If you ever wanted to know more about Enumclaw’s rich history and vibrant past, the <a href=”https://www.facebook.com/Enumclaw-Plateau-Historical-Society-Museum-1568903579988686/” target=”_blank”>Enumclaw Historical Society</a> is the group to turn to.

Sunday, Oct. 18, the society will be commemorating its 20th anniversary, along with the Enumclaw History Museum’s 10th anniversary from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the museum on Marion St.

“Here we are celebrating, amazingly, 20 years of this Historic Society,” said Barb Shane, one first members of the society and of the docents, or volunteers, that staffs the museum Thursdays and Sundays.

The Enumclaw Historical Society was officially formed on March 20, 1995 with Donna Hogerhuis as its president.

The society also bought the building that would eventually become the museum in the same year, but it took 10 years to renovate and improve the building before it could be opened to the public.

The museum originally used by the Masonic Temples Association and was built in 1909.

In the 70s, the building was sold to an Episcopal church until it was bought by the Historical Society in the mid 90s.

The museum still features its original wood floor and supports, lumber that was provided to the building by the White River Lumber Company.

Currently, the society is attempting to restore the buildings original second-story patio and the white columns that support the building from the outside.

Enumclaw resident and Courier-Herald columnist Jennifer Anderson will be speaking at the celebration, and cake and punch will also be provided.

A different world

The Enumclaw Museum has collected various historical items, many dating to between the early 1800s all the way up to the late 1900s, including some early editions of the Courier-Herald and other Enumclaw newspapers that were in publication at the time.

Graduates from Enumclaw High School can take a look at what the high school was like in the early 1920s, back when the school’s sports teams were the Tigers, not the Hornets.

Recently, the museum received a donation of books, printed presumably in the 1920s, that are now on display. The only problem is, they’re all in Danish or Swedish.

“Ron Tyler is thinking they are childrens books,” Shane said, referring to the society’s current president. “Nobody can read any of them.”

The museum also has in its possession an acoustic guitar, made in 1901 and restored by an Enumclaw resident, and other musical instruments made around the same time period.

Some of the museum’s larger items include an old switchboard, “just like in the movies,” Shane said, an old loom and a hand made cotton spinning wheel, both made around 1882.

A vision of the future

During the Historic Society’s celebration, visitors to the museum can also take a look at what Enumclaw elementary students in 1994 wished Enumclaw would look like in the future.

Enumclaw resident Jody Rogel-Olson organized the competition with the Washington Make a Wish Foundation, picking winners of the competition to help paint five murals that detail what the kids thought how Enumclaw would evolve.

The murals were displayed in the old Enumclaw hospital, but the museum received them when the hospital building was torn down, and are now hanging in the museum’s stairwells.