Lost Boys Pirates
Preparing the bear stew
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.
Greek section
George Itsos (1886-1940), Christ Pappas (1882-1956), Savvas Karaynnis (1873-1923), George Iliades (d. 1919), Peter Cholos (1873-1917), Demetrios Stamatoy "Yakima" Eanis (1881-1963), Anton Stergon (1882-1915) and three unmarked.
Beerbower Park slide
Beerbower Park was named in honor of Mayor Ernie Beerbower (1903-1966) who died in office. The site was originally home to Henry McCleary's lumber mill which existed prior to the door plant. The mill closed and fell into disrepair after the Great Depression while the door plant remained in operation.
The stage empties and the Festival packs up for another year
We have to wait another year to strut and fret our hour
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