Many libraries are embellished with significant pieces of art found in the building or on the immediate grounds, enhancing their attractiveness to patrons and visitors. Not too long ago I had the opportunity to visit the Ellensburg Public Library, where I encountered quite a remarkable collection of art works. If you’re in Ellensburg, it’s worth a visit to the library just to check them out!

Many of the art pieces there grace the exterior building and grounds. These ranged from the brightly colored mural on the adjacent Hal Holmes Center building, to the charming if slightly disconcerting Kitt Coyote who greets you as you approach the library entrance. On the day I visited, he was flourishing a brightly colored bouquet of flowers that someone had handed to him.

I hope you’ll follow the links to view several more pictures of these pieces and more. Look for the appealing bas relief of a girl and boy sharing a book under the apple trees, with a mountain in the background.

Not to mention the impressive labyrinth, depicting the history of the county in four quadrants: In the Beginning; And Then People Came to Live; And Then People Built Towns and Industries; And Now Our Hands Build for the Future.

Inside you’ll encounter the beautiful Margaret Holms Memorial stained glass window, depicting a woman reading to children, while a couple of engaging dogs look on. Brightly colored ceramic tiles and earth toned vases by a local artist ornament another room. The whimsical anthropomorphic stepping stool “whatsit” is apparently a favorite with the children, while kindergartners themselves painted the equally delightful “Tulip in the Kinder Garden” a splashily decorated exemplar of the “Cows Around Town” project.

Finally, I had the enjoyment of viewing several of Doc Hageman’s pieces fashioned from paper pill cups. Since those were a temporary exhibit while I was there, you probably won’t be lucky enough to see them if you visit now.

Art makes everyone’s day brighter, especially when it’s found @ the library!

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

When the following jokey editorial in The Ellensburg Capital was printed June 23, 1921, the 6-year old statewide experiment in Prohibition was clearly not being taken seriously. But a dark side to this light-hearted attitude later engulfed two individuals mentioned in this opinion piece:

 AH, HA! THE SECRET IS NO LONGER A SECRET! WHO IS SELLING LIQUOR?

 “Listen, dear reader: It is said that liquor is being sold in Ellensburg.”

 “My goodness! Can you imagine anything like that? Why, what is the county coming to? Is it possible the fair name of our city is being fairly or unfairly so flagrantly flaunted that this matter has become public property and is being talked about upon the street corners? And has it reached the stage where officers of the law mention it? Can this be true? Again we say, can this be true?”

 “Is it possible that a bottle of the elixir of life can be bought or bartered for within the corporate limits of this city? Again we say, can it? Oh, this is simply awful! It surely cannot was. If this IS true, we would like to have someone explain to us the whyness of the whichitude. Things have come to a pretty pass when the bootlegger is brought under public suspicion. Has the public no heart? Would it take away the living, the bread and butter from the mouth of the illegal dispenser of coffin varnish and force him to work and earn his living by the sweat of his brow like honest people? Shades of Peruna, this is heart-rending! Bring on the smelling salts ere we faint. We are surely plumb flabbergasted.”

“The bootlegger came in for considerable discussion at the council meeting last Monday night when that body and City Attorney Kern were informed that liquor is being sold in Ellensburg. They were told that city police officers were refused search warrants when they desired the same to search premises where they thought liquor was being sold. Police Judge Flynn stated that he had refused to issue the warrants for the reason that he believed he had no legal right to issue them and he took his position from the fact that a superior court judge in Bellingham had handed down a decision a few months ago to that effect.”

“Chief of Police Tucker stated to the council that he had been unable to obtain search warrants but that on different occasions he had taken county officers to places which he had under suspicion. Night Officer Edmundson told the council that he is convinced that liquor is being sold in Ellensburg but that he had been unable to procure search warrants.”

“City Attorney Kern stated that he will look into the matter thoroughly that is into the legal part of the proposition– and find out if there is anything which prevents the police judge from issuing the search warrants. He said that the municipality would be bound only by the decision of the local superior court or the state supreme court.”

“What we can’t understand is what lead anybody to think that ‘hard licker’ is being exchanged for coin of the realm right here in Ellensburg. Why, this is the county seat of Kittitas county and surely nobody would have the nerve to offer for sale alcohol or its by-products here. Now if someone wanted to go six or seven miles out in the country and buy one or two 16-gallon kegs of Canadian whisky, that’s a different thing. But to for one minute presume that whisky can be purchased right here is astounding. But, of course, you can never tell, there may be something to it after all. However, if nothing develops to warrant the issuing of a warrant someone should be spoken to in a harsh tone of voice. Our curiosity has a reached a point where it is 125 degrees above the city hall and we wait with fevered brow and parched tongue for news from headquarters.”

“If there be bootleggers in our midst we say it is no time for idle chatter, no time for mollycoddle stuff. The powers that be should repeat the words of Benjamin Franklin as he stood shoulder to shoulder with Davy Crockett at the battle of the Alamo, ‘Officer, do you duty; let the corks fall where they may.'”

The Ellensburg Capital ran from 1887 to about 1951. WSL has an almost complete run available on microfilm and interlibrary loan.

In his History of the Yakima Valley, Washington (1919) (also available in digital form from WSL) , W.D. Lyman writes: “The name of the paper was a pointer in the direction of the expectations of the proprietor and his fellow citizens to the future official status of the metropolis of the Kittitas. But alas, like many of the hopes of ‘mice and men,’ which the Scottish bard assures, and with more truth than in some of his sayings, ‘gang aft agley,’ this hope was dissipated and all the ‘capital’ Ellensburgers have to fill the cavity with is the name of the newspaper, a city block, and an addition.”

Judge Mathew E. Flynn, had come to Washington Territory as an army soldier and was discharged at  Vancouver around 1884. He had lived in Ellensburg since 1886, was elected Mayor in 1904 and served for a couple terms. He was a Justice of the Peace in that city from 1914 to his death on his 76th birthday, August 26, 1930.

Francis Asbury Kern, known as “F.A.,” was an attorney who arrived in Ellensburg from his native Virginia in 1909. In 1912 he won the election for Prosecuting Attorney as a member of Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party. He is chiefly remembered as a key figure in the completion of the High Line Canal, the largest irrigation project in the Ellensburg area. F.A. died at age 77 in 1961. Kern’s photo is featured in the Ellensburg portion of WSL’s Washington Rural Heritage collection.

William A. “Salty Bill” Edmondson joined the Ellensburg PD in 1918. It was a career move that eventually landed him the Chief position from 1937-1939. He died in Seattle at age 62 on June 4, 1941. His photo is also included in the Ellensburg portion of WSL’s Washington Rural Heritage collection. He’s the gentleman on the left.

The fate of Chief Alva Tucker and officer Edmondson casts a shadow over the humor in the editorial above. On the evening of July 2, 1927 the two officers confronted Johnny Emerson, a young bootlegger. The three men had a long personal history of playing cat and mouse. Without any words a shootout took place on a downtown street. When the smoke had lifted, both Tucker and Emerson were dead.

Tucker, who was 53 at the time of his death, left behind a widow and four children. He is the only police officer in Ellensburg history to have been killed in the line of duty. In 1998 he was a Washington State Medal of Honor recipient and his name is included on the Law Enforcement Memorial on the Capitol Campus, a reminder that Prohibition had a dark side.

Random News from the Newspapers on Microfilm Collection: An Odd Story About the Odds

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

This tale of coincidence caught my eye as I was perusing through the Yakima Herald. It can be found on page 3 of the May 30, 1889 issue, less than six months before Washington became a state:

The Strange Story of Dick See

“The story of the arrest of Richard See, who was recently taken from Ellensburgh to California, on a requisition charging him with murder, is an interesting one. Seventeen years ago See’s father and William Duncan were playing cards in a saloon in Los Angeles. A dispute arose and Duncan struck See in the face. Dick See, who was then a young man, was present and was greatly incensed. He left the saloon, went home, saddled his father’s fleetest horse, took his gun, carefully loaded it with buckshot, and went back to the saloon. When he arrived there the quarrel had been settled and the elder See and Duncan were in the act of drinking together at the bar. Young See deliberately pointed his gun and fired and Duncan dropped dead. The murderer fled to Winnemucca where for sixteen years his identity was lost under the name Bennett Jackson. A year ago he moved to Cle-Elum and resumed the name of See for the purpose of getting his share of an estate left by his grandmother. While in Cle-Elum he committed robbery and during his trial at Ellensburgh a stranger dropped into the court room. This stranger proved to have been one of those who were present in the Los Angeles saloon at the time of the shooting, and he recognized See as the murderer. He notified the California authorities, extradition papers were gotten out and when See’s sentence for robbery expired Detective W.H. Russell, of Los Angeles, was promptly on hand and took the prisoner in charge. This is only another verification of the old adage that ‘Murder will out’.”

Wow. What were the odds?

These were apparently real two-fisted times for central Washington Territory. Included in a neighboring “Local Brevities” column is this: “Ellensburgh is thronged with rough characters and a special force of police is required to maintain order.”

As part of their 2009 Washington Rural Heritage grant work, funded by LSTA, four libraries have added brand new material to their previously published collections.

Whitman County Library widened their digitization efforts this year and offered scanning services to patrons of all libraries in their district. Whitman County Heritage now includes material from all around the county — users can browse items by community from their home page and are able to view rare images from small towns like Ewan, Sunset, Malden and many more. The collection also includes items from several local cultural institutions. Be sure to check out the Palouse Empire Fair Collection, taken from scrapbooks containing ephemera and photos ranging from fair royalty and 4-H sewing entries to livestock and prize-winning exhibits. Even catch a celebrity sighting — local sons John Crawford and Yakima Canutt, famed actors from the 1970s, visited the fair.

Ellensburg Heritage now includes the Historic Transportation Photograph Collection, showcasing the planes, trains, automobiles, carriages and ferries used by travelers in decades past. See snowplows tunneling through 30 feet of snow, panoramic shots of the Ellensburg Air Base (be sure to zoom in for awesome detail!), and even a gang of ‘motorcycle fiends‘ that cruised around Ellensburg in the 1910s, “finding enjoyment in riding their machines up the precipice at the east end of Fourth Street.” Ellensburg also added to the Fred L. Breckon Historic Portraits Collection. See the town’s baker, doctor, and mayor.

This grant cycle, Columbia County Rural Library District embarked on a new effort to digitize graves from area cemeteries. View individual headstones from Bundy Hollow Cemetery, Covello Cemetery, and Highland Cemetery. Headstones are organized by cemetery and listed alphabetically on the left. Click a name to view the deceased’s headstone.

Newcomer Denny Ashby Library added the Garfield County Schoolhouse Collection to Pomeroy Heritage, featuring now-and-then images of the county’s schoolhouses, class photos and scenes from student life, including a rural tennis match. The collection also now includes images and video footage of the tramways used by area farmers to transport grain in the high bluffs to boats located on the Snake River. This ingenious system enabled farmers to quickly move their harvest several miles and to a much lower elevation without the aid of horses.

Our fourth year is off to a fantastic start as we bring in brand new projects, revitalize some old ones and continue with several more. Washington Rural Heritage will fund seven projects through funds made available by a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

• Asotin County Library will partner with the Asotin County Museum to digitize historic photos, a collection of branding boards and various other items and artifacts in the museum’s collections.
• The Denny Ashby Library will create a collection documenting the small towns that once existed in Garfield County, including Columbia Center, Gould City, Mayview, Pataha City and Peola. Partners include the Garfield County Museum and citizens who will contribute items from private collections.
• Ellensburg Public Library will add the Building, Street Scenes, Town Views and Public School collection which will include images of primitive log structures and rural school houses as well as photos of ornate homes and early business buildings of downtown Ellensburg.
• Orcas Island Public Library and the Orcas Island Historical Museum will join forces to add to their existing collection that documents early island life through historic images, artifacts and documents.
• The Prosser Branch of Mid-Columbia Libraries will partner with the Benton County Museum and Historical Society and the Historic Downtown Prosser Association to create a collection around women in the valley, downtown Prosser, schools and dry-land farming/homesteading.
• The Sedro-Woolley Public Library and the Sedro-Woolley Museum will team up to digitize historic logging photos, pioneer photos and diaries, and items documenting the elephant escape of 1922.
• Whitman County Library will partner with several museums, historical societies, business and private citizens as it continues to digitize photos, documents and ephemera representing historic rural life from all parts of the county.

Congratulations to these Washington libraries!

Washington Rural Heritage introduced Ellensburg Heritage last year with the stunning Rodeo Collection, documenting 40 years of one of the top 25 rodeos in the country. Their sophomore effort brings us three new collections (and a few more rodeo photographs, too!).

The Kittitas Valley Crossroads Collection contains nearly 200 historic images depicting Indian life in Ellensburg and the surrounding area. It features the work of local photographers as well as a sampling from Eli Emor James, Lee Moorhouse, Vibert Jeffers, and Frank Matsura. The images include portraits of Indians in both traditional and Western dress, photos of pictographs from Rock Island, and scenes of recreation and domestic life.

The Ida Nason Collection is the personal photograph collection of Ellensburg citizen Ida Joseph Nason Aronica. A great-granddaughter of Yakama Chief Owhi, she dedicated her life to the preservation of her native heritage and culture. See images of her weaving and beadwork, family photos – her daughters were Ellensburg Rodeo royalty in 1929, and beautiful portraits of Ida as a young girl and in her later years.

The Fred L. Breckon Historic Portraits Collection is the work of amateur photographer Fred Beckon, an Ellensburg native who captured his fellow citizens in candid shots around town. These portraits date from the early 1940s to 1966 and are accompanied by short biographical information jotted down at the time the photo was taken, giving a very personal glimpse into Ellensburg’s history. Learn more about everyone from a poet to the postmaster.

View Ellensburg Public Library’s entire collection at: http://www.washingtonruralheritage.org/ellensburg. To view their newest 2008 grant material, click here.