on the road: Cape Flattery and the Makah Museum

We drove the scenic and VERY winding (over 200 curves on this road!) Strait of Juan de Fuca National Scenic Byway up to Cape Flattery through Sekiu and Clallam Bay, where Jim met a delightfully quirky salmon wholesaler and bought us a fabulous whole (just caught that morning) salmon and some smoked salmon. He had rules written on posters inside the converted garage that was his outlet. His primary business is wholesaling to upscale restaurants around the country, including Bellagio's and Mario Batali restaurants, etc. He will only buy from the small fishermen so they come in every day. (Large boats usually stay out for a week at a time.) One of his rules was that he only sells the whole fish, no portions. Another is that he will not pull a fish out of the ice to show you and then re-bury it if you decide it's too big. A third states that since his primary business is wholesaling, he doesn't care if you buy from him or not. In other words, not only does he not suffer fools lightly, he won't suffer fools, AT ALL!

On our way to Cape Flattery, we stopped at the wonderful Makah Museum in Neah Bay. The focus of the museum is the Ozette archeological collection. It is the largest of any U.S. tribe. Ozette was a centuries old tribal whaling village. In 1970 a storm caused tidal erosion that exposed a group of homes that were perfectly preserved in an ancient mudslide. There are over 55,000 artifacts that were recovered, all about 300-500 years old. The museum itself is a very spiritual place. It was extraordinary to learn of their history (particularly astounding was learning that they would go out in 8 man wooden canoes to hunt whales!). The Makah used to claim all of the northwestern part of the peninsula and now only have a fraction of that area.

Loved this entrance

A well-preserved thunderbird which has always been kept inside,
so is in excellent condition

Totem which
shows the effects
of being in the
elements

These are the types of canoes they used.

The Makah were traditionally a whale-hunting culture. When they entered into a treaty with the
U.S. government to give up much of their land, their right to continue their tradition of hunting whales was recognized. They voluntarily gave up that right when later they recognized that the whale was over-hunted and in danger of extinction. Later, when the whale populations had recovered, they once again engaged in their historical cultural ability to hunt the whale. An expedition went out in replicas of the ancient boats and brought back the first whale which fed the entire community. The bones of that whale were reconstructed and are now housed in the museum (above).

Following the treaty, they were denied the use of nets to catch smaller fish, as this was a newer practice. After the archeological discovery of ancient Ozette, they found evidence proving that their ancestors used nets over 500 years ago. They sued for the right to continue to use nets and won.

Next on the agenda was visiting the northwesternmost tip of the contiguous U.S., Cape Flattery. There is a beautiful trail featuring a boardwalk, stone and gravel steps. Only trouble was that it was all downhill getting there, which made for sore knees coming back up. There are several observations decks which view the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, Tatoosh Island and the Cape Flattery Lighthouse. A National Geographic team was there filming. They were a very serious-looking bunch, so I declined asking them a bunch of questions.