The Archive Index & Website Articles

In April, 1993, a group interested in Lummi Island history formed a club to talk with old timers about our history.  They named their club Lummi Island Heritage Trust (LIHT).  It was deliberate that LIHT, pronounced “light” after Helene Glidden’s book “The Light on the Island” which was about the family operating the navigation light on Patos Island.  The history group eventually started gathering historical documents and needed a place to store them.  So, they organized an archive and put Paul Davis in charge.  A few miscellaneous file cabinets were donated and the Archive was established in the former up-stairs room of the library.  Grace Briskey donated a very fine wooden cabinet with many shallow drawers for storing flat items.  The church/Civic Club donated a one-drawer fireproof file cabinet for the most valuable documents.  FOIL has been very generous and supportive of the Archive

As the years ticked by, LIHT dissolved for lack of participation, and the name Heritage Trust was taken over by the new land preservation organization which was working on acquiring the Otto Preserve.  But the Archive did not go to the new Lummi Island Heritage Trust – it just sort of floated along by itself, continuing to ask folks to contribute historical items.  Eventually, about 1997, Paul needed financial support and asked LICA to adopt the Archive.  They did, and made the Archive a permanent official office of LICA.  They appointed Paul as Archivist for life or until it became their pleasure to appoint a new Archivist.

And so, the Archive continued to grow.  The one-drawer fireproof file filled to capacity, and in May, 2014 LICA bought a new four-drawer fireproof cabinet and a large vertical file for the Archive.  One drawer of the vertical file contains a complete 54 year collection of the paper Tome easily accessible.  Of course, a digital file of the Tome is also in the computer for convenient word searching.  In 2014, FOIL renovated the library and removed the up-stair room, so the Archive cabinets were temporarily placed on the main floor.  In 2019, Friends of Island Library replaced the Noble Barn with a new barn which includes a small, private, secure Archive room financed by a grant from LICA to FOIL.

The Archive now contains a computer and printer with plans to digitally store a vast amount of history for future researchers to study under the watchful eye of the Archivist.  The Archive also contains many items which cannot be digitized such as the flag from the Chief Kwina and the century old family Bible of the Richards family who built the Beach Store, and pieces of wood from the North End school on Blizard Road, and sections of the underwater power cable to the Island. etc.  The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed progress, but the plan is still intact.  The Archivist has the only key to the Archive room.

Contributions of documents, artifacts, photos to the Archive can be made by contacting the Archivist.

Items in Bold are links to history content already uploaded and available on this website. This takes time to do, as we can get to it, and eventually the entire Archive will be online.

The Index provides insight to the content and depth of information that can be retrieved by you, the archivist , or requested to possibly have a copy of on this site sooner.

Note: Because PDF’s cannot be searched, each archive page is only the Content data – Not the original Format of the page. This lets you search for something, and see the original presentation in the archive as well via the PDF.

Items marked SiteOnly are unique to this site, those with a Code are in the Archive itself. The Locate in This Index Box below allows any input and will scan the Title, Description and the Archive Code to give results as you type.. Give it a try..

To find any Content throughout the site use the Primary Search functions in the menu and at the bottom of each page. For instance to find something about Althera Richards, just type that in the Primary Search bar. Anywhere in the site (including the Archive documents that she is mentioned will be listed.