We enjoy local museums to gain an understanding of the community and its history and the Gig Harbor Historical Museum did just that. The museum’s centerpiece, a labor of love for a multitude of volunteers, and a pride of joy is the 65-foot fishing boat Shenandoah.

The museum, established in 1964, began operations in 1976. The doors are open and docents are present to assist visitors on Sundays through Tuesdays from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. They also offer programs for students. Here are but a few of the exhibits that caught our attention.

Before we looked at the Shenandoah, though, we found plenty to contemplate inside while waiting for the docent to escort us into the Maritime Gallery.

The museum honors the ancient peoples who occupied the land before a U.S. Exploring Expedition arrived in 1841 with their own exhibit. The people who lived and visited in the area were from the Puyallup, Nisqually, and Squaxin Island Tribes. The Native Americans had occupied, hunted and gathered on land, and fished the sea for many years before the expedition’s arrival.

Poggie Bait. The phrase surprised me. I never heard the term before I met Jon and had thought it was a term used by his Slovak mother and grandmother. Down into another rabbit hole, I crawled to research its true etymology.

The phrase has a few meanings, one of which is a naval term meaning sweets and snacks and spelled as pogey. Aha! It didn’t come from his Slovak side; it came from his father who served in the Navy during WWII. A mystery I had never been curious about before solved through my research while writing this blog post.

The docent freed up, so we followed her into the maritime gallery where she allowed us to step aboard to look around on deck and peek inside the building.

The three lives of the Shenandoah over the past century: The Skansie Ship Building Company in Gig Harbor built the 65-foot purse seiner in 1925 for John Dorotich. Its first life began as a cannery tender and later a purse seiner in Alaska from 1925 to 1967.

Its second life began when Tony Janovich purchased the fishing boat in 1967 and operated it until he retired in 1998. He then donated it to the museum in 2000, which began the ship’s third life.

In 2003, the museum pulled the ship out of the water, paraded it through town, and deposited it in a lot next to where the museum is now located. The museum began a $2 million capital campaign in April 2019, which was later raised to $3 million. Campaign donations made possible the conservation and renovation of the Shenandoah, enclosure of the Maritime Gallery, and creation of new exhibits.

The museum celebrated 100 years of the Shenandoah on April 26, 2025. We wish we could have been there to join in the celebration and see the finishing touches on the exhibit.

Outside, we peeked inside the Midway School Building. The museum offers grade-appropriate programs for schools.

What possessed me to check the Pledge of Allegiance quote citation? I shimmied down another rabbit hole in search of Francis Bellamy, who is credited with writing the pledge. It seems a 13-year-old schoolboy from Kansas by the name Frank E. Bellamy, coincidentally, may have been the first to write the pledge.

Did one author steal from another? Did they each come up with something very close on their own? Who knows when over a century has passed? I gave up. If reliable historians cannot agree, I sure won’t figure it out. Besides, congress made word changes when they formally adopted it in 1942 and altered it again in 1954.

Famished by the time we finished with the museum. We’re always on the lookout for Mexican food when we travel and we’re happy to say Puerto Vallarta satisfied our hunger for the cuisine.

If the rest of our Pacific Northwest adventure turns out as interesting as the Harbor Historical Museum, this trip will turn out grand.

Up next: Puyallup Farmer’s Market, Pacific Bonsai Museum, the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden, and Poulsbo, Washington.

Safe Travels