The Wreckage
by Larry Weathers
Editor's Note: The Wreckage is a beach cabin. In the summer of 1979 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The story which follows is edited from the nomination form I wrote and presented to the Washington State Advisory Council on Historic Preservation April 30, 1979.
Guy Selwin Allison was the creator and builder of the Wreckage in 1912. He was born in Hannibal, Mo., in 1883, and came to the Washington coast as a young man. Beginning in 1898 he spent his summers on the Peninsula with his brother, J.C. (Joseph Clarence), and his sister, Mrs. Bertha Allison Tompkins, a pioneer teacher in Pacific County. In 1906 he attended the Normal School in Bellingham and later taught school in Tacoma from 1907 to 1909. In the 1930s he became famous on the west coast for his syndicated column "Bypaths of History". He also wrote thousands of short stories for various publications, published a book of poems in 1918, and authored pamphlets concerning the life of President Lincoln, James G. Swan, and others. Many of his works were written at his desk in the Wreckage.
The twenty-five miles of windy peninsula beach and the busy resort village of Ocean Park attracted Guy from his first visit. In early spring 1910 he purchased two lots in the plat of Ocean Park with his brother J.C. In August, Guy and his bride, Virginia, spent their honeymoon in a tent on the newly purchased property. It wasn't until the winter of 1911 that plans were made for a permanent beach cabin.
In the winter of 1911, a huge raft of fir logs headed for San Francisco crossed the Columbia River bar and split apart in high seas. Tugboats were unable to hold the large raft together and for the next few weeks logs were hurled upon the beaches from Tillamook Head, Oregon, to Leadbetter Point, Washington. Guy saw the logs bleaching in the sun near Ocean Park and pulled them behind the sand ridge to his property.
During the same winter a steam freighter named the Washington narrowly averted disaster inside the mouth of the Columbia. The crew jettisoned a large portion of the tongue-and-groove lumber on board allowing the freighter to draw back from the sandspits. High winds and surf piled much of the jetsam on the beaches. Walking among the debris Guy conceived the idea of combining the logs and lumber into a loghouse which he whimsically dubbed "The Wreckage".
In the "Register of the Wreckage", an informal history of the cabin, Guy wrote that it "seemed a wonderful opportunity to procure material for a house." The cabin pattern he had in mind was based on a log-fluted blockhouse he had seen in Sitka, Alaska. His cabin was the only structure erected from the deposits of the two Columbia River calamities. "The remainder was either used as firewood, or has rotted on the beach", according to the register.
The Wreckage register comes in three volumes. The first was started on July 9, 1913, and closed on September 7, 1927. It contains lists of guests, a history of the construction, a few pictures and anecdotes connected with guests and parties held there. Volume two is much larger and was started for Guy by his brother on September 7, 1927. J.C. wrote that it was "intended to provide the means for continuing the story of those who will make this house their vacation home, and to be a register for the visitors who enjoy its hospitality....Since volume number one of the register was started, G.S. Allison, builder and owner, estimates 5000 persons have entered its doors." Both registers are now in the possession of the Roy Gardner family, current owners, who have started a third volume.
The register records that the only tools used in the work of erecting the cabin were an axe, saw, hatchet, screwdriver, froe, and block and tackle. Guy, J.C., and friends did the carpentry work. Among the friends was Zetley Matthews. Zetley, like his father S.A., was a local carpenter who had a hand in building many of the beach cabins of Ocean Park.
The interior furnishings of the cabin enhanced the reputation of the Wreckage just as much as the exterior did. The logs were left unhewn on the inside and the flooring on both levels was made from the salvaged tongue-and-groove lumber. The fireplace was designed by J.C. in the spring of 1915 from 1000 rocks brought from a quarry on the north point of Long Island, in Willapa Bay. The Allisons imbedded a whiskey bottle in the concrete as a time capsule and stuffed it with newspapers and memorabilia. In an Oregonian article written in July 1931 by novelist and historian Walker A. Tompkins, nephew of Guy and J.C., Guy is quoted as saying, "The christening liquor was poured on the house, not down the necks of the builders."
In the 1 930s Guy planned to open the Wreckage as a museum, or what he referred to as the "Flotsam and Jetsam Brothers Zoo". Later, he had a brochure printed which called his cabin "The Wreckage Zoo". The main attraction of the zoo was to be his private collection of fifty animals shaped from driftwood. He claimed the driftwood shapes he displayed were natural shapes from the sea. Closer inspection revealed that he had cemented some of his zoo pieces together to get the shape he desired.
The zoo never did open. Mrs. Allison objected to her husband's idea, and he diverted his energy to other projects. Only a couple of the animals survive today. Pictures show that a fence was made out of the collection, and it is likely that passers-by borrowed pieces of it over the years. During the time that Guy was planning the grand opening, the collection was the subject of a "Ripley's Believe It or Not" item and a Hix's "Strange As It Seems" cartoon.
At one time, there were several smaller out-buildings on the property surrounding the Wreckage. Several decades of neglect and continuing deterioration required that they be removed. One of the buildings was a double garage with a living loft overhead. It was built in 1926 and nicknamed "The Wreckagette". Another was a Finnish sauna and privy built in 1928. It was nicknamed "The Wrectorium".
There are lots of resort cabins on the Peninsula which were built from salvaged materials from the sea, but few of them are as unique as the Wreckage.
_______________
This article appears courtesy of the Pacific County Historical Society and Museum, South Bend WA. It originally appeared in the Sou'wester - Winter, 1983 - vol 18 - no 4.
by Larry Weathers
Editor's Note: The Wreckage is a beach cabin. In the summer of 1979 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The story which follows is edited from the nomination form I wrote and presented to the Washington State Advisory Council on Historic Preservation April 30, 1979.
Guy Selwin Allison was the creator and builder of the Wreckage in 1912. He was born in Hannibal, Mo., in 1883, and came to the Washington coast as a young man. Beginning in 1898 he spent his summers on the Peninsula with his brother, J.C. (Joseph Clarence), and his sister, Mrs. Bertha Allison Tompkins, a pioneer teacher in Pacific County. In 1906 he attended the Normal School in Bellingham and later taught school in Tacoma from 1907 to 1909. In the 1930s he became famous on the west coast for his syndicated column "Bypaths of History". He also wrote thousands of short stories for various publications, published a book of poems in 1918, and authored pamphlets concerning the life of President Lincoln, James G. Swan, and others. Many of his works were written at his desk in the Wreckage.
The twenty-five miles of windy peninsula beach and the busy resort village of Ocean Park attracted Guy from his first visit. In early spring 1910 he purchased two lots in the plat of Ocean Park with his brother J.C. In August, Guy and his bride, Virginia, spent their honeymoon in a tent on the newly purchased property. It wasn't until the winter of 1911 that plans were made for a permanent beach cabin.
In the winter of 1911, a huge raft of fir logs headed for San Francisco crossed the Columbia River bar and split apart in high seas. Tugboats were unable to hold the large raft together and for the next few weeks logs were hurled upon the beaches from Tillamook Head, Oregon, to Leadbetter Point, Washington. Guy saw the logs bleaching in the sun near Ocean Park and pulled them behind the sand ridge to his property.
During the same winter a steam freighter named the Washington narrowly averted disaster inside the mouth of the Columbia. The crew jettisoned a large portion of the tongue-and-groove lumber on board allowing the freighter to draw back from the sandspits. High winds and surf piled much of the jetsam on the beaches. Walking among the debris Guy conceived the idea of combining the logs and lumber into a loghouse which he whimsically dubbed "The Wreckage".
In the "Register of the Wreckage", an informal history of the cabin, Guy wrote that it "seemed a wonderful opportunity to procure material for a house." The cabin pattern he had in mind was based on a log-fluted blockhouse he had seen in Sitka, Alaska. His cabin was the only structure erected from the deposits of the two Columbia River calamities. "The remainder was either used as firewood, or has rotted on the beach", according to the register.
The Wreckage register comes in three volumes. The first was started on July 9, 1913, and closed on September 7, 1927. It contains lists of guests, a history of the construction, a few pictures and anecdotes connected with guests and parties held there. Volume two is much larger and was started for Guy by his brother on September 7, 1927. J.C. wrote that it was "intended to provide the means for continuing the story of those who will make this house their vacation home, and to be a register for the visitors who enjoy its hospitality....Since volume number one of the register was started, G.S. Allison, builder and owner, estimates 5000 persons have entered its doors." Both registers are now in the possession of the Roy Gardner family, current owners, who have started a third volume.
The register records that the only tools used in the work of erecting the cabin were an axe, saw, hatchet, screwdriver, froe, and block and tackle. Guy, J.C., and friends did the carpentry work. Among the friends was Zetley Matthews. Zetley, like his father S.A., was a local carpenter who had a hand in building many of the beach cabins of Ocean Park.
The interior furnishings of the cabin enhanced the reputation of the Wreckage just as much as the exterior did. The logs were left unhewn on the inside and the flooring on both levels was made from the salvaged tongue-and-groove lumber. The fireplace was designed by J.C. in the spring of 1915 from 1000 rocks brought from a quarry on the north point of Long Island, in Willapa Bay. The Allisons imbedded a whiskey bottle in the concrete as a time capsule and stuffed it with newspapers and memorabilia. In an Oregonian article written in July 1931 by novelist and historian Walker A. Tompkins, nephew of Guy and J.C., Guy is quoted as saying, "The christening liquor was poured on the house, not down the necks of the builders."
In the 1 930s Guy planned to open the Wreckage as a museum, or what he referred to as the "Flotsam and Jetsam Brothers Zoo". Later, he had a brochure printed which called his cabin "The Wreckage Zoo". The main attraction of the zoo was to be his private collection of fifty animals shaped from driftwood. He claimed the driftwood shapes he displayed were natural shapes from the sea. Closer inspection revealed that he had cemented some of his zoo pieces together to get the shape he desired.
The zoo never did open. Mrs. Allison objected to her husband's idea, and he diverted his energy to other projects. Only a couple of the animals survive today. Pictures show that a fence was made out of the collection, and it is likely that passers-by borrowed pieces of it over the years. During the time that Guy was planning the grand opening, the collection was the subject of a "Ripley's Believe It or Not" item and a Hix's "Strange As It Seems" cartoon.
At one time, there were several smaller out-buildings on the property surrounding the Wreckage. Several decades of neglect and continuing deterioration required that they be removed. One of the buildings was a double garage with a living loft overhead. It was built in 1926 and nicknamed "The Wreckagette". Another was a Finnish sauna and privy built in 1928. It was nicknamed "The Wrectorium".
There are lots of resort cabins on the Peninsula which were built from salvaged materials from the sea, but few of them are as unique as the Wreckage.
_______________
This article appears courtesy of the Pacific County Historical Society and Museum, South Bend WA. It originally appeared in the Sou'wester - Winter, 1983 - vol 18 - no 4.
