by Gordon Garnhart

There were 31 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Community conference room on Wednesday, May 11th. The mini swap meet brought some interesting HO freight cars.

The meeting was opened by John White distributing copies of a tentative line-up of programs for the coming year. The proposed plan was well received.

The guest speaker for the evening was Glendale historian Craig Williams of the community organization Friends of Glendale and also the South Whidbey Historical Society. Glendale is a very small community on the eastern shore of Whidbey Island, near the south end below Clinton. His topic, “The Glendale Logging Railroad and other Whidbey Island Shortlines” was well received. Craig illustrated his presentation with many interesting slides, and described fascinating historical details of equipment, structures, operations and the careers of logging entrepreneurs.

Craig has been researching the history of shortline railroad operations on Whidbey Island for over ten years. He talked about the early logging operations on South Whidbey Island, how these activities shaped the community of Glendale and the logging railroad that once ran through the Glendale area. Most of his material covered the Glendale Logging Railroad which followed the ravine of Glendale Creek northwest and then north into what was, in the nineteenth century, a densely wooded area. He also discussed a less extensive logging railroad that operated in the Keystone vicinity. Very little evidence of these operations exists today  At the conclusion of his slide presentation, Craig passed around examples of old growth wood, a fish plate, a rail bolt and a length of chain used to link rail cars.

Craig is a founding partner of West Street Associates, and is a veteran of over 30 years of International Event planning and operations. He has held top management roles for Local Organizing Committees (LOC) of several International Sporting Events, including the Olympic Games, and currently provides specialist advice to Olympic Organizing and Bid Committees. Craig has a BA degree in History from UCLA and is a Board Member of both Friends of Glendale (FOG) and the South Whidbey Historical Society. His interest in local history and in the Glendale watershed combined when he discovered remnants of an old logging railroad grade on his property and on several local trails in the Glendale watershed. He has been researching the history of the area for over 10 years and has given presentations to the South Whidbey Historical Society and to history classes at South Whidbey High School. For additional info on FOG please visit the website at www.friendsofglendale.org.

We look forward to Wednesday, June 8th, when Jack Hamilton MMR will visit our clinic and act as chief judge of our scratch built “Dilapidated Building Competition”. This contest was originally announced in September of last year, and promises some very interesting and unusual entries.