Polson Museum Director Larson celebrates 20 years on job

Friends of the museum, volunteers, local historians attend Sunday event

By Dan Hammock • January 24, 2017 10:00 pm
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Polson Museum Director John Larson (right) celebrated 20 years at the helm at a reception Sunday at the museum. Here he checks out the museum’s yet-to-open John Tylczak exhibition of photos featuring local loggers in the 1980s with former Daily World editor and current chief historian for the state’s oral history program.
Polson Museum Director John Larson (right) celebrated 20 years at the helm at a reception Sunday at the museum. Here he checks out the museum’s yet-to-open John Tylczak exhibition of photos featuring local loggers in the 1980s with former Daily World editor and current chief historian for the state’s oral history program.

Polson Museum Director John Larson celebrated 20 years in the position at an event held at the museum Sunday afternoon.

Dozens of people attended the celebration, including a number of museum volunteers and board members and former Daily World editor and well-known local historian John Hughes.

Larson is from the Hoquiam area but got his college education in Chicago. After graduating and gaining some museum experience there, he was called back to Hoquiam “when the museum board decided if they wanted to survive and grow, they needed a full-time director,” said Larson. That was two decades ago, and the museum has flourished under Larson’s direction.

Hughes, who is currently chief historian for the state’s oral history program housed in the Secretary of State’s Office, presented Larson with a copy of his latest book, Washington Remembers WWII. The pair then took in a preview of a photography exhibit, Views from the Northwoods, which features pictures of the local timber industry captured by photographer John Tylczak in the 1980s. That exhibit officially opens Feb. 1, and there will be an artist reception and official opening Feb. 18, attended by Tylczak.

Kathy Quigg, who spent decades as a photographer with The Daily World, currently serves as Polson Museum board treasurer and was also in attendance. Those in attendance mingled and toured the historic home, which houses artifacts from Grays Harbor history dating to pre-Civil War times.

Larson talked about the museum’s Polson Logging Company 45 locomotive project. In May 2015, the 45-ton 1906 Baldwin 2-6-2 train was purchased by the museum and returned to Hoquiam. Volunteers and donations are needed to complete the massive restoration project, which Larson said will ramp up once again “once the weather gets a little better.” Larson encourages donations of time and money for the project, housed in the replica Railroad Camp Locomotive Shop, located next to the museum. Anyone interested in helping can visit the project’s Facebook page, Polson 45 restoration.

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