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.

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.

Bear Stew on the Float

July 13, 2019

When it comes down to it, McCleary is really a weird town without knowing how incredibly weird it really is. This lack of self-awareness about their own weirdness is what makes McCleary genuinely weird rather than the pretentious self-conscious or rehearsed weird of other places. The day we see coffee cups or shirts proclaiming "Keep McCleary Weird" will be the day McCleary has become gentrified and no longer weird. And I am afraid that day will come sooner than we think.

McCleary Polar Bear

Feb. 9, 2019

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

The Three Bears

Aug. 3, 2018

Bear icons in front of the Bear's Den.

Maybe they could somehow include a Goldilocks figure with a word balloon saying, "The food in this restaurant is just riiiight."

2018 McCleary parade float

July 7, 2018

The McCleary Bear Festival had a safari theme this year.  I see a "wild bear" is also on the float.

Bears Inside City Hall

Feb. 8, 2018

Wooden relief sculpture by Elma residents Richard and Mike Roberts.

The Bear in the Library

Jan. 2, 2018

The bear is wearing some sort of holiday hat at the time this phone photo was taken.

The sign next to the bear, apparently written in 2013, reads thusly:

In 2002, "Blackberry" was taken in a clear cut near the Reed Hill Lookout in the Satsop River drainage in Grays Harbor County by Lanny Duvall of Montesano.

In the past eleven years the Duvall family, Lanny, his wife, Kelli, and their two sons Devyn and Dylann have moved all over the United States. Blackberry has moved with them each time and served as a great conversation piece. For the past five years, the Duvall family has been living overseas in China, leaving Blackberry in storage. Each summer they spend their summer vacations with family in the McCleary area. One of their favorite summer events is the McCleary Bear Festival, which Kelli's sister, Teresa Sanders, acts as a volunteer.

As the Duvall's continue their adventures,  they decided, in 2013, to donate their bear to the McCleary Historical Society. On loan to the McCleary Timberland Library, Blackberry has settled into his new home and can be enjoyed by all of McCleary and Grays Harbor families.

The Duvalls are now residents of Amsterdam.

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.

Alligator, rattlesnake -- may contain pieces of cartilage, Aarrgg!

July 9, 2017, McCleary Bear Festival. This makes bear stew look normal.

"Hmm, after some bear stew I think I'll enjoy eating some reptile!"

Boy, how many times have I heard that before?

Bear on a bench facing the morning sun

Oct. 11, 2016. Bear's Den

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.

Carved bear

Aug. 22, 2012.

Chainsaw carving is a recognized and respected art form in these parts. This bear has expression.

Preparing the bear stew

Preparing bear stew, July 13, 2012

In 1959 the town celebrated the first annual Second Growth Festival, an event that stemmed from the University of Washington sponsored Operation Second Growth, 1955-1956, a program designed to help small communities help themselves.

The local editor of the McCleary Stimulator, Norman Porter, got into an editorial war with Roy Craft, the editor of the Skamania County Pioneer over which county had the better tasting bears. I suspect alcohol was involved in this debate.

Craft, who had actually started the Stimulator back in the 1920s with his twin brother Ray, and was a childhood pal of Porter's had briefly been Marilyn Monroe's publicist. He was the guy who convinced her to stand over a grate in downtown NYC in order to promote the Seven Year Itch motion picture. Leave it to a McCleary guy to think of that. 

Anyway, in the first year the bear was served in steak form, but in short order the Festival planners figured out it was easier to make stew so more people could enjoy it.

The Festival soon became known as the McCleary Second Growth and Bear Festival, but now the "Second Growth" portion of the name has been discarded. 

Bear nest at the Pig Lot

July 4, 2011. This was a spot where a bear had obviously spent the previous night, which is a good argument for not hanging around the Pig Lot after dark.

The Pig Lot

July 4, 2011

This body of water behind the Simpson Plant has been known as the "Pig Lot" for decades. The water itself is created by a dam and for years some locals used the large pond as a fishing hole. Today the area has a "No Trespassing" sign.

The name "Pig Lot" originated back in the 1920s when John Wesley Porter, the operator of the Porter Hotel, used the area for keeping his pigs before the animals were converted to bacon and ham for the guests. The Porter Hotel stood in the the little strip mall across from City Hall, where the pizza place recently closed. The hotel, which was intended for working people, grew so big it expanded into an annex across 3rd street. When the annex was demolished in the 1950s, much of the recycled lumber went into building the present VFW Hall.

Porter's son, Norman, later became the editor of The McCleary Stimulator in the 1950s and one of the people who started the tradition of serving bear meat on an annual basis since 1959 in McCleary.