RSSYep, we're WEIRD ... but in a good way
A new book on 'Weird Washington' highlights the odd places and people of our state -- and there are plenty in our neck of the woods (where Bigfoot lives)Yakima Herald-Republic
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That's how museum hostess Leah Huntington of Goldendale took it when she learned a bit of her community's folklore is listed in a new book outlining the state's odder places and people.
"How exciting," said Hunting-ton, a hostess at the Presby Mus-eum in Goldendale.
A Goldendale legend about a
man lynched in 1888, his last-breath curse and a fire that wiped out the
town a month later is one of 12 South Central Washington entries in a new book, "Weird Washington."
It features off-beat landmarks, UFO reports and quirky charac-ters, ranging from Zillah's Teapot Dome gas station to Maryhill Museum's Stonehenge to Yakima's connection to the Bigfoot legend.
All, in a word, "weird."
Still, the authors treaded lightly with that term as they compiled the book.
"Weird is a very, sort of, subjective title," said co-author Al Eufrasio, an Auburn, Wash., video game artist and animator. "It's not meant as an insult."
No offense taken, said Jane Oreleman, an Ellensburg artist whose house made the list.
"We don't care," Oreleman said.
Over the years, Oreleman and her husband, Dick Elliott, the artist who created the reflector art atop the Yakima SunDome, have turned their home into a roadside attraction with fences made from glass power line insulators, posts painted as No. 2 pencils and mannequins of all sorts.
They call their house Dick and Jane's Spot, and it has been featured on travel shows and other books and magazines about off-the-beaten-path points of interest.
While some of the book's entries describe things from a distance, the authors interviewed Oreleman and Elliott and included in the book a portrait of them standing next to Big Red, "a wooden post in saucy seductress garb, complete with reflective cleavage." It's one of the longer entries in the whole volume.
Still, Oreleman considers her home "beautiful" and points out her flower garden and stone-lined paths. She also notes they both have won awards for "normal" art, including Elliott's 2007 Governor's Arts and Heritage Award.
"People respond to any-thing that's different from the norm as weird and strange," she said. "If you come and visit our place, you'll see it's beautiful and not strange."
"Weird Washington" is one of 33 volumes in a series called "Weird U.S." It started with a couple of New Jersey friends who enjoyed visiting their state's nontraditional sites so much, they published a newsletter called "Weird New Jersey." It grew into a full-fledged magazine, then a book in 2003 by the same title. The History Channel even had a show called "Weird U.S."
New York's Sterling Publishing Co. eventually commissioned the Washing-ton volume from Eufrasio and fellow Washington resident Jeff Davis, who has a master's degree in archae-
ology and lists firewalking among his hobbies.
"They definitely live their writings," said Lilly Jan, a hired publicist.
To compile the Washing-ton version, the authors scoured history books and newspaper archives, as well as their own memories, to create a database of hundreds of places. Then they picked their favorites to research and visit.
There were plenty of leftovers.
"We had enough there for two books, maybe three," said Eufrasio, 36.
Among the local items on the cutting room floor -- an anatomically correct bull sitting on a bench in downtown Ellensburg. In fact, Eufrasio penned an entire entry about "roadside bovines" that didn't make it.
The weird-hunting duo currently is working on "Weird Oregon," but they hope to try a second volume for the Evergreen State. The publisher declined to release sales figures, but the book is the No. 2 seller in the state on Amazon.com, Jan said.
For the second one, they want help from friends in weird places. The last page of every "Weird" book asks for tips to be mailed or e-mailed to the editors for consideration.
"All the books in the series, they're meant to be a community effort," Eufrasio said.
Weirdness, they believe, should be shared.
* Ross Courtney can be reached at 930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.
