Tag: Sequim Museum and Art Center

Hometown history

The Sequim Museum and Art Center‘s new location allows for better viewing of an exhibit about one of Sequim’s unique claims to fame, the Manis Mastodon.

In 1977 local resident Manny Manis was digging on his property when he unearthed a large tusk. As his wife Claire tells the story, his first thought was that he’d found an elephant. Together, however, they had the good sense to find research archaeologists. A team from Washington State University excavated a mastodon whose age was subject of controversy until more current technologies aged it to over 13,000 years old.

The Manis Mastodon is of particular importance because there is evidence of scoring on the tusk from a human tool as well as a spear point embedded in a rib bone. It is evidence of one of the earliest interactions between humans and mastodons in the Americas. The site is also one of the oldest in North America.

The dig site was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and was donated to the Archaeological Conservancy in 2000.

Click here for more information about the Manis Mastodon Site. It’s an interesting story. The exhibit at Sequim Museum and Art Center tells the story as well, along with a large rendering of a mastodon with some of the unearthed bones.

Hometown heroes

Last Saturday we went to the Sequim Museum and Art Center. The museum is now located in a new facility that opened last July. It was a quick visit but I’ll share highlights. I’ll show photos of the facility in another post later.

In addition to information about local industries and other general Sequim history, the museum highlights a couple of our local heroes. One is Joe Rantz, shown in the center, above, with other members of his University of Washington crew team. Joe, a Sequim resident, was extensively profiled in The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. Joe’s team, comprised of a group of gritty working class students, excelled against all odds to win a berth at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Then they won an Olympic gold medal. The museum has an interesting exhibit and information about Joe and his team, including a video showing their extraordinary victory. A rowing shell by the famous builder George Pocock is also on display. (Whether or not you’re interested in rowing The Boys in the Boat is well worth reading.)

Matt Dryke, a skeet shooter, is another Sequim resident with Olympic gold to his name (1984). He also has numerous golds and silvers from many championship competitions. A list next to Matt’s photos lists 20 competitions from 1979 to 1992 with top honors, including world records and a three trips to the Olympics. Matt and his family operate the local Sunnydell shooting range. Matt is honored locally by a bronze bust at Carrie Blake Park. I posted a photo in 2013 here.

I’ll share a unique piece of Sequim history from the museum tomorrow. Then I’ll get back to some of my November travels.

Surprise murals

I took my winter-grimed car to a do-it-yourself car wash recently and when I finished I drove through to a set of murals on the back of Sequim’s Museum and Art Center. I’ve been in the front door but not the back. Here was a mural titled “Nicole Brownfield Rowland,” a woman I assume is from one of our pioneer families.

Bob Matriotti and Herb Lehman are named in this mural.

And here are two unnamed folks I’m calling The Apple People. I didn’t check carefully but it doesn’t look like these murals are signed.

The Sequim Museum and Art Center is scheduled to move this summer into a new building currently under construction on North Sequim Road. I don’t know if these murals on their current Cedar Street building will move, too.