Winery to break ground Saturday on Mermaid Museum

By Kat Bryant

The Daily World

A groundbreaking ceremony for the International Mermaid Museum will be held Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Westport Winery Garden Resort.

The 3,888-square-foot museum will be built on the opposite side of the patio from the restaurant/winery. Upon completion next spring, it will educate visitors about ocean ecology immersed in mermaid mythology, according to founder Kim Roberts.

“We’ve kind of been maintaining an empty space of lawn all these years,” she said. “We will have to remove a little bit of the garden, but we’ll be able to salvage and reuse probably 90% of those plants in other areas.”

Roberts, a former licensed architect, is designing the facility and acting as general contractor. She also designed all of the other buildings on the property.

She and her husband, Blain, once owned a large scuba charter business in Hawaii. She calls diving “the last great adventure” for mankind, as it provides the most illuminating access to the underwater world — but not everyone has that kind of opportunity.

That’s the experience she hopes to replicate with this museum through color, lighting and texture.

“In an aquarium, you’re very much a bystander,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is immerse people, through storytelling and artifacts, in what it means to be a diver and explore the ocean.”

She intends for this project to serve as her legacy.

“We’re older now, and so are our peers in (the diving community),” she said. “And what we’ve found over the years is that we’ve all collected some amazing ocean artifacts and images — but our kids don’t want them.”

As a result, she has been able to collect numerous donations of artifacts and equipment from members of the dive community all over the country. For his part, Blain Roberts has donated his entire underwater photography collection.

Other local residents are contributing to the effort as well.

“Former County Commissioner Rolland Youmans was a Navy ‘Hard Hat’ salvage diver during World War II in Pearl Harbor after the attack,” said Roberts. “He brought home a Hard Hat helmet. And now his son, our former county coroner (Lane Youmans), and his wife have donated that to the museum.”

With this and some other artifacts, the museum will be able to depict the Hard Hat story alongside the Hawaiian mermaid mythology “and link these things together,” Roberts said.

Another Harborite has donated several mannequins, she said, which will be used to represent mermaids or divers.

Mermaid groups all over the country are committed to preserving the ocean’s ecology, Roberts said, and the ones in Seattle and Portland are “super excited that this first mermaid museum is in their backyard. It really gives them a home.”

During Saturday’s event, Una the Mermaid will greet visitors from her 900-gallon freshwater tank. A professional mermaid since 2012, she is the producer and owner of the Portlandia Mermaid Parade and the Traveling Fanta-Sea Cove in Oregon.

Members of the Seattle Mermaids group will also be there — but without their tails, Roberts said.

For the groundbreaking, North Cove metal artist Yosef Adams crafted “the ultimate mermaid shovel,” she said. In addition, he has been commissioned to create a 14-foot mermaid sculpture for the resort’s 15-acre sculpture and display garden. That piece will be unveiled at a later date.

The target date for the museum’s grand opening is March 29, 2021, which is not only International Mermaid Day, but also Westport Winery’s 13th anniversary.

Inquiries about donating funds, mermaid memorabilia or ocean artifacts may be made by emailing info@mermaidmuseum.org or kim@westportwinery.com. The museum is operating as a nonprofit organization, making all donations tax-deductible. All attendees on Saturday will be required to wear masks and observe social distancing protocol during the outdoor festivities.

For general information and updates, visit www.mermaidmuseum.org.