All Aboard the Kalakala! It's the END OF THE CITY!!

I think this might be my first mail art piece received from Mike Dyar of San Francisco. Anyway, it was a little bit startling and wondrous to receive in my post box. It's very minimalist—a testament to what one can do with a simple shingle of corrugated cardboard—and yet...sort of holds significance for me.

That little blue stamp that you see on the front of the cardboard is a rendition of the Kalakala ferry—a motor vehicle ferry—that serviced the city of Seattle and the Puget Sound from 1935 until her retirement in 1967.

The Kalakala was notable for her unique streamlined superstructure, art deco styling, and luxurious amenities. The vessel was a popular attraction for locals and tourists, and was voted second only to the Space Needle in popularity among visitors to Seattle during the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. After her retirement in 1967, Kalakala was sold to a seafood processing company and towed to Alaska to work as a factory ship. After a period spent working as a crabbing ship in Ouzinkie, Alaska, the Kalakala was beached in Kodiak in 1970 and used to process shrimp.

But in 1998, investors sought to refurbish the Kalakala as a floating museum or floating convention center or historical landmark, and she was brought back to  the North end of Union Bay (near Gasworks Park). I lived in Seattle at the time and I am proud to be able to say that I was personally able to see her and admire her from shore.

Sadly, however, investors were ultimately unable to come up with funds—or obtain historical landmark status—to have the Kalakala successfully repaired and refurbished, and the deteriorating ship became a hazard to the waterways. After several desperate attempts to save her through the courts, the owner was eventually forced to transfer deed to the owner of the mooring harbor in Tacoma, Washington, where in 2015 she was finally scrapped.

I kind of found this to be a rather sad tale and ending to a celebrated nautical entity. In some ways, I feel like it reflects our American consumerist disposable economy. And in some ways I feel like it is a failure of our overly litigious society that would rather spend money on court fees than assisting people and projects in need. And in some ways I feel like the whole story is a somber metaphor of how we treat the elderly in our population—as disposable as an old rusty hull—that no one thinks is capable of value, save for a few inspiring individuals who recognize the historical value and potential that remains...

It feels weird to have a memory of a memory of a no-longer-existing remnant of historical significance that future generations won't know or probably care about. ...Part of a melting history of sorts.

...So the OTHER side of Mike's mail art piece is just as poignant... an old fashioned photograph (another fading historical document), collaged with rubber bands and varnish-shellacked to the corrugated cardboard... It's a picture of a sand dune running down to the ocean—or to the Sound—with the islands of the Inner Passage in the background and the waves crashing on the beach. It's a photograph that looks like you could walk right into it and down the dune path to the water's edge and keep going...escaping the apathetic city, and escaping the melting of history. Which is ironic, because the dunes are constantly changing and folding over on themselves... but sometimes it feels like you just need to jump on an art deco-designed ferry and head out to sea in order to escape the madness and the disintegration...

Thank you, Mike, for the memories. Art is sometimes the only way to save our memories.

Views: 128

Tags: Kalakala, Mike Dyar, The End of the City

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Comment by William M on June 28, 2016 at 7:25am

my mom lives in sequim so i usually visit port angeles on every trip back to the states. it is a wonderful mural.

Comment by Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat) on June 27, 2016 at 9:32pm

Kala..kala= how "good" it must have been.

So sad it was scrapped :-(

Comment by Thom Courcelle on June 27, 2016 at 8:40pm

Hey, thanks, Carina and William...

There is indeed a mural of the Kalakala in Port Angeles! I had forgotten about that! It's on North Laurel Street, and quite a mural it is, too! All sorts of troupe l'oielle and exquisite detail of the Olympic Mountains. I love Port Angeles and the Peninsula...some more great memories!!

Comment by William M on June 27, 2016 at 7:41pm

what a great story. of course i'd be gone from seattle when it was there. there's a mural of it in port angeles.

Comment by Carina on June 27, 2016 at 7:15pm

I loved reading this, Thom. Let's hop on that "deco-designed ferry"...

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