Lopez Island Historical Society & Museum

Lopez Island Historical Society & Museum The Lopez Island Historical Society collects, preserves & shares local history. Open Wednesday-Sunday, 11:00AM-4:30PM, May-October.

Call or email for a research appointment. The one constant characteristic of history is that things change. We work hard to collect and catalog important items that chronicle Lopez Island history. We make them available to you as exhibits and programs, archives, family records and photos. We help researchers discover long-lost family, and new islanders learn about their new home and neighbors. Our

vision is of an exciting, welcoming, educational place to learn family and local history, tell our stories, foster respect for our unique island and culture, and serve as a legacy for future generations.

We are so thankful to Jean Perry of Vortex Café for donating this beautiful sign painted by Brenna Jael that hung in Vor...
05/29/2026

We are so thankful to Jean Perry of Vortex Café for donating this beautiful sign painted by Brenna Jael that hung in Vortex Juice Bar and Café for 26 years.

And to Billy Post-Vanderberg of Island Custom Woodworks for helping us repurpose one of the iconic Vortex bars, originally designed by boatbuilder Russ Levine, for our new welcome desk. Russ is the reason why Jean and her family moved to MacCauley Farm in 1993.

You can read the full Vortex origin story in our exhibit Making Hay While the Sun Shines: 50 Years of Restaurants on Lopez, 1950-2000. The Museum is open Wednesday-Sunday, 11:00AM-4:30PM, now through October.

We are bringing back Our Ancestors Stories Cemetery Walk on Labor Day Weekend!We're excited to announce our semi-annual ...
05/22/2026

We are bringing back Our Ancestors Stories Cemetery Walk on Labor Day Weekend!

We're excited to announce our semi-annual collaboration with Lopez Union Cemetery will be back this Labor Day weekend. Join us Saturday evening 9/5 for a lecture on the San Juan Islands and the Civil War, and Sunday 9/6 for a tour of the lives and stories of the Civil War veterans who lived and are buried on Lopez.

If you are a descendant of one of the 25 Union soldiers who lived on Lopez, or are interested in researching a veteran and telling their story, please reach out to [email protected]

Charles Bartlett, James Bloor, John Boley, George Bolton, Taylor Brittendal, Charles Cantine, John Carle, Hamilton Carr, Oscar Perry Carr, Sampson Chadwick, Ezra Davison, Albert Dill, George Ham, James Hammond, George Johnson, Willard Johnson, Charles Kent, Peter Landin, Isaac Lichtenberg, Melvin Pierce, Levi Randall, George Richardson, Albion Ridley, John Sperry, Charles Stedelin, Loring Thompson, Franklin Troxell, and Lyman Weeks.

Photo One: John Sainor Carle. (2002.001.00942)
Photo Two: Mr. and Mrs. John Sperry. (1985.001.00212)
Photo Three: Loring F. Thompson. (2021.044.00072)
Photo Four: George Meder Johnson. (2002.001.00124)
Photo Five: Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Carr. (1985.001.00338)
Photo Six: Peter Landin and Mrs. Carl Mueller, his niece, and her son, Edward. (1985.001.00410)
Photo Seven: Albert Dill. (1985.001.00364)
Photo Eight: James (Jim) Bloor. (1985.001.00322)

It's International Museum Day!We'd love to hear from you: what's your favorite thing about Lopez Museum?Photo One: Littl...
05/18/2026

It's International Museum Day!

We'd love to hear from you: what's your favorite thing about Lopez Museum?

Photo One: Little Thelma Wilson standing on stool next to telephone switchboard, c. 1920. The photo reads: "Yes this is Central." 1985.001.00277.
Photo Two: First Director of the Lopez Museum, Nancy McCoy at an antique switchboard inside the Museum. 2002.001.01358.

The Museum will be CLOSED 5/16 in support of the Gathering of the Eagles (Esqalph etse Kwelengsen) 6th Annual Canoe Jour...
05/13/2026

The Museum will be CLOSED 5/16 in support of the Gathering of the Eagles (Esqalph etse Kwelengsen) 6th Annual Canoe Journey!

The Gathering of the Eagles calls people together from the Salish Sea region and beyond in a celebration of place, culture, and connection. This year we anticipate hosting 1 Lummi canoe family, 1 Puyallap canoe family from Chief Leschi Schools, and 2 Hawaiian canoe families.

Join us in welcoming the Journey, 1PM at Spencer Spit on Saturday, May 16. Then bring your favorite dish (and plates and utensils!) for a potluck 7PM at the Lopez Center.

11:30AM, Sunday, May 17, learn how to clam dig the Coast Salish way (non-tribal members need licenses - available at IMC!) at Spencer Spit. Then watch the documentary Last Stand: Saving the Elena River's Legacy forests, followed by a Q&A with Elizabeth Dunne and Gathering of the Eagles founder Freddie Lane (Lummi) at the Lopez Center. A potluck will follow for volunteers and friends of the canoe journey (bring a dish, plates, and utensils!)

The Journey continues onto San Juan and Orcas, May 18-22.

Get ready for the next lecture in our Speakers' Series!Help us welcome historian Lorraine McConaghy for her talk Olympia...
05/07/2026

Get ready for the next lecture in our Speakers' Series!

Help us welcome historian Lorraine McConaghy for her talk Olympia to Victoria: An Enslaved Boy's Voyage to Freedom on Thursday, June 25, 6:30PM at the Lopez Center.

Lorraine's talk is based on her book, FREE BOY, the biography of Charles Mitchell, an enslaved boy held in Olympia, Washington Territory. In 1860, Mitchell was recruited to the Puget Sound maritime “Underground Railroad” by a trio of African-Canadian men. His flight to freedom in Victoria on board the international mail steamer Eliza Anderson became an international incident, and the flashpoint for discussion of race in the antebellum territory.

Speaker bio:
Lorraine McConaghy earned the Ph.D. in history at the University of Washington in 1992, and has worked in public history as a museum historian since that time. Winner of the Robert Gray Medal, McConaghy’s research has emphasized the maritime Pacific Northwest, 1850-1870, although she is currently working on an encounter between an indigenous man and the crew of the USS DECATUR in the Strait of Magellan.

Can’t help but giggle about this photo! Lopez Island Picnic - Bellingham. "Best Bald Heads", Lee Biggs, George Gallanger...
05/05/2026

Can’t help but giggle about this photo! Lopez Island Picnic - Bellingham. "Best Bald Heads", Lee Biggs, George Gallanger, Cliff Gawley.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to GiveLopez this year! We raised just under $6000, which will help pay for materi...
05/03/2026

Thank you to everyone who contributed to GiveLopez this year! We raised just under $6000, which will help pay for materials for the front porch and new gutters. We are so grateful for everyone’s contributions, and those who have volunteered to help make it all happen!

And here is another fun photo of high school students at Port Stanley in 1939, when the school district was consolidated, but the new school wasn’t built yet. The district housed grades by age groups in the various schoolhouses, bussing the kids around the island. And imagine - there was no electricity in the schoolhouse!

In this photo: 1939, Mr. Hill & Mr. Gray, teachers. Front Row: 1. Clark Lovejoy, 2. Eldon Weeks, 3. Lawrence Wilson, 4. Art Kilpatrick, 5. Warren Townsend, 6. Bud Gallanger, 7. Garner McCauley, 8. Dallas Spencer, 9. Willard Lynn. 2nd Row: 1. Alma Coffelt, 2. Margaret Lampard, 3. Erma Coffelt, 4. Mary McLeod, 5. Alberta Peterson, 6. Winnie Gallanger, 7. Aletha Bosch, 8. Rhea (Marie) Lee, 9. Donald Fagerholm, 10. Charles Lampard, 11. Art Norman. 3rd Row: 1. Adele Richey, 2. Jean Tralnes, 3. Esther Tralnes, 4. Margie McCauley, 5. Johanna Neilsen, 6. Mary Lovejoy, 7. Alda Goodrow, 8. Edna Gaddis, 9. Willard Gray (teacher). 4th Row: 1. Aubrey Whitcomb, Jr., 2. Ona Jean Gallanger, Esther Weeks, 3. Millard Roberts, 4. Jim Hastin, 5. John Hill (teacher).

Today’s the first day of Lingcod Season — if you head out, we hope you have as much fun as Clark Lovejoy did circa 1930!...
05/01/2026

Today’s the first day of Lingcod Season — if you head out, we hope you have as much fun as Clark Lovejoy did circa 1930! Happy Fishing

We're open for the season!Join us at the Lopez Museum, 11:30AM-4:00PM, Wednesday-Sunday, May through October. Come see o...
05/01/2026

We're open for the season!

Join us at the Lopez Museum, 11:30AM-4:00PM, Wednesday-Sunday, May through October.

Come see or revisit our latest exhibit Making Hay While the Sun Shines: Restaurants of Lopez, 1950-2000; explore impacts of the colonization on the Straits Salish in Sx'wálech to Lopez; learn about steamships and their captains in Maritime Lopez; flip through A Photo Album of Island Life: 1880s - 1950s; check out the habitats of non-human residents in Wild Lopez; get hands on with coloring pages and scavenger hunts in our Children's Corner.

We can't wait to see you!

Photo One: Horn of Plenty Café, Northwest Corner Catalog, 1985. Left to right: Gail Pollack (seated), Deborah Bonnville, Wendy Westervelt, Ellen ?
Photo Two: Henry Cayou on Flat Point, 1948 - 2002.001.00515
Photo Three: Steamship Rosalie (right), Oscar Weeks in skiff (left) at Lopez - 2021.043.00093
Photo Four: Hodgson-Graham Cannery Workers on Wander Inn Porch, Richardson, taken by Ethel Nichols, 1915. Left to right: Vesta Nichols, Gertrude Wilson, Victoria Porter, Mabel Marchant, Abbie Hammond, Ethel Bruns, Eva Thornton, Gladys Burt - 1985.001.00292
Photo Five: Illustration of a gray wolf by Sandra Arbogast
Photo Six: Kids on Tumble Inn porch, circa 1938. Left to right: Don Erb, Bruce Kilpatrick, Bonnie Williamson, Herb Reese - 2002.001.00763

For the final installment of our series in honor of National Poetry Month we offer this poem by David Kailin. David Kail...
04/28/2026

For the final installment of our series in honor of National Poetry Month we offer this poem by David Kailin. David Kailin is a poet who writes "laconic poetry and zenedictions" from Bend Oregon. He visited Lopez island and gifted us this poem in October of 2025. The poem is titled "dense loaves of shadowy land."

Photo: Klickitat pulling out old wing wall, Lopez ferry dock, September, 1964. New wing wall in front of floating crane. A woman watches on from the bank on the left.

Address

28 Washburn Place/P. O. Box 163
Lopez Island, WA
98261

Opening Hours

Wednesday 11am - 4:30pm
Thursday 11am - 4:30pm
Friday 11am - 4:30pm
Saturday 11am - 4:30pm
Sunday 11am - 4:30pm

Telephone

(360) 468-2049

Website

http://lopezmuseum.org/, https://www.youtube.com/wat

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