Museum puts together book on Valley history
December 3, 2008
By Staff
By Michael Bayless Rowe
For years, Dave Battey at the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum and other volunteers have been scanning historical photos and building the museum’s image library. Now some of those images, along with a 1956 record of the community, are available to the public in a new book.
Dave Battey examines the book about Valley history he helped assemble.
Three years ago, Snoqualmie City Council member and former Mayor Charles Peterson contacted Battey with an idea. Peterson wanted to republish a collection of the area’s history put together in 1956. His goal was to have a document to give the current city leaders as a resource for understanding the community’s history. Little did he know, Battey and others were already at work retyping the 68-page historical collection.
The original work was titled “A Report of the History Committee of Snoqualmie Community Development Program.” It chronicled the history of the Valley from 1855 to 1956.
Many of the remaining copies of the book contain deteriorating and yellowed mimeographed pages. The condition was so poor that optical character recognition could not be used to scan the contents of the book. The Valley’s historical society wanted to update the work, not just by retyping its pages, but adding some of the pictures from the museum’s image library.
The finished result is 117 pages with many historical photos related to the information in the book.
On Nov. 24, council member Peterson had the opportunity to hand each council member, the mayor and city attorney, copies of the updated book. Peterson noted that the book contained stories from local community members who were just like the men and women on the present City Council.
“Snoqualmie’s history is fun,” said Battey. He added that the council members would learn quite a bit about their community from the book.
A glance at the contributor’s page to the book presents an interesting link between the past and present. Among the named contributors was Mrs. E. R. Opstad, wife of the former superintendent of the Snoqualmie Valley School District. Opstad Elementary in North Bend was named after the former superintendent.
In addition to the pages of historical photos, the book also contains original artwork by Stewart Swenson, a relative of Battey, who illustrated the 1956 work.
The book is available to purchase at the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum for $25. The museum is located at 320 North Bend Blvd. S., North Bend, WA 98045. Copies of the book may also be ordered from the museum’s website at www.snoqualmievalleymuseum.org.
Reach reporter Michael Bayless Rowe at mrowe@snovalleystar.com or 425-392-6434 Ext. 248.
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