APPELO ARCHIVES CENTER

    The Appelo Archives Center was opened under the Wahkiakum Community Foundation in 2005. It became its own 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization in April 2010. The dream of founder Carlton Appelo, the Appelo Archives Center was opened as a place to share the rich history of the Naselle-Grays River Valley and it's surrounding areas. The Appelo Archives Center is dedicated to encouraging the study of region-wide history by preserving collections, sponsoring community and educational activities, facilitating genealogical research, and fostering Scandinavian studies, with an emphasis on Finnish-American heritage. 

 

MUSEUM

   The Archives Center's main room upstairs houses our local museum and research area for the communities from Grays River through Naselle. We've also got a genealogy corner where you can relax and look up your family history or browse census records from years past. 

 

    Downstairs you enter the Museum through either the Archives Cafe and Bookstore or through the front door into our Logging Heritage Room. There is a chair lift available that allows handicap access to the upstairs and the rest of the museum and libraries

 

C.A. & AGNES APPELO MEMORIAL LIBRARY

   The Library has a collection of over 400 books to be used for research and browsing. The book collection is located in the newly renovated library area The library is named for C.A. and Agnes Appelo who operated stores in several locations for decades. C.A. and his son, Carlton, were instrumental in bringing telephone service to the area and the founders of Wahkiakum West Telco, the local telephone company. Agnes worked in the stores and regularly traveled the logging trains to sell goods to the women in the camps.

 

    Her son, Carlton, has also collected books on history for a good part of his 90 years. The library books are available for research on local and national history to our members. A full section with Finnish language books is also available in  our Finnish Library.

 

FINNISH LIBRARY

 

     Catering to the local Finnish and Scandinavian heritage our Finnish Library contains over 600 books, including the Socialist "Red Books". Many books are in English as well as Finnish, and contain political history, music, arts, local history and children's stories and much more. We've also got a display case that houses our Finnish costumes including the Expatriot Costume, designed by local ladies, that represents Finnish Immigrants and their descendants worldwide.

 

GREAT FOR GROUPS

 

     We've got space available both upstairs and downstairs that can be reserved for group meetings, you can do so by calling our office..