MCCLEARY MUSEUM & EVENT CENTER

OPEN WEEKENDS 12-4pm. We update displays often... so come back to see us often!! Free admission. (donations help us pay the bills)

 

Come Visit Us:

WE ARE OPEN:
Saturday: 12pm to 4pm
Sunday: 12pm to 4pm

And By appointment:

360 964 0561 (OR 360 470 2340)

 

426 S 3rd St, McCleary WA 98557
PO BOX 554

Admission is Free!

Mission Statement

The mission of the McCleary Historical Society is to serve as the collective historical memory of the City of McCleary and to serve the community as a cultural center.

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For those who love Charles, our retired Curator, his contact information is:

Charlie Fattig

Family Love AFH

7805 98th Ave SW

Lakewood WA 98498

541 660-3633

 

He would love cards, letters, phone calls, visits.  

FIND US ON FACEBOOK!

Below are the last few posts from our facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/McClearyMuseum

Happy St. Patrick's Day! ... See MoreSee Less
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SERIOUSLY!!!This is your last week to order ORANGES and/or GRAPEFRUIT. We need your name and phone number to contact you when the orders are in. Delivery is scheduled for April 8th. Call Kathy at 360 495-3703 Call or text Linda at 360 470-2340 ... See MoreSee Less
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SERIOUSLY!!!This is your last week to order ORANGES and/or GRAPEFRUIT. We need your name and phone number to contact you when the orders are in. Delivery is scheduled for April 8th. Call Kathy at 360 495-3703 Call or text Linda at 360 470-2340 ... See MoreSee Less
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PROFILE: LINDA THOMPSON--TRYING TO IMPACT A CORNER OF GRAYS HARBORBy Corey Morris--Grays Harbor Newspaper GroupIt's been a nomadic life for Linda Thompson, but the City of McCleary lucked out when she decided the little town of about 1,600 would be her home.Thompson, 70, began her life in Alaska, and from there traveled with her family. In her adulthood, she married a military man and continued her traveling life. Like some map at a visitor center in a tourist town, Thompson's life mapped out would be stuck with a stippling of push pins.A sampling of her travels--from one corner of the country to nearly the other--shows her living in Alaska, Washington state, Oklahoma, and upstate New York. She also lived in Germany.As with most profile subjects, Thompson is modest with the interview process."Why did you choose me?" she asked.The fact is Thompson, who went from Alaska to parts known and unknown before landing in McCleary, is a volunteer and active member of her community.Thompson spends much of her free time volunteering at the McCleary Museum and the McCleary Timberland Library.Her volunteer efforts began with the museum, and today, she is the editor of the McCleary Museum Newsletter, a quarterly publication sent to roughly 100 paid museum members."It's important to preserve history," Thompson said. "As a student in school, history and science were my two least favorite subjects. Then I married a history buff and I learned so much about World War II, and that got me interested in our Civil War... and without history ... we're going to repeat our mistakes."When asked which mistakes we're repeating today, Thompson says, "We can't figure out how not to go to war."Thompson's contributions go beyond her work as an editor as she helps host open houses at the museum.At the museum is a time line of McCleary that abruptly ends--not because the city was dissolved, but because the time line was never continued by volunteers. For several months, on Fridays, Thompson could be found at The Vidette office scouring through the archives working for several hours at a time to chronicle the missing years and bring the time line up to date.Her work at the library complements her interest in history, she explains."Reading and promoting reading is very important, and I don't want to live long enough to see books go away," Thompson said. "Reading and history go hand in hand. And history is such a good teacher."In addition to volunteering her energy and efforts to the library, Thompson also makes use of the library's services. Two days a week (for six weeks at a time), she takes online classes offered through the library. Currently, she's taking sign language and Quicken courses.The classes are open to the public, Thompson explained, happy for the chance to endorse the services offered through the library.Thompson's interest in history is evident even in the way she tells her own story."My grandparents were married in Cosmopolis in 1917--that's my tie to East Grays Harbor," she says right from the beginning.Thompson was born in Alaska. Her father was a commercial fisherman and her mother's third husband. Her mother later remarried to a military man, and then by a long course, Thompson moved to Aberdeen as a high school sophomore. She then moved to Tacoma as a junior.The concept of home is varied and relative to Thompson. Home, now, is McCleary. But Thompson still considers Petersburg, Alaska her hometown. But she says she felt most at home in Cherry Valley, N.Y., where she had "no roots, no anything.""The reason we chose McCleary, well we didn't really--McCleary chose us," Thompson says. "My parents retired from the Air Force ... they had family in Aberdeen but wanted to use the facilities at Joint Base Lewis McChord, so they settled halfway between, and McCleary is where they bought some property."When her mother got sick with cancer, Thompson and her husband, Leonard, sold their home in New York and moved in with her father. They later bought their own house in McCleary.Thompson worked for 20 years as the office manager at Mark Reed Hospital. She retired in 2008.Thompson and her husband have resided in McCleary on more than one occasion. First in 1975, before moving to Tacoma about a year later.She first volunteered with the museum when she and her husband moved back to McCleary in 1990. Thompson began volunteering at the library in 2006."Volunteering is rewarding and it's not really a lot of time consuming--it's a way to interact with people," Thompson says. "Community involvement in anything is just a positive."In a recent city council meeting, organizers of the annual Bear Festival asked the city to help find volunteers who can step up and take the lead in coming years. Thompson identified with the plight."McCleary has had its struggles over the years, but it seems to come through. And the the townspeople, I'm not sure why they're not more involved in things like Bear Fest," Thompson said. "If people want the Bear Fest, they need to be involved in it."But people are busy, she concedes. Thompson's adult children work and are raising their respective families and going to school. As for Thompson, regarding the Bear Festival, believes her place is in the crowd."There's got to be an audience, and I want to be the audience," she says. "And I think that's a mentality that a lot of people have."Thompson thought about volunteering for the food bank, but she also wants to remain focused on her other efforts, like the museum and library."It keeps me busy and keeps my mind going," Thompson said. "I can't change the world, but maybe I can impact a little corner of it."--The Daily World, July 20. 2016 ... See MoreSee Less
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