McCleary City Band Bandstand

Dec. 23, 2019

Around the area of this corner, Maple and Third, there used to be a bandstand for the McCleary City Band. Yes, such a group actually existed. The story goes someone ordered a ton of musical instruments and then they were handed out to interested and no doubt bored out of their mind workers, many of whom had not the slightest idea of how to play any instrument or read music.

So the bandstand was built and uniforms were issued. For short time the muddy metropolis of McCleary had a city band. It must have been a hoot to hear. The placement of the bandstand would indicate this was considered close to the center of the action at that time, more so than it is today.

After the probably merciful short life span of the band, the bandstand was enclosed as a small building and served as the office for a dentist for a brief time.

The current McCleary City Hall is in the background and a sandwich sign for an espresso stand in the foreground attempts to divert coffee addicted Washingtonians. It still amazes me that McCleary has not had a tavern for several years yet we have not one but two, two drive-thru coffee stands.

When future historians write about McCleary's creeping gentrification, this switch from alcohol to caffeine will be an early indicator. Not making a judgment here, just an observation.

Tim Bear's Gangrene

Nov. 17, 2019

Hard to see in this photo, but the moss on Tim Bear is growing so thick it makes the poor thing look like it has a severe case of gangrene.

Every picture tells a story

Oct. 26, 2019

The public restrooms on the left of the photo was about where Henry McCleary had his executive office when his sawmill was in current day Beerbower Park. The kitchen-picnic building behind that was constructed around the late 1980s or early 1990s to replace the original building that had been built in the early days of the McCleary Bear Festival as a place to cook the bear stew.

The current City Hall, constructed in the late 1950s, was originally the site of Henry McCleary's later headquarters. When President Roosevelt came through town in an open car in the 1930s, Henry instructed his employees to turn their backs. After McCleary sold the town to Simpson, he tried living in northern Nevada for a brief time, but that did not work out. In his final year or so even though he resided in Olympia he could occasionally be seen sitting outside of his old headquarters watching the world go by in a town he no longer controlled.

The crosswalk brings to mind this little tale. McCleary has had a long and colorful history of Chiefs of Police. In the 1950s the City hired a young photogenic fellow from Shelton for the job and he was the first person to institute the use of marked crosswalks on the main roads. Most of the residential streets were not paved until much later.

Anyway, after maybe a year the Chief vanished "between two days" as Norman Porter of the McCleary Stimulator put it, with part of the City treasury and someone else's wife. The law finally caught up with him in the Bay Area about a year later. So think of that next time you use a McCleary crosswalk.

The Welcome Bear

Sept. 1, 2019

Apparently someone sat on the head of the concrete bear in front of City Hall at the SW corner of Anarchy Intersection during the Bear Festival parade and broke the head off. At some point in early August this little chain-saw carved Welcome Bear appeared as a replacement.

McCleary Polar Bear

Feb. 9, 2019

Our friend Tim Bear on top of City Hall is starting to look like a polar bear.

Someone is wigged out

May 24, 2018

Seen on the McCleary Post Office bulletin board:

"Missing: Brown toupée, around the intersection of Simpson and Summit, due to high winds. A white dog grabbed it and ran away with the thing toward the Park.

If found, please give it to the McCleary City Hall lost and found department."

You know the old saying--

--"A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two Clowns in the Bush," or something like that.

This little tableau was on top of the air conditioner on the outside wall of City Hall today. Could it be a political statement, as in, someone has a fowl opinion of the clowns who were elected to City government? Whatever. It made me laugh.

Mar. 12, 2018

LOVE

Feb. 10, 2018

Rain Country Valentine display. McCleary City Hall and the new clinic are in the background

Bears Inside City Hall

Feb. 8, 2018

Wooden relief sculpture by Elma residents Richard and Mike Roberts.

The Clock in City Hall

Feb. 8, 2018

The antique clock in McCleary City Hall originally belonged to Henry McCleary and was part of the Henry McCleary Timber Company headquarters. McCleary's HQ stood on the same spot where City Hall is now located, so the clock has resided in the same area before almost all of us in town were born.

Note the more boring modern clock in the background behind the Seahawk decorations.

Blue Christmas

Christmas morning, 2017. Actually this is a very rare White Christmas in McCleary, but the old flip-phone camera captured it as blue, making me imagine this lonely little snow-covered bear is singing, "I'll have a Blue Christmas without you." Cue in Elvis!

As you can see, Sam's Food Mart is one of the few places still open this morning. It might be my imagination, but it seemed there was more snow in general south of Pine Street where the elevation is a little higher.

Tim Bear

Oct. 2, 2011

He's beautiful, even with the flaws

Oct. 2, 2011

The bear on top of City Hall was created out of a chunk of cedar by a chainsaw carver from Westport, I believe, in the early 1960s. The sculpture was dubbed "Tim Bear" or "Timbear" and has served as something of an official symbol of the City ever since.

An up close examination of the sculpture reveals enormous cracks in the wood and it is often covered with a thin patina of algae. I'm sure the piece requires frequent maintenance to keep it together, which does indeed reflect the normal state of running a municipality. We all have to work as partners to make our city work, in spite of the cracks our differences create. As for the algae metaphor, well, that's why we oldtimers are known as "Mossbacks."   

So the flawed, mossy bear is ever vigilant, surveying his domain.