In July 2010, the Orcas Island Historical Museum will be hosting the Smithsonian traveling exhibit entitled Journey Stories. The exhibit will focus on the role of transportation in shaping American culture and history. Some of the exhibit will be comprised of local components, including written testimonies of island residents talking about how they came to America and to the islands. Willing participants will also have the opportunity to be videotaped as part of a video montage of oral histories.

I encourage you to submit your story. We owe it to the generations-to-come to provide information and educate them in our local history.

History is a funny thing; no matter how much you try to avoid talking about it, you always end up talking about it. By simply living you are, in fact, creating new history every day. All of us have a story. Whether or not you find your own story all that interesting, it’s still a story and it still becomes part of the history that forms the community we live in. And I can guarantee it will be important to someone some day.

For more information, contact the Orcas Island Historical Museum at 360-376-4849, orcasmuseum@rockisland.com. Or you can download Journey Stories from their website at www.orcasmuseum.org.

Journey Stories has been made possible at the Orcas Island Historical Museum by Humanities Washington. Journey Stories is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and the Federation of State Humanities Councils. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.