Historic Hood River
Clarks at Camp Westwind
7-28-2020
Notes
Here are Bliss and Florence Clark on a summer vacation to Camp Westwind on the Oregon Coast in the 1950s. We met Bliss Clark’s parents James Lucius and Ada previously.
Camp Westwind is a YWCA camp on the Oregon Coast which is still around.
Dale Nicol
Yes, Westwind is still around thanks to a group of local people.
I was there in 2014 attending a annual 3 day ukulele camp called “Tunes in the Dunes”!
Charlott
My dear own Uncle Bliss…..Uncle Bliss was NOT on a vacation at Camp Westwind. Uncle Bliss was the caretaker of Westwind which was a YWCA camp located where the Salmon River and the ocean meet. He went there prior to
WWII and remained there for many years, living there year around, with no electricity, no road into it. Very isolated and he loved it. He and Aunt Florence are sitting on the front porch of the little house he built and they lived in. He built most of the camp himself, with only the help of a horse and sled.
He was very involved with the girls and was quite the story teller around the campfire when camp was in session. Over the years I have met many a girl who went to camp when he was there and they all loved him. He was so social and special. Have spent many, many days at Camp Westwind with “The Wizard of Westwind”. His grandson Marshall Dunham has written a wonderful book with that title.
The YWCA sold the camp to a group, that I believe is the Westwind Foundation or something like that.
I believe I know the history of that huge Japanese float he is holding. I have a feeling that is the one that was from Hirohito's own personal fishing fleet. I is different in color than most and has writing on it stating that it belongs to Hirohito. My father inherited that float and it is still within the family.
L.E.
I was studying the photo before reading, and thought some objects seemed somewhat odd for a HR photo. The driftwood, the oars, the rocks, the trees. Yes, those can be found in the HR area, but a coastal scene makes much more sense.
Once again….thanks Charlott for your connections to HR history and your great memory.
nels
Thank you so much for making this picture come alive with all your information Charlott. And it actually makes me feel cooler with a coastal scene.
Charlott
Uncle Bliss had a treasure trove of items from the sea that he found on the beach. Keep in mind that during the winter when those big Pacific storms came in only he was there to beach comb. He had a shed out back that was filled with floats and whatever he hauled up to the house from the beach. It was nothing for him to be wandering out on that beach at day break, especially when there was a storm raging.
When we were small, he would go out and “salt” the beach with small floats and other things for us to find. What fun that was. He would bury th ings in the sand and then tell this “tall tale” of a pirate story and my brothers would spend half the day digging on that beach finding “pirate booty.”
Kyle
He sounds amazing. That looks like an easel by the stairs, wondering if one of them painted too?
Charlott
Neither one of them painted. I think that is probably some treasure from the beach. He wrote, and wrote beautiful stories, poetry and limmericks. He did a lot of writing for the newspaper in Delake, where he lived after he left Westwind.