oldest Olga resident, was also born in 1913. She was born near Obstruction Pass on Woodside Farm, her grandparents’ homestead since 1887. She attended the Olga Schoolhouse through the 8th grade. Jane’s mother was one of the original Energetics.

It is only fitting that Jane’s two daughters, Irene O’Neill and Fran MacMillan, were the founders of Olga Daze. Irene, a long-time Olga resident, remembers hearing at a Olga Community Club meeting in 1993, that the coffers were almost empty; there were no funds to maintain the clubhouse. Irene and Fran got the idea to hold a yearly event on the third Saturday of July for the purpose of raising funds to maintain the clubhouse, while providing a fun day for the Orcas Community.

(Thanks to Tom Welch and Irene O’Neill for sharing the historical information.)