SAM HILL’S PEACE ARCH
Remembrance of Dreams Past
By Richard E. Clark
DEDICATION
This book is for two Blaine School District superintendents. Dr. Gordon Dolman, recently retired, has the rare but critical knack of keeping me motivated. I have often called him “my psychiatrist.” Vernon C. McDonald, my late next-door neighbor and friend, who steered our school through those trying years of the Great Depression and World War II, provided dynamic leadership as president of the International Peace Arch Association in 1965.
FIRST DRAFT ONLY
The author is deeply grateful to Pat Alesse for publishing this draft in his C Shop website. This is a work in progress. The author welcomes feedback, including corrections, comments and suggestions. He may be reached by email at: dclark30@peoplepc.com
ISBN (to be determined)
Copyright © 2003 by Richard E. Clark
Anyone interested in publishing this manuscript may contact the author.
Contents
Foreword 5
Preface 6
Chapter One: First Arrived the Autos 9
Celebrating the Treaty of Ghent and the Pacific Highway 9
Peace Highway: The Road that was Never Traveled 13
Samuel Hill Speaks 14
Reflections Fifty Years Later: The 1965 Rededication of a 1915 Plaque 23
Chapter Two: Then Arose the Arch 26
A Description of the Monument 26
Samuel Hill: A Peace Promoter Rarely Remembered 30
The Peace Arch Under Construction 39
Peace Arch Artifacts and Relics 42
Dedication of the Peace Arch 49
Chapter Three: Archway Attractions, Anniversaries and Annual Celebrations 62
International Flag Day: Adolph Miller’s Dream Come True 62
International Easter Sunrise Service 75
International Peace Portal Gold Medal Speech Contest 85
The Pan-Pacific Women’s Association at the Peace Arch 86
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom 86
International Armistice Day 87
The Annual Peace Arch Celebration 102
Islendinga Midsumarmotand Islendingadagurinn: Icelandic Picnics 149
Trees Across the Border: An International Junior Fire Wardens’ Meeting 152
Centennial Celebration of the June 15, 1846 Oregon Boundary Treaty 153
International Chess Matches 155
Memorial Ceremonies 157
The American Legion’s Tribute to Fallen Soldiers 157
President John F. Kennedy, Victim of an Assassin’s Bullets 157
Sir Winston Churchill’s International Memorial Service 157
An International Farmers’ Meeting 158
Mother’s Day at the Park 158
Knights of Columbus Annual Assemblies 159
The Fellowship of Reconciliation 160
Victoria’s Voice of Women Rally 160
Oil Company Honors Peace Arch 160
The All-County Republican Picnic 161
Cherry Trees for Friendship 162
Ron Rau’s Extraordinary Reenlistment 162
Associated Country Women of the World Picnic 163
Peace Arch Country Christmas 163
Hoards of Fords 163
A Two-nation Celebration Attended Largely by One 164
The United States Canada Peace Anniversary Association 165
A Toast Across the Border 166
A Canadian Ceremony for Missing Children 167
Chapter Four: The Peace Arch Spirit: A Tide Rising and Falling 168
Peace Arch Fame Rises with the Flow of Traffic as Local Support Falls 168
Tourism Flourishes 168
The City of Blaine Pleads Poverty 168
Scheming for a Restroom or Two 169
Peace Arch Repairs, Improvements and Refinements 172
A World Peace Monument Fails to Overshadow the Peace Arch 174
Peace Arch Wooden Coins: Local Support Rises as the Bank Falls 178
Albert Balch: A Man With a Plan 179
Peace Arch Wooden Money Widely Sought 179
Sweet While it Lasted 180
Theme Proposals Met with Ambivalence, Apathy or Antagonism 182
Blaine Ignores Peace Arch Theme Proposed by Chamber of Commerce 182
A White and Black Theme that Failed 184
An Accepted Theme that Lay Dormant 186
Waves of Fame and Glory 186
The French Marshal is Greeted by Thousands 186
Henry Ford Liked Queen Marie, Too 187
Mary Waterstreet Remembered the Schoolchildren Exchanging Flags 189
Lady Baden-Powell’s Left-handed Welcome to the Peace Arch 190
The Columbia River Treaty: President Meets Prime Minister 190
The Evans-Bennett Memorandum of Agreement: Governor Meets Premier 191
Princess Prem Purachatra’s Visit 192
Chapter Five: Admirers Promote the Peace Arch 193
Rogan Jones and Radio Station KVOS 193
The International Peace Arch Program Association 195
Jones and Mott’s Peace Arch College was “No Idle Gesture” 198
The American Broadcasting Company Spreads the Word 202
The Peace Arch State Park Swimming Pool Dream 208
Chapter Six: The Park: Its Conception and Development 209
British Columbia Initiates its Park Project 209
A Landscaping Challenge and an Undesirable Edifice 210
British Columbia Schoolchildren Raise Funds for their Park 210
Peace Arch Provincial Park Landscaped 212
Washington State Initiates its Park Project 213
Schoolchildren Donate their Nickels and Dimes 214
Andrew Danielson Secures Funds for Peace Portal Drive and the Park 215
A Golden Opportunity During Tough Times 216
Laborers Hired at Four Dollars per Day 217
Samuel Hill Memorial Park Project Completed 217
An International Atmosphere of Beauty and an Ambience of Peace 219
The International Park and Gardens: An Endless Dream 219
Kiwanis International’s Boundary Peace Tablet 234
The Fateful Jefferson Davis Highway Marker 235
The American Kitchen 239
The Peace Memorial Association Gazebo 241
The Canadian Kitchen 242
The Oregon Treaty Centennial Marker 243
The Blue Star Highway Memorial Marker 245
The State Park Superintendent’s Home 247
The Gyro International Monument 247
A Replicated Boundary Marker 248
Scenes of Joy, Goodness and Rites of Passage 250
The Nativity Scenes 250
Weddings 251
A Christening in the Peace Portal 252
The Peace Arch Serves as a Focal Point for Health and Charity Drives 252
Chapter Seven: Samuel Hill’s Golf Course, Tourist Center and Semiahmoo Villa 254
An Aside: Tourism Raises its Auspicious Head 254
Chapter Eight: Activism at the Arch 257
A Controversial “Left-Wing” Rally 257
Paul Robeson’s “Fight for Peace” 258
Government Galvanizes Peace Arch Association to Oppose Freeway Fence 259
Protesting the Aleutian Nuclear Tests 261
“The Blaine Incident” 262
The Amchitka Protests 265
Good Friday Vietnam Demonstration 266
Supertanker Protest 266
Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden Call for Amnesty 267
Prayer Vigil for Peace through Nuclear Disarmament 268
The Peace Rally that Fooled Law Enforcement Agents 268
“Don’t Dump on Us” 269
A Fishermen’s Protest Rally 270
Reagan Administration Proposed a Border Toll for Canadians 271
Bridges for Peace 272
Peace March for Nuclear Awareness 272
AIDS Dispute at the Border 272
Rev. Jesse Jackson Attacks NAFTA 273
Annual Demonstrations for Leonard Peltier 273
“Why should we rip up our heritage for a bunch of blacktop?” 274
Free Trade Agreement and Disagreement at the Arch 274
Chapter Nine: Stamp Acts Leave the Arch Licked 275
Early Requests and the Seely Armistice Day Covers of 1937 275
Stamp Sought to Celebrate the Columbia River Treaty 276
Craving a Stamp to Commemorate Expo 1986 277
Remembering Three-quarters of a Century 277
Chapter Ten: Assessment, Crisis and Anticipation 279
Assessment: Summarizing the Peace Portal’s Past 279
September 11, 2001: The Impact of Intervening Crises 284
Anticipation: In Consideration of the Future 285
The International Peace Arch: “A Symbol and a Challenge” 287
Appendix A: An Unidentified Speech by Samuel Hill 289
Appendix B: Poetry Inspired by the Peace Arch 290
Appendix C: Presidents of the International Peace Arch Association and its Forerunners 312
Appendix D: Proclamation 315
Bibliography 316
Foreword
July 20, 1969 I remember well. In three short days I would be old enough to test for my driver’s license, but there was to be no test on my birthday because, well, I was in Blaine, taking our yearly family vacation. While Neil Armstrong was making history by walking on the moon, I was feeling sorry for myself. So I took a walk.
It was a walk from my grandparents’ home; one that I had taken many times before. It was a walk into another country, another place. It was a walk that brought me to a great white portal, through which I would pass. Then I would cross the railroad tracks and sit at my usual spot by the bay, the international monument reaching skyward behind me. I watched the tide recede and return; it was a long and peaceful day.
When traveling from one end of the park to the other, I always passed through the arch, not quite knowing why, but to do otherwise just seemed wrong. Many of my trips to the park were with my “funny uncle,” as my brother and I called him—a man who would bring smiles and laughter to us whenever we were with him. He would take us for walks in the park and tell the story of the Peace Arch and its surroundings.
The book that Uncle Dick has written reveals more than a “nuts and bolts” history of the Peace Arch. It is a book of many levels that needs to be scrutinized layer by layer. Richard Clark is a man to whom “peace on earth” is not a catch phrase. It’s his mantra. His connection to this great symbol is above the norm.
The title he chose, Sam Hill’s Peace Arch: Remembrance of Dreams Past, is a takeoff on Marcel Proust’s French novel, Remembrance of Things Past. One theme sets the tone of this seven-part masterpiece. Coming home on a cold winter’s day, the narrator’s mother served him a madeleine and a steaming cup of tea. Suddenly, upon dunking the little cake into the hot beverage and experiencing its aroma and flavor, he was magically transported to his joyous youth, when it was his aunt’s custom to warm his palate with the same delicacies. It was more than déjà vu. It was rebirth. His life, like a walk through the wilderness, was transformed from a gloomy pessimism to rapturous renewal. He realized the true nature and meaning of one’s present life is impossible apart from artful recollections—artful because remembrance, like a work of sculpture, may be shaped to accentuate the beauty and joy of things past.
Similarly, I feel with the writing of my uncle’s book, all those walks in the park have been reborn, and that the true nature and meaning of the Peace Arch has been revealed to me, as it will hopefully be revealed to you.
A true labor of love, this book has been a long time in the making, but not without adversity. Dick has been battling cancer, the onset of diabetes, and—the day after President Bush went to war in Iraq—a stroke. A likely connection is evident to a person so dedicated to peace.
For telling the story of “a symbol and a challenge” in such a thought-provoking way, I would like to thank my uncle on behalf of all who may read this book.
BLAINE CLARK
Gold Hill, Oregon
Preface
The fox gazed at the little prince for a long time.
“Please—tame me!” he said.
“I want to, very much,” the little prince replied. “But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand.”
“One only understands the things that one tames,” said the fox.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Ever since the Treaty of Ghent was signed December 24, 1814, Canada and the United States have remained peaceful neighbors. International relationships of such rarity are exemplary models for other nations to study and master for themselves.
Were such friendships universal, military institutions would eventually become obsolete. The joy of peace would accompany the flourishing health of world economies. Universal peace would be a brand-new experience for Planet Earth. History would then march to an about-face, there to explore a social landscape new and surprisingly exciting.
But wars and rumors of war persist. Planet Earth remains untamed.
“I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another,” observed Erich Maria Remarque. “I see that the keenest brains of the world invent weapons and words to make it yet more refined and enduring.”
He said it for the dead all quiet on the Western Front
He said it after the Lusitania was torpedoed
He said it before the Arizona went down
It was several years before Enola Gay
While Dresden awaited her fate
And long before Hiroshima
Decades before Korea
The Bay of Pigs
Or Vietnam
The Gulf
Rwanda
Bosnia
9-11
Iraq
Earth’s taming is what the International Peace Arch is about. Taming the world for peace with goodwill toward humankind remains open like the famed portal itself—a monument capable of playing a monumental role in the recognition, the study, the enjoyment and the promotion of peace.
For my part, writing this book was no easy task. I’ve been at it on and off since the summer of 1988 when I submitted a brief history of the Peace Arch for university credit. And now this book’s bibliography is longer than the original essay.
I am no historian. Residents of my hometown have wrongly labeled me such. Historians are professionals with appropriate training for such entitlements. More appropriately, I am a hobbyist who collects information having to do with the past, present and future of the International Peace Arch.
Objectivity is a serious concern for professional historians. In my youth I thought I understood it; today I’m not at all certain. My tendency is to believe objectivity is packaged in multiple versions. These many objectivities compete for the “truth.” That’s why politicians, scientists, economists, theologians, lawyers, husbands, wives—and most everyone else—argue. I disagree with Comte’s notion that observation and imagination are mutually independent. I agree with Kierkegaard’s ironic conclusion: “Truth is subjectivity.” My beliefs render me a poor empiricist. And every objective historian is an able empiricist.
As a resident living in or near Blaine for fifty of my seventy-three years, I have developed a growing interest in the Peace Arch. As a matter of fact, since inheriting my parents’ home in 1973, I have been living a mere city block from Peace Arch State Park.
Regrets? I have a few. Because I am a citizen of the United States who lives in the state of Washington, my perspective has bent southward. It’s a bias traceable—at least in part—to means limited. Most of the material gathered for this book was unearthed within a twenty-five-mile radius of my home, and usually south of the border. By far, I have relied upon articles from the Blaine Journal, the Blaine Journal-Press, the Westside Record-Journal, and the Record-Journal—a newspaper that changed names several times during the past century. The historically productive Record-Journal archive is in Ferndale, Washington, only seventeen miles south of my home.
Liberties? I’ve taken a few. Most edited is a collection of poems, but I have also edited newspaper articles among other materials. Purists may take issue with this practice, but I place literary attractiveness above butchered English, assuming the esthetics of the former doesn’t destroy the truth of the latter.
This book is not so much a hardnosed history of the Peace Arch as it is a collection of historical perceptions of the monument and its adjoining parks. Of course my perception of those perceptions is another matter. The writer, always responsible for picking and choosing those data he considers significant, is himself a variable in the research process. I have eschewed personal interviews on the ground that, given the fallibilities of the human mind, memories are likely to convey more misinformation than timely press releases.
I have uprooted several monumental myths, and, like it or not, I attacked every one of them. Although I consider truth, like love, to be “in the eyes of the beholder,” I have nevertheless chosen truth—as my eyes behold it—over popular beliefs that I conclude are mythical. Attacking myths does not mean they should be destroyed. They need only to be identified. Myths are fictions, but they are conveyors of truth. Citing an example, I must say that children, by means of their pennies, nickels and dimes, funded neither the Peace Arch nor its acreages as commonly believed. Yet the myth bears a truth: Children of any mother—be she common or uncommon, rich or poor, married or unmarried—are genuine human beings worthy of recognition, appreciation, care and love. Too often, Mother Earth’s children are neglected, intimidated, injured and destroyed by an untamed world of irresponsible grownups, repressive governments, institutionalized ignorance and wars.
This book fails to tell the whole story of the Peace Arch, and what I have told may be subject to error, for which I hereby apologize in advance. Readers, aware of needed corrections or additions, should feel free to share their impressions; perhaps I shall be present to produce a second edition, corrected, updated and improved.
Among the many who deserve thanks for this exercise, I wish especially to thank Arlene Delzer for sending me the Peace Arch file that was the possession of her late father, Vernon C. McDonald, former secretary and president of the International Peace Arch Association. Thanks also belongs to James D. Moore, retired regional archivist affiliated with Washington State Archives, Northwest Region; Ranger Wayne Eden, and June Auld, gardener, at Peace Arch State Park; Director Roger DeSpain and Operations Manager Lynne Givler of Whatcom County Parks and Recreation, and assistant Jade Sommer; John Hiebert, landscape manager with British Columbia Provincial Park; Elizabeth Joffrion, archivist for the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies; Chak Yung, archivist with the City of White Rock Museum and Archives; Kimberly Winjum and Michael Lewis of the Record-Journal; Anne Baker and Marjorie Reeves of the United Daughters of the Confederacy; Jerry Wolfe of Gyros International; Patti Wotherspoon and Claudia Messier of the Information and Research Center, Vancouver Public Library; the members of the International Peace Arch Association; Dr. Gordon Dolman, the former Blaine School District superintendent who tells me never to give up; and Blaine Clark, my nephew, who kindly wrote the foreword.
Finally, I heartily thank Michael Lewis and Kimberlly Winjum, publishers of the Record-Journal; Evan Miller, managing editor of the Bellingham Herald, and songwriter Christina Alexander, for permission to enter quotations in this manuscript.
Until global peace becomes humankind’s giant leap, let us promote it locally, one small step at a time.
Chapter One
First Arrived the Autos
When justice prevails between nations, there can be no war.—Judge Thomas Burke, Seattle
Celebrating the Treaty of Ghent and the Pacific Highway
The generous collection of front-page headlines featured in the Bellingham Herald delivered Monday, July 5, 1915, must have left its readers with mixed emotions. Under its black ink was hidden more than met the eye. Ironies prevailed. The big news of the day originated from Blaine, when one day earlier—it was Independence Day in the United States—a large crowd gathered at the international border to celebrate the centennial of the Treaty of Ghent, mutually ratified by Canada and the United States.
Little did anyone realize what implications of worldwide importance lay beneath newsprint eerily prophetic—an omen, a revelation, indeed a warning—that well stood an absentminded chance of finding its way to a warmhearted woodstove or a friendly fireplace. Its ashes would one day arise from the pit. A rendezvous with darker destinies lay ahead. Such were the consequences of a publisher’s all-out effort to produce an impressive newspaper. He hardly realized what he had done.
Atop page one, placed above the Herald’s nameplate, was, seemingly at least, a propitious skyline banner, its roman typeface creating an appearance of formalism enhanced by letters outlined to create an illusion of such significance, that they seemed chiseled into the page, as if paper were an indestructible wall of white marble:
4,000 ATTEND PEACE CELEBRATION AT BLAINE
E.G. Britton knew he would see plenty of beautiful scenery while motoring over the Pacific Highway from Los Angeles to Blaine. But in 1915 the journey was hardly a joy. Sections of the highway lay incomplete, closed, and under construction. Britton was compelled to complete his trip by loading his auto upon a railway flatcar bound for Blaine. Had railroad builder James J. Hill known of it, he would have chuckled.
Visitors from Canada weren’t impressed with the highway, either. “The Pacific Highway was being paved and detours invited broken springs and axles in direct contrast with the cement road leading north into Blaine,” recalled visitor Vic Andrews, New Westminster.
Attendees had come from both sides of the international border to celebrate the centennial of the ratified Treaty of Ghent, sponsored by the Pacific Highway Association, founded by Hill’s son-in-law, road builder Samuel Hill (1857-1931). Naturally, the road builder adored autos as much as the railway builder loved locomotives. Herald readers were immediately introduced to an automotive scene. And so ran the news: “Long before the ceremonies began, automobiles by the hundred were parked along the highway. It is estimated that there were fully 300. On the American side they stretched for half a mile and at least a quarter of a mile on the Canadian side, with a large number on the old road that marks the international line.”
Indeed the auto age had dawned. But below the nameplate was a second banner in tall, thin, capitals with conspicuous serifs, followed by a dateline, and then the tragic story:
TWO KILLED IN TACOMA RACE
TACOMA, July 5.—Two fatalities marred the 250-mile Montamarathon automobile race held at the Tacoma speedway yesterday. Billy Carlson was fatally injured and Paul Franzan, his mechanician, [sic] was almost instantly killed when a tire blowout on a steep curve hurled the car from the track, throwing Carlson and Franzen to the ground.
Unfittingly, the Fourth of July, 1915, was the day Carlson’s peppy Maxwell, naturally devoid of a seatbelt, blew a tire, toppled and tossed Coal Oil Billy fatally to terra firma. Outmatching casualties of war, millions of drivers and passengers, victimized by vehicular vulnerabilities, have died since Samuel Hill dedicated his highway toward the cause of peace. Year 2000 saw vehicle fatalities exceed 40,000 deaths in the United States, and nearly 3,000 deaths in Canada. History holds its ironies.
Beneath the Tacoma fatalities banner was a spread head, one column short of being a third banner, carved in capitals short and thick, creating a lugubrious look in contrast to the banner that had announced the joyous peace celebration:
GERMANS MOVE ON WARSAW
With headlined disclosures ranging from Ghent to Germany, optimism fostered by the international peace celebration was dampened by news of another kind. World War I was raging in Europe. Great Britain had entered the war August 4, 1914, the Dominion of Canada had sent 30,000 volunteers to England by the end of the following September. And as the automobiles wended their way to the border during that American Independence Day, Canada, with its population of eight million, had been at war one month short of a year. The United States would enter the war April 6, 1917—one year, nine months and two days hence.
Newsprint was rough, and nine-point fonts troubled myopic readers, but the newspapers were big in those days. This one was twenty-five by seventeen inches per page. Twelve additional front-page stories of varied lengths only amplified the contrasting messages of celebration, accident, and war. Four nations and three states were represented at Samuel Hill’s peace celebration. But the Germans were advancing through Poland, making about five miles per day. Edmond Meany’s poem, “Our Hundred Years of Peace,” (later called “One Hundred Years of Peace”) was published. But three Negroes, alleged to have killed a farmer in Georgia, were shot to death by a lynching mob 500 strong. Some 200 Americans mustered the courage to celebrate Independence Day in Berlin. But a dozen crewmen aboard a British steamship died after a German submarine shelled the vessel. Serbia was worrying Italy. Berlin was warned of America’s strength. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, the treasured Liberty Bell was being prepared for shipment, on loan for the San Francisco Exposition, while in the Capitol, anonymous death threats were being sent to Thomas R. Marshall, vice president of the United States. Then in Everett, Washington, a 60-year-old logger was brutally murdered, following a quarrel with two men, concerning the war. And there was more.
Thus, one page of a Bellingham newspaper, published when the twentieth century was but one and one half decades old, unwittingly posted the scenario of a world destined to unfold during that century’s ensuing eighty-five years. It was an omen of future accidents, violence, and wars, countered by the paradoxical “fight for peace,” as Peace Arch guest Paul Robeson would cynically describe it, come mid-century. If it wasn’t World War I, it was World War II and Korea—this, and more, while Robeson fought for peace until he died.
Then came year 2000. The gates never close from one century—or millennium—to the next. If realism is allowed its claim to victory, the second millennium opened with a stubborn continuation of the same old story that originated before Homer and long before Jesus warned his disciples of wars and rumors of wars. Accidents, violence, wars, burgeoning worldwide terrorism and the contrastive quest for universal peace continue to this day. Of course, it is popularly thought the story will never end, and, given the advancing technology of nuclear, chemical and biological weaponry, it is assumed the plot will forever thicken.
So war? “I see that the keenest brains of the world invent weapons and words to make it yet more refined and enduring,” observed Erich Maria Remarque.
FOUR NATIONS AND THREE STATES
REPRESENTED AT PEACE EXERCISES
Below the banner that had announced the impressive peace celebration appeared a sans serif headline, condensed, avant-garde, oddly sporting a hanging indentation, followed by an oversized wicket with a flush-and-hang style of its own. Here was a newspaper designed to impress its readers:
Centennial of Peace Treaty Between England and United States Observed At Boundary Near Blaine—England, Canada, Japan and United States Represented—4,000 Attend Ceremonies—Stars and Stripes Raised by Canadians and Union Jack by Americans—America and Canada Asked to Raise Marble Arch Across Pacific Highway at Border—Opening of Highway Celebrated.
Reporter Paul Gooding composed his story the way Haydn experimented with his symphonies—a long and stately introduction followed by an Allegro. The introduction continued with four lead paragraphs in nine-point boldface—hors d’oeuvres before the grand entrée:
An example of international concord without parallel in the world’s history—100 years of peace between the United States and great Britain—was celebrated on the international boundary line near Blaine yesterday under the auspices of the Pacific Highway association, on the very day that commemorates the Declaration of Independence and the permanent political separation between these two countries. The exercises of the day were also celebrative of the linking of Canada and the United States with the Pacific Highway.
It was one of the most notable affairs in the history of the border town and one of the most memorable reciprocal occasions in which Americans and Britishers have ever participated. There four nations and three states and a number of cities were represented, and there was seen the unusual spectacle of the citizens of one nation raising the flag of the other and witnessing their friendly act returned in like manner by their neighbors. The nations were the United States, England, Canada and Japan; the states were Washington, Oregon and California.
A number of cities, including Bellingham, would have had a hand in the proceedings, but because some of the participants had to catch trains about that time the program was terminated about 4 p.m. Among those who thus lost an opportunity to speak was Judge John A. Kellogg, appointed by Mayor J.F. deMattos to represent Bellingham.
Just before the benediction, J.J. Donovan, vice president of the Pacific Highway association in Whatcom county, made a motion that the Canadian and American governments be requested to build on the site of the celebration, across the Pacific Highway, a marble arch, properly inscribed, commemorative of the event and the 100 years of peace. His motion was seconded by Mayor A.W. Gray, of New Westminster, and all the 3,000 or 4,000 spectators who heard the motion enthusiastically carried it.
Was an anomalous business meeting called as the celebration concluded? Did the crowd undergo a metamorphosis to become a voting public? Was it merely a symbolic gesture? Did Vice President Donovan formally recognize the raised hands, or vocal “yeas” of the entire assembly? Or did he count only those who belonged to the Pacific Highway Association? The story offered no answers.
John Joseph Donovan, Bellingham entrepreneur, was a civil engineer, lumberman, financier, the celebrated “empire builder of the west.” When Lottie Roeder Roth wrote the biographical volume of her History of Whatcom County in 1926, John Joseph Donovan was first among hundreds to be recognized, his beautifully etched and autographed photo protected by translucent parchment, as if to suggest one so exalted ought to be viewed through a gossamer curtain. Indeed, the right man stepped forward to move construction of the “marble” monument.
Six years and two months later, “one hundred years of peace” would be indelibly remembered, carved for posterity into a portal wall. (Although it wasn’t made of marble, the Peace Arch was constructed of concrete and steel. But it was Samuel Hill’s powerful tribute to peace.) Unaware of Coal Oil Billy’s fate that Fourth of July, with countless highway fatalities to follow in the future, the esteemed road builder dedicated an impressive monument to remember “perfect peace” as humanity’s ultimate comfort and satisfaction.
As the grand entrée was heralded, the reader was given a description of the chosen site: an intersection of that longitudinal Pacific Highway and a poetic latitudinal “highway of peace”—soon to be described by speaker Hill—that an autocade of 300 and an audience of 4,000, metaphorically moving toward a tranquil oasis in a war-parched world, had finally found. “The peace celebration was held a mile or more from the business center of Blaine, opposite and about a quarter of a mile from the old station of Douglas, B.C.,” continued the Herald. “The speakers’ platform was erected on the line between the American and Canadian customs houses and a few feet from the Pacific Highway. Both on its left and its right rose a white flagstaff, on which the flags of Great Britain and the United States—the one presented by Victoria and the other by Oregon—were subsequently raised to the accompaniment of cheers, waving hats and music.”
The reader was asked to turn to page five, there to discover the automobiles, like the auditorium—a mere platform walled with trees and fresh air—“were decorated with flags, some with both the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes.”
The age of the auto had dawned. Above the column was a headline in caps:
FERNDALE AUTO BREAKS MAN’S RIBS
To the left was another:
TACOMA PUBLISHER IS HURT; SON KILLED BY AUTO
Fifty or sixty dignitaries gathered on the stand. With hundreds pressing them as the crowd grew, the celebration opened fifteen minutes late at 2:15 P.M., the invocation offered by Rev. R.C. Hartley of Blaine.
Blaine Mayor Fuller stepped forward to welcome the assembly: “He referred to the fact that the celebration was the result of efforts on the part of the Pacific Highway Association,” noted the Herald. “He expressed the hope that the flags of the two nations would always wave side by side and that 100 years from now they might hold a similar celebration all along the international boundary.”
The mayor was well aware of Samuel Hill’s coastal highway project. As early as January 1914, L.D. Goerig was under contract to open a right-of-way by dynamiting stumps and draining swamplands approaching Blaine—this, two months before Blaine’s city council had established the route that the highway should assume through the city. After Goerig’s forty laborers had cleared five and one-half miles of roadway south of Blaine, the grading began. By the summer of 1914, gravel “of excellent quality” was being spread, well ahead of the July 4, 1915 dedication.
But Mayor Fuller may not have realized how powerfully the Pacific Highway project would stimulate his city during the ensuing year. A burning obsession to pave struck the city council. Year 1916 saw Ledingham & Cooper, a Vancouver firm, under contract to pave Adelia Street, D Street and Twelfth, with future plans to pave H Street—all of which were scheduled to connect with the glorious new Pacific Highway. Year 1917 saw paving weaving its way into Whatcom County, with the board of county commissioners planning to pave thirty-four miles of county road that year.
Samuel Hill had initiated a countywide paving movement—a spin-off rarely associated with the Peace Arch.
Peace Highway: The Road that was Never Traveled
The paving mania had spread to British Columbia, too. During year 1915 the British Columbia Municipal Union proposed construction of a “Peace Highway” from Sumas, to intersect the Pacific Highway at Blaine, with its centerline precisely tracing the 49th parallel. It would be dedicated as a monument, replete with roadside markers, to commemorate 100 years of peace between the United States and Canada. Canada would then be responsible for maintaining the northern half of the pavement, and the United States would maintain the southern half. The Union’s proposal evolved, becoming a resolution that took aim at both governments “for the joint building and maintaining of this road and the placing of tablets on the international boundary posts thereon, setting out that the work was done in commemoration of 100 years of peace.”
The Municipal Union proposal, beautifully idealistic as it was, didn’t materialize. The June 22 and July 19, 1915 issues of the Bellingham Herald had provided clues. Upon receiving the Peace Highway proposal from James Gibson, clerk of the Municipal Council of the Matsqui Corporation District, the Whatcom County commissioners hardly knew what to make of it. “The total distance between Blaine and Sumas is about twenty-two miles,” reported the Herald, “but probably part of this is already spanned by roads, which with some improvement here and there would materially lessen the cost of the entire improvement.” A meeting between council and commissioners was held in Sumas, July 17, 1915. There the commissioners argued they had no authority to share in such a project; the proposal would have to be forwarded to state and provincial governments. This they did in the fall of 1915.
Little more was heard of the Peace Highway plan. A government or two undoubtedly disapproved. By the winter of 1915, Whatcom County’s Haynie Grange modestly, but realistically, proposed paving the Blaine-Sumas road situated south of the border. That proposal eventually materialized, but the Highway of Peace remains an “invisible line” even though the American Automobile Association endorsed the Peace Highway concept tardily in 1917. North of the “invisible line” is Zero Avenue; H Street is south of it.
Samuel Hill Speaks
Pacific Highway Association president and master of ceremonies Samuel Hill presented the keynote address. The Herald quite likely received his manuscript, relayed as follows:
We meet here today to give outward expression to the feeling that the treaty of peace, which has lasted for 100 years between the United States and Great Britain, was not a mistake. We remember that no great teacher of the human race, whether Brahma or Buddha, Confucius or Christ, has ever advocated war. We believe that in the future the nations of the world will reach their highest development physically, mentally, morally and spiritually along the lines of harmony, peace and good will, one toward another. We do not believe that any nation, occidental or oriental, is sufficiently wise, just or generous to be clothed with absolute power to dictate a policy from which there is no appeal.
Two Pacific Highways meet here today—the one reaching from Alaska to Mexico, the other an invisible line reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the highway of peace. You are the guardians of this trust, these two great highways—to you we commend them. Keep them always open that the nations of the earth may forever walk thereon in peace and safety, and if any man seek to take this heritage from you we charge you to consecrate your fortunes, your lives and your all and resist to the end.
Samuel Hill was highly educated and well traveled, but he was not known for long speeches. The second speaker, Rev. Dr. McKay, principal of Westminster Hall, Vancouver, B.C., “spoke powerfully and eloquently.” And, it seems, longer, too.
He said it was peculiarly appropriate that the Fourth of July had been chosen as the day to commemorate the 100 years’ peace that had begun at the signing of the treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1914. The Fourth, he declared, recalls the birth of the American republic and all its achievements since that time. He rejoiced over the thought that his fellow citizens owe much of what they have because the forefathers of Americans refused to submit to taxation without representation. The spirit produced at Ghent, he asserted, had made it possible for Canadians to live in peace with America without a single fort or armed soldier being required anywhere along the Canadian-American border, a fact that he acclaimed as one of the greatest achievements the world has ever seen. To illustrate the concord existing between the two nations Dr. McKay pointed out some of the many disputes that had arisen, including the Maine and Oregon boundary differences, the Alabama claim and the Trent affair. It has not been because Great Britain and the United States have been too weak to go to war, he said, but because they have ever realized the awful price of war and that arbitration is the better method of settling disputes. He predicted that the European war will see the end of many autocracies and that its close will be the dawn of the greatest era of democracy ever known.
McKay probably knew, at the time, that Poland was under attack by the German army. There was a front-page report stating, “General von Mackensen’s army is swinging northward in Galicia and Poland in a colossal and daring endeavor to drive a wedge into the Russian center and dislodge the Russians from the Vistula river and force them back over the Bug, thus splitting the grand duke’s forces into two sections, with thousands of acres of swamp and marsh land between them.”
What McKay did not know, was that Hitler’s Wehrmacht would invade Poland, come September 1, 1939, unleashing World War II. Nor did he know the Russian Revolution, little more than two years ahead—it was November 8, 1917—would spell the birth of the Soviet Union which would later bring forth the cruel dictatorship of Stalin, whose Red Army would enter Poland by September 1, 1944 to “liberate” that country with Communist domination. Nor did he know what would happen at Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989, when the Chinese Army crushed a pro-democracy demonstration, leaving an undisclosed number of students dead. History would suspend McKay’s vision of “the dawn of the greatest era of democracy ever known.”
The Herald report continued: “Preparedness for war was declared by Dr. McKay to be half a truth. If one nation arms itself others must do so, he asserted. He concluded that if the world is ever to have permanent peace it must do as the United States and Canada have done—prepare only for peace. He declared one of the causes of war to be secret diplomacy and held that growing distrust can be avoided by openness and frankness. He predicted that someday there would be a permanent peace between nations.”
McKay’s century, then in its spring, passed into summer, autumn and winter, dying and giving birth to a new millennium. And yet, that coveted presence of “a permanent peace between nations,” guaranteed infinite, eternal and secure, defies global discovery.
To the contrary, war enlarged its mystique to claim the universe. It began, quite oddly, after Neil Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind,” upon stepping onto the moon July 20, 1969. A plaque bearing the glad tiding, “We Came In Peace For All Mankind,” was solemnly placed upon its dusty surface, to the special delight of President Richard Nixon. Eight years later, the Star Wars film series hit the screens with sequels to follow. Darth Vader captured the imagination of the world for years to come. War, no longer confined to Planet Earth, invaded the universe.
Then in 1983, President Reagan proposed his Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed “Star Wars”—a shield of space weapons designed to destroy any missiles launched by an enemy nation. The end of that proposal has never been announced.
Returning to the 1915 border celebration, just what was the Treaty of Ghent? This question was of thematic importance for speaker McKay and the assembly gathered at the border, there to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ghent and the celebratory opening of the Pacific Highway. A commemorative plaque, dedicated to that centennial, was erected on the border, where those 300 cars and 4,000 citizens of several countries had once met.
Remembering the 1915 plaque, Vernon C. McDonald, former superintendent of the Blaine School District, composed a brief, explanatory essay. In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Ghent, a rededication ceremony was held at the Peace Arch, November 7, 1965. He was then president of the International Peace Arch Association.
The Treaty of Ghent
By Vernon C. McDonald
This plaque being rededicated here on the border marks the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Ghent. It was originally placed here upon the opening of the Pacific Highway on July 4, 1915 and in commemoration of 100 years of peace between Canada and the United States following the Treaty of Ghent.
And what was the Treaty of Ghent? The treaty of peace and amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America concluded at Ghent, in Belgium, December 24, 1814, which brought to a close the so-called “War of 1812,” the last fought between the two countries. The signing of the treaty was followed by ratification by the separate governments and proclamation to the world in February 1815.
The treaty set out the fact that “His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America” were “desirous of terminating the war which has unhappily subsisted between the two countries, and of restoring, upon principles of the perfect reciprocity, peace, friendship and good understanding between them.”
“There shall,” says the Treaty in another article, “be a firm and universal peace between His Britannic Majesty and the United States, and between their respective countries, territories, cities, towns and people of every degree, without exception of places or persons.”
The Treaty of Ghent set the pattern for the Rush-Bagot agreement demilitarizing the region of the Great Lakes. This was followed by the Joint Occupancy Treaty of 1818, allowing both nations to settle jointly in the Oregon territory. This treaty was renewed in 1827 for an indefinite period, but the Webster-Asburton Treaty of 1842 settled the Canada-United States boundary as the 49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains.
The Oregon Boundary Treaty of 1846 extended the boundary on the 49th parallel to the middle of the Straits of Georgia. The peaceful accord established by the Treaty of Ghent was exemplified further in the signing of the Treaty of 1871 in settlement of the dispute over the San Juan Islands.
Truly the desire of the signatories for the Treaty of Ghent was for a “firm and lasting peace.”
After McKay concluded his speech, it was time to remember the Good Roads Association. Samuel Hill was sometimes generous in granting credit to others when he might have justly claimed it for himself. He introduced A.E. Todd of Victoria as “the originator of the Pacific Highway idea,” and Todd, in turn, declared himself “a good roads man because he believed it to be good business. Roads, he maintained, will help greatly in building up the country and in encouraging more people to stay on the land.”
It was nearly three o’clock. After Todd completed his brief address, Hill asked John B. Yeon, Portland; John Joseph Donovan, Bellingham; and Frank Terrace, Orillia—“all good roads men”—to raise the Union Jack. As the flag slowly ascended, a band played the British national anthem. Flying at the top of its staff, the flag danced in the wind while the crowd below cheered and sang “The Maple Leaf Forever.”
The Canadian choristers best knew the song. They may have realized that, as a Canadian symbol, the maple leaf may be traced to the dawning of the eighteenth century, when European pioneers, impressed with the aboriginal practice of gathering the tree’s natural syrup, began to recognize the leaf as a fitting national emblem. A newspaper, a Toronto literary circle, and a regiment known as the Royal Canadians, promoted it through the press, in journals and upon badges.
Then, during confederation year 1867, Canadian teacher Alexander Muir wrote “The Maple Leaf Forever.”
Legends abound. One story portrays the 37-year-old Scotsman strolling through Scarborough, when a maple leaf, reddened by autumn frosts, fell upon his shirtsleeve, and there it stuck, inspiring him to quip, “The maple leaf forever!” The leaf seemingly stuck in his mind as well, and soon he had written one of Canada’s most loved national songs. Of course, this story is of questionable veracity. But the leaf theme grew.
Soon thereafter, the leaf appeared on coins and coats of arms. During World War I, it graced the badges of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Maple Cottage, Muir’s home, built in 1873, still stands at 62 Laing Street, Toronto. The giant maple tree, said to have inspired the Scottish Scarborough teacher, was rooted in the soil of Muir’s yard. It still stands there. Today, “The Maple Leaf Forever” is rooted in Canadian tradition.
But “forever” includes endless tomorrows. As they sang one verse after another, the Maple Leaf’s future they could not know. Tommy La Pierre, George Kitzel, Otto Peschke, Mary and Bertha Barton, all of whom were residents of Canada heartily singing the song, could not know. Not then. They would know later.
Over time the revelations unfolded. In 1921, the year that the Peace Arch was dedicated, the Royal Arms of Canada celebrated national identity with three maple leaves. And on February 15, 1965, nine months before Vernon C. McDonald led a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the mutually ratified Treaty of Ghent by rededicating the 1915 commemorative plaque at the Peace Arch, the Red Maple Leaf became Canada’s new flag.
So what did anniversary attendees Tommy La Pierre, George Kitzel, Otto Peschke, Mary and Bertha Barton, seeing the new flag atop the Peace Arch fifty years later, think of that? Did they loath it? Love it? Did they miss the Red Ensign?
The 1915 celebration continued. “How does it come to pass that these two nations, each proud of spirit and conscious of its power, have preserved peace with each other for 100 years?” asked Judge Thomas Burke of Seattle, Governor Lister’s personal representative whom Samuel Hill had introduced as the next speaker. “It is because under the influence of free institutions common to both, men have been learning to respect the rights of others,” he said, answering his own question. “When justice prevails between nations, there can be no war. Justice is the price of peace, and peace not founded upon it can never be permanent. The great highway that leads to peace is marked with signs reading, ‘The road to justice.’”
Biographer Robert Nesbitt gave Burke hearty accolades when the latter authored The Man Who Built Seattle. Seattle historian William C. Speidel said Burke “stood about five feet high and had a voice punctuated by thunderclaps.”
“It is peculiarly appropriate that we should give testimony of the blessing of peace upon the common ground of the open road,” said Frank Branch Riley, representing James Withycombe, governor of Oregon. “For more than any other of the devices of man, the highway is destined to stimulate peace, the free intercourse and the closer friendship of neighboring peoples. The road breaks down the barriers of misunderstanding and prejudice, of ignorance and dark suspicion.”
Hill’s biographers tended not to forget his eccentricities, his odd dreams and unorthodox aspirations. Withycombe’s representative alluded to this only indirectly, by revealing how the public initially responded to Hill’s magnanimous highway plan. Riley’s speech, as recorded by Bellingham Herald reporter Paul Gooding, continued:
The Pacific Highway—laughed at, maligned and ridiculed at first—has come to be an institution, Canadian and American, of the big West. It is the principal unit of a great future system of related highways, the golden chain that binds the last West. Every year its termini are forced further north and further south, and there are some fine fellows not far from me that will never stop until the road shall really begin in the Arctic snow at Point Barrow and really end under a palm tree on the shores of the Straight of Magellan.
We are all workers here. . . . We are too busy with problems that concern us both to quarrel. Sentimentally, commercially and geographically we are cousins and neighbors and we shall never fight.
For twelve months my country has been the agonized observer of a hideous holocaust overseas. . . . Gladly we grasp this opportunity to turn from the spectacle of the failure of diplomacy and repudiation of treaties to praise one scrap of paper that has stood the test, to celebrate a peace that has endured, and to express the passionate hope that we shall never settle, by slaughter, any dispute of ours.
Perhaps Riley then looked upward, turning his eyes toward the Union Jack that was hoisted a few moments earlier. Maybe he was forgiven for expressing a tinge of nationalistic ethnocentrism as he described the Stars and Stripes with a comparison that may—or may not—have been consciously contrived.
I see the Union Jack floating against the blue of the Canadian sky. I salute it as the proud proof and the constant reminder that behind it lie the vast dominions of the British people. . . . And I want to see another banner, the most beautiful, I think, of any under heaven’s dome. . . . For every state there is a star. It may be that one of these stars shines brighter than any of the rest for me, but, on behalf not only of the commonwealth down on the shores of the Columbia and his excellency, the governor of it . . . but for all the people of all the stars, I present a banner to you, Mr. President Hill. More than ever before it is the sheltering flag of humanity. May it wave at this border in recognition of an honorable peace of 100 years as an earnest [reminder] of the peace [for] centuries to come. Sir, the flag of the United States.
Samuel Hill then asked three men to step forward for the raising of the flag of the United States of America—dignitaries all, the first being president of the Pacific Highway Association, the second president of the Vancouver Automobile Club, and the third was Vancouver counsel for Switzerland. W.R. Russell, H.W. White and Samuel Gintzberger approached the Stars and Stripes, the eager crowd cheering, the band playing the “Star Spangled Banner,” and the flag nobly rising at 3:18 P.M.
Did anyone realize on that day, that they had instituted an annual ceremony held every spring at the Peace Arch? Did they know that, forty years hence, American Boy Scout Dennis Thibault, assisted by Camp Fire Girl Jane Clark and Girl Scout Judy Triplett would raise the United States flag? And that Canadian Boy Scout Colin Sharpe, assisted by Girl Guides Barbara Small and Sherron Ridley would raise the Canadian flag? Did they dream there would be a popular flag exchange between American and Canadian children? Did they realize school choirs would sing, that high school students from both sides of the border would speak on the topic, “Youth and the Twentieth Century Challenge,” and that an international veterans’ ceremony would follow—all this before Nelson Rockefeller, representing President Dwight D. Eisenhower, would deliver his address, “Peace and International Understanding,” before a crowd many thousands greater than the 4,000 peace lovers, there tearfully to see two flags rise on July 4, 1915?
Samuel Hill knew. “Both this flag and the Victoria gift [the Union Jack] will hereafter float at the spot where they have been raised,” stated the Herald.
As Russell, White and Gintzberger stepped back to look upward toward the Stars and Stripes flying gracefully beside the Union Jack, the crowd broke into singing “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.” Jack Judge, an Englishman, composed it in 1912. Some say Harry Williams helped him. Judge never lived in Ireland, but his grandparents had. It was music destined to build the morale of Irish soldiers in the Tipperary military barracks, and, from there, the whole town would be known throughout the world, even among the Germans and Russians who, themselves, would sing it. “Up to mighty London came an Irishman one day,” began the lyrics. “As the streets were paved with gold, sure ev’ry one was gay.” The meanings of words change, but not the fact of death. Here was a song dedicated to the lonely soldier who only wanted to go home. Perhaps Samuel Hill’s 4,000 songsters, themselves nearly ready to go home, thought it was supposed to be a mirthful melody. Little knew they. World War I would lead over 50,000 Irish lads to their cruel, embattled rendezvous with death.
After the crowd had sung what may well have become the most popular battle song during the World War I era and the age of Edison’s phonograph, they sang “Yankee-Doodle,” a song of unknown origin that seventeenth century English emigrants introduced to colonial America. While Lexington and Concord were embroiled in war during the spring of 1775, the minutemen were said to have whistled it repeatedly, prompting British general Thomas Gage to declare he hoped he’d never hear it for the rest of his life. Perhaps in view of the American neutrality that President Wilson had affirmed “in fact as well as in name” more than one year earlier, there may have been Canadians present whose feelings were similar to Gage’s. As they sang “Yankee-Doodle keep it up,” they were likely aware that the Germans had launched history’s first large scale venture in the warfare of poisonous gas at Ypres the previous April, while Canadian volunteers were fighting in the trenches. And soon young Canadians would die at the Somme, at Passchendaele, and ultimately at Vimy Ridge where 3,598 would be dead by April 9, 1917, the day Germany finally retreated.
The flag ceremony concluded, Samuel Hill “placed the custody of the flag in the hands of George A. Ellsperman, Blaine’s deputy collector in charge of customs.” Perhaps the Union Jack, flying over Canadian soil, was left unattended until nightfall.
Additional speeches ensued. Dr. James B. Bullitt, representing California Governor Hiram Johnson, was next slated to speak. Excerpts were published:
As we strike hands today across that invisible line separating Canada and the United States, unfortified and undefended, we raise high our heart in thankfulness for the hundred years of unbroken peace between the two great peoples.
While we can only deplore the tragic circumstances which have prevented the larger celebration from being held in Ghent, we must recognize as most happy and most appropriate this celebration here today under the auspices of the Pacific Highway association, for roads, gentlemen, lead into states, and into homes, and into human hearts. “Go oft to the house of thy friend, lest the road, unused, grow up in weeds.” If we will but provide the roads and persuade the nations to travel them constantly enough, we may hopefully look forward to the day when the international weeds of suspicion, passion and prejudice will wither into nothingness under the firm tread of understanding and good will.
California is the last of the Pacific coast states to take her part in this celebration here today; she gladly yields precedence to her sisters of the further northwest, at the shrine of whose beauties and perfections she stands a willing and a constant worshipper. She refuses, however, to take a second place in her desire and her determination to contribute all that she may to the developments, especially of roads.
Only occasionally have “the international weeds of suspicion, passion and prejudice” afflicted both nations. One occasion, to be further discussed, occurred shortly after President Nixon ordered the invasion of Cambodia. On May 9, 1970, a group of Canadian students “invaded” the Peace Arch, causing minor damage to the arch, and arousing international suspicion. The clearest case of prejudice, also to be discussed shortly, involved U.S. customs officials’ refusal to allow Black singer and peace activist Paul Robeson admission to Canada at the Blaine border crossing May 18, 1952.
As the twentieth century led to the twenty-first, both nations grew suspicious of Washington state governmental threats to close the American side of the monument’s park. There grew an ongoing fear that Peace Arch State Park would be left literally to the weeds, uncared for by a work force, dismissed by legislation in an attempt to secure state coffers. “In each of the last three years, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, citing budget constraints, has announced plans to close several state parks,” complained Jeff Hanson, writing an editorial opinion for the February 21, 2001 issue of the Record-Journal. “Ultimately, however, none of the forty-two parks targeted by the agency were closed. Alarming the public every year by threatening park closures is not necessary.”
Again, while Canadian customs facilities expanded in 1986—a $12.2 million investment—to include seven private vehicle booths, three commercial inspection booths, a bus area, a truck compound with space for 85 tractor-trailers, without intruding upon park soil, there have been growing fears that U.S. border facilities will expand, infringing upon state parkland, defacing and covering it with additional buildings and lanes.
But during January 2000, a new wave of planned expansionism—further discussed in chapter eight—raised “international weeds of suspicion” on both sides of the border.
After Bullitt had finished his address, Edmond S. Meany premiered his poem, “Our Hundred Years of Peace,” which is presented in Appendix B.
Yet another dignitary came forward to speak. E.G. Britton, of England, chair of the Overseas and Dominion Committee, presented the next address. According to the Herald:
Mr. Britton referred humorously to American hospitality. He said he had received so much of it that he felt like the boy who begged his nurse to “carry I upstairs, carry I to bed, but don’t bend I.” He declared that the British people are expecting the United States to take a strong part in helping the nations to adjust themselves to the new conditions that will follow the ending of the European war. He expressed himself as being unable to see why there cannot be created a court for humanity at large which will do for the nations what the supreme court does for the United States.
Appropriately, the only photo to appear on page one of the July 5, 1915 edition of the Bellingham Herald was that of Jane Addams. Above it was a headline: “Prominent American Woman Who Says Europeans Now Want Peace” Below it stood the cutline: “Miss Jane Addams, who visited several of the leading countries at war in the interests of peace are in a mood to consider peace terms, but that the initiative must come from some neutral countries. She is not sure that suggestions from the United States would be entirely welcome for the reason that there is some feeling against this country on both sides.”
Born in Cedarville, Illinois, the peace activist, then 55 years old, played a key role in forming and chairing the Woman’s Peace Party during 1915, the very year the Ghent centennial was celebrated at the border. Soon she would author The Long Road of Women’s Memory and Peace and Bread in Time of War. And a decade after the Peace Arch’s dedication, she would share the Nobel Peace Prize with Nicholas Murray Butler.
“The nations at war have no choice but to go on,” she was reported to have said. “No negotiations can now be suggested by any of them without giving the appearance of weakness and none of the nations as yet feels in the slightest but that its cause can and must succeed.
“Every day that peace negotiations are delayed will make terms of peace just that much harder.”
Jane Addams may not have been the personification of Britton’s wishful “court for humanity at large which will do for the nations what the supreme court does for the United States,” but she was certainly a mover and a shaker for the supreme cause of peace.
Present at the Ghent centennial celebration were Japanese consuls Kahachi Abe from Vancouver, British Columbia, and K. Kumasaki from Portland, Oregon. Abe stepped forward to address the crowd in impeccable English that, it is supposed, was read from a prepared manuscript presumably loaned to the recording newspaper journalist.
Gentlemen: When your president honored me with an invitation to be present on this interesting occasion, and intimated that he might call upon me for a few remarks, my first thought was that I would be out of place in a celebration between Englishmen and Americans. “What right,” I thought, “has a Japanese to come butting into a love feast of this kind between two neighbors who have never done him any wrong? If I do this,” I said, “the people all along the border will point to it as another instance of Japanese aggression.”
Your president, however, is a very persuasive man. It did not take him long to convince me that any celebration which has for its motive the love of peace between man and man is a proper place for a Japanese to show himself. When the treaty of Ghent was signed between America and Great Britain my little country was an unknown land—a veritable terra incognita—to the nations of the West. And we knew as little of you as you did of us. There was probably not a man in Japan who knew what was going on in Europe and America when that treaty was signed. There certainly were none who realized the significance of that famous convention or had any conception of the momentous changes which the coming century was to bring forth. But even then Japan loved peace. She had enjoyed it within her own borders for over 200 years and realized its blessings. If the Japanese statesmen of that day could have looked forward to the relations of amity and good will which were destined to grow up between their country and the two great English speaking nations which are celebrating here today, they would have congratulated you then—as I do now—that peace was the objective sought and the way to make its foundations secure. Perhaps your forefathers were wiser than they knew. It was a splendid conception in that day for two great peoples to say to each other: We will trust each other. Along our border of 2,000 miles no fort shall rise—no gun shall look across the line.
And because you trusted each other, you kept faith. That is the inspiring thought. It is doubt and distrust and ignorance that breed strife.
To me this example of good faith for over 100 years between two unarmed peoples is one of the finest things in history, and I find it in my heart to congratulate you and to feel, somehow, as a lover of peace, that perhaps there is room for me at your board. You have given to the world a practical example of the power of righteousness that all nations may safely copy.
Japan loves peace today, as she did 100 years ago, and would gladly be at peace with all the world. Having in mind your noble record of self-control and mutual trust during all these years, she does not despair that a day may come when she too, may be able to celebrate centennials of good will with all her neighbors.
Where were Abe and Kumasaki twenty-two years earlier, when Japanese Emperor Meiji erected a “good will temple” in Jackson Park at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago? Translated into poetic English was his poem:
JAPANESE GOOD WILL TEMPLE
In this world
Where methinks the seven seas
Are brethren,
Why rage the angry waves
From time to time?
Where were Abe and Kumasaki thirty years, and two days shy of two months later, when General Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of the allied forces, was making peace aboard the USS Missouri, a mighty battleship ever so gently rocking in Tokyo Bay? Hawaii had hardly been “a veritable terra incognita” to the pilots flying seventy-nine “Zero” fighters, 112 “Val” dive bombers, 103 bomb-bearing Nakajima “Kates” and forty more, busily trucking torpedoes—all of them merrily on their way to Pearl Harbor Sunday morning, December 7, 1941.
The celebration ended well before dark, giving Herald reporter Paul Gooding time to drive his primitive auto back to Bellingham, where, armed with voluminous notes, he would work far into the night. He would need to crank his car cautiously, lest he break an arm. With 300 early autos chugging homeward, one can only imagine how many crudely inefficient tires were blown, or how many pesky bands had to be changed as grinding transmissions overheated them.
When Gooding arrived at his office to compose the centennial story, could he accurately estimate the size of the crowd? At one point he seemed a bit doubtful when he reported “3,000 or 4,000 spectators” in attendance. The July 9, 1915 issue of the Blaine Journal gave room for a greater margin of doubt. “The celebration, conducted under the auspices of the Pacific Highway Association was attended by hundreds of motorists from both sides of the line,” reported the newspaper, adding, “Estimates of the number of people present range from 1,000 to 4,000.”
Within six years and two months, Samuel Hill would dedicate the Peace Arch. While some drivers would head there in their new Model “T” Fords, 15 million more autos would be heading for junkyards at five bucks each, the Edison spring-wound phonographs playing, “Poor Lizzie, What’ll Become of You Now?”
Reflections Fifty Years Later: The 1965 Rededication of a 1915 Plaque
As previously noted, Vernon McDonald, president of the International Peace Arch Association, remembered the July 4, 1915 centennial celebration of the Treaty of Ghent. A small bronze plaque had been erected at the site, but later disappeared. “As time wore on,” explained the November 8, 1965 edition of the Vancouver Province, “the wooden post to which the plaque had been attached rotted away, and a new monument—the Peace Arch—was erected at the border.”
Sometime before November 7, 1965, when the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Ghent was chosen, the missing plaque was found. The Vancouver Province reported the plaque “had been stored among the dusty files at the border customs house.” The Blaine Journal put it this way: “This plaque was found, stored in a dark corner of the Canadian Customs.” If “at” doesn’t mean “in” a building, another version of the story suggests it may have been stuck in the ground: “A bronze plaque that was erected at the time of the first celebration in 1915 was recently uncovered during a cleanup at the Canadian Customs Building, has been remounted, cleaned up and will serve as the focal point in this rededication program Nov. 7,” stated the November 4, 1965 edition of the Bellingham Herald.
The Vancouver Sun described it this way:
The ten by twelve-inch copper plaque was first erected in 1915 to commemorate the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent which ended the War of 1812.
Until 1952 it was fastened to a cedar post next to the Canada Customs building. When the building was torn down that year to make way for the new building, the post with the plaque on it was burned with some debris.
The ashes were later scattered around the customs warehouse compound.
There the plaque lay until June 1963, when Reginald Belcher, a Canadian customs officer, noticed it.
It was filed in the Canada Customs building until Horace Plimley found out it was there.
The 70-year-old ex-president of Plimley Motors instigated a move to have the plaque re-erected on the Peace Arch site.
Thus, an important feature of the 1965 ceremony was a rededication of the remounted plaque. Working closely with Leslie Eggleton of Cloverdale, B.C., who at that time was vice president of the Peace Arch Association, an impressive program was arranged. Unusual was the fact the ceremony was held on the lawn of the Canadian Customs building instead of the grassy grounds gracing the Peace Arch. This, presumably, was because the monument had been originally placed a short distance north of the border, in the vicinity of the 1915 celebration.
The 1965 ceremony was a reflection of that held in 1915. The patriotic songs, the speeches and even the visitation of old autos sponsored by the Vintage Car Club of Vancouver were features that nursed feelings of nostalgia or deja vu for those elderly guests who attended both ceremonies. They included Canadians Tommy La Pierre, George Kitzel, Otto Peschke, Mrs. G. Westland, J. Tucker, O.P. Jones, G.W. Radford, Cloverdale; Mrs. R. Potter, Mary, Bertha and W. Barton, W.A. Thrift, Mrs. D. Horrocks, White Rock; Mrs. M.B. Ray, Vancouver; and Americans Gladys Cowderoy, Tessie Henry, Hattie Andrus, Andy Grubisha, John Penno, Blaine; Hazel Whitford, Custer; Mrs. J.E. Patten, Port Angeles; Rose Seely Mosely, Bellingham; Mrs. W.C. Krienkie, Leavenworth.
The program, typed and modestly mimeographed on paper of standard stock, was found in McDonald’s private collection:
1815-1965 PLAQUE REDEDICATION
COMMEMORATING THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE TREATY OF GHENT
Nov. 7, 1965 2:30 P.M.
International Boundary and the Pacific Highway
PROGRAM
O CANADA Surrey Fireman’s Band
Star Spangled Banner Blaine High School Band
INVOCATION Rev. Philip S. Ramstad, Pastor Blaine Lutheran Church
Welcome Vernon C. McDonald, President International
Peace Arch Program Association
Master of Ceremonies Dr. Theo. J. Rasmussen, Bellingham
Introduction of Guests Representative of the State of Washington
Senator R. Frank Atwood, Bellingham
Representative of the State of Oregon
Mr. Kent Hotaling, Seattle
Representative of Great Britain
N. Belam, British Trade Commissioner
Representative of Japan
Consul I. Ban
INTRODUCTION OF SPECIAL INVITED GUESTS:
Canadian Speaker Donald A. New, President B.C. Historical Association
American Speaker Dr. Keith Murray, Professor of History, Wash. State College
INTRODUCTION OF OLD TIMERS:
Leslie Eggleton, Vice President International Peace Arch
Program Association
REPLY Mrs. R. Potter, White Rock
EXCHANGE OF FLAGS Members, U.S. and Canadian Veteran’s Association under
Command of William Magnall, Parade Marshal, White Rock
UNVEILING OF PLAQUE Horace Plimley, Vancouver, B.C.
ORIGINAL POEM WRITTEN BY EDMUND S. MEANY FOR THE 1915 CEREMONY
By Mary Ellen Mustapa, Senior Girls Representative to
Bellingham High School Student Body
VINTAGE CARS Courtesy Vintage Car Club, Vancouver, B.C.
J.C. Reid President
AMERICAN AND CANADIAN NATIONAL ANTHEMS
Attendance was less than one-tenth of those present at the 1915 celebration. “About 300 persons attended the ceremony,” according to the Sun, “and a parade of fifteen vintage cars—some of which might have made the original journey—traveled the same route from Vancouver.” Poet Edmund S. Meany had died. His son, Edmund S. Meany Jr., sent a telegram from Northfield, Massachusetts, that conveyed a poetry of its own: “All honor to the men and women whose good has nurtured 150 years of exemplary peace between two great nations.”
“These traditions all help to build up peace,” the Sun reported Plimley to have said. “The plaque will be one of the first things visitors will see as they enter Canada.”
Unfortunately, the plaque disappeared from the park grounds, perhaps during the 1970s. How or why it vanished is unknown.
Chapter Two
Then Arose the Arch
War satisfies neither the victors nor the vanquished. Perfect peace alone satisfies.—Samuel Hill
A Description of the Monument
The International Peace Arch, a massive bipedal monument that straddles the United States-Canada border, stands astride Peace Arch State Park by the coastal border city of Blaine, and Peace Arch Provincial Park, south of White Rock’s sandy beach. Towering high as an eight-story building, with a base equal to its height, this weighty concrete and steel structure is said to be the world’s only portal dedicated to peace.
The Peace Arch is a symbol of peace between nations. Architecturally, it is a commentary on peace. Here the observer sees strength harmonizing with serenity, and symmetry attuned to simplicity. Its Doric lines are strong but uncomplicated. Strength, serenity, symmetry and simplicity: International peace of the highest order is doubtless composed of such qualities. It is no contradiction to say peace must be militant.
Painted in gleaming white, the arch’s stately beauty is enhanced at night, when floodlights bring the monument dramatically onstage for the enjoyment of every observer. White, invariably neutral, is the blending of every color in the spectrum. Peace, too, prospers in a field of neutrality, where diversity, liberated from the dark night of hatred and violence, expresses itself freely in the unifying light of reigning peace.
Over the Peace Arch fly the national flags of Canada and the United States. Below the obtusely angled roofline, visitors standing on Canadian soil may read the biblically derived aphorism, “Brethren Dwelling Together in Unity.” And those who stand on United States soil may read the expression, “Children of a Common Mother,” emblazoned on the opposite side of the monument. As the observer walks around, and then through, this open-ended structure, a sense of symmetry dawns. Symbols fitting for one nation are mirrored by its neighboring nation.
From whence came those inscriptions, “Brethren Dwelling Together in Unity” and “Children of a Common Mother”?
“Brethren Dwelling Together in Unity” obviously rephrases Psalm 133, verse one: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Nan de Bertrand Lugrin thought brotherly ties between Canada and the United States were firm before, during and after the War of 1812, as typified by the following story:
It was shortly after the United States had declared war against England and there was a little village near the international border in New Brunswick, which, according to orders, was either to be taken or destroyed. The farming communities on both sides of the line had lived for years as brothers, assisting each other in a hundred different ways, their difficulties the same, their problems similar. The boundary line was crossed a dozen times a day while they helped each other in the clearing, the plowing, the harvesting. Farmers were mustered into the army, however, when war was declared, and those who had tilled the fields and reaped the grain together were arrayed against one another in bitter enmity. But when orders came through that the Americans were to advance, the spirit in them rebelled. They looked across to where the Canadians faced them, a far weaker force, but determined to hold their little farms in the name of the king. Victory would have been quite simple and easy to the American invaders, a few volleys, fire set to the barns and houses, and nothing to check their triumphant advance. But they refused to fight. Their respect, their friendship for the people who had lived and worked side by side with them for many years, sharing their joys, their hardships, and their sufferings was too great. They laid down their arms. Nor was there any advance on either side of the line at that point.
More complex are the implications of “Children of a Common Mother.” Exactly what does it mean? Did it originate with a review of Shakespeare’s play, Richard II, written during the closing years of the 14th century? After the king orders him banished from England, Bolingbroke laments,
Then, England’s ground, farewell; sweet soil, adieu;
My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet!
Where’er I wander, boast of this I can;
Though banish’d, yet a trueborn Englishman.
Reflecting upon “Children of a Common Mother,” Bill Hastings, in an undated manuscript filed with the White Rock Museum archives, wrote, “This statement plainly refers to the common British-French stock and needs no further comment.” All the while, a reserve of the Semiahmoo Indian Band snuggles the Canadian side of Peace Arch Park.
The voluminous Oxford English Dictionary suggests a broader range of references if one considers the extensive meanings of common as (1) belonging equally to more than one; possessed or shared by both or all (the persons or things in question), (2) belonging to all mankind alike; pertaining to the human race as a possession or attribute, (3) belonging to more than one as a result or sign of cooperation, joint action or agreement; joint, united, (4) of general application; general, (5) of or belonging to the community or corporation; public, (6) free to be used by everyone; public.
It isn’t unusual to associate a “common mother” with a nation, but not necessarily with England, Great Britain, or France. Leaving Warsaw and detraining at Minsk a traveler scanned the crowd at the station and said, “I had the impression that the people had a common mother. All, without exception, were wearing dark fur coats.” Here, there is a connection with folkways.
Sometimes the association is judged mythical. “The religion of the mothers and the myth of Russia as common mother together embody what is perhaps the central mystery of Russian people,” states Professor Tatiana Spektor of Iowa State University. If the United States or Canada were considered in lieu Russia, would the myth not continue to apply? Here, there is a religious connection.
But when Ossie Davis presented his eulogy during the funeral of Malcolm X held in the Faith Temple Church of God, February, 27, 1965, his closing remarks included a thought-provoking statement: “Consigning these mortal remains to earth, the common mother of all, secure in the knowledge that what we place in the ground is no more now a man—but a seed—which, after the winter of our discontent, will come forth again to meet us.” Here, earth is the common mother.
When Alice Walker, supporter of the National March for Women’s Equality and Women’s Lives, delivered her address, “What Can the White Man Say to the Black Woman?” before an assembly gathered at Washington, D.C. on May 22, 1989, her opening statement was, “What is of use in these words I offer in memory of our common mother? And to my daughter?” Repeatedly, she asked, “What can the white man say to the black woman?” Multiple answers began with, “For four-hundred years he ruled over the black woman’s womb.” . . . “For four-hundred years he determined which black woman’s children would live or die.” As the address unfolds, concern is expressed for the common mother of minorities. Here, there is a connection with racial justice.
An interpretation of both statements—Children of a Common Mother and Brethren Dwelling Together in Unity—appeared in Souvenir: International Peace Portal, composed for the 1846 boundary treaty centennial, celebrated at the Peace Arch June 15, 1946:
Its inscriptions declare that the doorways of social and commercial communication, now open, shall never be shut, and that those who dedicate it, as children of one common mother, will dwell together in perpetual unity. Like Mizpah of Sacred Writ, it calls God to witness: “I will not pass over it to thee, nor thou to me for harm.” It invites the world to: “Beat its swords into plowshares and its spears into pruning hooks, and to learn war no more.”
Victoria’s Daily Colonist summarized Anglo-Saxon relationships three days before the Peace Arch was dedicated: “Peace, amity, good will and continually harmonious relations between the British and American peoples, such as now prevails and such as will be symbolized in the Peace Arch Dedication on Tuesday, constitute the hope of the future, not for Anglo-Saxondom [sic] alone but for the world itself, which, more than ever before, is looking to the English-speaking peoples for that leadership which is so sorely needed on earth.”
As visitors examine the monument’s exterior walls, images of ships cast upon bronze plaques, appear. On the Canadian wall, the Beaver is remembered as the first steamer to cruise the waters of an ocean named for peace—the Pacific Ocean, its saltwater visible from the monument and its park grounds. On the United States wall, the Mayflower is remembered as the ship that left Plymouth, England. It was September 6, 1620. Some 102 Pilgrims, bound for the New World, were aboard. Wooden relics, allegedly cut from each ship, were sealed behind each plaque when the Peace Arch was dedicated in 1921.
Both relics, damaged by moisture infiltration over the years, were removed in 1985 to assess their condition and assure their preservation. “Through Eric Lawson of Bowen; Island, B.C., a piece of wood from the S.S. Beaver with a painted inscription on one surface was sent to the Parks Canada laboratories in Ottawa for treatment in the late 1980s,” wrote Louise Fox, National Historic Sites Directorate of Parks Canada, to International Peace Arch Association vice president Grant Ward, April 28, 1995. “I was one of the people who treated this object and, since it involved an innovative treatment, we have written up this treatment for publication in a national conservation journal, the IIC-CG Journal.”
Both relics have relocated. The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission harbors the Mayflower relic in its northwest regional office at Burlington, Washington. The Beaver relic is anchored in British Columbia’s Vancouver Maritime Museum.
Plying the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, strong ships suggest movement. Peace is neither stagnation nor weakness. It must move with the strength of Atlas, in whose name the Atlantic is rooted. Yet, the ships of peace must pacify a world of restlessness, hatred and violence—in whose name the Pacific is rooted—whether they be ships of freedom, as with the Mayflower, or ships of commerce, as with the Beaver. The Peace Arch speaks in a hidden fashion, but it suggests viable peace is no simplistic “process” as commonly assumed and regularly disproved. As a living cause, peace must relentlessly move like a strong vessel holding its course in high seas, while salty breakers, leaping against its hull with diabolical force, finally pound themselves to death upon rocky shores far away.
Peace on Earth, if it ever dawns, will surface in the wake of a worldwide movement. Such seems to be the message of the Peace Arch. And, indeed, it reflects the thinking of Samuel Hill its founder, who said, “No one more heartily endorses peace than I. But the peace I would have reaches far and wide. To all the world I would hold out the olive branch of peace, but first of all, there must be peace at home, at the fireside, and in the household.” Hill’s entire speech is in Appendix A.
Iron gates are fastened to each inner wall. Above one gate is written, “1814—Open One Hundred Years—1914” The Treaty of Ghent, signed December 24, 1814; was a declaration of peace that marked the end of the two and one-half year War of 1812 between British Canada and the United States. Additionally, the treaty addressed peaceful relations with aboriginals and the bondage of enslaved African Americans. Above the opposite gate appears the peaceful plea, “May These Gates Never be Closed.”
A subtle psychology is at work within the walls of the Peace Arch. Visitors read an inscription dedicated to 100 years of peace. They are invited to reflect upon the past. Then they read another inscription dedicated to an open-gated future. The portal’s peace theme is reviewed through retrospective and prospective lenses. Visitors are thereby invited to meditate introspectively upon peace for the purpose of extending it, wherever their presence is felt. Within the walls of the international monument, peace centralizes itself in the triune perspective of time—past, present and future. The following editorial that appeared in the September 6, 1921 edition of the Bellingham Herald expressed the concept well:
The Peace Arch Celebrations
By James Martyn Wilson
The erection of an arch to commemorate a ceremony of peace between two great nations is as significant as it is unusual. The memorials to celebrate the victories of war are many and elaborate. This arch celebrates the greater victory of peace.
We are weary of war. And yet national boundaries, many of them, are today lines of friction, suspicion, forts with great guns in readiness, and armed men on duty. Nations that have lived side by side for more than a thousand years have not yet learned the art of good will, of mutual trust and respect.
In the last hundred years there have been times of misunderstanding between Great Britain and America, relations have been tense, people talked of war, and yet in spite of aroused feelings and old hates, peace has been kept, and things happily settled.
The Peace Arch at Blaine is fortunately situated to tell its story. The writer has just returned from a tour along the Pacific Highway in our three coast states. Although still undergoing construction in many places, there is a constant procession of travelers.
One can imagine an ever-increasing host, passing beneath this arch, and as they come to it one hears the children ask what it means and then the story of a century of peace will be told them.
Not only does such a memorial commemorate peace in the past, but its setting up and its dedication today will make for peace in the future. Constantly reminded of our long-continued friendship, we have a pledge of peace for years to come.
Upon leaving the Peace Arch, the visitor may notice a plaque—of which more shall be said—dedicated to the remembrance of Samuel Hill, creator if the monument. More likely to be overlooked is an unimposing statement, its letters three inches tall, and prematurely pressed into the façade of the northeast wall about one yard above the foundation:
Pacific Highway
1920
Why was it dated 1920? The highway name was a feature of the cornerstone that Samuel Hill placed in the Peace Arch during the September 6, 1921 dedication, a ceremony held one year later than he had originally intended. The cornerstone had been prepared for the scheduled year and Hill apparently chose to leave it unchanged. One may wonder why the year 1915 did not appear below the name; after all, he declared the Pacific Highway open at a dedication ceremony held that year as noted in chapter one. Multiple dedication ceremonies were not foreign to Hill’s practice; the Peace Arch was dedicated more than once.
If North American highway fatalities are totaled, the yearly sum is not far removed from the number “on our side” who died in the Vietnam conflict. It would seem appropriate that highway safety should accompany ongoing concerns for peace.
Samuel Hill: A Peace Promoter Rarely Remembered
Samuel Hill, Harvard graduate, world traveler, road builder, created the International Peace Arch. The son of Quaker parents Nathan Bronson Hill and Eliza L. Mendenhall, he was born May 13, 1857, at Deep River, North Carolina. Following a short stay in Indiana, the Hill family moved to Minneapolis in 1865. Dr. Nathan Hill, his physician father, died ten years later.
Although Samuel Hill became a railroad survey employee at the age of 17, and one year later joined A.J. Cassatt, Pennsylvania Railroad, he was excused to earn his Bachelor of Arts degree at Haverford College, Pennsylvania, and completed a second B.A. at Harvard in 1879. Admitted to the bar in 1880, he practiced law in Minneapolis.
In 1886 he became legal advisor, associated with James J. Hill of Great Northern Railway, an entrepreneur unaffiliated with Samuel’s bloodline, but soon to be related through a nuptial tie. Samuel claimed the railroad builder taught him more than anything he had gained in the university.
Thus, in 1888, Samuel married his employer’s Roman Catholic daughter, Mary “Mamie” Frances Hill (1868-1947). Samuel fathered Mary Mendenhall Hill (1889-1941), a daughter emotionally, if not mentally, handicapped, and James Nathan B. Hill (1893-1975), a son whose premature taedium vitae left him disinterested in education and a disappointment to Samuel. They were the only children Mamie bore him.
Albert of Belgium, son of King Leopold, became Samuel’s longtime friend in 1898. While promoting Leopold’s railroad investments that year, Samuel met Marie of Romania, who was destined to appear at the Peace Arch dedication 28 years later.
Between the year of his marriage and the turn of the century, Samuel was a busy man, spending little time with his wife and children, except during those occasions when the vacationing family traveled to and through Europe. Business was rarely divorced from pleasure when his peregrinations took him to Europe, Japan and Russia between 1881 and 1899—before and after he married Mamie. Traveling the Trans-Siberian Railway at the turn of the century surpassed the enjoyment of Siberian scenery; Samuel was interested in monitoring progress in railway technology, the manner in which the Russian system was governed, and potential competition in international trade—all, of course, for the good of America’s Great Northern.
Ambition and altruism were Hill’s hallmarks. As James Hill’s employee (1886-1900) and president of a Minneapolis Trust Firm (1888-1903), he had his share of stressful encounters, albeit without financial encumbrances. He studied the stock market profitably, but his hectic agenda didn’t damage his philanthropic interests and friendly upper-class relationships. To exemplify: As vice president of the Minneapolis Athenaeum, it is alleged Hill influenced George Putnam to enroll at Harvard, a step that led Putnam to become librarian of the United States Congress.
Exactly why Samuel handed his resignation to his father-in-law at the turn of the century, when the Great Northern Railway was becoming greater than ever, is a matter of speculation. Whether Samuel’s resignation was involuntary is not known. One theory suggests his role as husband and father displeased James.
By the time he was ten, James Nathan was said to have been a difficult child to rear. Oddly, his father’s remedial action led the president of the United States to a Japanese athletic art. Joseph Svinth, editor of InYo: Journal of Alternative Perspectives, declares jujitsu was introduced to President Theodore Roosevelt when Samuel, living in Seattle, and his wife, living in Washington, D.C., had separated. “The Hills’ son James Nathan was an undisciplined lad,” wrote Svinth, “so Sam sent to Japan for a judo teacher. Hill had powerful connections, so the man sent was Yoshitsugu Yamashita. . . . But in Washington, Yamashita did not end up teaching James Nathan Hill, but instead President Roosevelt. As 1904 was an election year, the incumbent Republican president used his judo training to elicit favorable press coverage.”
On the one hand, it may be claimed Samuel left Great Northern amid a dispute over his family and in-law relationships. On the other hand, the turn of the century marked his turn of interest, moving from rails to roads, not to mention from steam to gas. Becoming Washington State Good Roads Association’s first president in 1899, Samuel and his family moved from St. Paul to Seattle in 1901. There he promoted road building before the U.S. Senate while continuing his duties as president of the Seattle Gas and Electric Company. But Mamie, unhappy with her marriage and claiming the change of climate affected her health, returned to St. Paul in 1903.
Hill probably underestimated the success of the Good Roads Association. Long after his death, the Washington State Good Roads Association held its annual three-day convention in Aberdeen during mid-September 1963. George F. Kachlein Jr., president of the American Automobile Association, keynoted the convention before an estimated 300 delegates. The topic, “Esthetic Considerations in Highway Planning,” would have suited Hill to a tee.
Samuel’s fortune grew with successful stock market investments. But according to the late British Columbia historian William Hastings, whose undated manuscript is in the archives of the White Rock museum,
Hill’s marriage began to come apart and during the gradual parting of the ways he built a mansion in Seattle on Highland Drive. He bought the land in 1902 but did not finish the building until 1909. It was a concrete structure that in many ways resembled a fortress.
Perhaps Hill did not understand himself fully and when the warmth and affection of a wife were no longer available to replace these qualities, he took a mistress, and then another, and still a third. He failed to realize that, especially in those days, a mistress could never replace a wife. This situation might have broken a lesser man and perhaps in some respects it may have broken Hill.
In spite of his alleged post-marital depression, Hill opened the U.S. Trust Company, Seattle, in 1907, the year he bought 6,000 acres of Washington state land in Klickitat County with the hope of developing a Quaker agricultural community thereon. The next year, Maryhill, an unusual museum suggested by his friend, Loie Fuller, but named in honor of Mary, his daughter, was under construction on “his promised land,” overlooking the Columbia River near Goldendale.
He became president of the Pacific Highway Association in 1910, pushed for Washington road legislation, and encouraged convict labor for road construction. Two years later, he formulated a plan for the Columbia River Highway in Oregon. He had ably impressed Oregon legislators with exhibits of experimental roads, demonstratively constructed at Maryhill.
Apparently, Samuel’s longtime secretary was also his mistress. “Two days after my sixty-fifth birthday I learned for the first time I am Samuel Hill’s out-of-wedlock daughter,” wrote Elisabeth Ehrens Wade, author of Samuel Hill from Samuel Hill. Born in New York City December 27, 1914, her mother, Annie Laurie Whelan, had been Samuel Hill’s secretary from 1898 to 1914. “Until the moment after six-months’ correspondence that Dr. Tuhy made clear to me the astounding reality of my parentage, I always believed I was Elisabeth Anne, daughter of Henry Ehrens, a Swiss-German presumably lost in the first World War,” she wrote.
The Columbia River Highway was completed in 1915, the Treaty of Ghent’s year of centennial celebration.
During World War I, Samuel visited Europe and Russia to promote shipment of arms from Vladivostok to the front. This action was not typically Hill’s mode of thinking. The Society of Friends has always been known for its pacifist position. Although he was a Quaker, Hill must have felt military aid for Russia was necessary for the assurance of future peace. It seems he may have sanctioned war if the occasion demanded it. A positive consequence is seen by the fact he later established a Russian language chair at the University of Washington.
He promoted road building in his 1918 trip to Japan; it was the year his Stonehenge Memorial project on the Maryhill grounds was initiated.
Versions vary regarding Hill’s initial idea of proposing the Peace Arch. Writing for the Times Colonist, Valerie Green put it this way:
Sam Hill’s whole life was dedicated to promoting peace throughout the world. He had many business dealings and peace missions in the early 1900s and many of them brought him to Victoria. It was at one of his business meetings with good friend Bert Todd (a former city mayor) at Todd’s Linden Street home in 1915, that the idea for the peace arch first took shape. [The Oregon Journal referenced it in a different setting two years earlier; the story appeared in the November 13, 1913 edition.]
Hill and Todd talked of raising money throughout Canada and the U.S. for a monument to symbolize the enduring peace between the two nations.
They decided to involve children by asking them to make small donations. And the first donation, ten cents, came from Todd’s son, Joe. His younger brother, Dick, also donated, as did Kathleen Hall (later Mrs. Robin Dunsmuir).
The names of those children were later written on a scroll and, together with other memorabilia, it was placed in a time capsule inside the arch. It’s to be opened in 2021 on the arch’s 100th anniversary.
Donations from children raised several thousand dollars for the monument, but it was Hill who paid for most of it out of his own pocket.
Construction of the Peace Arch began the year King George VI “by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of British Columbia” assented to the “Century Peace Memorial Act,” approved April 17, 1920. Construction was completed in 1921.
Reflecting upon Samuel Hill’s Peace Arch, the September 17, 1964 issue of the Blaine Journal stated:
So many columns of newspaper space have been devoted to detailed description, pictures and comment on the Peace Arch that stands on the international border separating the two countries, and yet united in general activity by highways, economy, intermarriage and general good friendship, that it is difficult to add any new techniques or phraseology regarding this monument to peace.
Sam Hill, son-in-law of the great empire builder, Jim Hill, visualized the monument as a result of the World War I influence upon his philosophy. He was a visionary highway and railroad promoter, and one of the organizers and promoters of the Washington State Good Roads Association.
Time adds to the mystery, fiction and facts, regarding items of history, and this is true of the Peace Arch. However, it is a positively established fact that Samuel Hill conceived and visualized the monument and that he promoted the financial cost and superintended its design and construction.
There are many stories told and printed of how he attempted to have it financed by Canada and the United States, and finally fell back on his own bank account. Personal contact with some of the former associates of Sam Hill and his nephew, Edgar Hill, has given reason to believe Hill was a fellow who had a tremendous impact upon his associates, and that he was active in putting the bee on many of the men who came under his spell as his enthusiasm for the Arch developed. Whether there ever was a public accounting or record of the financial support given Hill is not of record, although such a record may have been sealed into the cornerstone of the Arch.
With a view toward constructing an elaborate tourist center that included dining and conference facilities, a hotel, a golf course and his imposing home called Semiahmoo Villa, year 1925 saw Hill invest in Canadian real estate adjacent to the Peace Arch and framing Campbell River. Up to 300 invited guests visited the center. Many came from points eastward. By the summer of 1926, Indiana-born Edgar N. Hill—sometimes said to be Samuel’s nephew, but actually his cousin—appeared with guests from Buffalo and New York City.
Meanwhile, another mistress, Edith Mona Bell, bore Samuel a child in 1928. Samuel B. Hill was born in Oregon. He eventually married, raised three children, and served as a psychotherapist in California.
Edgar Hill was destined to affiliate with his cousin’s new tourist center, employed as Samuel’s project superintendent. Keeping an eye on Walsh Construction Company of Vancouver while that firm installed a state-of-the-art watering system that linked Campbell River with the golf course during the summer of 1929, Edgar publicly promised the course would be open by the following autumn.
After several years of service, Edgar returned to Indiana, where he died December 31, 1945, aged 85. An obituary was published in the Blaine Journal of January 17, 1946:
News reached Blaine recently of the death of Edgar N. Hill at his home in Knightstown, Ind. Mr. Hill spent most of 1944 at his home in Blaine, where he became ill. He finally asked to be taken to the home of his sister in California, and later expressed a desire to be taken to his old hometown, Knightstown, Indiana, where he passed away on New Years Eve.
Edgar Hill was closely associated with his cousin Sam Hill in the promotion of the Peace Arch, and was in charge of the construction of the Peace Portal Golf Course. The golf course is one of the most widely known golf courses in the Northwest; and it, along with club houses, assembly rooms, portal entrances and residence is said to have cost over half a million dollars.
Mr. Hill was a hardheaded conservative and a very delightful and enjoyable personality. He was a native son of Indiana, reared on a farm and was a farmer at heart.
He is survived by one brother, Walter B. Hill of Knightstown, Ind., and a sister, Bertha Hill of Pasadena, Calif., who has also spent several summers at the Peace Portal residence.
The Golf Club, operated under the name of the Old English Restaurants, Inc., has for many years been under the capable management of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Merrill, both of whom were held in the highest esteem by Mr. Hill.
Tucked in the settlement of Edgar’s estate was a revelation that startled Blaine Journal readers who perused the issue dated September 12, 1946:
Some of the family history of Samuel and Edgar Hill was unfolded behind closed doors in the Border Hotel last week as a delegation of attorneys from Indiana, Portland, Ore., Bellingham, Vancouver, B.C., and Blaine were taking depositions in the action brought by Mrs. Edgar Hill to contest the will of Edgar Hill.
According to the evidence being prepared to present to the court in support of her claims, Miss Belle Bettle [sic] and Edgar Hill were united in marriage at Portland, Ore., in May 1928. Less than a year after their marriage Edgar Hill secured a divorce, and so far as the Journal has been able to learn, no further consideration was given her or her son after the divorce was granted.
The son was named Samuel Hill, and in his final will and testament, Samuel, the millionaire road-builder, bequeathed a monthly allowance of $200 to the son of the divorced wife of Edgar Hill with the exception of fifty dollars which he bequeathed to anyone that could prove they were his son.
Edgar Hill was visited by his brother, Walter Hill, at the time of his prolonged illness at his home in the big house across the line, and during that visit or shortly after, he made a new will, bequeathing his property to his brother Walter and to his sister, who had lived with him much of the time of his residence in Blaine.
However, history of the Hill family discloses the fact that the father of J. Edgar Hill was named Samuel Hill, and that the name of Samuel had been handed down from one generation to another.
Was J. Edgar Hill the father of Edgar N. Hill? Although the story appears inaccurate and incomplete, the fact remains that “Sam B. Hill was born in August 1928, in Multnomah County Hospital, Portland,” as cited by Samuel Hill biographer John E. Tuhy. “The baby was legitimized through an arranged nominal marriage of Mona Bell with Sam’s cousin, Edgar Hill.”
Stonehenge was completed in 1930. Samuel Hill’s ashes were entombed there upon his death, February 26, 1931. His monument bears this clarification: “Sam Hill is not the Sam Hill of ‘What the Sam Hill!’ This is a common fallacy. The consensus among experts, including H.L. Mencken, seems to be that ‘Sam Hill’ is an euphemism for hell. The origins of the phrase still remain obscure, but the evidence that the phrase was not coined for the Samuel Hill of Stonehenge is irrefutable.”The Vancouver Sun published the following explanation October 3, 1997: “Who that other Sam Hill might be . . . is revealed in a book entitled 19th Century Homes of Marshall, Michigan, which makes reference to Sam Hill, a geological surveyor ‘who used such profane language that those associated with him began to substitute his name for swear words.’ To this day, our vernacular owes the expression ‘what in Sam Hill?’ to this Marshall man.”
Stonehenge and the Peace Arch may be compared and contrasted. Although Hill may have misunderstood the original meaning of the Bronze Age monument in England, Maryhill’s stylized version was built in remembrance of the servicemen of Klickitat County who died during World War I. The Peace Arch was built to commemorate the absence of war itself. Stonehenge reflects images of primitive superstition, savage sacrifices to appease the gods, and lamentation for cruel, needless death. The Peace Arch, painted white to symbolize purity, reflects ethereal images of hope and goodwill founded upon a peace rendered surprisingly athletic by means of its massive, strong, yet simple, Doric dimensions—Hill’s paradigm for effectual peace on earth.
Stonehenge asks us to bow our heads in sorrow. The Peace Arch asks us to lift them with joy.
Although Samuel Hill would be largely forgotten after his death, a memorial service, recorded by the Blaine Journal-Press, June 30, 1932, conveyed the following account:
At the Sam Hill Peace Portal Memorial Park Monday afternoon was held an impressive ceremony when members of the Washington Good Roads Association caravan which is making a six day tour of Washington and British Columbia, paused for a few hours and paid homage to this great builder of the Northwest.
Among those called upon by Senator Hastings were State Land Commissioner Clark V. Savidge; Secretary of State J. Grant Hinkle; State Treasurer Charles W. Hinton; J.W. Berry, member of the British Columbia Parliament for Delta district; Lee Monahan of Renton, and Frank Terrace of Orillia, both close friends of Hill, and State Senator Oliver Hall of Colfax.
Minister of Finance Jones, as main speaker, represented Premier S.F. Tolmie of British Columbia, who was called to a government conference at Ottawa.
In the person of Samuel Hill, he said, the United States had a remarkable instance of a man with a mind broad enough, and a vision sufficiently keen to interest himself internationally in the betterment of our lines of communication.
“There was nothing local in his viewpoint,” he said. “He had the mental caliber of a statesman.
“Where two great peoples are able to live together for more than a century in harmony and peace, a system of international highways becomes a natural development; and when in the apportionment of the world’s area it happens that the territory of one lies broadly between the territories of the other, there still need be no barrier.
“That fact was clearly apparent to Samuel Hill, and was at all times in the forefront of his thoughts, and his passing was keenly regretted by the people of British Columbia for his very evident interest in our development and his unselfish efforts for progress on both sides of the international boundary.
“Samuel Hill will go down in history as one of the builders of the Pacific Northwest,” the minister added. “And one can conceive no more appropriate memorial to that earnest apostle of universal peace than his Peace Portal, built to promote peace and international goodwill and mainly by his efforts.
“It is indeed a basis for common pride that on a frontier of 3,000 miles there are no forts, no garrisons, and that in place of the grim arbitrament of arms we use a mutual tolerance and sympathy in the adjustment of our national differences.
“Probably nothing has been done more to develop the desire of the two peoples to be internationally minded,” he continued, “than the two great highways which enable us to pass freely upon all our lawful occasions, and nothing would more fittingly perpetuate the memory of Samuel Hill than simply to carry on with the work to which he devoted so much of his busy life.”
The international progress tour was hailed by Mr. Jones as a “splendid idea,” and he praised its aims to promote travel, encourage goodwill and a better acquaintance among those interested in good roads.
“The people of Canada and the United States stand united for peace,” the minister concluded. “As we stand by this great peace portal, we are moved to give thanks for the spirit which animates the people of this continent. In that respect we show a brilliant example to the older world, which, in the face of all efforts towards a better understanding, still persists in coming armed to the council table.”
“There are no schools, parks, streets, highways or landfills named in honor of Samuel Hill in the state of Washington,” complained Cyrus Noe, author of “Sam Hill: Northwest Visionary or Paranoid Eccentric?” a September 1980 story that appeared in Pacific Northwest, Seattle. Indeed, even in the Peace Arch city of Blaine there is no Samuel Hill Memorial School, Samuel Hill Memorial Park (the original name of Peace Arch State Park), Samuel Hill Boulevard, or Samuel Hill Memorial Library. Samuel Hill created a beautiful monument to peace, yet it seems he is largely forgotten. Why should this be so?
There are no certain answers to this question, but the following theory is hereby presented:
If not his rumored philandering, then perhaps his alleged eccentricities and emotional problems contributed to this omission. “In his declining years,” wrote Noe, “ebullient Sam Hill fell victim to paranoid emotions variously personified: anarchists, communists, plain old burglars. Valet Finch tells how he would sit with Hill all night when the old man was having what Finch called ‘anarchist troubles.’ On one occasion Hill left Finch behind on a European trip lest having a servant might call attention to his person and attract ‘international spies.’ The Highland Drive house in Seattle was a fortress; with a bedside switch Sam could turn on every light in the house, and the mansion was wired top and bottom with the latest in burglar alarms.”
Our society tends to be wary of anyone thought to have emotional disorders. Witness what happened to vice presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton when the public discovered he had a psychiatric record. Too often, people are sensitive to allegations of emotional disorder, and quite willing to exercise discrimination.
Secondly, some Hill observers have felt he constructed the monuments for self-glorification. Therefore, no further recognition is necessary. Of course, Samuel had an ego. But doesn’t everyone? The International Peace Arch happened to be his creation. The monument could never have existed apart from someone’s effort. Hill happened to be that someone. If he poured his ego in the project, he also invested a significant amount of money. The ego argument is the weakest excuse for personally ignoring him, not to mention the significance of his accomplishment.
Thirdly, Hill’s Quaker background sensitized him to world peace, a cause for which he relentlessly stood. Oddly, this could be the greatest explanation for ignoring him. Television, cinema and the press testify to a brutal fact: Ours is a culture that venerates violence and worships war. Since the dawn of history, there has been an imbalance in the human condition that guarantees man’s inhumanity to man, locally and throughout the world. Exactly why this is so, no one seems to know–and many appear not to care.
But the man whose monument symbolized a humanitarian cause could not be forever forgotten. Fifteen years after the Peace Arch was dedicated, the Washington Good Roads Association finally decided to remember him. On the southwest exterior wall of the Peace Arch, one may read these sentiments engraved upon a bronze plaque:
IN COMMEMORATION
OF THE LIFE AND WORKS OF
—1857—SAMUEL HILL—1931—
EMINENT ROAD-BUILDER
A TRUE QUAKER—FOREMOST IN PEACE—
ALWAYS PROMOTING WORLD-WIDE UNITY
AND GOOD WILL—WHO EVER SOUGHT
TO BUILD UP BUT NEVER TEAR DOWN—
THIS TABLET ERECTED BY
WASHINGTON GOOD ROADS ASSOCIATION
1936
Although a decade and one-half had passed before the plaque was fastened to the Peace Arch, a number of Samuel Hill’s associates and admirers attended a Friday afternoon ceremony held September 4, 1936, exactly two months after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial a national monument twenty-one years after it had been built. Hill’s plaque ceremony was covered by the Blaine Journal-Press of September 10, 1936:
Honoring the memory of the late Samuel Hill, pioneer road builder, a bronze tablet, which had been placed in the Peace Arch, was unveiled by three members of the original unit of the Washington State Good Roads Association, of which Mr. Hill was a charter member.
In a stirring address, Frank Terrace, chairman of the Samuel Hill memorial committee, told an audience of approximately 250, including people from many parts of Washington and British Columbia, of the effort put forth to make the dream of fine highways come true.
Frank Terrace, John T. Hartman and Lee Monahan were the three members of the original association present. The association was organized in 1889 with thirteen members, six of whom are still living.
Among others who attended the ceremony were John Queen, mayor of Winnipeg; G.C. Miller, acting mayor of Vancouver and several aldermen of that city; George Shearer, state highway district engineer; Mayor Brown, of Bellingham; Arthur Culmer, secretary of the Bellingham Chamber of Commerce and a member of officials of that city; W.G. Hufford, mayor of Stevenson; George Christensen, also of Stevenson, member of the association’s executive committee, and L.G. McClellan, president of the association.
The ceremony was presided over by McClellan, and was opened by Mayor C.V. Wilder of Blaine.
Preceding the unveiling, a luncheon for the visitors was given at the Methodist church by the Blaine Chamber of Commerce, of which W.E. Shrader is president. A number of the visitors spoke briefly at this time.
Mayor Queen, of Winnipeg, in a short talk at the Peace Arch, said he was impressed by the fact that along this international boundary line, 3,000 miles long, there was not an armed fort, while over in Europe there is strife and turmoil. He believed if they, in Europe, would try to get acquainted and know each other’s problems as we do here on this continent they might be able to get along more peaceably.
Acting Mayor Miller, of Vancouver, also talked on the friendship of the two countries.
Speaking of Sam Hill, Terrace said that for no other man had there been a monument for a road builder. His dream was to build fine highways, he said, making it possible for farmers to haul their produce to city markets.
He also told of a trip with Mr. Hill to Europe to find the original treaty between England and the United States, which was finally located in a monastery in Belgium. This treaty said there were to be no guns or forts along this border.
Rev. Bertram Robins, pastor of the local Methodist church, opened the program by invocation. “America” and “God Save the King” were sung by the audience, led by Mr. Vivian, of Seattle, and the Melody Men’s Quartet, composed of Elias Breidford, Frank Jones, Paul Brownell and Walter Vopnfjord, sang several numbers, accompanied by Mrs. Harriet Owen.
“Alderman Miller spoke of the amity existing between Canada and the United States, and contended that this feeling of good will could not be purchased for all the money spent on world armaments,” added Vancouver’s Daily Province.
“Perhaps someday the state will build a lasting memorial to this extraordinary man who helped mold and shape it to the greatness it enjoys today,” wrote Jeanne M. Charlton, author of. “Sam Hill, Builder: A Railroad, a Castle, a Dream,” in the September 28, 1969 issue of the Tacoma News Tribune Sunday Ledger Magazine.
Although the state has not yet responded to Charlton’s suggestion, the summer of year 2000 saw the bust of Samuel Hill temporarily erected in the hub of an encircling garden in Peace Arch State Park, thanks to the visionary energy of the United States Canada Peace Anniversary Association founded by Christina Alexander, and the talented artistry of Valery Sokolovski, a Surrey sculptor.
Alexander, a Blaine area resident, fought for years to bring Samuel Hill and his monument into the heart of her community. Discouraged, she looked elsewhere. Soon, she discovered an abundant enthusiasm for the Peace Arch and its founder, first at Maryhill Museum. In turn, this led to the creation of a video, The Peace Arch Rises, a 1996 TCI Cablevision of Washington production amply fortified with information drawn from this author’s research paper, The International Peace Arch in History. It was premiered on the History Channel January 27, 1997, thus informing and educating millions of viewers who may have known little or less of the Peace Arch and Samuel Hill, its creator. This was a major breakthrough. Such widespread coverage relevant to the international monument had not occurred since Rogan Jones’ coast-to-coast radio broadcasts in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
For readers interested in additional coverage of the life of Samuel Hill, an exhaustive biographic study was undertaken by John E. Tuhy, previously cited, whose book, Sam Hill: The Prince of Castle Nowhere, was published by the Timber Press of Portland, Oregon in 1983. His book is no longer in print, but it is the only thorough accounting of the life of Hill. It is available for loan in some public libraries.
The Peace Arch Under Construction
If international peace requires the patience of time-consuming preparation, Samuel Hill’s preparation for the Peace Arch’s construction is a symbolic testimony to that diplomatic action which, within recent years, has come to be widely known as “the peace process.” The November 13, 1913 issue of The Oregon Journal carried the following report:
Upon the invitation of Samuel Hill, the good roads apostle, a meeting will be held at his Seattle residence November 22 to consider the commemoration of the 100 years’ peace among English speaking peoples by the marking of the boundary between the United States and Canada with appropriate monuments or arches.
Commissioners from both Canada and the United States will be present and will discuss the advisability of placing an arch on the boundary where every trunk road crosses from this country into Canada. Final details will also be arranged for the construction of an arch over the Pacific Highway at the point it enters the United States into British Columbia. The meeting was originally called to consider only the Pacific Highway arch, but acting on a suggestion from C.S. Jackson, Mr. Hill has decided to introduce the commemorative proposition to the commissioners.
According to this article, which states the Peace Arch plan was in the making at least eight years before it was dedicated, several such arches were under consideration for construction along the international border. Apparently, such an ambitious goal was not feasible.
The site for the monument was chosen six years later, according to the December 5, 1919 edition of the Blaine Journal. “A number of Whatcom County good roads men in company with Samuel Hill, the great good roads man of the state, met here Tuesday and selected the site for the proposed Peace Arch at the boundary line,” stated the report. “The erection of the arch is to be in the hands of the Pacific Highway Association. The funds are to be raised by private subscription and the children of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California are to be called upon to assist.” A few Canadian property owners opposed the international site’s location during the spring of 1920, but these objections, “turned down flatly by the Surrey Council,” kept the road to development open.
Hill had hoped to complete the monument by September 20, 1920 with “a call for the elimination of the old St. Leonard,” a hotel that will bear further discussion.
If international peace requires a firm foundation, the construction of the Peace Arch is a symbolic testimony to that order. British Columbia historian William Hastings left an undated manuscript in the White Rock museum. Accordingly, he believed Hill, having visited Europe many times, “met the well-known London architect H.W. Corbett, and saw at once that he had found the architect who was capable of producing detailed plans for an earthquake-proof structure.”
Three months before the Peace Arch was dedicated, Victoria’s Daily Colonist praised Corbett’s architectural skills, stating he was “now erecting the largest commercial building ever erected in London, England,” and, “The second largest building built in New York was under his supervision.”
Oddly, the original blueprints for the Peace Arch could not be found; they were presumably lost in England. Nor was the famed Corbett present at the 1921 dedication.
Twenty-seven years later—it was August 10, 1948—the Vancouver Daily Province published a puzzling announcement.
Death Takes Peace Arch Designer
SEATTLE (AP) — Meredith G. Jones, 69, designer of the Peace Arch at Blaine, will be buried here Wednesday. He died Saturday at Barnes General Hospital in Vancouver, Wash.
Jones designed the Peace Arch while employed by the City of Seattle as an architect.
He also was the architect for numerous buildings in Seattle, including some at the University of Washington. He had been an architect with the U.S. Navy prior to is retirement three years ago.
He was a veteran of the Spanish-American War. He had been confined to a hospital for five weeks. He was born in Pennsylvania but came to Washington as a child.
His widow, a sister and two brothers survive.
The announcement raises a number of questions, if not a few eyebrows, but the unraveling of this mysterious obituary remains unheeded for now. Suffice it to say Samuel Hill moved to Seattle two decades before the Peace Arch was dedicated.
Seventy-six piles with diameters of about 14 inches, thrust to a depth of 25-30 feet, support a nine-inch layer of concrete that, in turn, supports a double layer of steel. Another two-foot layer of concrete rests upon the steel, and over it is another double layer of steel. Finally, eight inches of concrete was poured over it. That is how the September 6, 1921 issue of the Bellingham Herald told the story.
After former Blaine Mayor Charles V. Wilder died at the age of 82 in 1976, the Westside Record-Journal revealed his role as a young entrepreneur “whose crews drove pilings into the ground in preparation for construction of the Peace Arch.”
Construction, according to that newspaper, began July 1920. Additional information revealed 3,500 sacks of cement were processed to produce 800 cubic yards of concrete. The monument was framed with approximately 50 tons of steel. The construction project, directed by V.E. Simmons, Vancouver, B.C., was halted between November and June 1921, to allow time for the concrete to set.
Many materials were donated, reported the same newspaper. Furnishing the cement was R.P. Buchart, Samuel Hill’s friend in Victoria. Donating the steel was E.H. Gary, New York. H.W. Bassett, a U.S. citizen in Victoria, was known to have made such a generous donation, that Hill is alleged to have said, “Mr. Bassett built the arch.”
Citizens of Blaine presented donations. Mayor H.W. Hunter and lumber businessman Robert Morrison donated two spruce flagstaffs. The report stated half the site was a gift of Blaine; the other half, a gift of British Columbia. The 67-foot Peace Arch, designed by H.W. Corbett of London, then stood on seven acres of land, enhanced with shrubbery donated by Robert Moran, the famed shipbuilder who constructed the Rosario mansion on Orcas Island.
“An immense quantity of materials has been used in its construction and it is estimated that when it is completed it will have cost $200,000 or $250,00,” reported the Herald. “The financing has been under the direction of the Pacific Highway Association.”
Originally, 470 lights outlined the arch, enhancing the monument after dark. But these proved to be inconvenient. Four floodlights replaced them sometime prior to August 1948, but their vulnerabilities were clarified when “some miscreant smashed one of the floodlights on the north side of the arch” that summer. While sandblasting the monument in preparation for painting, the original fixtures were removed and the holes were plugged with cement during the summer of 1956. Park Ranger Bob Weatherly succeeded in gaining funds to cover the expense of draining the floodlight pits in the winter of 1964; surface water had extinguished them. Soon after, Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce member Carl Liebert launched a campaign to purchase and install new mercury vapor floodlights. The project was completed and celebrated at the Peace Arch December 2, 1969.
Little is known of persons directly involved with construction of the Peace Arch, like, for example, a former captain with the Twenty-fifth Engineers who had served in France during World War I. Bertram Dodd Dean, born in Hamilton, Ontario, “was a Seattle civil engineer when he was hired to supervise construction of the Peace Arch.” Dean, 74, died in a veterans’ home in Retsil, Washington, December 21, 1951.“Workmen from various cities on both sides of the line came to help construct the International Peace Arch,” noted the Blaine Journal of September 9, 1971. “Mr. Arnold Montoure of Blaine worked on it several weeks and recalls Mr. George Mackie and Mr. Martin Bostrom, both former residents of Blaine, also among the workmen. Many of the workers were strangers to him; many came from Canada, Bellingham, and around the state.”
Speaking of workers who came from Canada, the following story was published in the June 16, 1993 issue of the Westside Record-Journal:
When the news circulated that volunteers were sought to help construct the International Peace Arch, Irene Thrift and Eva Wix answered the call.
They were then Canadian schoolgirls living in White Rock. Both walked a three-mile stretch along the railroad tracks to volunteer their services for a cause in which they believed.
“I can still see my mother laughing when I said, ‘I’ll be late getting home tonight: I’m going to help build the Peace Arch,’” she said.
Upon arriving at the site, the man in charge of construction laughed, too. “What can young girls like you do?” he asked. Irene Thrift Krienke, 94, has never weighed over 105 pounds. Eva, younger, larger and stronger than she, appeared to be a more credible prospect for construction work.
“Eva could pick me up and throw me over her shoulder,” said Krienke with a grin. “But when the boss decided what we should do, he gave us the job of hoisting and pouring mortar on the roof.
“You mean, I have to go up there?” she asked him in disbelief.
Ascending via the scaffolding up to the roof—a monument 67 feet high—was pretty scary, she said. “We were told not to look down. We got used to it.”
They spent between three and four hours after school, helping to construct an edifice that received few of the benefits seen in modern construction methods.
She said labor was in short supply because servicemen had not all returned during the World War I era.
She attended the dedication of the Peace Arch, Sept. 6, 1921, which happened to fall on her mother’s birthday.
What, beyond Trent and tranquility between two nations, may have moved Samuel Hill to construct the Peace Arch? Was he inspired at the sight of a flag-covered wooden arch, smaller and more modest, that had been erected over the tracks to celebrate the “cowcatcher-kissing” rendezvous of the Fairhaven and Westminster locomotives at the international border February 14, 1891? Did he wish to compete with his railroading father-in-law? Was he moved by the beautiful White City with its impressive Doric architecture at Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition? More questions may be raised, the answers never known.
Peace Arch Artifacts and Relics
The September 6, 1921 edition of the Bellingham Herald describes relics placed in the Peace Arch, and elaborates upon the stories behind them. These included two memorable ships. Behind a bronze plaque bearing the image of the Mayflower was placed a 20-inch by 6-inch-square block of wood said to be a piece of that vessel, contained “within a casket of hammered steel captured from an African slaver by a British warship 350 years ago.” Placed nearby was “The Sacred Faith of a Scrap of Paper,” a movie film “whose scenes taken in Europe and America, depict in picture from the story of the Treaty of Ghent and the 100 years of peace between two great peoples.”
According to this newspaper, Hill and his friend Frank Terrace, who considered himself “another good roads pioneer” from Seattle, sailed to England, where they “found the Mayflower, bottom up, on the farm of a Quaker in the old Quaker village of Jordans, in Buckinghamshire, near London.” The account stated the vessel had been “used for years as a barn,” when “worldwide interest became centered upon it during the late war and since it has been in effect a shrine, to which liberty-loving people from all parts of the earth have flocked.”
In the archives of the Maryhill Museum of Art there is a newspaper clipping which describes the Mayflower saga in greater detail. Unfortunately, neither the source of the clipping nor the newspaper is known. The only clue appears printed above the story, where one may see the words, “were made by the Birmingham Guide,” which lends credibility to the conclusion it was published in England. Fortunately, a Mayflower ceremony informs us that Hill received the ship’s relic on Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, 1921. It was blessed by a Belgian primate six days later.
Here is the full account:
MAYFLOWER RELIC.
GIFT FOR AMERICAN PEACE PORTAL.
PRESENTATION IN A BARN.
At Jordans, Bucks (where William Penn is buried), a representative of the British Society of Friends on Saturday gave to representatives of the American Society of Friends a piece of the timber from the ship which as come to be regarded as the cradle of the American race.
The discovery of the ship’s timbers of the Mayflower in Jordans barn has aroused much interest in America, and American business men came 7,000 miles to take part in the simple ceremony.
Mr. Samuel Hill, president of the Pacific Highway Association, the man who originated the idea of the great concrete road that links Canada and the U.S.A., had come, and with him was Mr. Frank Terris (Seattle), who had been authorized by the association to take charge of the relic. It is to be placed in the Peace Portal, erected between Canada and the United States at Blaine, Washington, and will be dedicated on October 20. Mr. J.C. Potter, executive officer of the association, had also come from America for the ceremony. Supporting them were Mr. Wade, High Commissioner for British Columbia, and his daughter, Baron Moncheur, the Belgian Ambassador, Sir Basil Thomson, the General H.T. Hughes, the first Canadian to be in Belgium.
The party drove from London to the little valley where the old Jordans meeting house was built by the Quakers two and a half centuries ago, between Beaconsfield and Chalfont, St. Giles. It is now the center of a modern Quaker community, who are making the village of Jordans, founded in 1919, self-supporting, and reviving the Quaker tradition that died out there a century ago.
In the old barn of Jordans farm (which had been bought for use as a hostel), it was discovered by Dr. Rendel Harris that the timbers forming the beams were ship’s timbers, well salted. Investigations were made for about three years. On Saturday the visitors went into the barn and examined the strongest pieces of evidence, of which the most interesting is the beam at the east end bearing the letters ****ER HAR****, probably the remains of MayflowER HARwich, the rest having been planed away. The central cross-beam supporting the roof is cracked, and has been mended with a metal bar said to be part of the printing press which the Pilgrims were carrying over to America. This cracking and mending of the main beam was mentioned by General Bradford in his account of the voyage of the Mayflower. It is certain that the Mayflower was broken up at Rotherhithe, on the Thames, in 1624, and the foundation bricks, of which the farm was built, were made in 1625. The purchasers of the Mayflower were known to have been Buckinghamshire men. In the hostel (the old farm) is a door, obviously an old cabin door, which has four oak bars with hawthorn (the Mayflower) decorations. The evidence found no doubters on Saturday.
AN EMBLEM OF PEACE
Before the cutting of the relic from the chosen beam there were a few speeches. They were quite unlike the usual addresses, for there was no platform.
Mr. A. COTTRELL, representing the Jordans Hostel Committee and the British Society of Friends, said he was glad to think that the relic would be incorporated in the great Peace Portal as a symbol of goodwill between two nations.
Mr. SAMUEL HILL said that few spots on English soil had more interest for Americans than that on which they stood. On the quiet country-side, amid those stately oak trees, in the shadow of the Friends’ Meeting House, reposed the bones of William Penn. And the good ship Mayflower, to which Americans owed their origin, was brought there, and her bones reposed beside those of William Penn. The Catholics in Maryland and the Quakers in North Carolina, each granted to the other freedom in religious thought and toleration, and here the sacred relics of the Puritan and Quaker found their last resting place. That spirit must be carried on if the world was to progress towards a more perfect state.
Seven thousand miles away, said Mr. Hill, on the Pacific Highway, there had been erected a Portal of Peace, the first in the history of the world. They were taking back a piece of the wood of the Mayflower to put in that Portal of Peace, that it might bring the peoples on the Pacific Ocean that peace which passeth understanding.
The sawing and removal of the block of wood from the beam then took place, each man in the little group using the saw in turn. Then the log was presented by Mr. Cotterell to Mr. Hill, who said with great emotion, “I thank thee, and I take it feeling the responsibility it conveys—a link of peace between great Britain and the U.S.A. I am glad that this link is forged on Lincoln’s birthday, which to-day is celebrated as a holiday throughout the States.”
Mr. TERRIS, the custodian of the relic, then received it from Mr. Hill and placed it in an old Elizabethan strong-box, presented by an Englishwoman who wished to be anonymous.
Mr. F.T. WADE, the Canadian Commissioner, said that the Peace Portal was the effort of a great imagination, calling up the fact that 100 years had gone by, without one hostile encampment on either side of the invisible line, without a fort between Canada and America, and strange, human nature being what it was, without a conflict. On one side of the Peace Portal are the words, “Children of a Common Mother”; on the reverse, “Brethren dwelling together in unity,” and on the concrete steel doors recessed in the walls were the words, “Open for one hundred years, may these doors never be closed.”
BARON MONCHEUR said they were there standing in the cradle of liberty, and as the devoted friend of both Great Britain and America he was proud to be present.
DR. RENDEL HARRIS said the evidence of the genuineness of the discovery was accumulating, and as far as he could tell, local tradition and historical documents all pointed to the fact that they were at that moment surrounded by the timbers of the cabin where the covenant for mutual peace and understanding had been signed among themselves by the Pilgrims.
The tablet which marks the spot whence the timber was removed was then put in place. It bears this inscription—“This tablet, presented by the Society of Friends, marks the place whence a piece of timber given by the British Society of Friends from the Mayflower Barn at Jordans has been taken to be placed in the Pacific Highway Association Peace Portal located in the boundary between the United States and Canada.
“This gift commemorates our common ancestry and especially the Peace which has lasted for more than 100 years between the United States and Great Britain. Feb. 12, 1921.”
Two little girls, Miss Margaret Palmer and Miss Pearl Grey, in Quaker dress, and a little boy in tartan kilt, formed part of a procession which was filmed for use in America by Miss Loie Fuller. Afterwards the signatures of those taking part in the proceedings were collected in a book, which will be placed in the Peace Portal.
“It is not an official affair,” was Mr. Hill’s description of the proceedings, “we do things first, and tell the Government afterwards.”
Notice the discrepancy in the dedication: October 20, opposed to September 6. Again, a clue, filed in the archives of Maryhill Museum of Art, is in a clipping that reveals neither the source nor the date. It appears to have originated with a British Columbia provincial newspaper, written by someone who hadn’t realized the Peace Arch dedication had passed. Apparently, Samuel Hill’s information was misunderstood. Two identical datelines—September 11—appear below the story, one from New York and the other from Vancouver. The year was no doubt 1921. Here’s what the undisclosed source reported about the cancellation of October 20:
PEACE ARCH CEREMONY AND PLEBISCITE CLASH
Because the Provincial Government has seen fit to decide upon October 20 next as the date upon which the plebiscite on the question of the present Prohibition Act versus Government control and sale of liquor will be decided at the polls, the ceremonies planned for the dedication of the Peace Arch over the Pacific Highway at the international boundary at Blaine, will have to be postponed.
Mr. Samuel Hill, of Maryville, [sic] Wash., was a visitor in the city yesterday and a caller at the Premier’s office. Invitations for the Peace Arch celebration have already been sent out, he stated, but these will have to be cancelled owing to the fact that the polling on the Plebiscite takes place that day and many who were expected to attend the ceremony will thus be prevented from doing so.
Perhaps the writer of the above story would have been cheered to know another newspaper, equally unidentified, stated the Treaty of Ghent was signed July 4, 1815 (perhaps due to the fact that the United States and Canada celebrated the treaty’s centennial July 4, 1915). It had, in fact, been signed in Belgium on December 24, 1814, with mutual ratification then pending. As for Samuel Hill’s position on the prohibition years, see Appendix A.
According to Victoria’s Daily Colonist dated September 3, 1921, it was Samuel Hill’s original intention “to complete the memorial in time to celebrate on December 24, 1914, the centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. The Great War intervened and necessitated the postponing of the plan.”
While Hill was visiting Buckinghamshire, Loie Fuller, a well-known dancer, was in charge of the movie camera. Hill biographer John Tuhy, author of Sam Hill: The Prince of Castle Nowhere, stated the resultant film, “The Sacred Faith of a Scrap of Paper,” hadn’t been produced “by a Cecil B. DeMille,” but, regarding its contents, he wrote, “The movie showed excerpts from the Mayflower Compact; William Penn’s treaty with the Indians; and the Treaty of Ghent in 1914. Scenes included presentation of the wood relic to Sam by Friends in England; the Treaty House in Ghent with portraits of the signers; the burgomaster of Brussels; Cardinal Mercier giving his blessing; Joffre in Paris in civilian garb to symbolize his stand for peace; the party on the Olympic crossing to New York; the arrival at Blaine of the chest containing the relic; and the ceremony of the dedication in September 1921.”
Unexplained, “The Sacred Faith of a Scrap of Paper” is a puzzling movie title. The Bellingham Herald published the following explanation September 6, 1921:
The story of the naming of the film “The Sacred Faith of a Scrap of Paper,” is not without interest. Mr. Hill brooded long over the subject. How best to express the meaning of the dramatic story which the film depicts from the signing of the peace treaty between the two great Anglo-Saxon nations–that was the question. Suddenly it came to him in a flash. The Mayflower Compact was based on faith. It was a scrap of paper, sacredly kept. Then he recalled that William Penn, the great Quaker, who made a treaty with the Indians, died in prison at the age of 73 because he refused to break that treaty by fighting the Indians. It was the sacred faith. And in contrast came to him, amid the thunder of guns, and the measured tread of marching gray hosts, the famous phrases, uttered by the German chancellor to the British ambassador when Britain informed the Hohenzollern representative in 1914 that it would stand by its treaty with Belgium: “You will not go to war for a scrap of paper.” And the film was titled.
Tuhy noted the film was reprocessed and preserved in the Maryhill Museum of Art. It played a significant role in creating TCI Cablevision of Washington’s 30-minute educational video, The Peace Arch Rises.
The sacred faith of a block of wood appears to have been as important to Samuel Hill as a scrap of paper. Six days after he had cut it from the beam, it was blessed in Belgium.
At Malinus, this eighteenth day of February nineteen twenty one, in the Archiepiscopal Palace, in the presence of His Eminence Cardinal Mercier, Primate of Belgium, there was opened the “Mayflower” strong-chest, and His Eminence took in his hands the piece of wood from the good ship “Mayflower,” blessed it, and wished it godspeed on its peace mission.
18th February 1921 +Card. Mercier, Archbishop of Malinus
Frank Terrace
Samuel Hill Foissain
The document, kept in the Maryhill Museum of Art, appears to have been written by Samuel Hill, who, apparently exercised his knowledge of French, which, as near as this author can figure, means, “wholesome occasion.”
The hands that held “the piece of wood from the good ship Mayflower,” were apparently of special interest to Hill. Writer Alice Buchanan, of whom more shall be said later, happened to be aboard the Empire Builder in 1928, where she unexpectedly met and interviewed him. Following their breakfast conversation in the diner, she followed Hill to his compartment, where the interview continued. She reported her observations:
On one seat of Hill’s compartment was a huge opened book. Hill showed it to me. The book had been compiled by Oarten de Mart, Brand Whitlock (then minister of the United States) and Poincare. In the book was a reproduction of a marble hand of Cardinal Mercier. Hill said, “I have casts of hands of many eminent people. It is one of my hobbies.”
From the book, my glance wandered to an adjacent seat, on which was a mass of brilliant jeweled medals, lying carelessly on a washcloth. Hill saw my interest, and again was the supreme actor and narrator. He enjoyed displaying each medal and awing me with its beauty and significance. He held up the decoration of the Legion of Honor from France; a medal from General Foch, one from the commander of the crown of Belgium, medals from Romania, one, the Order of the Sacred Treasure from Japan, and many others which were presented to him in appreciation of his ingenuity in road construction. The Russian government in Siberia had asked him to straighten out a difficult tangle in their railroad system.
That which Hill seemed to appreciate most was a tiny red artificial boutonniere given him by Marshal Joffre.
While much was reported about the block of wood taken from the Mayflower, little has been reported about the block taken from the Beaver, the first Pacific steamer. Derek Pethick authored The Ship that Saved the West, a book published in 1970 that thoroughly documents the Beaver story. The steamer apparently became snagged on rocks off Prospect Point, July 26, 1888, where it remained until a large steamer, passing it on June 26, 1892, created a powerful wave that tore the hulk from the rocks and sent it twenty fathoms to the bottom, where it remains. Divers have recovered a number of relics, including some made of wood.
When both relics were found to be unsealed and deteriorating, they were removed for rehabilitative preservation in 1985. “Peace Arch Relics Nearly Destroyed,” mourned the headlines of the October 18, 1989 edition of the Peace Arch News, by Bill Hastings. “When the covers were removed, officials were dismayed to discover that rainwater had indeed entered the vaults and that the supposedly hermetically sealed lead containers were covered by a white mold,” he wrote. “Leslie Eggleton, secretary of the International Peace Arch Association, contacted the prestigious restoration firm, Erick Lauson, on Bowen Island. After his examination, Lauson pronounced the Beaver relic to be in reasonably good condition, but considerable damage had been inflicted upon the Mayflower relic, and it should be sent to the National Historic Parks Conservation Division in Ottawa for treatment.”
Before moving on to other subjects, the Westside Record-Journal published the following story September 18, 1985:
This year it is Canada’s turn to paint the Peace Arch. The Canadians decided to restore two bronze plaques, behind which were sealed samples of wood taken from the Mayflower and the Beaver, historic sailing vessels. Upon removing the plaques Tuesday (Sept. 10) the wooden relics were seen for the first time in sixty-four years.
Canadian Park Assistant Charles Francis, Surrey, tenderly lifted the Mayflower relic from its lead container. Of the two relics, its condition was worse. The protective plate glass between the plaque and the relic had shattered, probably many winters ago. Apparently, water had seeped in. It froze, expanded, and broke the airtight seal.
Seeing the relics was a moving experience, noted Francis and U.S. state park gardener Joe Massett. They handled the historic wood fragments, and both said they were elated.
Once the plaques have been restored, the relics will be placed back into the walls of the Peace Arch, and they will again be sealed behind the plaques.
“In the outer wall of the American side has been set a bronze tablet bearing a replica of the Mayflower, and reposing in the wall beneath it, within a casket of hammered steel, captured from an African slaver by a British warship 350 years ago, is a piece of the Pilgrim ship, together with a moving picture film entitled, ‘The Sacred Faith of a Scrap of Paper,’ whose scenes taken in Europe and America, depict the story of the Treaty of Ghent and 100 years of peace between two great peoples,” stated the Sept. 6, 1921 edition of the Bellingham Herald.
Upon removing the relic, however, the men found no casket of hammered steel. It appeared to be made of lead instead. And the movie film was not there. Park Ranger Tom Poplawski wondered if another compartment containing the film might be concealed behind the one containing the Mayflower fragment.
Again, according to the Herald story, the Mayflower relic was a timber 20 inches long and six inches square. Upon measuring the relic this week, it was but 12 inches long and six inches square. A 1921 Blaine Journal photo depicts Samuel Hill holding the Mayflower relic. The relic appears to match the foot-long size of the one uncovered last week.
The International Peace Arch was Samuel Hill’s dream. A North Carolina-born Quaker and president of the Pacific Highway Association, Hill was said to have gone to England to retrieve the Mayflower relic.
“To obtain a piece of the Mayflower, Mr. Hill went to England, taking with him Frank Terrace of Orillia and Seattle, another good roads pioneer,” continued the Herald. “They found the Mayflower, bottom up, on the farm of a Quaker in the old Quaker village of Jordans, in Buckinghamshire, near London. Used for years as a barn, worldwide interest became centered upon it during the late war and since it has been in effect a shrine, to which liberty-loving people from all parts of the earth have flocked.”
Modern encyclopedias cast doubt upon the authenticity of Hill’s relic.
“Historians are not certain what happened to the Mayflower after it returned to England,” states the 1983 World Book Encyclopedia. “Some believe it was dismantled after (quarter-owner Christopher) Jones died in 1622, although a ship called the Mayflower made trips to America after that. Others believe William Russel bought the Mayflower for salvage, and used its hull as a barn roof. The barn stands in Jordans, a village outside London.”
Was Russel’s barn the Mayflower? Or was it merely a Mayflower legend?
“She (the Mayflower) was in the port of London again in 1624, after which her history is uncertain because of confusion with several other contemporary ships of the same name,” stated the Dictionary of American History, edited by James Truslow Adams, 1968.
Whether or not Samuel Hill’s relic belonged to the original Mayflower is a question that may one day be resolved by research.
The word MAYFLOWER, consisting of two-inch-high letters, was punched into the wood, probably shortly before the Peace Arch was dedicated.
“I knew the wood would be rotted,” said Mark Samilski, Canadian park acting supervisor, “but not that rotted.” Much of it had crumbled with decay.
Leslie Eggleton, secretary-treasurer of the International Peace Arch Association, Surrey, hustled both relics to a British Columbia museum for safekeeping. The relics were not placed on display.
“I would like to see pictures (of the relics) preserved in plastic and placed with each respective piece,” said Samilski. “The wood will continue to rot, but the pictures will remain.
The Beaver relic was in superior condition for two reasons. First, it was placed in the Canadian side of the Peace Arch, where there is greater protection from the sea-blown weather. Secondly, since the Beaver sailed in the 19th century, while the Mayflower sailed in the 17th, the ages of wood differ.
The wood taken from the Beaver was ten inches square by six inches. Inscribed in gold leaf are the words: S.S. BEAVER presented by Cap. John Irving, Victoria, B.C.
While the 180-ton Mayflower was launched in 1610, the 109-ton steam-powered Beaver was launched in 1835.
The Beaver, representing the first smokestack to appear in the Northwestern Pacific, was powered by two 25-horsepower side-lever engines with vertical, 36-inch stroke cylinders of 42-inch diameters. The low-pressure boiler was fired by brick, wood-fed furnaces.
It took as long to cut the wood as it did for the Beaver to burn it, reported Derek Pethick, author of S.S. Beaver: The Ship that Saved the West, 1970.
As the ship relics await their return to the Peace Arch, W.W. (Bill) Hastings, 82, White Rock, B.C., is ready to begin writing the history of the internationally famous monument.
Concern was expressed over a third relic of which Poplawski seemed unaware. It was the time capsule known to Leslie Eggleton. “The two relics and the time capsule were all sealed and put in different places when the arch was dedicated in 1921,” ran a Vancouver Sun story. “So now the fear is that the lead time capsule, which wasn’t supposed to be opened for 100 years might also be damaged. It’s full of newspapers, film and coins, and an additional worry is that acid from the film may be destroying everything.
“‘The film they used in those days had no stabilizing and the acid could have destroyed everything in there—even the coins,’ Eggleton said.”
Dedication of the Peace Arch
When the July 9, 1920 issue of the Blaine Journal reached its subscribers, an awakening swept the community. The city of Blaine had set aside five acres for a park, and on the Canadian side two municipalities reserved five acres for the same purpose.
The donations didn’t come forth without prior objections. As noted earlier, a plan was adrift the previous April for Surrey municipality to condemn the site on the Canadian side, but the Surrey Council turned it down. The same month saw the Great Northern Railway refuse to donate an acre to the United States side unless part of Washington Avenue was vacated for the railway, a difference later resolved.
Financing was underway. “Already much preliminary work has been done on the funds campaign,” reported the Journal. “Soon a massive auto truck will tour the state carrying a replica of the monument and a layout of the park. Workers will accompany this caravan, soliciting funds. Approximately $65,000 must be raised in the states. British Columbia is to provide the rest of the necessary money.” The success of this 1920 fundraising endeavor—if it occurred at all—was never reported.
Upon examining the architect’s drawing, Editor J.W. Sheets was surprised to learn no cars would be passing through open gates with its nineteen-foot clearance between walls. “The general impression has been all along that the Pacific Highway will pass through the portal, but the plans show that some distance south and some distance north of the arch the highway branches and a roadway passes to each side and around the same.” Remember, this statement was published in the Blaine Journal, dated July 9, 1920.
Many are the claims, however, that autos did indeed pass through the arch. Vernon McDonald, former president of the International Peace Arch, assured the author he had driven through the monument himself, and that it was closed because tourists were spreading graffiti over the interior walls. A picture postcard displayed a vintage auto leaving the monument on what appeared to be a gravel road. “The Pacific Highway ran directly beneath the arch in the ‘20s but increasing traffic made it necessary to locate an expanded highway alongside it,” wrote Valerie Green for the Times Colonist.
Samuel Hill slipped into Blaine June 3, 1921, officially to announce the Peace Arch would be dedicated September 6. The Post Intelligencer reported most of the financing was borne by Hill himself. Dated July 14, Victoria’s Daily Colonist presented a different story: “An estimate of the cost of the material and the parks is $75,000, and Canada’s share has been set at approximately $40,000. . . . The Provincial Government will be approached with a request for a substantial sum of money.”
The July 16 Daily Colonist relayed a New York Tribune story that associated the future Peace Arch dedication with President Warren Harding’s post-World War II disarmament proposals: “For more than one hundred years, the consequence of what Samuel Hill well calls the ‘sacred faith of a scrap of paper,’ there has been disarmament on the Great Lakes and along all the Canadian-United States border. Disarmament, as all Canadians and Americans know, can be made to work.” Speaking at the dedication, Judge Thomas Burke reportedly called it “rational disarmament.”
When bulldozers and a pile driver arrived at the site in July, the Blaine community established a Peace Arch dedication committee and elected J.J. Pinckney chairman. Samuel Hill specifically requested Mayor H.W. Hunter, E.B. Smith and George A. Ellsperman, Sr., to serve on the board. Then Rev. G.C. Squire, pastor of Blaine’s Methodist Episcopal church, stepped forward with a proposal to extend the celebration to include a four-day assembly of music and lectures “on the lines of a Chautauqua” to be held at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Clark Street.
The Peace Arch assembly opened Sunday, September 4, at 7:30 P.M. The program (not to be confused with the Peace Arch dedication ceremony the following Tuesday afternoon) was as follows:
FIRST ANNUAL
PEACE ARCH ASSEMBLY
Blaine, Wash.
Grand Opening
Sunday Evening Sept. 4th, 7:30
Mayor H.W. Hunter will preside at
The opening of the Assembly
PROGRAM
America ………………………………………………………………………..By our famous Juvenile Band
First Psalm By……………………………………..
Invocation………………………………………………………………………………………Dr. J.M. Canse
Prof. Hoppe, Recessional-Kipling
ANNOUNCEMENTS
8 p.m. British Columbia is in the Opening Address, “Our Common Heritage” by J. Richard Craig, D.D.
He represents the National Council of Europe last year, and is Moderator of the Presbyterian Assembly.
Dr. J.M. Canse will state the object of such an Annual Affair as this in its yearly program. To listen to Men and Women of National and worldwide reputation, dealing with the problems of today. Educational, Moral, Civic, Religions.
Prof. Hoppe of the Normal, Selection “Columbus”
Band………………………………………………………………………………….Our National Anthem
Benediction
Monday, Sept. 5th
Labor Day
Assembly will open at 2 p.m.
Band……………………………………………………………………………………..Red, White and Blue
Band…………………………………………………………………………………………..American Patrol
Community Song Service, Led by Prof. Rothwell Sterns, Bellingham’s Song Leader
2:30 p.m.………………………………………………………………………………………………Address
“The Health of America as an Asset to Uncle Sam”
Dr. E.L. Swick
Music……………………………………………
Address by Prof. Wier………………………………………………………….. “Brotherhood International”
Benediction
7:30 p.m. Complete Program will be furnished by the
Cornish School of Music of Seattle
Program presented by Miss Lydia Fonnesbeck, teacher from the School of the Spoken Word, assisted by Constance Hart (grown), Ernest Jaskowsky (16 years) and Paul McCoole (20 years), contralto, violinist and piano respectively.
Piano solo……………………………………………………………………Paul McCoole
Two scenes from the play “Experience” by Hobart………………………Miss Fonnesbeck
Violin solo……………………………………………………………….Ernest Jaskowsky
Group of miscellaneous readings…………………………………….…..Miss Fonnesbeck
Piano solo……………………………………………………………….……Paul McCoole
The Cornish School is one of the most noted schools in America, where students have come from all over the United States to study, and it counts on its faculty many Artists who are famous, not only in America, but throughout Europe.
Blaine is particularly interested in the school for the reason that its founder and present director, Miss Nellie C. Cornish, is the daughter of the late N.A. Cornish, the first Mayor of Blaine and very prominent in the business life in its early days. Miss Cornish spent several years of her girlhood in Blaine and taught piano here a year just previous to going to Seattle.
Although the Cornish School opens for its fall term September 6th, Miss Cornish, with Mr. Boyd Wells, the associate director, is coming personally to look after the program, and is bringing with her, her most talented pupils and one of the teachers, Miss Fonnesbeck
Tuesday, Sept. 6th
Dedication of the Peace Arch
Beginning at 2 p.m.
See Special Program Great Men from the U.S. and Canada
7:30 Juvenile Band…………………………………………………………………… “Our President” March
Invocation………………………………………………………………………………….Rev. George Wood
March……………………………………………………………………………………………Juvenile Band
The Tenor soloist, Joe Hermsen
“The Americans Come”
Accompanist, Miss Hermsen
Juvenile Band………………………………………………………………………… “Inspiration Overture”
Community Song……………………………………..
Invocation…………………………………………
Harter and Wells Quartette
8 p.m. ……………………………………………………… “Christianity Fundamental to the Nation’s Life”
Or “An Infidel’s Battle for His Soul”
Dr. O.G. Wingledorff of Wilmore, Kentucky
This man has a reputation in Europe and America. Let’s welcome the opportunity of hearing this man whose voice has been heard worldwide.
Music…………………………………………………..
Wednesday, Sept. 7th
2:30 ……………………………………………………………………………..….Community Song Service
Lecture
“Heredity and Environment”
By Dr. O.G. Wingledorff
The Doctor is a specialist and a graduate M.D. Don’t miss hearing this most valuable address.
7:30 p.m. ……………………………………………………………………………….Juvenile Band Concert
It is planned that Rev. Mark A. Matthews D.D. of Seattle will give the closing Assembly Address.
In case of inability of Rev. Matthews to be present Dr. Wingledorff will deliver an address on “The Tragedy of Christianity” or “Our High Priest.”
Squire was obviously pleased with the “First Annual Peace Arch Assembly” he had created. One may intuit the reason a second annual event didn’t occur. It seems an assembly hall and restrooms were needed. While he was visiting Michigan in the summer of 1923, Squire trumpeted the Peace Arch story to the Dearborn Independent, which, in turn was relayed and published in the July 19, 1923 issue of the Blaine Journal. “At the dedication of the Peace Arch 15,000 people of the two nations assembled with their representatives, and for four days the monument spoke through human voice of the common brotherhood of man,” ran the story. “It became manifest that the arch alone was insufficient to do the work for which it stood, and so it has been proposed that a great Peace Arch Hall be erected for annual assemblies and a restroom for tourists, each a complement of the other of national and international import.”
The paragraph that followed is puzzling in view of the fact that two months earlier the city of Blaine had encouraged the state to assume ownership and care of the park grounds because—as it shall later be noted in greater detail—the city “is not financially able to improve it.” Nevertheless, Squire apparently reported: “The Peace Hall project has the enthusiastic support of the city of Blaine through the city council and Commercial Club, its churches and other organizations,” continued the article. “The cooperation of Bellingham and Seattle is assured, while the cities of British Columbia have given equally favorable response. The city of Blaine would guarantee the maintenance and upkeep of the grounds and the hall.”
Squire’s wish for “a great Peace Arch Hall” became the first of many monumental dreams that never came to fruition.
As the dedication drew nearer, Samuel Hill and R. Rowe Holland promoted it at an August 11, 1921 meeting of Vancouver’s city luncheon clubs and board of trade, sponsored by Kiwanis. Hill emphasized the value of good roads and international peace, while regretting that French Marshal Joffre, unable to attend, would come “at a later date, when there would be a second dedication.” Holland provocatively addressed “disarmament of the mind.”
Hill must have been unhappy, too, to learn that James Bryce, English diplomat, author and former ambassador the United States, would be unable to attend. From Williams College in Massachusetts, Bryce sent a note received by Samuel August 22:
Dear Mr. Hill,—It would have given me great pleasure to come to Seattle and join in the ceremonies for the erection of the Peace Portal. My time in America will, however, be too short to permit me to travel to the Pacific Coast. Pray, express to your friends my regret and my hearty sympathy with the admirable plan of commemorating one hundred years of peace by erecting this monument. May the peace it commemorates be eternal. Faithfully yours, James Bryce
Bryce, who once said, “The worth of a book is measured by what you can carry away from it,” died the next year at age 84.
The International Peace Arch was dedicated Tuesday, September 6, 1921 at 2:00 P.M. Distinguished guests and speakers appeared in the program, as follows:
PROGRAM
Dedication Ceremony of the Peace Portal at
Blaine, Washington, at 2 p.m.
September 6th, 1921.
- Call to order by George A. Ellsperman.
- Invocation by Rev. Robert E. Pretlow.
- Doxology, led by Harter & Wells Quartette.
- Laying of cornerstone by SAMUEL HILL.
- Mr. Samuel Hill to be introduced as Chairman by George A. Ellsperman.
- Address by Ex-Governor West of Oregon.
- Address by His Worship, Mayor R.H. Gale, mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia.
- Presentation by Miss Britannia (Miss Dora Wrigglesworth of New Westminster) of Union Jack to Frank Terrace, John B. Yeon, E.T. Matthes and H.W. Hunter
- Presentation by Miss Columbia (Miss Gretchen Snow, of Blaine, Washington) of Stars and Stripes to Samuel Gintzburger, H.W. White, F.R. McD. Russell and J.J. Johnston.
- Raising of Union Jack with Blaine Band playing British National Anthem.
- Raising of Stars and Stripes with Canadian Band playing American National Anthem.
- Raising of French, Belgium, American and British flags by the Consuls of the respective countries.
- Harter & Wells Quartette.
- Address by Judge Thomas F. Burke, representing the Sulgrave Institute and the English Speaking Union.
- Address by R. Rowe Holland, President of the International Peace Memorial Association of British Columbia.
- Address by the Honourable Walter C. Nichol, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.
- Address by the Honourable W.J. Coyle, Lieutenant Governor of the State of Washington.
- Address by the Honourable John Oliver, Premier of British Columbia.
- Poem by Edmund S. Meany, Professor of English History of the University of Washington.
- Closing Benediction by the Right Reverend A.U. DePencier, Lord Bishop of New Westminster.
“Our whole White Rock school paraded down to the ceremonies,” reminisced former White Rock resident Caroline M. Storrow, in a Peace Arch News story dated June 6, 1996, “and I am proud to say my brother, Austin George Stevens, was the bugler for the great day.”
Historic anniversaries came to the mind of Samuel Hill that Tuesday, September 6, 1921. They triggered several cablegrams he had prepared and sent to appropriate parties that day.
September 6 was indeed the ideal time for the dedication. The Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, September 6, 1620. Appropriately, Hill sent a cablegram to the Prince of Wales, York House, London: “You are a prince in every sense of the word. Your desire to be here today found an answering echo in the hearts of the thousands assembled. May your life be passed with the world at peace. Samuel Hill, President of the Pacific Highway Ass’n.”
General Marquis de Lafayette, leader in the French Revolution, was born September 6, 1757. General Joseph Joffre forced the Germans to abandon their march on Paris, defeating them in the battle of the Marne September 6, 1914. Hill sent a cablegram to Premier Briand, Paris: “The flags of Great Britain, France, Belgium and the United States today crown a peace portal, dedicated on the international boundary. But for the heroism of that noble son of France, who made this day memorable at the Marne, this portal would never have been built. Greetings from thousands of Americans. Vive la France! Samuel Hill, President of the Pacific Highway Ass’n.”
It was on September 6, 1921, that the Bellingham Herald, via the Associated Press, reported “the Japanese delegation to the conference on disarmament and Far Eastern questions in Washington will sail for Seattle aboard the steamer Kaisho Maru on or about October 14. The delegates on landing will proceed immediately for Washington, where they are due November 2.” Meanwhile, Hill sent a cablegram to Hirosi Saito, Japanese Consul, Seattle: “Please say to your government that the celebration which we hold today on the international boundary between Canada and the United States, simply indicates our friendship and desire that we may always be at peace on the Atlantic and on this ocean. That it may always remain the ‘Pacific’ ocean and that we on this side believe and trust that our neighbors on the other side will help to keep it so. Samuel Hill, President of the Pacific Highway Ass’n.”
While 32-year-old Adolph Hitler was admiring his newly designed swastika, emblem of his burgeoning Nationalist Socialist Party—Nazi leaven of the Third Reich—Hill sent a cablegram to the Washington representative of the German government. “To the German people: That sweetest and greatest voice that ever spoke on earth, spoke from the cross and said: ‘Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.’ And so we, bearing our cross and mindful of our dead, are striving to forget, remembering our own imperfections. Samuel Hill, President of the Pacific Highway Ass’n.”
While Mao Tse-tung (Zedong), not quite 28, was one of a dozen associates founding the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai, Hill sent a cablegram to Dr. Yiah, Chinese Consul, Vancouver: “Please convey to your government our greetings to our neighbors across the Pacific. The oldest government in the world, you have always stood for peace and we hope the nations of the world are now ready to follow your example. Samuel Hill, President of the Pacific Highway Ass’n.”
Hill, of course, could not forget the president of the United States that day. While Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes was completing plans for the Washington Conference for the Limitation of Armaments, destined to assemble on Armistice Day, two months hence, Samuel Hill sent a cablegram to President Warren G. Harding, Washington: “From the peace portal, crowned with the flags of four nations, symbolizing the Treaty of Ghent, remembering the gloom which filled the world at the time, thousands of English speaking people unite in wishing you Godspeed in your efforts to bring peace and prosperity to the world. With this united group behind you and with the hearty goodwill of the world, which you have, success is assured. Samuel Hill, President of the Pacific Highway Ass’n.”
Last, but by no means least, there was Belgium. Hill enthusiastically sent a cablegram to King Albert of the Belgians, Brussels: “Thousands of people, Canadians and Americans, dedicating a peace portal, send you greetings, remembering that the ‘scrap of paper’ signed in Ghent has given us peace for 100 years and that your courage and devotion kept back the invaders who called the sacred treaty a ‘scrap of paper.’ Samuel Hill, President of the Pacific Highway Ass’n.”
Copies of Hill’s cablegrams were placed in the Peace Arch cornerstone, where they, with other historic materials, were requested to remain until September 6, 2021.
The city of Blaine, under the leadership of Mayor H.W. Hunter, was prepared to host 10,000 or more visitors. Refuse and weeds were removed from the city, arrangements were made to park up to 4,000 autos, an evening’s fireworks display, costing about $1,000, was arranged, and September 6 was declared a half-holiday, reported the September 6, 1921 edition of the Bellingham Herald.
H.W. Hunter had been a busy mayor. During the year 1921, Blaine City Council was abuzz with activity. The former city clerk was under investigation, held accountable for a deficit of $1,899.36. The case was eventually settled out of court. The reducing plant was requested to stop throwing refuse in the bay. Mitchell Street had to be improved. Wooden sidewalks were built along Martin Street. Warnings were posted to prevent heavy logs being hauled over the docks. Street lamps were installed on Alder and Fourth. The city streets were graded. But during the entire year, the minutes mentioned the Peace Arch only once; it was October 16, more than a month after the monument had been dedicated: “Motion by T. Burnley seconded by Robert Witherow that the light Supt. be instructed to take down the strings of lights that were put across the streets for the Peace Arch Celebration.”
Yet, if numbers of committees are a significant indicator of the importance of the celebration, Blaine played its part very well, having a committee for each of the following: General executive, reception, printing and publicity, housing, information, parking, band and music, cleanup, decorations, sports, dance, service, light and water, first aid, police, finance and general ladies. It would be especially interesting to know what the “general ladies committee” did. There was no “general men’s committee.”
Canadians also prepared for the dedication. Arrangements had been finalized to park 2,000 autos on their side of the border.
The Bellingham newspaper account was quite detailed, providing information for the following dedicatory excerpts:
The Princess Patricia steamed from Victoria, anchoring at Blaine at 1:30 P.M., with 383 passengers aboard, including British Columbia Premier John Oliver. Immediately, there was a short ceremony. Blaine Mayor Hunter presented him with a key to the city. Oliver, receiving it, was reported to have said, “If the world is to win abiding peace, it must eliminate greed. It will find the true basis of international harmony in these words of the Master, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’” Frank Terrace, who had accompanied Hill to Berkinghamshire, was also aboard, holding the American flag that would be hoisted over the monument.
A six-coach train pulled into Blaine station with a large delegation from Vancouver.
Police, sheriffs and Canadian police came to assure order.
The Seventy-second Seaforth Highlanders’ Band from Victoria played the pipes, ever so familiar to the Peace Arch setting, before ceremonies began.
George A. Ellsperman, deputy collector of the port at Blaine and Samuel Hill’s Peace Arch construction supporter, opened the ceremony by announcing the purpose of the occasion and by introducing Hill to the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen of the various nations here assembled,” he said. “The hour has arrived for the dedication of this beautiful peace portal in commemoration of over 100 years of peace between the two great English-speaking peoples of the earth—an hour the significance of which will have a more far-reaching effect upon the minds of the peoples of the world than the signing of any treaty. It will forcibly remind them that for over 100 years our people have lived together in international friendship, with a boundary line of over 3,000 miles with not a single soldier or fort on the same; and which, we believe, will continue as long as we remain nations.
“The building of this structure was made possible by the genius and splendid efforts of one man, whose vision never became cloudy—one of those men who is always doing something big for his fellow men, whether it is building of roads or mixing with the big men of the other nations of the earth, with his gentle smile and hearty handshake spreading the cement of lasting friendship through his wisdom and advice. A man who loves peace. I have the distinguished honor at this time to present as father and builder of the peace portal the Honorable Samuel Hill, who will preside and lay the cornerstone.”
Before Hill spoke, the Rev. Robert E. Pretlow, a Quaker clergyman from Seattle, presented an invocation: “Teach us that friendliness is mightier than force; that to build is nobler than to destroy; that to hold in leash our passions and find the way of justice takes truer and higher courage than to wield the sword or loose the roar of cannon; that he that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city.”
Immediately, the Harter and Wells Quartet, accompanied by Dorothy Hawkins, sang the Doxology.
Then came the laying of the cornerstone, preceded by Samuel Hill’s address. Here, then, is his address, as recorded by the Bellingham Herald:
War satisfies neither the victors nor the vanquished. Perfect peace alone satisfies.
The instincts of humankind have not been changed by education and only slightly modified by religion. When war holds sway there are no religions. The dominant, though not the most widely accepted religion, made its way by non-resistance. All great movements must so proceed if they are destined to prevail.
The ceremony in which we take part today marks the recognition of the oneness of the English-speaking race, and its friendship, not alone for the white race, but its earnest desire to be at peace with all the world.
France and England live together in harmony in Canada. United States and Canada, side by side for three thousand miles, wish for no better neighbor. Belgium, sought as a mutual friend by United States and Great Britain one hundred years ago, still holds the friendship, aye, the affection of both. Old things have passed away. Science has laid bare the most hidden parts of the world, and across and under the sea, over vast continents and through the air, the human voice is daily heard.
May I now express the hope that where science, the arts and religion have failed to control the passions of man, that the still small voice which spoke to Socrates, Plato, Savanarola, and the other wise men of old, to the red man of the plains, and in the forests of North America, to the Buriat and Oatiak in Siberia, which I felt rather than heard in the Vatican at Rome and in the Shrine of Nikko, may foreshadow a deeper spiritual life.
Each country, under its own flag, its own faith if you will, recognizes the power which is over all, and doth all unite. May I now voice the concept of the part my own country should take when I say:
Our fathers fought with Washington,
With Lincoln our sons died,
But at the birth of freedom
All arms were laid aside.
In other lands men fought for power,
And some for kingly state,
America thine aim endure
To make thy people great.
For thee no foreign conquest,
No fratricidal strife,
No anarch, no oppressor
Strikes at the Nation’s life.
Be thine, O Star of Destiny,
Child of great nature’s plan,
To show the Fatherhood of God,
The Brotherhood of Man.
Ironically, as Hill was speaking words of peace, a couple of canines in attendance unleashed a disturbance when they initiated a dogfight—a battle immediately quelled by alert Boy Scouts.
Did the Bellingham Herald record the entire address? Upon discovering Hill was a fellow Pullman passenger as they traveled aboard the Empire Builder in 1928, Wenatchee World writer Alice Buchanan hastily interviewed him. Disclosing their conversation in a Bellingham Herald feature story she authored June 14, 1946, she relayed the following paragraph that Hill claimed as part of his Peace Arch dedicatory address. She reported that Hill, intending the statement for German listeners, had said: “The sweetest and greatest voice that was ever on earth, spoke from the cross and said, ‘Father forgive them, for they know [sic] what they do,’ and so we are bearing our cross, and, mindful of our deeds, are striving to forget, remembering our own imperfections.” The quotation with its missing “not” was assumedly printed in error.
Hill’s address raises additional questions. Was the statement, “War satisfies neither the victors nor the vanquished,” original with him? If not, what was its source? When he said, “The dominant though not the most widely accepted religion made its way by non-resistance,” was he alluding to the Quakers? What was meant by “the still small voice”? And what were the implications behind the statement that he “felt rather than heard it” in the Vatican?
Did Samuel Hill compose the closing poem? If not, who wrote it? Tuhy noted a letter Hill was said to have written to Harvard’s class secretary: “I have occasionally dipped into poetry and rarely into prose, but have succeeded thus far in concealing my identity, and the class of ’79 has had no public disgrace on that account.” Buchanan, while traveling aboard the Empire Builder with Hill, may have provided another clue: “He even recited one of his own poems,” she reported. “Finally, he asked me if I had ever seen the Peace Arch in Blaine. Since I had not, he proceeded to describe it to me.”
Upon finishing his dedicatory address, other dignitaries spoke.
“The United States and Canada must be bound together with bands of steel,” said Oswald West, former governor of Oregon.
“Let this arch, more glorious than a frowning fort or arsenal bristling with weapons of destruction, symbolize for all time that the United States of America, Canada and Great Britain have traditions never to be broken and stand today united as Anglo Saxons in defense of justice, liberty and universal peace,” Vancouver Mayor Gale was reported to have said. “Long may our liberties maintain without the clash of arms, God see that for centuries to come this arch may remain in very truth the inspiring portal of peace.”
Flags were then presented to several mayors and prepared for hoisting to the Peace Arch roof.
“On behalf of the British peoples I present you this flag for raising on this peace portal to fly along the side of the Stars and Stripes of the United States of America,” said Miss Britannia (Dora Wrigglesworth) upon presenting the Union Jack to Frank Terrance and several mayors.
“On behalf of the peoples of these United States, I present to you this flag for raising on this peace portal to fly along the side of the Union Jack of Great Britain,” said Miss Columbia (Gretchen Snow) upon presenting the Stars and Stripes to Samuel Gintzburger, Swiss consul at Vancouver, and several mayors.
The Bellingham Elks’ Band played the British national anthem as the Union Jack rose, and Victoria’s Navy League Band played the United States national anthem as the Stars and Stripes rose.
The longest address appears to have been given by Seattle Judge Thomas F. Burke. In conclusion, he said, “Sooner or later, if civilization is not to perish under the burden of steadily increasing armaments and the dread and fear of ever-threatening war, the nations must find some rational and practicable way of disarmament—a disarmament that means what it says and is made proof against every form of imposition, deception, artifice or fraud.”
Quite interestingly, the Japanese delegation to the conference on disarmament, mentioned earlier, was scheduled to sail from Washington, D.C. to Seattle within two months after Burke’s speech. “But any measure of disarmament not grounded on good faith by the cooperating nations would be a curse instead of a blessing, for any artifice or deception practiced undercover of it would inevitably lead to war,” said Burke in the course of his Peace Arch address, a prophecy fulfilled by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor twenty years later.
Vancouver barrister and president of the International Peace Memorial Association of British Columbia R. Rowe Holland spoke eloquently: “People of a common inspiration, aspiration and ideals, drawn together by an inevitable gravity, wider, deeper, stronger and more potent than we can understand, we stand before this monument, erected as the result of the Anglo-Saxon will to peace.”
Finally, a message from President Warren Harding to Samuel Hill was read as a highlight of the dedication:
The ancient Romans erected a temple to Janus, a dispenser of peace and war, and ordered that its gates should never be closed while the nation was at war. In seven centuries they are said to have been closed but three times. You have erected a temple of peace, whose gates are never to be closed save in war. Already it stands for more than a century of unbroken peace between Britain and America and we all join in the hope that in coming times it may commemorate an era of peace much longer than the periods of wars for which the temple of Janus stood.
Our century and more of peace with the British Empire, our relations of unbroken amity with Canada, the fact that a boundary line over 3,000 miles long remains unfortified – these are the testimonies that the world grows wiser and better. All mankind looks to this example, yearns to follow it, and we are justified to believe that a time is at hand when it may take a long step in that direction. On the occasion of dedication of the Pacific Peace Portal, I wish to convey to you personally my high appreciation of your patriotic service in providing a symbolic shrine to international peace and in doing so I would also thank the Pacific Highway Association (the builder of the portal) for the fine cooperation it has rendered.
Harding’s statement, “All mankind looks to this example, yearns to follow it, and we are justified to believe that a time is at hand when it may take a long step in that direction,” predated an announcement by Neil Armstrong who, upon placing his foot on the moon in 1969, said, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” While the Peace Arch exemplifies “one small step” for world peace, it is apparently easier to reach the moon than it is to achieve world peace. While mankind has occasionally taken “a long step in that direction,” the winning of permanent world peace remains “one giant leap for mankind.”
Although permanent world peace remains an unfulfilled dream, Samuel Hill’s effort was nevertheless appreciated. The British-American Association of Seattle adopted a resolution of appreciation shortly after the Peace Arch was dedication. Hill was doubtless showered with gratitude from individuals and organizations far and near.
What inspired Samuel Hill to build this imposing arch dedicated to peace? Was he moved by the presence of another boundary line arch, a wooden one constructed 30 years earlier over the railroad tracks immediately below the Peace Arch? According to the September 9, 1971 issue of the Blaine Journal, John Joseph Donovan, chief engineer of Fairhaven & Southern Railway, said the arch, dedicated February 14, 1891, “was really quite elaborate and covered with English, Canadian and American flags.” Hill had passed through it many times; he loved to travel by train. Moreover, there were parallels between the two dedications.
The wooden arch, erected to celebrate the linking of two railways, occurred very close to the 76th anniversary of the ratification of the Treaty of Ghent. The concrete and steel arch was erected to celebrate the linking of two roadways and the 150th anniversary of Ghent.
Samuel Hill’s railroading father-in-law, though hardly remembered during the Peace Arch dedication, was nevertheless an influential player in the history of the monument. Portal visitors came by way of the railway system during the dedication and for many years to come. For example, 3,000 Seattle children steamed their way to Blaine on May 20, 1939 in four Great Northern trainloads. “The first train arrived at 12:30 and from then on the remaining three arrived at intervals of approximately ten minutes apart,” reported the May 25, 1939 Blaine Journal.
A speaker’s platform, equipped with a public address system had been arranged, and when the majority of the excursionists had completed their picnic lunches, with many of them having made a short visit to the Canadian Customs house, Judge James L. Bilou, in behalf of Mayor J.W. Sheets, who had been called out of the city, welcomed the Seattle folks to Blaine.
Judge Bilou gave the party a very hearty welcome, and commended the Seattle school authorities and those sponsoring the excursion for giving these thousands of kiddies an opportunity to visit Blaine, view the Peace Arch and to set foot on foreign soil.
He introduced Rev Bertram Robins, who gave a very splendid description and explanation of the Peace Arch and that for which it stands. He was followed by Carslisle King, Acting Appriser [sic] of Customs at Seattle, who spoke of the purposes of Customs and the duties of Customs officers, as well as the proper behavior of people passing through the Customs offices.
A second excursion of 3,000 was sent to Blaine June 3, but rain “made picnicking rather damp recreation. A third excursion, June 10, brought another 3,000 for a total of 9,000 students.
The June 15 Journal stated, “The Great Northern Railroad Company handled the vast crowd without a single accident, although running four special trains each in one day with the addition of deadheading four engines into Blaine from Seattle without completely tying up traffic was a feat for the traffic and dispatching departments.” The article concluded: “These excursions have extensively publicized Blaine and the International Peace Arch and many of these youngsters will want to come again when the Park is completed. Perhaps Seattle can send up a couple of special trains for Armistice Day. Well, why not?”
Samuel Hill gave the world an unusual creation for the cause of peace. James J. Hill established a way for thousands to come and see it.
Chapter Three
Archway Attractions, Anniversaries and Annual Celebrations
Nothing is more patriotic in this age of civilization than to prevent war by peaceful and honorable means.—U. S. Senator C.C. Dill
Upon its completion, traditions began to crystallize around the Peace Arch and in its park. Yearly rituals were institutionalized. Before the decade of the 1930s ended, three annual celebrations were held at the monument. These were International Flag Day, initiated July 2, 1927; the International Sunrise Easter Service, first held Sunday morning, April 5, 1931, and International Armistice Day, initiated November 11, 1937, forerunner of the Annual Peace Arch Celebration.
International Flag Day: Adolph Miller’s Dream Come True
1927
“An annual Flag Day celebration at the Blaine Peace Arch on July 2 of each year appears now to be an assured thing,” reported the June 2, 1927 issue of the Blaine Journal-Press. “Starting with an idea in the head of one man, then Hon. Sam Hill’s ready endorsement, and the ready response from mayors and men of affairs on both sides of the international boundary line, the observance of an annual Flag Day at the Peace Arch has got to a point where it is an assured thing.” A nutshell explanation followed:
The celebration or observance will be an international affair. The people of British Columbia have endorsed it as readily as those on this side. The program will be a joint program and will consist largely of short speeches at or near the Peace Arch. Originators of the idea contemplate an attendance as high as 30,000 that day. July 1 is Canada’s Independence Day and this year Vancouver is preparing a big celebration of the 60th anniversary. July 4th is America’s Independence Day. The Flag Day observance comes in between these two big days of the two nations.
Initially, the man “with an idea in his head” modestly chose to remain anonymous, but he was later recognized as G. Adolph Miller, affiliated with Miller Bros. Insurance, Bellingham. He viewed the plan as “an unparalleled opportunity” to immortalize the Peace Arch and Whatcom County.
With a growing interest on behalf of the Blaine City Council, the mayor issued a proclamation.
PROCLAMATION
Whereas, it has been decided to celebrate an International Flag Day and the Fourth of July in this city,
I, as mayor of the City of Blaine, do hereby declare said days to be holidays and request all loyal citizens of Blaine to decorate their residences, places of business, etc. in a fitting manner by displaying our flag and the Canadian flag in a conspicuous manner, also that all yards and parking strips be cleaned up and neatly trimmed.
In view of the importance of this International Flag Day to Blaine and this county and state, I shall expect 100 percent support of all citizens in this celebration.
Given under my hand this 1st day of June, 1927.
M.A. KEYES, Mayor
Four days after the proclamation was signed, committee chair Miller, on his way to visit Samuel Hill at Semiahmoo Villa, was pleased to note the Peace Arch cleanup committee had cut and removed the brush, mowed the grass and spread gravel along the pavement. Soon the crucial day, July 2, 1927 arrived, and the first International Flag Day was celebrated “auspiciously.”
Flag Day Program
______
(At Peace Arch)
Music Mount Vernon Band
Raising of the two flags on the Peace Arch
Songs “Star Spangled Banner” and “God Save the King”
Music Luther College Concert Band
Address Congressman Hadley and by a Canadian Speaker
Music Elks’ Band of Bellingham
Five minute Talks
By Mayor Taylor of Vancouver, Mayor Kellogg, Bellingham, Mayor Landes, Seattle
Music Band
Exchange of Flags by Canadian Speaker and Congressman Summers of Walla Walla
Exchange of Flags by Four U.S. Boy Scouts and Four Canadian Girl Scouts
Songs “Star Spangled Banner” and “God Save the King”
Music Band
______
(At White Rock Ball Park)
50 Scottish Dancers Contest
Prizes by Canadians
Lacrosse Game Girls’ Teams
A glowing report was published in the July 7, 1927 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press:
Moved by a common purpose, the perpetuation of international good will, thousands of people of the United States and Canada met at the world’s first and only peace arch, and in the first International Flag Day ceremonies, exchanged the flags of their respective nations and renewed friendships originally shown at the arch’s dedication. Weather conditions were ideal. The sky was partly cloudy and the day cool. The hopes of G.A. Miller of Bellingham, originator of International Flag Day for an annual event of this kind, were realized.
1928
The second annual International Flag Day celebration, held July 2, 1928, was of greater dimensions than the first. Twenty-five years after Orville Wright first took off from Kitty Hawk, Western Aero Construction Company of Bellingham provided passenger service for guests choosing to pay twelve dollars for a return flight from the Bellingham airstrip to Dierk’s field in Blaine.
Addressing the celebrants, U.S. Senator C.C. Dill said, “Nothing is more patriotic in this age of civilization than to prevent war by peaceful and honorable means. This is the greatest challenge to the statesmanship of the world. Our two great republics have shown the way.”
Unfortunately, the celebration was poorly attended. Anticipating that probability, the planning committee included an international ballgame at the Douglas ballpark, followed by a children’s sports program at Lincoln Park in Blaine.
Sports Program
The following sports program will be pulled off after the program at the Peace Arch by the committee in charge. Persons interested should preserve this program schedule:
Little tots’ run, boys 4 to 7 years, run 50 yards, get ice cream pie, eat it on way back. First back and finished eating, wins. First prize 50 cents, second 25 cents.
Boys’ potato race. Boys up to 16, paper sack each, run 50 yards, pick up 20 potatoes in sack, return to start. 1st $2.00, 2nd 1.00.
Sack race, free for all boys, 50 yards, 1st 2.00, 2nd 1.00.
Sack race, free for all girls, 50 yds. 1st 2.00, 2nd 1.00.
Three legged race, free for all boys and men. 1st 3.00, 2nd 1.50, 3rd 1.00.
50 yard dash, boys 10 to 12 years. 1st 1.00, 2nd 50 cents.
Same for girls.
100 yard dash, boys 13 to 15 years. 1st 1.50, 2nd 75 cents.
Same for girls.
Four legged race, free for all, 1st 1.50, 2nd 75 cents. Run 25 yards.
Shoe race, 10 to 14 years, run 50 yards, take off shoes, run 25 yards and back to shoes, put on shoes and run 50 yards to finish, 1st 1.50, 2nd 75 cents.
1929
Well before the third annual International Flag Day celebration, those who had been promoting the program decided to organize formally. The March 21, 1929 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press presented a report:
At a gathering of representative citizens of both sides of the international boundary line held at the Hotel Leopold in Bellingham Saturday evening, the International Flag Day Association was formed as a permanent organization. Adolph Miller, Bellingham, originator of the International Flag Day, was elected president; also honorary life president, W.C. Stoess of Vancouver, B.C., first vice president; H.P. Johnson of Blaine second vice president; Albert Still of Blaine, treasurer; and Miss Edith B. Carhart of Bellingham, secretary.
The charter of the association provides that there are to be fourteen directors, seven from each side of the boundary line, with a membership fee of one dollar.
It is planned to have the annual flag day program in charge of committees from each side, this year’s observance to be in charge of a Canadian committee of which Mr. Stoess will be chairman. This year’s observance will be the third one.
Another objective of the association is a park surrounding the big Peace Portal here and lying on both sides of the international boundary line. Already prominent men like U.S. Senator Dill and Congressman Hadley have enlisted in the movement on this side.
Those attending the meeting Saturday were E.B. Cox and E.H. Hatch of Seattle, Albert Still and H.P. Johnson of Blaine, George L. Cassidy of New Westminster, B.C., W.C. Stoess of Vancouver, B.C., Adolph Miller, Tim Healy, Tressa Curtin and Edith B. Carhart of Bellingham.
Messrs. Cox and Miller were in the city Sunday looking over the grounds surrounding the Peace Portal to get some idea what lands could be secured for the proposed park.
Here, it appears, was the original model and precursor of the organization that came to be known as the Peace Arch Association.
The third celebration was more successful. The event having been covered by the Blaine Journal-Press, it was published as follows in the July 4, 1929 edition:
With a program that lacked none of the impressiveness of the two former programs, the third annual International Flag Day observance at the world-famous Peace Portal pictured above, constructed by Hon. Samuel Hill, passed off auspiciously Tuesday afternoon, July 2nd.
Although the day broke with rain, the sky cleared up in the forenoon and the day was ideal. The number witnessing the program was about the same as in past years—not large, but one interested in the day and what it means to the people of the United States and Canada—a day to commemorate the building of the great Peace Portal and the 115 years of uninterrupted peace between the nations.
Following an exchange of flags participated in by Boys Scouts and Campfire Girls, the raising of the flags of the two nations took place amid music by the big Vancouver Juvenile band. Although this flag raising had been witnessed numerous times before, it had not lost any of its impressiveness, as the audience witnessed the raising to the breeze of the flags of the two foremost nations of the earth.
The speaking program opened with a welcome by H.W. Hunter, mayor of Blaine. Short talks were made by David Stevens of North Vancouver, E.B. Cox of Seattle, Geo. L. Cassidy of New Westminster, Adolph Miller of Bellingham, originator of International Flag Day, Col. W.W. Foster of Vancouver, Hon. Simon F. Tholmie, premier of British Columbia, Dr. E. T. Mathes of Bellingham and R.R. Holland of Vancouver. Hon. Samuel Hill was on the program but was unable to appear on account of sickness. The big band furnished music throughout the program.
Mr. Terrance of Seattle, a friend of Mr. Hill for nearly half a century, was also a speaker. He dwelt on the erection of the big portal and its builder and his long friendship with him.
Mr. Stevens of Vancouver acted as the Canadian chairman and Mr. Cox as the American chairman.
The day’s attraction started at 1 o’clock with a program of boys’ and girls’ races near the Peace Portal. After the ceremony a ball game between the Blaine team and that of the International Wood Products Co. of New Westminster, was played at 4:30 in which the locals won.
In the evening fireworks were sent up from a scow in the harbor and a big dance was held at the city hall. The dance was the largest and most successful held here for many months and was a financial success and a credit to the committee in charge.
The U.S. Destroyer Doyen was in the harbor during the day and visitors were welcomed on it during the afternoon. The officers of the Doyen were guests of the committee at the ceremony.
1930
Encouraged over the success of the third annual Flag Day celebration, the executive committee of the International Flag Day Association threw its weight behind the growing movement to complete the international peace park. The committee, assembled November 19,1929, was shooting for 120 acres of parkland on the United States side, plus sixty acres on the Canadian side. It was a move that would motivate the committee to later incorporate.
Ever ready to assure the success of each Flag Day celebration, yet willing to run the risk of introducing changes for the same end, the committee, meeting in the spring of 1930—and by that time receiving the support of Bellingham’s labor council and real estate board—scheduled the fourth annual event for an evening celebration instead of the customary afternoon. It would be a time “more convenient for the public,” reasoned the planners. The afternoon could then be set aside for sports and locally planned events.
Moved by the support of the Bellingham labor council, the Vancouver labor council pitched in, and together they organized and funded an afternoon sports program.
Finally, in the wake of elaborate preparation, the fourth annual celebration was held July 2, 1930, the year a Flemish peace shrine was erected near Dixmude, Belgium. Taller than the Peace Arch by nearly 100 feet, three words in four languages were inscribed on its base. “No More War!” became the title of Linus Pauling’s book published in 1958.
The Blaine Journal-Press presented a glowing report the next day:
With a program that compared with the best yet produced, the fourth annual International Flag Day observance was held at the Peace Portal on Wednesday evening. The change in the hour for the main program from 1:30 to 7:30 p.m. did not seem to affect adversely the attendance, as the crowd present was estimated at 2,000 persons.
The program that had been prepared by the International Flag Day Association and the International Peace Memorial Association of British Columbia. Splendid talks by R.H. Gale, former mayor of Vancouver, Capt. Sidney A. Moss of Seattle and R. Rowe Holland [the association’s director according to the Vancouver Sun] of Vancouver were features of the program. The Mount Vernon band and bugle band and drum corps furnished the musical numbers of the program. While not on the program, Mayor J.A. Kellogg of Bellingham and Payson Peterson of Snohomish were called upon for short addresses and responded gracefully.
All of the talks had as their main theme the long-standing peace between the United States and Canada and world peace. The program ended with an exchange of flags by a little girl and boy.
Sound amplifiers had been provided this year so that every word of the speeches could be distinctly heard for two blocks. This was an innovation that was pleasing to the public as compared to former programs. Early in the afternoon the formal presentation of the large U.S. flag to the Peace Portal by the Women’s Relief Corps of Bellingham took place at the big portal and was witnessed by a crowd of several hundred.
In the afternoon a program of Juvenile sports was pulled off and a ball game at Lincoln Park. One of the best displays of fireworks ever seen in the county was witnessed early in the evening and a largely attended dance at the city hall ended the day’s entertainment.
The Flag Day Association and the public in general are indebted greatly to the two Mount Vernon bands which rendered the music without any charge to the committee.
“Articles of incorporation of the International Flag Day Association were filed for record with the county auditor this week,” continued the newspaper. “The incorporators are G.A. Miller, Tressa Curtin, Edith B. Carhart, E.B. Cox, H.P. Johnson, Albert Still and Tim Healy. The object of the incorporation is to enable the association to legally hold title to the land desired for Peace Portal Park.”
1931
Enthusiasm for International Flag Day kept growing, as exemplified by a letter Chairman Adolph Miller received nearly five months prior to the fifth annual celebration, and later published in the April 9. 1931 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press. Although bold print may have been added by the press, the letter was copied as follows:
1619 Knox Avenue
Bellingham, Washington
February 19, 1931
Mr. Adolph Miller, President
311 West Holly Street
Bellingham, Washington
Dear Mr. Miller:
I would suggest that you send one of your invitations to Governor Riche of Maryland, he is a very progressive man and a TRUE AMERICAN. As he has a presidential Bee in his hat, he might be induced to come to God’s country and attend the International Flag Day, July 2, 1931. The simple fact of your inviting him will spread your good cause ALL over the U.S.
I would also suggest sending a letter to the Prince of Wales, in England. He is just the democratic Englishman who would appreciate an invitation to attend a meeting of the two peoples, the American and British. I think good would come of this invitation directly or indirectly.
You know I have been told often that I was a dreamer, yet these same dreams that were laughed at were brought to pass. Woodrow Wilson said if a man did not have VISION he did not accomplish big things.
I don’t know if you have seen the following in print?
“IT CAN BE DONE!”
There were people who said:
IT CAN’T BE DONE, until Wright proved that a plane, although heavier than air, could fly.
IT CAN’T BE DONE, until Bell proved that the human voice could be transmitted over a wire to a distance, at any time.
IT CAN’T BE DONE, until Edison proved that touching a button a whole house could be lighted.
IT CAN’T BE DONE, until Marconi proved radio messages could be sent to distant places.
You know it is said that Cyrus West Field was called crazy because he had so many failures, and going into bankruptcy in 1857, but the Great Eastern started from Valentia on her second trip, this time triumphant—he made a grand success as history shows.
Take it as a compliment of the first water, to be called “crazy,” or a “dreamer” or a “visionary.” Those men who have done things in the World have been called all these names, until they made a success.
I can “vision” what this Park means to Bellingham, the State of Washington, the great Pacific Northwest, yea, to the WHOLE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT, hence the Whole World. First, it will put Bellingham on the map of the world, and to speak of Bellingham’s immediate benefit, it will bring tourists from EVERY quarter of the U.S. and the WORLD, for this park will be pictured in every Atlas of the World, hence draw travelers from all parts of the world. I can shut my eyes and picture to my brain, this lovely park, but I won’t take up your time with the pictures, you can make one for yourself.
This Park means wiping off the map the imaginary line between two peoples, who are really people of one race. It will be one of the greatest steps toward World Peace, the welding together of these two great peoples as one.
Mr. Miller, the people of this section, and the whole State of Washington, and the Pacific Northwest, little dream of the stupendous project you are behind, for their everlasting welfare, if they did you could not hold back Senators, Representatives, yea, everyone who could help to put this Park on the Map of Northwest Washington and Southern British Columbia, from voting all money needed to accomplish this stupendous and far reaching project.
God is with you in this undertaking, therefore it is Bound to Succeed. To say, “I do not believe in the power of God,” is just as foolish to say “I do not believe in electricity.” If your lights will not work, you do not say, “There is no such thing as electricity.” You find the defective wiring, fix it, and turn on the lights.
Mr. Perry Rockefeller, I was told in New York City when last there was a very broad-minded and progressive man. There is also Mr. Guggenheim, J.P. Morgan and others. NOTHING LIKE SHOOTING HIGH, your project is a far-reaching one, therefore don’t be ashamed to “Talk up in meeting.” I know if I were in New York, I would interview them all on this subject and drop off at Washington, D.C., and show President Hoover where he is missing the time of his life, if he don’t round up all of the Cabinet members and secure his reservations for the trip to Bellingham, July 2, 1931.
Send on some beautiful photographs of this country and show them what a wonderful country it is.
If I can serve you in any way possible, will do so most cheerfully.
Very cordially yours,
(Signed) Dr. H.B. Ewbank
Preparations for the fifth annual International Flag Day included heavy manual labor. The association thought the audience ought to enjoy the luxury of sitting through the next celebration. “The work of making 300 benches in preparation for the big International Flag Day celebration to be held at Blaine Thursday, July 2, is progressing nicely and the benches are being turned out with amazing speed,” reported the Blaine Journal-Press dated June 4, 1931. “The job of making one of these benches is not so small a task, and when it is multiplied by 300, it becomes a real job. It is interesting to stop in and watch the workmen ‘doing their stuff’ in the buildings on the way the boys put the pieces together, would make Henry Ford’s far famed efficiency system look to its honors. There is no doubt that the 300 benches will be finished in a very few days. Then comes the job of painting them.”
In the same publication, the newspaper noted, “Dorsey & Wilder have finished laying the concrete on the two miles of road along Peace Portal Drive and the Pacific highway south of Blaine. After the paving is allowed to ‘cure’ for four weeks the road will be opened for traffic. It is planned to surely have it open by July 2, the date of the celebration of International Flag Day.”
It may be noted, in passing, that the honorary life president of the International Flag Day Association married a faithful committee member about the time the paint was drying on the benches. Adolph Miller wedded Tressa M. Curtin at Everett Friday morning, June 19, 1931.
An elaborate program was presented in celebration of the fifth annual Flag Day:
Program Fifth Annual International Flag Day Celebration Peace Arch Ceremony
On Thursday, July Second,
Six-Thirty P.M.
______
Band Concert—6:30 P.M……….American Legion Band, Prof. Paul Lustermann, Director
God Save the King………………………..……..National Juvenile Band, Vancover, B.C.
Welcome……………………………………………………….Mayor C.V. Wilder, Blaine
Response…………………………R. Rowe Holland, General Chairman, Vancouver, B.C.
Address………………………………….….Tim Healy, American Chairman, Bellingham
Address……………………..Dr. N.D. Showalter, State Supt. Public Instruction, Olympia
Selection……………………………………………………..…….American Legion Band
Address…………………..……Dr. S.F. Tolmie, Premier British Columbia, Victoria, B.C.
Selection………………………………………………..………….National Juvenile Band
Address…………………………..Most Reverend A.U. DePencier, Bishop of Westminster
Address…………………………………………………………….Judson Falknor, Seattle
Selection……………………………………………………………American Legion Band
Address…………………………………………..……..R.L. Reid, K.C., Vancouver, B.C.
Address……………………..Jos. Houghton, President Bellingham Central Labor Council
Star Spangled Banner………………………………………………American Legion Band
Committee in Charge
Adolph Miller, Honorary Life President…………………………Bellingham, Washington
R. Rowe Holland, Chairman………………………………………………Vancouver, B.C.
Albert Still, District Chairman………………………….……………..Blaine, Washington
D.E. MacKenzie…………………………………………………..New Westminster, B.C.
Alderman Robert Fenton…………………………………………. New Westminster, B.C.
J.J. Johnson, Ex-Mayor…………………………….……………..New Westminster, B.C.
Miss Tressa M. Curtin……………………………….…….…….Bellingham, Washington
Miss Edith B. Carhart…………………………………………….Bellingham, Washington
Joseph Brown…………………………………………………………………Surrey, B.C.
Fred Elkings……………………………………………………….……..Vancouver, B.C.
Once again, a glowing report was rendered in the July 9, 1931 issue of the Blaine Journal-Press:
Last Thursday evening commencing at about 6:30 the fifth annual celebration of International Flag Day was held at the Peace Portal on the International boundary at Blaine, Wash. And Douglas, B.C.
The crowd started gathering before 6 o’clock and by the time the program started, people had made use of most of the 300 benches that had been built and hundreds more were standing and seated along the embankment near the customs office and in their cars parked along the highway.
A band concert, participated in by the American Legion band of Blaine and the National Juvenile band of Vancouver, B.C., started off the program. Mayor C.W. Wilder of Blaine gave a very appropriate address of welcome which was responded to by the general chairman of Vancouver who also introduced the American chairman, Tim Healy of Bellingham, who in turn, after making a few very appropriate remarks, took time to introduce prominent personages from both British Columbia and the United States whom he noticed on the platform and in the audience.
Of special interest . . . was the remark of S.F. Tomlie, Premier of British Columbia, when he referred the continuance of the Pacific highway north to Alaska.
It appears to us that Blaine is passing up a splendid opportunity to play up an event that cannot help benefiting her in many ways and we suggest that anther year some program, that will make the day a real holiday in this city, be planned and put into operation. It would be possible, we believe, to have a day’s program that would bring people to town early in the day and keep them here all day. Such an affair could be run separately and aside from the Peace Portal program and need in no way interfere with it and yet advertise to the world that Blaine is still in the running and can do things in a big way if given the opportunity. If started soon enough, a number of attractions could be arranged for to amuse the public for all day and in the evening the fireworks display should certainly not be omitted another year.
1932
The International Flag Day Association, incorporated, apparently changed its name to become the International Peace Arch and Memorial Park Association. Or so it seemed. Perhaps it was by habit that the Blaine Journal-Press continued to call it the International Flag Day Association. Gradually, its organizational rules and identity brought it closer to the International Peace Arch Association as it is currently known. Adolph Miller, founder and honorary life member, remained chairman of the American side. He and D.E. McKenzie of New Westminster were compelled to agree on a major decision; the 1932 celebration was cancelled for reasons described by the Blaine Journal-Press dated June 23:
That the public may more fully understand the reason for the cancellation of the 1932 program it is well to state that since early spring the ground in the vicinity of the Peace Arch, the greater part of which is comprised in the Memorial Park, has been torn up by both the road crews who have been building the new state highway on East Peace Portal Drive, and employees of the State Park Board who have been making fills, removing high spots and establishing the permanent grade for this beauty spot of the Northwest.
No better time could have been chosen by the representatives of the Association than now, during the several days of wet weather, to make their investigation and arrive at this decision.
On the American side, as stated above, the Memorial Park has been put to an established grade, topsoil applied on the cuts and fills and grass seed, flowers and shrubbery recently planted.
On the Canadian side, since the removal of a number of unsightly buildings, surplus soil taken from the American side has been dumped in the depression to the north of the Arch to the depth of several feet. This ground is especially bad when wet.
These conditions have contributed to the idea now in the minds of the committee that it would be better to pass up the celebration of Flag Day entirely this year and with assurances on the part of the Canadians that their park will be completed and the highway built, plans will be made for a real dedication ceremony on the regular date, July 2, 1933, at which time a special effort will be made to make the celebration the biggest and best in its history.
This decision, although thought best by the committee, is reached reluctantly and only so because of the general conditions existing.
Besides D.E. McKenzie of New Westminster, there were present yesterday, John W. Berry, member of Parliament of British Columbia and H.C. Anderson, engineer for the highway department of British Columbia for the southern district.
Such was the price of progress, which, fortunately could not be completely stifled by the heat of a summer augmented by the disparaging dryness of the Great Depression.
1933
The loss was compensated when the July 2, 1933 celebration, falling on a Sunday blessed with fair weather, “drew one of the largest crowds that has ever been present on the occasion.” The Blaine Journal-Press published a detailed report of the event four days later, but the hour is unknown, and there is confusion regarding the association’s identity due to the fact both names were mentioned in the report:
An hour before the program started, parking space for cars anywhere near the Peace Arch, was at a premium, and before the crowd had ceased gathering, the automobiles were parked for a distance of several city blocks on both Peace Portal Drive and East Peace Portal.
This is the first year that the state park has been in a condition to be used for this celebration and many people who gathered for the program were given their first glimpse of this little beauty spot. Canadians, for the first time seeing the wonderful transformation that has taken place on the American side of the Peace Arch have redoubled their efforts on their side of the line. Once finished this international park will be one of the beauty spots on the highway.
Following is the program as rendered: Rev. Floyd Green, American chairman, J.J. Johnson, New Westminster, Canadian chairman.
1. Eagles Civic Band, Bellingham, Joseph Poole, director, preceded the main program with a half hour of musical numbers.
2. Raising of the British flag and singing of one verse of “God Save the King.” Raising of American flag and one verse of “The Star Spangled Banner.”
3. Welcome: Mayor C.V. Wilder, Blaine.
4. Assembly singing led by international chorus, “Oh Canada” and “America the Beautiful.”
5. Vocal solos, “Land of Hope and Glory,” and “Land we Love,” by Ernest Colton, baritone, Vancouver, B.C.
6. Address: Mrs. J. Stewart Jamieson, Juvenile Police Judge, Vancouver, B.C.
7. Eagle’s Civic Band of Bellingham, March, “National Emblem,” Bagley.
8. Group of three numbers by male chorus of Blaine under direction of Prof. Paul Lustermann. “One Sweetly Solemn Thought,” by Ambrose; “Trees” by Rasback; “The Rosary,” by Nevin.
9. Address: J.A. Sells, former mayor Bellingham.
10. Address: Hon. L.B. Schwellenbach, well known and able attorney from Seattle, and one-time candidate for governor of this state, chairman of the Board of Regents, University of Washington.
11. Solo, “The World’s Prayer,” Mrs. Ninna Stevens.
12. Address, Miss Edith B. Carhart, City Librarian, Bellingham, Secretary of the International Flag Day Association. “The Peace Arch: Its Significance.”
13. Address, Major Harold Brown, Past President of Vancouver Board of Trade.
14. Assembly singing, “The Maple Leaf Forever,” and “America.”
Besides those on the program, the following persons were introduced:
Mr. Adolph Miller, Honorary Life President of International Flag Day Association.
Mr. Tim Healy, State Representative; Vice President of International Flag Day Assoc.
Mrs. Mercie Ellen Crehan, Vancouver, Pres. Of American (Canada and US) Soroptimist Club. Mr. Albert Still, local representative of the International Flag Day Association.
Mr. Elkins and Rev. W. Lashley Hall, Canadian members of International Peace Memorial and Park Association.
Acknowledgements were made of the cooperation of KVOS for broadcasting the program and Mr. Rogan Jones was especially complimented for his efforts in making the broadcast possible. The Farmers’ Mutual Telephone Company and the Pacific Telephone Co. were thanked for cooperating, and the State Park Board’s cooperation was appreciated, also the services of the members of the State Highway Patrol.
Most noteworthy was the following reference to Charles Davis, who envisioned the construction of a world peace monument near the Peace Arch—a gigantic project that never materialized. Evidence of his interest is shown by his gift of a flag rarely seen:
One of he flags flown at the International Flag Day ceremony Sunday was a replica of the standard that was used by George Washington. It was a silk flag about seven feet long and was received by air mail last week by President Adolph Miller of the International Flag Day Association, from Charles Davis, of Bass River, Mass., president of the National Highway Association of the United States.
The flag has stripes, the Union Jack and a star, the latter standing for unity.
With his gift Mr. Davis sent a message concerning the Flag Day exercises, as he has been doing annually since these programs were started. He also referred with gratification to the fact that he was one of those invited by the late Sam Hill, builder of the portal, to speak at its dedication September 6, 1921. Ever since then he has shown a keen interest in the portal and what it stands for.
1934
The 1933 International Flag Day Celebration, so carefully detailed by the Blaine Journal-Press, may have been the largest and most successful on record. Why, then, was there a mysterious vacuum during the summer of 1934? Not one word was mentioned of a Flag Day celebration for that year. Why this omission? It shall be assumed at this writing that the event was cancelled.
But enthusiasm for world peace was not dead in 1934. Dr. Mayeda, in charge of Japan’s Red Cross, oversaw development of an International Good Will Garden in Osaka, while the Rhode Island Rotarians dedicated their International Friendship Grove and Garden in Pawtucket’s public park.
1935
As if to make up for the silence of 1934, the Blaine Journal-Press published Thursday, June 27, 1935, featured a front-page spread head in tall red letters: “Celebrate in Blaine. Dominion Day, International Flag Day, Navy Day and Independence Day,” followed by a thorough preview of the integrated celebration scheduled for July 2. It appeared, however, that the event had not been prepared by the International Flag Day Association or, as known under its new identity, the International Peace Arch and Memorial Park Association. This time, the American Legion Auxiliary, working with members of the Blaine Music Study Club, played leading roles in the program’s production.
The Blaine Journal-Press of July 4, 1935 published a glowing report. Given the absence of Flag Day celebrations in 1932 and 1934, it was the sixth annual event. Yet, there was no mention of attendance; nothing reflected the 300 benches and hundreds left standing in the 1931 celebration, or “one of the largest crowds that has ever been present on the occasion” in the summer of 1933. Nevertheless:
In the shadow of the Peace Arch at the International border, people of two great nations gathered on July 2nd to unite in the annual observance of Flag Day in commemoration of the more than one hundred years of peace between Canada and the United States. The flags of the two nations fluttering in the breeze at the top of the arch; the Union Jack to the north and Old Glory to the south. The speakers’ platform was decorated with the flags of both nations.
James Bilou announced the names of those taking part and after a prayer by the Rev. C.E. James of the Methodist Church, a quartet composed of Mrs. Ninna Stevens, Mrs. Abbe Brown, Walter L. Schauer and Frank E. Jones favored with several selections which were well received.
A splendid address was given by L.T. Williams of White Rock, B.C., which was snappy and not too long. Our general favorite, Mrs. Stevens, rendered a solo accompanied at the piano by Miss Eleanor Still, and as usual, was given hearty applause. Rev. J.N. Bridges, pastor of the Blaine and Ferndale Congregational churches, gave a fine talk stressing principally “Peace.” This was much enjoyed by all.
A colorful pageant then followed and this consisted of representation of the Allied countries which participated in the World War. The affair was truly very fine and Mrs. Emma Fowels, Fidae chairman of the American Legion Auxiliary, with Mrs. Thelma Nelson as director, and all those taking part, deserve great credit.
As an appropriate closing of such a program, Mrs. Stevens led in the singing of “God Save the King” and our own thrilling anthem, “America.”
1936-1938
There were no reports of Flag Day celebrations after the 1935 event. Three years later, a puzzling article appeared in the Blaine Journal, dated April 28, 1938:
Albert Still, permanent local chairman of the International Independence Day Organization and one of the charter members of the Association, has been in conference with Adolph Miller of Bellingham recently in anticipation of holding an International meeting and celebration at the Peace Arch on the afternoon of July the second of this year.
Owing to the existing conditions there has been no Independence Day celebration held by this International Association for the past several years, but it is proposed to renew the celebration this year, and while no details have as yet been arranged, plans will be published as they are worked out.
It appears major reorganization of the Flag Day planners had occurred. The International Flag Day Association that evolved after 1927 to become the International Peace Arch and Memorial Park Association eight years later, had become the International Independence Day Organization by 1938. Notice the celebration date, July 2, had been preserved.
Alas, there was no 1938 International Independence Day celebration at the Peace Arch as scheduled for July 2 of that year. But it appears Flag Day had not been dismissed from the repertoire of portal events; at least it had not disappeared from the planners’ vocabulary—if not that of the newspaper—as reported in the February 23, 1939 edition of the Blaine Journal. Moreover, big plans were in the making: “When Charles Davis of Cape Cod, Mass., Founder of the World Peace Movement found it possible to make a transcontinental trip, he so arranged his itinerary as to travel westward on the C.P.R. arriving at Vancouver on March 3, from where he will take a boat to Seattle,” reported the newspaper. “He has advised the officials of the International Flag Day Association with an invitation to meet with him in consultation pertaining to the Peace Arch at Blaine and other peace movements.”
As if to suggest a major comeback, it seemed none other than mega-monument designer and noted visionary Charles Davis would himself address the 1939 celebration, once again known as International Flag Day. Notice the governmental reshuffling. Adolph Miller was again president while Albert Still, in contrast to the year before, when he was chairman of the International Independence Day Association, was relegated to the vice-presidency. There could well have been two associations, were it not for the fact that July 2 remained the target celebratory date in either case. Hailed by the Blaine Journal as “one of the greatest living scientists,” the press propitiously declared, “Should [Davis] be able to accept the invitation of the International Flag Day Association here on July second, it will be one of the greatest events in the history of the Peace Arch.”
Indeed, Davis’ invitation to meet him in Vancouver was accepted and reported in the March 9, 1939 Blaine Journal:
Adolph Miller of Bellingham, President of the International Flag Day Association, accompanied by Mrs. Miller and Miss Amelia Carhart, Secretary of the Association, joined Albert Still, Vice President of the Association and Earl McKinney, President of the Blaine Chamber of Commerce and J.H. Cramer of the Journal of Blaine Friday morning, and the party drove to Vancouver to meet Charles H. Davis of Cape Cod, Mass., who is the founder of the World Peace Movement. He has taken considerable interest in the Peace Arch at Blaine, and has some very modern and interesting ideas regarding the development of the Peace Portal Park.
Miss Carhart, who is intensely interested in the promotion of the Peace Arch and a much greater development of International Flag Day, invited Mr. Davis to deliver the principle address on July 2, Flag Day; and while he has several important dates to fill just prior to Flag Day, he thought it might be possible for him to accept the invitation.
Mr. Davis, accompanied by Mrs. Davis, a very charming woman, was on his way to San Francisco, where he will have conferred upon him by the Executive Financial Board of the American Road Builders Association the honor of a “Life Presidency,” the greatest honor ever conferred by the organization.
The board’s trip to Vancouver was in vain. Once again, the proposed Flag Day celebration, tagged for July 2, 1939, featuring speaker Charles H. Davis, never materialized.
No evidence of Flag Day could be found from 1936 through 1938. These omissions raise a question: Did the International Sunrise Easter Services and the newly created Armistice Day Celebrations eclipse this annual event?
The International Easter Sunrise Service
“On Easter Sunday morning, April 5, [1931] a new order of observing Easter Sunday will be started in this community for at that time arrangements have been made for an elaborate Sunrise Easter Service to be held at the Peace Arch on the International Boundary, the churches and clergy of both nearby towns of Canada and the United States, officiating jointly,” reported the April 2, 1931 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press. “Preparations for the affair have been going forward for several weeks and a fine program has been arranged. There seems to be a real opportunity to develop something of real good in the sponsoring of such services and those to whom credit can be given for the idea and the later work that has been necessary to put it across, are to be complimented.”
The announcement concluded with publication of the Sunday program, heralded by Prof. Paul Lustermann who, undoubtedly, was the “music man” of the Blaine’s early twentieth century.
PROGRAM
1. Trumpet call—6 a.m……………………………………..…….Prof. Paul Lustermann
2. Hymn—“All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”
3. Invocation……………………………………….Rev. G.E. Landon (Baptist Church)
4. Selection Peace Arch Post No. 86 American Legion Band, Paul Lustermann, Director
5. Scripture Lesson, John 20:1-17………Rev. Oliver Darwin (United Church of Canada)
6. The Lord’s Prayer (in unison).……….Led by Rev. L.J. Thompson (Anglican Church)
7. Easter Address………………………Canon E.B. Smith (Protestant Episcopal Church)
8. Selection Peace Arch Post No. 86 American Legion Band, Paul Lustermann, Director
9. Hymn—“Christ the Lord is Risen Today”
10. Benediction……………………………Rev. C.B. Seely (Methodist Episcopal Church)
Boy Scouts…………………Under direction of Rev. F.C. Green (Congregational Church)
All present will enter into the spirit of this great Christian Festival and join heartily in singing.
Chairman: Rev. W. Lashley Hall (United Church of Canada)
1931
It was a cloudy Sunday morning, but an impressive attendance ranging between 500 and 600, assembled from both sides of the border. Although Rev. G.E. Landon was unable to be there, Rev. Dwight Smith of Bellingham’s First Congregational Church took his place. And while illness forced the absence of Rev. L.J. Thompson, Rev. R. Hughes of Ocean Park, B.C., stepped in on his behalf.
Five days later, twenty-five clergy from Ocean Park, White Rock, Cloverdale, and Ferndale, met at the Congregational Church in Blaine. There, Rev. Burton Root of Blaine’s Free Methodist Church was commended for initiating the idea of moving the Annual Sunrise Easter Service to the Peace Arch. Then a resolution presented by Rev. Floyd C. Green was adopted:
“That we, the ministers of the White Rock-Blaine group, suggest to the Vancouver General Ministerial Association and the Whatcom County Ministerial Association that each appoint a committee of three, with at least one member residing adjacent to the border, to be known as the Inter-church Peace Portal Committee:
“That the purpose of this committee be to promote international good will through the study of international questions and the cooperation in such occasions as the Sunrise Easter Service, the International Flag Day Celebration July 2 or any other occasions consonant with the ideals symbolized by the International Peace Arch, with a view to the recognition of the primary place of spiritual influence in the accomplishment of these ideals. On no other basis will be realized the aspiration which is expressed in the words inscribed on the Arch, ‘May these gates never be closed.’”
Were they originally gates or doors? This puzzler is underscored by a description of the Peace Arch as it was presented in Victoria’s Daily Columnist of June 12, 1921, three months before the monument was dedicated: “Two doors span the opening which leads from one country to the other; one of these doors has been opened and fastened in the walls, and across it is written the words: ‘July 4th, 1915, Open for One Hundred Years.’ The other door, recessed in the walls, bears the inscription: ‘May These Doors Never Be Closed.’”
1932
The second annual Easter service was held at the Samuel Hill Memorial Park Sunday, March 27, 1932 at 6:00 A.M. Much like the previous service, the ceremony added the Christian flag salute led by the Girl Reserves and Canadian Girls in Training: “I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag and to the Savior for whose kingdom it stands, one brotherhood, uniting all mankind in service and in love.” Rev. H.L. MacNeill, president of the Vancouver Ministerial Association, delivered the address. Hampered by rain, attendance was estimated at 300.
1933
The third annual service, held 6:00 A.M. Sunday, April 16, 1933, saw a longer fare and a larger attendance estimated at 600 to 800 early risers. Dr. W.E. Loucks, First Baptist Church, Bellingham, presented the message. And this time, the service was broadcast. “Mr. Rogan Jones of KVOS, Bellingham; KOL, Seattle; CKFC and VE9CS of Vancouver, B.C. deserve commendation for making possible the broadcasting of this service,” noted the agenda that had been printed somewhere beyond Blaine—a fact that aroused the ire of Blaine Journal-Press publisher O.G. Frazine. “Rev. Floyd Green, chairman of the committee in charge of this service, has seen fit to have his programs printed in an out-of-town printing establishment,” complained he.
1934
Although the weather was fair, the fourth service, held April 1, 1934, drew a smaller attendance, estimated at 300. Yet, it was a service widely broadcast, as it had been the previous year. Rev. J.S. Henderson, minister of the United Church of Canada, Vancouver, presented the Easter message.
1935
No longer a sunrise service, the hour was moved from 6:00 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. when the fifth annual Peace Arch gathering was held Sunday, April 21, 1935. The Easter message was presented by O.J. Ordal of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Bellingham. A record crowd, estimated at 1,000, was present.
1936
Vancouver’s Daily Province gave the April 12 event generous coverage, announcing the presence of about 300 from both countries. With a trumpet call, Bellingham Eagles’ Civic Band member John Clark opened the afternoon service.
“Covenants, pacts and treaties may all serve their purpose in some degree, but there can be no lasting world peace until the ideals of peace and freedom have been established in all our hearts,” Dr. J.G. Brown, Vancouver Union Theological College principal, was reported to have said. “That is the only logical way to develop international confidence.”
Dr. Brown referred briefly to unrest in the world today. While everyone admitted that there was much needless suffering and wrongdoing now, violent agitators for sudden change should be compared to “Sampson, who, gripping the pillars, pulled the entire house down on his head,” he remarked.
“Today we have a philosophy of nationalism, each nation attempting to stand against its neighbors by raising forts and tariff walls. That philosophy is being pushed at people to prepare them for another war, greater than any that has come before.
“The real philosophy for content, however, puts positive peace as one of the absolute conditions of life. There can be nothing better than that the spirit of Christ be taken into our lives. We must enthrone Christ in our own hearts, our communities and our nations.”
Dr. F.W. Carstens, First Baptist Church, Bellingham, chaired the service.
1937
Newspaper overage narrowed for the seventh service, held the Sunday afternoon of March 28, 1937. Nothing beyond the agenda was printed. Rev. Dwight C. Smith, Congregational Church, Bellingham, presented the message. The Boy Scouts led the pledge of allegiance to the Christian flag. The Seattle Star received a letter to the editor from Faye M. Hatch, Bellingham, who was quite impressed with the service. It was reprinted in the Blaine Journal-Press. Noting the service was held “under a clear sky and warm sunshine,” Hatch wrote, “My heart was warmed by the feeling that here is proof that two nations can live without armed borderlines, and settle their differences with the power of thoughts kindly affectionate toward each other, and fully decided that theirs is a common welfare.”
1938
Rain showers pelted the April 17, 1938 eighth annual Easter service, forcing the gathering to move the event to the Blaine City Hall. The press had complained of inefficient publicity. Dr. Frizell of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Vancouver, presented the address, “All Hail,” for about 150 listeners.
1939
Amazingly, some 2,000 worshipers were said to be present at the ninth annual International Easter Service, held Sunday afternoon, April 9, 1939. But this time, the occasion was marked by the presence of the Salvation Army Band of New Westminster, plus combined choirs—their origin unreported—directed by Blaine school music teacher Paul Brownell.
Rev. Edwin A. Wolfe, district chaplain of the American Legion, Bellingham, presented the address. “You are here in a communion of gratitude, worshipping a common God,” he said as reported by the Vancouver Daily Province. “But there are nations in Europe who know not God, and would be the first to cry, ‘Crucify him,’ were he to return to earth. No nation was ever built to last if it denied God.”
New that year was the passing of a collection plate.
1940
Change, unexplained by the press, was in the wind. The Blaine Chamber of Commerce requested the Blaine Ministerial Association to hold a Sunrise Easter Service at 6:00 A.M., Sunday, March 24, 1940. The Blaine Journal opined the annual congregations dwindled after the services had become scheduled for Sunday afternoons. “The sermon by Rev. W.E. Monbeck [who had recently become the pastor for Blaine’s First Baptist Church] was on a par with the sermons of the noted ministers who addressed the large audiences at the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs, and in the Hollywood Bowl in Southern California,” hyperbolized the newspaper a few days later. Just why, no one knows.
Then, at 3:00 P.M. that day, Rev. Elbert Paul, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Vancouver, addressed a second Easter congregation, sponsored by the Vancouver Ministerial Association, and likewise held at the Peace Arch.
The rupturing of the two ministerial associations, previously cooperating to present internationally united Easter services, was not clarified. But both services were reportedly well attended.
1941
Having noted ruptured relationships in the 1940 Easter Sunday program, it seems the clerics were once more dwelling together in unity. The early morning service was rescheduled for 3:30 P.M., April 13, 1941, and called the “International Union Service,” with Dr. Francis Hall of Bellingham speaking on “The Living Christ for a Tragic Hour.” Several British Columbia pastors were reported to have taken part in the service, therefore it seems the previous year’s rift had been mended.
1942
Although several churches were reportedly “making elaborate preparations for fitting Easter services which will be inaugurated with an international and interdenominational sunrise service to be held at the Peace Arch at 6:30 A.M. Sunday morning,” and led by Rev. A.T. MacIntosh, pastor of White Rock’s Presbyterian Church, the Blaine Journal carried no follow-up story for the Easter service of 1942.
1946
Evidence of sunrise services from 1943 through 1945 could not be found, and, according clues in the Blaine Journal of April 11, 1946, may have been cancelled during World War II. “The Easter Sunrise Service that proved so very popular during the years of 1931-1933 inclusive, is being revived this year under the enthusiasm of Rev. Chester Tremain of the Free Methodist Church,” reported the Journal.One may wonder why the years following 1933 were not recognized.
Although Pacific Lutheran College vocalist Lloyd Tremaine appeared as the guest soloist, low attendance at the first postwar service was a disappointment.
1947
Announced by five Blaine clergy were plans for an Easter sunrise service to be held in 1947, with Full Gospel pastor Lofdahl scheduled to preach. Oddly, the Journal mentioned no Canadian clergy as planners or participants, nor were the results of the April 6 service published. Perhaps a poliomyelitis epidemic led to cancellation of the service, but this is speculation.
1948
The Blaine Ministerial Association, meeting March 4, 1948 at the home of Rev. A.B.C. Nelson, pastor of the First Baptist Church, took inventory of the failing postwar sunrise services. Sweeping changes ensued. With three Canadian clergymen present, plans were formulated to change the organization’s name to the “Peace Arch Ministerial Association”—a title that remains to this day.
Then came the decision to invite well-known laymen to participate in future services. The results were encouraging: some 300 worshipers were present at the 1948 Easter service, held at 5:50 A.M., and featuring speaker Dr. Arthur C. Hicks, junior warden at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Bellingham, and head of Western Washington College of Education’s English department.
Music, directed by Everett B. Lunsford, was provided by the Blaine High School chorus.
1949
Exactly why year 1949 saw the sunrise service take a nosedive after the previous year’s success is unknown. The first indication of ecclesiastical apathy was noticed when Blaine Journal owner-editor Bess Smith published an April 7th announcement stating, “The Easter Sunrise service will be held at 5:17 on Easter morning in the international park with both sides of the line participating. The public is urged to attend to hear the Rev Dr. Douglas Telfer, president of the United Church of British Columbia, who will be the speaker for the morning.” The ministerial association had failed to meet the deadline for posting the hour, so Smith set a time of her own—5:17 A.M.
With the association failing to realize Smith had set a time of her own, she published it a second time. Whether or not Dr. Telfer came to the park at 5:17 A.M. is unknown; a review of the service never made it to the press.
1950
Similarly, although the press posted a notice for the 1950 Easter sunrise service, and scheduled to be broadcast over KVOS radio, there was no follow-up story to indicate what took place that April.
As the postmodern age dawned in the mid-twentieth century, a secularizing trend, egged on with telling changes, penetrated the continent as demonstrated by the following story drawn from the April 13, 1950 edition of the Blaine Journal:
The huge murky clouds that overcast Thursday’s morning sky disappeared just in time to let old Sol through for warmth and beauty as the 3-6 year olds from Blaine, White Rock and Cloverdale, B.C., and as many more adults gathered for the first international Easter egg hunt to be staged at the Peace Arch Park.
Playing a vital part in the afternoon’s program the colorful costumed high school band, led by members of the school patrol and White Rock’s Girl Guides, moved down Peace Portal drive to the border and over the hill to the upper lawn where they remained assembled until the hunt was on. The band selections included “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and a specialty number by some one dozen kindergarteners and first graders dressed as rabbits, who had paraded with the band were thoroughly appreciated by children and adults alike.
The Rainbow Girls used more than 100 dozen eggs in filling the Easter baskets that were strewn as far north as the tearoom near the Canadian customs. After the hunt many of the youngsters participated in egg rolling contests in scattered sections of the park.
The sixth graders assisted in preparing the eggs for the dye bath, the coloring being done entirely by the first graders, kindergarteners and sixth grades.
Organizations and individuals that aided in this first venture of having an international Easter egg hunt included the Kiwanis Club, Lions and Lady Lions, Eagles, American Legion, POE, Fathers Club, Music Study Club, Active Club and the Activettes, St. Luke’s Assistance League, Rainbow Girls, 4-H Girls, Mrs. Grady Royal, Lester Livingston and the Girl Guides of White Rock. The school patrol was ably assisted by Tom Reuble and Elwood Owen.
The truly beautiful kitchen drew the admiration and commendation of spectators and children. The numerous improvised Easter scenes included gardens and pools done with moss and flowers, baby chickens, ducks, fish and rabbits and a background of huge Easter eggs, gaily decorated. It required real work and was capably done by Miss Beverly Martin and her assistants. The decorating of the float and tricycle was also in their charge. Canadian children were accompanied by Mrs. Kay Lang Lands of the Girl Guides of White Rock. Press photographers from the Bellingham Herald and the Vancouver, B.C. newspapers were present as well as Kenneth Harrison with his movie camera, thus the first attempted international Easter egg hunt that isn’t quite click in detail with pre- arranged plans was recognized with a great deal of publicity and applause.
1951
Renewed effort led to a successful sunrise service during a rainy Easter Sunday, March 25, 1951. “When Doors Closed, Then Came Jesus,” was the sermon delivered by Rev. Peter Connall, United Church minister of White Rock, to a crowd estimated at 350. Broadcast by KVOS radio, the Salvation Army band presented music, and Blaine’s famed Peace Arch photographer, Elias Breidford, was the vocal soloist.
Seemingly unaware of annual sunrise services that had existed from 1931 through 1942, the Blaine Journal recognized the 1951 event as “the fourth annual sunrise service.”
Not to be forgotten was the second year of another trend as “children in anticipation of another Easter egg hunt came to the park by the dozens.”
1952
Rev. Linden Jenkins, pastor of the Blaine Methodist Church presented the Easter meditation during the 1952 sunrise service, once more broadcast by KVOS radio.Additional press coverage could not be found.
1953
No record of a sunrise service could be found during 1953. However, there seems to have been a shift of interest from the traditional sunrise service to the annual Peace Arch celebration. It appears the Peace Arch Ministerial Association played a significant role in organizing a religious service featuring Right Rev. Stephen Bayne as the keynote speaker at the Peace Arch celebration held that year.
1954
Again, no record of a sunrise service could be found that year. But, for the second year, a religious service was held during the annual Peace Arch celebration.
1955
With no record of a sunrise service appearing for 1955, the following letter to the editor by Ella Wells appeared in the April 7, 1955 edition of the Blaine Journal, thus suggesting the services once held in the park were valued, and, perhaps implying the services ought never to have discontinued:
This was written several years ago following attendance at a Peace Arch Easter Sunrise Service. As we approach another Easter Sunday it is very appropriate.
It was a beautiful morning; the sun rising over the horizon as the youthful voices of the Blaine High School chorus rang out in the hymns. The clergy from two nations led in prayer and praise, joined by over 300 worshippers, some who had traveled 100 miles to be present.
What caused these people to rise as early as 4 a.m. to reach their destination in time to worship at the beautiful park? I am inclined to think it was the same reason that led the women to the sepulcher on the first Easter—seeking Christ.
We, who have lived near this spot almost half a century remember it as an unsightly slough with a disreputable hotel and saloon, now see it as one of the most beautiful spots on the continent; where the majestic Peace Arch towers over lovely green lawns and flowers and trees are nursed and tended by caretakers of two countries.
If this can be accomplished in material things, the same miracle can, no doubt, take pace in our souls—if we accept the help and grace given to us through Him whose resurrection we commemorate this Easter morning. Let us all unite in cultivating the spirit of eternal brotherhood and the beautifying of human souls.
Her description reflects the service held in 1948, but there is no proof this was the occasion Wells had in mind.
Below her letter was an announcement:
Union Good Friday Services
Sponsored by Blaine Ministerial Association
Friday, April 10 at 10 A.M.
Full Gospel Church
Public is Cordially Invited
It is assumed “union” was a reference to churches of various denominations in Blaine. One may wonder if the Peace Arch Ministerial Association had disbanded from 1955 through 1958, for no record of sunrise services could be found for those years.
1959
A Peace Arch Park sunrise service was announced for March 26, with brief messages to be delivered by Rev. H.J. Westman of White Rock and Rev. A.C. Neubaur of Blaine. “Several ministers of the Ministerial Association of Blaine and White Rock will participate in this service beginning at 6:30,” announced the Blaine Journal. Although the name of the association appears to be changed, one may wonder if this was a newspaper error.
No record of services for 1960 and 1961 could be found. This, of course, does not mean the services did not occur.
There was, however, a newspaper announcement for two Easter egg hunts for kindergarten children and those in primary school—or grade school as it was then called.
1962
A 6:30 A.M. sunrise service was announced for April 19, again sponsored by “the Ministerial Association of White Rock and Blaine.” The Blaine Journal was a bit more specific that year: “Featured as speakers will be Rev. J.E. Harris of the White Rock Baptist Church and Rev. Mack Farmer of the Blaine Methodist Church. Rev. Rudolph Schnabel of the Blaine Church of Christ will conduct the service. Special music will be provided by Wilfred Robinson of White Rock. Rev. F.L. Hunter of the White Rock Pentecostal Tabernacle will read the scriptures and offer prayer.
“The service is traditionally held in the natural amphitheater east of the Peace Arch. In event of cold or rainy weather, the dining pavilion will be used.”
1963
Nothing beyond what had become known as the “annual” Easter egg hunt could be found for year 1963. “The morning party will be from 9:15 to 11:00 and is for the children who live in town,” noted the Blaine Journal. “Children who will be riding the school bus next year are invite to attend the afternoon party from 1:00 to 2:45. If it is raining, the Easter egg hunts will be postponed until the following day. If you are in doubt, please phone the grade school office and someone there will tell you when the parties are being held. Children should be warmly dressed and wear boots.” Politely, the party was held on a Wednesday morning instead of Easter Sunday.
1964
An April Easter sunrise service was held near the Canadian kitchen in 1964. Rev. Osborne H. Olson, White Rock, presented the sermon. Additional participating clergy included Rudolph K. Schnabel, Willard Buckner, G.P. Johnson and William Graff. Rev. Robert Mayfield, president of the Peace Arch Ministerial Association, organized the event. Combined church choirs arrived from Blaine.
No accounts of further Easter sunrise services could be found for a decade after 1964. Exactly why is a matter of speculation; but so far as historical research is concerned, several variables were at work, and each raises a question. Were the services terminated ten years after 1964, and if so, why? Did the press decide to withdraw coverage? The radio broadcasts vanished. But when, and, more importantly, why?
“Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny invite all the little kiddos of Blaine to come and hunt for Easter eggs at the Peace Arch Park Saturday, from 11 to 12 noon,” announced the April 8, 1971 edition of the Blaine Journal. “Prizes? Yep! Fun? You bet! Also free refreshments for all the moms and pops. If anyone has a bunny costume they are invited to wear it to the hunt.” Since its first appearance in 1950, did this annual hunt represent a secularizing turn of Easter events at the Peace Arch?
1973
For several years no evidence of sunrise services could be found. As if to compensate for the hiatus, an esteemed guest was chosen. Dr. Calvin Hanson, president of Trinity Western College (now a university) at Langley, was the speaker at an April 22 service held at 6:30 A.M. The Bellingham Salvation Army Band and soloist Kae Erickson participated.
1974
Another well-prepared international Easter sunrise service was held at the Peace Arch April 6, 1974 at 7:30 A.M. Dr. Robert Thompson, vice president of Trinity Western College of Langley, British Columbia, presented the address entitled “Easter Around the World.” He had lived several years in Ethiopia followed by ten years as a member of Canada’s parliament. A student sextet of young women from Trinity Western presented vocal music.
1977
Eleven White Rock churches and five Blaine churches jointly sponsored an Easter sunrise service at 6:30 A.M. near the Canadian kitchen, but no further details were available. No further record of Peace Arch sunrise services were found.
The Northwest Park and Recreation District joined Blaine Eagles in sponsoring an Easter egg hunt at the park April 1982.
No further evidence of international Easter sunrise services could be found after 1977. Eleven years later, the United Church of Christ in Blaine publicized a sunrise service scheduled for 6:00 A.M., April 3, 1988, at Whatcom County Semiahmoo Park. Sanctioned by the Peace Arch Ministerial Association, additional congregations attended the Semiahmoo services from 1990 to the present.
Similarly, the occasional Peace Arch easter egg hunt was transferred to Semiahmoo in 1989 where it became an annual event until budget cuts eliminated the curator’s position at Semiahmoo Park in 1993.
International Peace Portal Gold Medal Speech Contest
Originally called the Gold Medal Declamatory Contest when it was held in the Blaine City Hall, May 29, 1931, it was promoted as an international program that featured three contestants from Canada, three from the United States. Mrs. Rex Eaton, Vancouver; Adolph Miller, Bellingham; Bertha Adams, Vancouver; Rev. Floyd Green, Blaine; Mrs. A.C. Riggs, Bellingham; and Rev. W. Lashley Hall, White Rock, were the program committee members. It was an elaborate affair that featured hymns, a prayer, scripture reading, Paul Lustermann’s orchestra and another from Mount Baker High School. In accordance with contest rules, the winning side received a one-year trophy; their names could not be found.
The second and final year of this short-lived event featured Blaine representative Italka Runge, whose chosen topic was “Americanization of the Foreigner.” The program was arranged as follows:
INTERNATIONAL PEACE PORTAL GOLD MEDAL SPEECH CONTEST
FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 27, AT 8:00 O’CLOCK
_____
COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS
Mrs. Rex Eaton, Vancouver, B.C.; Mrs. Bertha G. Adams, Vancouver, B.C.
Rev. W. Lashley Hall, White Rock, B.C.; Mrs. Albert Still, Blaine;
Adolph Miller, Bellingham; Mrs. A.C.B. Riggs, Bellingham
and Rev. Floyd Green, Blaine
____
1. Platform guests on platform.
2. International Anthem.
3. Greetings and Announcements……………………………………..Program Chairman
4. Introduction of Canadian guests on platform………………………………..Mrs. Eaton
5. Introduction of American guests on platform………………….……….…..Mrs. Riggs
6. March from platform of guests.
7. March to platform of contestants.
8. Scripture Reading………………………………………………………….….Rev. Hall
9. Prayer……………………………………………………………………….Rev. Green
10. Ensemble Singing, “Blest be the Tie that Binds”…One stanza with audience standing
11. Solo—Selected………..Miss Ruth Clark accompanied by Miss Dorothy Montgomery
12. Greetings, Medal Winner of 1931, Miss Nata Moore, New Westminster
13. International Speech Contest.
14. Musical number by Canadian male quartette
15. Judges Retire.
16. Address, “Youth Holds the Key to the Destiny of Any Nation,”
……………………………………D.E. Wideman, Supt. of Bellingham City Schools
17. Offering—Dime, Plus.
18. Awarding of Gold Medal to winner in each group.
19. Announcement of team winners.
20. Award of trophy for one year.
21. Introduction of contestants by name.
22. Benediction…………………………………………………….Rev. Clarence B. Seely
THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT FOR ONE YEAR
Although the program closed with a “thank you and good night for one year,” the year to come failed to yield a third annual event. Like so many well-intentioned projects, this one was short-lived.
The Pan-Pacific Women’s Association at the Peace Arch
When the Whatcom County Women’s Federation invited delegates from the Pan-Pacific Women’s Association to hold a meeting at the Peace Arch July 19, 1937, women from around the world expressed mutual admiration for Samuel Hill’s monument. The Vancouver Sun, in fact, reported little else.
Tokyo representative Tsune Gauntlett was reported to have said, “I have crossed the boundaries of many countries, but I have never before seen an arch like this.”
China’s delegate, known simply as Miss Chen, was said to have thought the Peace Arch represents “an example of what all nations could do.”
“It is typical of what the women of the Pan-Pacific Association are attempting to do,” thought Australian representative Carlile McDonnell.
Iduk Pak, Korea’s representative, was reported to have said, “For 301 years we Koreans are the only ones who have never fought.”
Other women represented Hawaii, Canada and the United States.
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, that first assembled at the Peace Arch June 11, 1938, drew representatives from Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. Consisting of short talks and music by Blaine’s Icelandic Free Church choir, little was reported about the league, said to be dedicated to a world peace movement.
Although nothing is known of the first and second annual meetings, the third created a stir that was picked up by the press. Describing it as a “stormy session” that “came near an eruption,” the June 6, 1940 Blaine Journal described the scene:
The third annual meeting of Peace groups from Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom was held at the Peace Arch Sunday afternoon with State Senator Mary Farquharson in charge of the gathering.
The program consisted of a four-way discussion of “After the War What?” and was participated in by Rev. Bert Mitchell and Prof. F.B. Farquharson of Seattle, and Dr. William G. Black of the University of B.C. and Rev. Theodore Pagesmith, of Vancouver, B.C.
These gentlemen generally developed their own pet theories which may be, as Dr. Wade Haggard remarked in his commencement address, brutally murdered by hard, cold facts in a day or an hour.
The interesting part of the meeting occurred when Senator Farquharson opened the meeting for general discussion, and several, who wanted to be on the program, but had been held in their seats, broke loose in a general harangue that took the meeting out of the senator’s control.
As soon as she could resume command she adjourned the session to the picnic tables where it is presumed an abundance of good food converted the world into a great peace union.
The Vancouver Sun cited the argument in greater detail:
Mr. Pagesmith took exception to the remarks of Bert Mitchell, Seattle, that “it makes no difference who wins this war, dictatorships are going to rule. A just peace can only be secured by solving the economic problems.”
Mr. Mitchell declared that there would be no hope of a just peace with a German victory as it would mean a number of unwilling minorities, including Britain, which would decline to be German vassals and would foment future wars.
“If the Allies win, the picture for peace would look better. But still they would find it difficult to arrive at a just peace,” he added.
“Germany will not win this war if all the democratic countries harness their forces together. This is no time for isolation or neutrality when a nation like Germany has run amuck to overthrow all other nations,” said Mr. Pagesmith in answer to Mr. Mitchell’s statements.
“Germany is not a Christian nation. It has developed a new paganism, and the pacifists now must cooperate with God’s warriors in crushing her,” he said.
“Now is the time to talk of world reconstruction and peace,” said Dr. W.G. Black of University of British Columbia. Peace, he added, needs long planning. He disagreed with pacifists and said a just peace can only be secured by resisting maniacs like Hitler.
“No lasting peace can be secured until the minds and hearts of the people are changed,” he said.
With regard to additional meetings of the Women’s International League for Peace, the Vancouver Daily Province reported the presence of Senator Farquharson who represented the organization at a June 18, 1939 assembly of “some fifteen organizations from the state of Washington and British Columbia” billed as “their second annual international border meeting.” Intentions of annualizing the meetings were expressed that day.
International Armistice Day
The last shot had been fired; all was quiet on the western front that Monday morning. At 11:00 A.M. November 11, 1918, the hostilities of World War I ceased. Six hours earlier an armistice between Germany and the Allies was signed at Compiègne, and Germany had twenty-one years to prepare for the next global conflict known as World War II.
But November 11, 1918 was never forgotten. The next year President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation, declaring November 11 a day to eulogize the war dead. He called it Armistice Day, but it didn’t become institutionalized as such until 1926, and thereafter declared an official public holiday. The United Kingdom and France memorialized Armistice Day in 1920, with the English speaking people calling it Remembrance Day, and setting aside two minutes for silence—from 11:00 to 11:02 A.M.—in remembrance of Allied soldiers who had fallen in battle.
It became a Remembrance Sunday of special Church services and the laying of wreaths. In the United States, Congress, in session on May 24, 1954, also renamed Armistice Day, broadening its significance, and declaring it Veterans Day.
1937
As a Peace Arch ceremony, Armistice Day was first observed November 11, 1937. One week later, the Blaine Journal, declaring it “broadcast over the continent,” published an account of the premier event:
The most colorful and spectacular program ever produced at the Peace Arch at Blaine or anywhere was given to the local public and to the entire North American continent Armistice Day by KVOS of Bellingham, assisted by the American Legion of Whatcom County and the Canadian Legion of Vancouver and Surrey district.
Through the medium of the Mutual and Don Lee broadcasting system of the coast and CBS of Canada, a well arranged and carefully carried out program, emphasizing the continued peace and good neighbor relations between Canada and the United States, arranged and produced by KVOS, was given to some ninety stations in the United States; and the only regret is that it was not possible to send it out over all systems and on short wave to all parts of the earth.
The program, so carefully arranged, was given a short rehearsal beginning at 11:45 a.m. and at the approach of the broadcast hour 12:30 everything and everyone was in readiness for the big adventure.
The program opened with the Eagles Band from Bellingham playing an overture, directly following which the assembled school children from Whatcom County and the Surrey District, B.C., sang to the accompaniment of the band, one verse of “God Save the King” and one verse of “America.”
The announcer then gave a description of the scene before him, stating at the beginning of the announcement, “This program has been arranged by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion and the Canadian Legion to remind this continent of the dread of war and the humanity of peace.”
The Drum and Bugle Corps of the Albert J. Hamilton Post of Bellingham started playing in the distance, and as they played they marched from American soil through the Peace Arch onto Canadian soil and to a position near the speaker’s stand. The beautiful blue and white marching uniforms were more highly appreciated by the local audience than was possible by those on the air. This was greeted by tremendous applause.
Immediately upon the final note by the Drum and Bugle Corps the Seaforth Highlanders, a Vancouver band, started playing in the distance and they marched through the Peace Arch from the Canadian soil onto the greensward in front of the speakers stand, where they were greeted with a great ovation of applause. In the meantime, a company of Canadian war veterans in their khaki uniforms were standing at attention on the American side of the Arch, while a number of American color bearers in uniform were standing at attention in close proximity to the Arch.
Rev. Ed Wolfe, District Chaplain of the American Legion delivered the invocation, which was followed by Dr. T.J. Rasmussen introducing the speakers, Dr. E.N. Hutchison, Secretary of State of Olympia and a former resident of Blaine, who spoke in behalf of our country and Brigadier General Odlum of Vancouver, who spoke in behalf of Canada, each proclaiming the friendship of his country for the other. Both speeches were masterful efforts. They were followed by the school children singing “O Canada” and “The Star Spangled Banner,” and following the closing words by the announcer, the entire assembly sang “Auld Lang Syne.”
An estimated 4,000 children were said to have sung their anthems over a continent-wide radio hookup. In 1937, the lyrics for “O Canada,” known as the Buchan version, ran as follows:
O Canada! Our heritage, our love,
Thy love we praise all other lands above.
From sea to sea, throughout thy length
From pole to border land,
At Britain’s side, whate’er betide,
Unflinchingly we’ll stand;
With heart we sing, “God Save the King”
Guide Thou the Empire wide do we implore,
And prosper Canada from shore to shore.
Although “O Canada” was composed by Calixa Lavallée, few people know anything about his turbulent life. Nor is his name often cited when the anthem appears in print.
The Vancouver Sun covered Odlum’s address:
“Our occasion today is the celebration of 125 years of peace, not because we glory in it as a great achievement, but because we hope that the century and a quarter which have passed will be but as an incident in the great chain of centuries of peace to follow,” General Odlum declared.
He recalled a fast trip to Paris on Armistice Day, 1918, when he found “millions of people laughing and dancing in the streets, and wildly embracing everyone who came in sight.
“Why?” he asked. “Because they had suddenly won, by desperate struggle, what you and we have enjoyed for a century and a quarter—peace.”
He briefly reviewed peaceful settlement of boundary, fisheries and other disputes between Canada and the United States as evidences that “If we were unreasonable peoples and animated by the spirit which is driving Europe and Asia mad, we could easily find cause for quarrel.
“We come in this significant Peace Arch and gaze at you with level eyes—the eyes of a smaller but older brother; for our French settlements of the New England states. We do not contrast our twelve million souls with your 125 million, but instead, we are conscious of the might of the British Empire, of which we form so proud a part. Our association with that Empire gives us the right to walk side by side with you with our heads high, knowing that we walk and talk as equals,” Brigadier Odlum continued.
“Forgetting all else, forgetting the things that divide, we look you in the eye, we stretch out our hand, and we say, ‘Put it there, pal.’ Once a year we come to talk peace. But 365 days a year, year in and year out, we practice peace.”
1938
The 1937 celebration caught widespread interest, with an expanded program presented November 11, 1938, the day Kate Smith debuted Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” “People flocked into the state park, literally thousands, from both sides of the line. Close to fifty school buses carrying on the average of sixty pupils from Whatcom County were counted, while as many or more school buses from our northern neighbors were parked just north of the Canadian customs house,” reported the Blaine Journal.
The Vancouver Daily Province emphasized the prominence of railway assistance: “A special Great Northern train of twenty-five coaches left Vancouver at 10:45 a.m., carrying about 1,000 senior grade schoolchildren of this city. At New Westminster, 1,300 more were picked up. Surrey sent another 1,300 and other municipalities were represented by more than 1,000 students.” At about $400 per thousand, transportation was reasonable.
Aboard the train was a Daily Province journalist, busily interviewing the youth. James Barker, 14, thought Remembrance Day should be preserved. “Maybe if we do we can keep out of another war,” he was reported to have said. “Mussolini and Hitler seem to be getting everything they want just now, but if we keep together and try to show them they are wrong, we may be able to stop them.” Irene Harris, 17, and Mildred Sirlin, 16, heartily agreed. “It sort of acts as a warning to the young people who don’t remember how dreadful the last war really was,” said Mildred.
Accompanying the chilly weather that day, there was coldness of an ominous kind, revealed by signs of another global war. The United Kingdom would declare war on Germany, come September 3, 1939. Within a week later, Canada would do likewise. The Journal report continued:
As the program went on the air, the setting was described by Rogan Jones, announcer for KVOS directly after which the National anthems were sung by all children. Justice Robinson of the State Supreme Court, the speaker from this side of the unguarded and unfortified boundary line, the longest international boundary line in the world, gave a splendid address on the virtues of the peaceful relations between our neighbors and ourselves. He was followed by Brigadier Gen. Clark of Vancouver, who gave answer to President Roosevelt’s assertion made in a recent address made in Canada, “That the United States would support Canada in resisting the invasion of a foreign enemy,” by saying that Canada would respond to arms and come to the aid of the U.S. at any time that we might suffer invasion from a foreign enemy.
United in singing the anthems of the two neighboring countries, these eight thousand schoolchildren had but little idea of the anguish and suffering caused by the ruthlessness of modern warfare, except as they had heard it by word of mouth from their parents and from schoolbooks; but they demonstrated beyond question that they wished to be emissaries of peace and the very essence of neighborliness and friendship was demonstrated as they exchanged the banners of their countries.
“The Hon. John F. Robinson, justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, speaking as the U.S. representative, delivered one of the two principal addresses,” noted the Vancouver Sun. “Judge Robinson recited ‘In Flanders Fields.’ He said, ‘We are asked to take up the torch and carry it on for those men lying in Flanders Field. That torch is the cause of peace.’ He concluded with an appeal to all peoples of all nations to ‘live your lives in such a way as to uphold the great principle for which the men in Flanders Field fought and died.’”
General J.A. Clark, who represented Canada, presented a lengthy speech recorded by Vancouver’s Daily Province. It opened with these words:
Thousands of citizens, young and old, of the United States and Canada are gathered at this symbol of goodwill to commemorate 126 years of peace between our countries.
We renew today the solemn pledge that has stood the test of time—that we will maintain those happy relations which have characterized the conduct of our people.
Peace between our countries is no longer a problem. We are both democracies and in consequence enjoy a wide measure of freedom in speech, religion, thought and action. Our ideals and moral standards are the same. Our laws and principles of justice are similar. We speak the same language and understand one another. War between us is unthinkable. I would be indulging in platitudes if I attempted to enlarge upon these facts.
The celebration had been of such importance, that an Armistice Day newsreel featuring the children’s flag exchange was distributed nationally. It was shown at Blaine’s AM-BC theatre the following December.
Daily Province journalist Allan Jessup thought he was seeing “a new kind of Remembrance Day” in the upbeat behavior of the children. “Instead of sorrowing thousands with memories deep etched through four years of world tragedy, there were throngs of laughing boys and girls, bright with their determination to keep war out of their lives,” he wrote.
According to a Peace Arch news story published in the September 19, 1963 edition of the Blaine Journal, this was the first year the annual celebration was granted protection by closing highway accessibility through the international park, assistance having been granted by customs and immigration officials. The practice has continued annually ever since, although the ceremony, currently called the International Peace Arch Celebration, is held the second Sunday of June.
1939
Preparations for the third annual celebration saw KVOS radio broadcaster Rogan Jones dealing “with a difficulty that seemed to prevent Mutual Radio System from accepting the Armistice Day peace program at the Peace Arch.” But Jones, a man of determination and strength, persuaded Mutual to broadcast the celebration.
Broadcasting by radio was a highly successful means for attracting people to the Peace Arch. A rainy-day program held November 11, 1939, reportedly drew an estimated 10,000 guests—half of them flag-exchanging children—to the third annual Armistice Day celebration. “Special trains from Vancouver and New Westminster brought in more than two thousand Canadian schoolchildren, while many more came in private conveyances from the Surrey school district,” reported the Blaine Journal. “There were also three bands from Canada, including the Fraser Valley Pipe Band, the Army and Navy Veterans Band, and the New Westminster Boys Band. Many service clubs, and other organizations headed by Mayor Hume of New Westminster, accompanied Justice M.A. Macdonald, the Canadian speaker.
“Every high school in Whatcom County had representatives in the extensive column of American schoolchildren, having been brought here by forty modern school buses which made an imposing appearance as they were lined up along Peace Portal Drive east of the American Customs house grounds.”
Means for attracting Canadians were enlarged. These included airwaves and roadways. Especially significant was the enlistment of Radio Canada. “The broadcast was under the supervision of representatives of the Canadian Broadcasting Company, with Don Wilson in charge of the ‘mike,’ while Brooks Temple, as guest commentator from KVOS Bellingham, gave a colorful word picture of the setting,” stated the Journal. With Radio Canada having caught the interest of Canadian listeners, a newly completed and freshly graveled Peace Arch Highway—later renamed the King George VI—had opened a month earlier for traffic from New Westminster to the border.
Coordinating a large celebration with a 30-minute live broadcast was a hazardous task. Specific instructions were mimeographed for the participants, who were required to be in their proper positions one-half hour before the ceremony was broadcast. According to a faded instruction sheet, the flag exchange was arranged as follows:
The children will be formed up in companies of 100, facing the Peace Arch, on the American side of the Border. Markers will be placed upon the left flank, each Marker holding his National Flag, and in the following order: No. 1 Company Canadian, No. 2 Company American and this alternate formation will be carried out until all children are in position. The Companies will be in single file at all times. At a given signal the Canadian children will about turn and face their American Comrades and exchange flags and remain in that position, wave their flags and join in the singing of “Auld Lang Syne.”
From beginning to end, the celebration prominently featured the flags. Noted the Vancouver Sun: “Closing the ceremonies was the crossing of flags—the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack—before the Arch. Tom Bell, of the Canadian Forestry Association held the Union Jack, and Henry Juvet of the American Legion, the Stars and Stripes.”
The Bellingham Herald reflected upon the speeches delivered that day. Reconstructed is the speech delivered by John J. Sullivan, Seattle, past national vice commander of the American Legion:
I know that I speak the sentiments of my comrades of the Legion when I say to my Canadian comrades that while we are a neutral nation, we are not neutral in thought and our hearts go out to you. Godspeed you in your mission!
Motivated by the sole desire to do good to one another that we may continue to live in concord, we meet again to break the bread of comradeship, broadcasting to the world that here two great nations, two great peoples, openly proclaim the brotherhood of man.
The world today is clamorous with voices prophesying disaster, uttering warlike challenges, preaching regimentation or unfettered individualism. We must come to terms with such a world. Emotions even of the finest sort are not a sufficient guide for mankind.
Our hope for the future lies in this: that men may illuminate the problems that confront them with a glowing light of intelligence—intelligence motivated by goodwill, equity, justice and genuine friendship.
To meet these problems we need action based on a genuine love of country and its institutions, and not on propaganda that has as its purpose the destruction of our free governments. Our nations have grown great under a democratic form of government wherein people are free to make, administer and enforce the laws. A government is free when men may do this.
We must combat the destructive enemy from within, as during the World War we combated him from without. Call a halt to these propagandists who preach subversive doctrines, who would have our younger generation carelessly take for granted civil liberties our forefathers fought to win. Earnestly purge our schools and colleges of that type of educator who would inculcate principles and “isms” into our youth that are foreign to our traditions, and that would make them spineless and passive. See to it that your youth are taught by men and women in whose veins flows the red blood of unadulterated devotion to the country and its ideals.
Democracy is the political recognition of the sovereignty of the soul and not of the state. We do not know what the future has in store for us as nations, but we do know that our systems of government have brought greater contentment and prosperity and more freedom to the average man than any form of government yet devised. These facts alone would burn into our very souls the determination to preserve them in all their essential principles.
Although the Herald did not provide such thorough coverage of the speech presented by Justice M.A. Macdonald of the British Columbia Court of Appeals, this much was reported:
Reciprocating the international friendship expressed by Sullivan, Justice Macdonald noted that Canada at the moment is in a different position from the United States through its connection with the European war but “unlike similar nations elsewhere contiguous to greater nations there is not, in Canada, the slightest fear of aggression, direct or indirect, from our friendly neighbors to the south.”
He thanked Sullivan for his expression regarding the moral support behind Canada and said he believed “they express the prevailing sentiment in the United States. “It is of immeasurable value.”
He sided with Sullivan in his remarks holding liberty as the essential basis for government, commenting, “the desire for [liberty] is ineradicable from the human heart.”
“We in Canada and the United States love and cherish the same ideals,” the justice stated. “We hate the same injustices and barbarities. We have a common origin [and] a common love of freedom. We have lived in peace, amity and concord for more than 100 years. No more glorious or significant fact has ever been recorded. Peace and plenty are the very antithesis of war and destruction.”
In closing he quoted as a suitable theme for democracy Patrick Henry’s revolutionary cry, “Give me liberty or give me death.”
“The United States, neutral in action, thoroughly endorses in thought the action of the British Empire and her Allies in conducting a war to end ‘narrow nationalism,’ because the peoples of Canada and the United States think alike, speakers declared,” noted the Vancouver Sun, perhaps with a modicum of tact toward a nation neutrally disposed.
Hitler completed a Munich speech that day when a saboteur unsuccessfully attempted to kill him.
1940
When it was known so many children were participating in the annual events, the celebration was moved to early autumn—a time more suitable for weather conditions. U.S. Weather Bureau research suggested the fourth weekend of September would likely be most favorable for open-air assemblies.
The following example of the fourth Annual Peace Arch Celebration aired by KVOS on September 25, 1940, is preserved by the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies. According to the Vancouver Sun, the event was “broadcast over the networks of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Mutual Broadcasting System, including forty-seven radio stations in the United States.” Rogan Jones created the untitled broadcast script, and relied upon it as he spoke over the microphone:
CUE: The program originates at the famous Peace Arch at Blaine, Washington, where Mr. Rogan Jones will conduct this unusual International Celebration. Mr. Rogan Jones:
JONES: To the men and women of the world who love freedom and liberty, we send greetings from the greatest monument to Peace in all the world; the famous Peace Arch at Blaine, Washington, on the Canadian-United States Border, midway between Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and Bellingham, Washington, United States of America.
This is the 4th in a series of broadcasts from this shrine of Peace and Friendship. The first, in 1937, was originated as a tribute to Peace in a world at war only in the Orient. By 1938, we hoped that the example of two great nations living side by side along 4,000 miles of unfortified border, at Peace with each other for a century and a quarter – might serve as an example to the restless world. The third message of Peace in 1939 was sent from Coast to Coast over this continent while a world was at war both East and West.
In 1940, with the world still at war, we come again to this revered spot. This time we come to set no example. We come with little hope for Peace. We come as citizens of two freedom-loving nations to tell the world, that liberty – born of strife – is still virile, still a God given force for which this generation has fought and for which the next is preparing to fight if and when necessary.
Here today are assembled thousands of school children of the United States and Canada – the citizens of tomorrow. There are also hundreds of Veterans of the Canadian Legion, the Army and Navy Veterans and the Imperial Veterans and teen-age Veterans…all of Canada…and the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. There are thousands of other men and women of this generation. We are all citizens who owe our present comforts, liberties and aspirations to the freedom for which our forebears struggled in previous centuries. We owe much of our material things to the Peace which has blessed us as neighbors. But since man cannot live by bread alone, we gather here today to honor not Peace, but the freedom which makes Peace a thing worth having. We gather as citizens of two free countries who place liberty next to God as a thing worth striving for and worth protecting.
These are two young nations. In both still live brave women and men who have endured the hardships of a wilderness that they might enjoy freedom in free countries. The youth of these lands are no less willing to brave the dangers, hardships, and death if need be, to retain what their forefathers so bravely won: FREEDOM!
Time has turned back the clock. No longer may we think of Peace as a right to be enjoyed as we enjoy God’s blessings. Peace is but the crowning glory of Freedom. Where there is no Liberty there can be no Peace worthy of the name. When Freedom is in jeopardy we must forgo Peace. We must lay aside comfort and ease. We must defend our liberties.
False prophets are abroad in the world trying to deny the teachings of the Almighty. They are teaching a generation which has suffered from the greed and lust of yester year – that if God is forgotten and freedom foresworn, a life of ease is to be had for him who can take thru force alone.
We of Canada and the United States do not believe in these prophets of force and lust. We enjoy the highest standard of living known to the common people of the world. We who have seen forests give way to factories, homes replace hovels; and wisdom come where ignorance once flourished – we of this continent are here to dedicate ourselves anew to the proposition that governments of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from this earth.
We challenge all other people in the world to follow God to Peace and plenty; to forget those who seek lust and power and betray the people with false promises.
CITIZENS! YOU ARE FREE MEN AND WOMEN! WILL YOU FOREGO PEACE FOR FREEDOM? (HERE CROWD ANSWERS “YES”)
CITIZENS! YOUR FOREBEARS EARNED THEIR LIBERTY! WILL YOU PAY THE PRICE OF VIGILANCE TO KEEP IT? (CROWD “YES”)
We are citizens of two countries. Our flags and our anthems are different, but they represent the same things. Let us pay homage to the freedom for which these two flags stand by singing the National Anthem. First “O CANADA”.
(ENTIRE ASSEMBLAGE SINGS “O CANADA”)
JONES: And, “THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER!”
(ENTIRE ASSEMBLAGE SINGS STAR SPANGLED BANNER)
JONES: You have shouted and sung your faith in freedom! Remember: “Liberty is not only a heritage, but a fresh conquest for each generation.”
The most important participants in our gathering here today are the 10,000 children from the schools of both nations. As symbols of this generation of tomorrow there are two groups of Boy Scouts: 100 in the uniform of each nation stand on the far side of this park. When you hear the music of the New Westminster Junior Band, these smartly trained men of the future will move toward the speaker’s platform, each carrying the flag of his country. (PAUSE 10 SECONDS) Two lines of Scouts are now marching toward us. (PAUSE 5 SECONDS) Both lines are moving to the center of the Peace Arch, where each scout is exchanging his flag for that of his brother scout. (PAUSE 10 SECONDS) They emerge from the edifice carrying the flags of the neighbor nation. Thus do the children of today express in color and motion the continuing friendship between these two great democracies of North America.
(ON SIGNAL BOYS START MANOUVER AND CONTINUE TILL COMPLETED. MUSIC OF BAND STARTS AND PLAYS FOR 3½ MIN. ANNOUNCER PAUSES THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF MINUTES TO PERFECT TIMING. IF MANOUVER IS NOT COMPLETED, THE MUSIC WILL STOP AT END OF ALLOTED TIME AND BOYS WILL COMPLETE WITHOUT MUSIC.)
The Boy Scouts have reached their appointed place on the field. We proceed with our program, leaving till later, a description of the beautiful scene before us.
Now the Veterans who have fought for Liberty, come forward with the massed colors of two countries which have prospered because Peace has crowned the struggles of their people for Freedom. (SIGNAL) These protectors of liberty are led by the drum and bugle corps of the Albert J. Hamilton Post of the American Legion of Bellingham. Each member of the Corps, each following Veteran is a citizen who is proud of that ancient and honorable title. Each is a citizen who has proved that pride by offering his services to his country in time of need.
(THE CORPS MARCHES AND PLAYS)
JONES: The picture of proud citizenry is not yet complete. No race in history has produced more staunch citizens than those forebears of so many Canadians: The Scots! No part of the British Empire is more typical of the love of liberty. We complete our formation with the New Westminster and Frazier Valley Pipe Band which comes in kilts, with the distinctive swirl of the pipes as a symbol of Canada coming to join –- as always –- the sons and daughters of freedom! (SIGNAL PIPERS)
(PAUSE)
JONES: We invite Mr. Jack Peach of the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation to describe for you the colorful scene before us.
(THE PIPERS TAKE TWO MINUTES TO MARCH AND PLAY AT THIS POINT. MR. PEACH, CBC ANNOUNCER, GIVES DESCRIPTION OF SCENE, AFTER THE PIPERS HAVE PLAYED ABOUT 40 SECONDS. HE WILL USE TWO TO FIVE MINUTES TO ADJUST TIME. THE ESTIMATE IS THREE MINUTES.)
JONES: Thank you Mr. Peach.
The President of the International Association sponsoring this program is Dr. T.J. Rasmussen of the American Legion in Bellingham. He will introduce the speakers on today’s broadcast. Dr. Rasmussen.
RASMUSSEN: This shrine of Peace stands in honor of 126 years of Peace and Prosperity between two democracies living beside this open border. But the shrine and this program both envisage a future peace between these two nations. The future belongs to the youth of Canada and the United States. This year our speakers are citizens of tomorrow! First we hear from Mr. Terry Julian of Duke of Connaught High School of New Westminster. Mr. Julian.
JULIAN: We are standing today on holy ground in a ceremony dedicated to Peace and Goodwill. We hold in trust a heritage from our forefathers: It becomes us so to enhance that trust that future generations will enjoy the freedom that we cherish and honor in this ceremony. During the present world turmoil, we must resolutely fit ourselves to discharge the responsibilities which will be ours in a great new world where it will fall to the youth of the democracies to guide men to a higher way of life.
Let us dedicate our lives to the cause of freedom—a freedom that makes for tolerance, good citizenship, and a nobler sense of universal brotherhood. Let us so live that our example may be a glowing tribute to these qualities.
It is to the members of our two nations a source of never-failing inspiration to contemplate the past years of peace based on mutual trust and understanding. The spreading of these ideals to the people of all nations—here lies a challenge to the youth of our countries. Can we hope to see the triumph of these ideals? Long ago a well-loved President of the United States said: “Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then we shall find a way.” Because of the depth of our desire to “find a way” to peace and goodwill among men, we dare to hope that we shall live to see a time when all nations shall live together in the harmony that surrounds us here today.
This, then, is our hope for the future: May the boundaries between nations be as nearly erased as the line on which we now stand.”
RASMUSSEN: Thank you Mr. Julian. The American speaker is Mr. Robert Sarvis of the Sumas Nooksack High School of Whatcom County, Washington. Mr. Sarvis.
SARVIS: Speaking to the continental audience of this program, it is my privilege to give you a message from the youth of the United States. On this spot, dedicated to peace and good will, it is difficult to frame a message. Canada and the United States have been at peace with each other for so long a time—not only in a legal sense, but in an emotional sense as well—that this message should be an easy one. The strife of the rest of the world makes it difficult. We who live in the remaining free countries of the world can never appreciate our responsibilities too deeply.
England’s great leader, Mr. Winston Churchill, recently said: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
Those were stirring words. They carried a message to the United States as well as to Canada and the British Empire. They carried a message truly to the whole world. To the youth of my generation, these words have the deepest meaning. As a student of the Nooksack High School, I feel free to tell the people of our two nations, and to lovers of freedom wherever they may be listening, that the coming generation in the United States has heard those words. We have hearkened to them. We are ready to face a future of sweat and toil. We are prepared to face a future of blood and tears if need be. We are ready to face any honorable future in defense of the liberties of free men. We are physically fit and willing to make any sacrifice so long as we can find peace along the road of freedom. We want peace, but we want liberty more. The youth of North America wants freedom and we are prepared, if need be, to get it the hard way. What our forefathers came to this continent to find, and what they have defended, we too, will be strong enough to defend.
My generation is now preparing itself to take the place of the brave men who, as Veterans, are here today to sponsor this meeting. We do not want to be Veterans, but we must be free!”
RASMUSSEN: Thank you Mr. Sarvis. And now I turn the microphone
back to our Commentator.
JONES: Here stand 15,000 men, women and children – their countries have been at peace with each other for more than 126 years. Both countries have been torn away from the paths of Peace. One is at war. One is preparing to defend itself. The people of these great nations are willing to leave the paths of Peace because they know that Peace – Peace of the heart and soul, can only come to free people with great faith and not fear.
This love of freedom, and of Peace, while not peculiar to us in North America, cannot be better expressed than by the words of “GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
(ASSEMBLAGE IMMEDIATELY SINGS “GOD BLESS AMERICA” THE FIRST WORDS OF SONG BEING IMPORTANTLY ON TIME.)
JONES: (SLOW) Our countries profess to no perfection in our way of life. But we point to generations of constant progress in the development of ourselves, and the talents of our nations and citizens. We have yet to see a system of government which is wholly better or practically comparable to ours. These two governments have constantly been improved, and, God willing, always will be improved for the greatest good – for the greatest number. There have been lapses from the paths of progress, but not for long. The freedom of the people has been too vigilantly protected to let any group – inside or outside of our borders – stand in the way of the public good.
We have but to put our faith and trust in God and keep before us the duties of citizens who must pay the price of eternal Vigilance for the heritage of freedom.
(ASSEMBLAGE SINGS ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS)
JONES: Now the benediction is offered by The Reverend John L. Mitchell of St. James Presbyterian Church of Bellingham.
(MITCHELL WILL HAVE 4 PRAYERS PREPARED: ½, 1, 2 and 3 MINUTES. PROMPTER WILL ADVISE HIM WHICH TO USE? DEPENDING ON TIMING OF PROGRAM. ESTIMATE 2 MIN.)
JONES: We close our program with that undying creed of citizenship which, thru the artistry of Thomas McCualy takes us back to those days of Rome when heroes were produced by free people. From Horatius at the Bridge, it comes, telling of deeds which time can never dim:
“And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers
And the Temples of his Gods.”
(NEW WESTMINSTER JUNIOR BAND PLAYING “AULD LANG SYNE.” NO TIME ALLOTTED – TOTAL 80 SECONDS OVER HERE.)
An excellent photo of the Scouts’ flag exchange appeared in the December 1940 issue of Boys’ Life.
No reference to Armistice Day was heard in the broadcast. Canada was at war, freedom and liberty were underscored in lieu of peace, and an evolutionary programming process was occurring as international history unfolded. Already, attendance at the event was marked by a change as reported by the Sun: “Four interested small visitors at the ceremonies were Raife Wellstate, June and Brenda Aldham and Joan Jefferies, recent evacuees from Britain who are new pupils of Royal City schools.”
With a world succumbing to war, the International Peace Arch Society—as it was then called—held a profoundly serious planning session May 14, 1941, carefully described by the Blaine Journal the next day:
A party of thirty committeemen, schoolmen and women, and British Columbia dignitaries met at the Peace Portal club house Wednesday, and after enjoying a typical Merrill dinner, adjourned to the assembly room where an interesting session was held with the committee, charged with the preparation of the Annual International Peace Arch program.
In attendance at the meeting were Mayor Cornet and Aldermen Wilson and Greyell of Vancouver, Reeve Brown of Surrey, Reeve Hope of Langley and Reeve McDonald of Coquitlam. Ray Shields, Municipal Inspector of Schools of New Westminster, and a number of other people including a fine feminine representative of the Vancouver and New Westminster school faculties. Mssrs. Dunlap and Palmer of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, were also in attendance.
From this side there were in attendance Joe Miles of the Sumas Nooksack school, Supt. Olmsted of Mt. Baker, Supt. Fisher of Lynden, Principal C. Pickering of Blaine, and Principal A. Bawsher of Bellingham; Edgar Hill of Peace Portal, Frank Adams, of KVOS, Bellingham, J.H. Cramer of the Journal and a number of others.
The program committee has been doing some very excellent work, and the program this year will start at one o’clock, with one hour being devoted to marching and singing, especially for the pleasure of the children. At two o’clock the thirty minute broadcast will start and continue until 2:30, with the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, and Governor Langlie of Washington, as principal speakers.
It is planned to have more schoolchildren in attendance this year than ever in the history of these programs, and arrangements are being made to have twenty bands in attendance, seven of which have already accepted the invitation from Washington.
It is hoped to have special trains from the south this year as well as from Vancouver and New Westminster, and it is earnestly believed by the committeemen that the attendance will closely approach the 20,000 mark.
Four months later, one of the largest Peace Arch celebrations—if not the very largest on record—occurred as noted below.
1941
Sponsored by the International Peace Arch Society, as it was then known, the fourth annual celebration, again entitled “Peace Celebration,” was held Wednesday, September 24, 1941. Canada was at war, and soon Pearl Harbor would be attacked by Japanese warplanes, thus introducing a hiatus that would mark the postponement of further celebrations throughout the span of World War II. The Peace Arch gates were never closed during those war years; given the threat of an evil Axis, they tenuously hung by the hinge of fate.
As if to suggest peace should best be celebrated in the gathering storm, a record crowd estimated at 20,000 came to participate. It may have been the portal’s finest hour.
Overwhelmed at the sight, Brooke Temple, news commentator for KVOS, Bellingham, said words could not express the magnitude of the scene. Over thirty railroad cars alone had brought Vancouver and New Westminster schoolchildren to that scene, reported the Vancouver Daily Province. The Vancouver Sun put it this way: “In the scene was a quality more moving than the events which took place. It was the realization that the friendship between the two nations, so often expressed in words, is now being fulfilled through wartime cooperation.”
The broadcast reached far and wide, but Chicago resident Zonia Baber, who was chairwoman of the Peace Symbols Committee of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, complained she was unable to dial the program. Had she tuned in the CBC, Winnipeg, she could have heard it.
James Cramer, editor of the Blaine Journal scolded Blaine’s residents. “When the event broke Wednesday noon, the avalanche of visitors to our city was so great that it swept all before it, as a crowd of 20,000 people is of such dimensions that a city of Blaine’s size finds it difficult, even when in full realization of the importance, to cope with it and wait upon it and care for the visitors,” he editorialized. “Blaine folks, especially ‘main street’ folks, should, if they want the program to be continued annually, give it more ready and spontaneous support during the preparation period. They should be in closer touch with the plans and preparations, and in this way be better prepared to receive the great number of visitors to our city.”
As usual, the bands came to march and accompany the crowd while two national anthems were sung. Blaine High School student Rowena Quance and Burnaby High School student Harold W. Tupper were among several guests who conveyed their greetings and aired their speeches.
Recorded by the Daily Province, Quance was reported to have said, “Meeting here with our Canadian friends makes me realize how alike we are. We play the same games, see the same movies, talk the same language. But we have more in common than that. We have the same ideals, the same freedom, the same liberty and independence. We believe in those same principles that Canadians cherish.”
And Tupper reportedly said, “We are happy in the assurance that the United States is with us in our battle against the forces of evil. The boys and girls taking part in this ceremony today will be the grownups of 1960. In the slow passage of history twenty years is not a long time. But if during that time the friendship and understanding between Canada and the United States continues to grow, there will be engendered one of the greatest possible forces for world peace.
“The children of Canada are contributing their savings to our war effort. We must win this war to make way for freedom and peace, which must surely follow.”
Lieutenant-Governor W.C. Woodward, representing Canada, addressed the large assembly. Excerpts were recorded by the Daily Province:
“Those liberties we enjoy did not just happen,” he said. “They are the hard-won religious and political liberties attained through bloodshed and suffering of all the generations who have gone before us.
“Those liberties are precious and like all precious things, we must guard them zealously, if necessary with our lives.”
He reminded them of their many responsibilities in days to come.
“Your task will be to carry on the principles and tenets of our conception of life and government.
“Your way will be hard, the task will be long, but the reward will be priceless.”
Present was Arthur B. Langlie, who had been elected Washington’s state governor that year. Highlighted in the Blaine Journal, his address was compelled to include the intrusion of global warfare. Crisscrossing the border at that time were yellow Tiger Moth biplanes—military primary trainers flying out of Boundary Bay airport in British Columbia while Canada was at war with Germany. Thus spoke the governor:
It is to be regretted that war necessities have, in the last year, prevented our Canadian friends from coming to Washington as has been their custom. Our people, it is true, have continued to visit Canada, but we miss the return visits and hope that this world-struggle will soon be terminated when we may again live together normally.
Today, and on occasions of future meetings here, may we always be mindful of the blessings of peace and realize that true peace is founded on wisdom and justice—upon which alone can be built anything of genuine and lasting value.
It would be hard to find a more fortunate people than we. God has been so good to this Pacific Northwest area that only man’s shortsighted, selfish and foolish ways could bring unhappiness here.
War is the result of destructive forces in men expressing themselves through group action. War destroys the real human values and it is almost impossible for us to comprehend the destruction of those real human values in this land of ours. Yet, we must not overlook the fact that human nature is filled with its prejudices, its conceits, its selfishness—and that to preserve the great spiritual value that we as a people enjoy, we must be ever vigilant and zealous to do for others what we would have them do for us.
It is not enough that we believe in liberty for ourselves, but we should want to see it for others. It is no enough that we seek the right to speak the truth as we see it for ourselves, but that we should also want others to enjoy that right. It is not enough that we seek justice for ourselves, but that we see to it that others have a full measure of justice, too. Such attitudes will guarantee peace and happiness and progress—something desired by all men everywhere.
Let us build together on either side of this peaceful boundary, and build not for a hundred years, but for a thousand. And build into the hearts of our children and our citizens everywhere an appreciation of the true values—the spiritual values of life.
Seventy-two days would pass before the old Arizona went down. Reflections of Langlie’s speech would surface in the minds of those who had heard him say, “War is the result of destructive forces in men expressing themselves through group action.” Soon the United States would join the Canadians in that action. It was “not enough that we believe in liberty for ourselves.”
Five annual celebrations had been held at the Peace Arch. A wartime pause would eventually end, and another chapter in the history of the monument would begin. Kaleidoscopic history would see the series delayed two years after the war, followed by evolutionary changes as the series continued. While the early celebrations were dedicated to Armistice Day, the post-World War II series became known simply as the Annual Peace Arch Celebration.
While World War II was courting the United States, a moment of local joy countered the spreading gloom when a Peace Arch float, constructed by members of the Surrey Municipality and the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce, tied for first place at the Vancouver Exposition parade in August 1941.
The Annual Peace Arch Celebration
The Annual Peace Arch Celebration evolved considerably, its identity, dates and roles having changed since it was first held November 11, 1937 as an “Armistice Day Celebration” at “the world’s only Peace Arch.” Rogan Jones, owner of KVOS radio in Bellingham, aired each event, and it was he who assumed a leading role in promoting and molding the series as further detailed in chapter five. By year 1939, the event was simply entitled a “Peace Celebration.” That title was retained for the fourth annual event in 1940, but the date was changed to September 25 in order to accommodate schoolchildren during warmer weather. Initially sponsored by the International Peace Arch Society, the organization was later known as the International Peace Arch Program Association until the spring of 1967 when the word “Program” was deleted. To this day, then, the International Peace Arch Association is the driving force behind the Annual Peace Arch Celebration.
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, the series was cancelled, and Peace Arch activities were reduced, leaving the monument in a state of comparative—or contrastive—quietude during World War II. Then, in the wake of the Yalta Conference and following a United Nations assembly of forty-four nations at San Francisco in 1945, a burst of optimism for world peace brought attention to the Peace Arch, especially through the work and inspiration of Rogan Jones. The International Peace Arch Program Association was revitalized and the annual celebrations resumed.
Rogan Jones, the radio-broadcasting Peace Arch enthusiast, played such a prominent role in that monument’s history, that chapter five is dedicated to his accomplishments. Suffice it to say that he had intended to recapture the prewar spirit of the annual celebrations immediately after the end of World War II, but there were setbacks that caused delays.
1945
The Peace Arch celebration scheduled for the fall of 1945 was postponed “owing to the lateness of school opening on this side of the line and the short time left for preparation,” reported the Blaine Journal, having covered the September 11 meeting of the Peace Arch Program Association. “Speakers from both sides of the line were enthusiastic in their comments that the ‘first after the war program’ should be carefully and elaborately prepared and publicized, with the purpose of having the entire world take notice of it.”
September 5, 1945 marked the day Canada’s governor-general proclaimed, “It shall be appropriate to fly the Canadian Red Ensign within or without Canada wherever place or occasion may make it desirable to fly a distinctive Canadian flag.” Down from the Peace Arch roof came the old Union Jack. Up went the Red Ensign.
1946
The program that would have been set for year 1946 was preempted by a special centennial celebration in honor of the Oregon Treaty (also known as the Washington Treaty) of June 15, 1846. This event is discussed under the heading, “Centennial Celebration of the June 15, 1846 Oregon Boundary Treaty,” found later in this chapter.
1947
Fear of poliomyelitis imposed a last minute decision to cancel the September 26, 1947 ceremony. Children, it was judged, were especially vulnerable as potential victims of the dreaded disease. New Westminster Mayor W.M. Mott would have played a leading role. Cancelled were two train trips, with Great Northern scheduled to leave Vancouver, carrying thousands of schoolchildren. One week before the cancelled event, the Vancouver Sun reported 150 polio cases in Vancouver “with admission to hospital of one patient.”
1948
After a threatening epidemic of poliomyelitis caused another year’s delay, the Peace Arch celebrations were back on track by September 24, 1948 during a warm and sunny Friday afternoon. Marching through Peace Portal was a long line of men and women who had served in the military. Canadian and American war veterans of World War II marched with those of World War I. Again, after seven years, the celebration was broadcast across the United States and Canada, and over the Armed Forces Radio Service. Two newsreel cameramen were present that day. Archived was the KVOS radio script cited in chapter five.
Of a crowd estimated at 3,200, “approximately 2,000 schoolchildren from both sides of the border took part in the exercises,” reported the Blaine Journal. “There were 400 in one Canadian group alone—the New Westminster junior high school students in colorful costumes, with castanets and trailing cellophane streamers who danced Gypsy dances on the greensward for the watching thousands, and later joyous square dances called by a Canadian youth in cowboy outfit before the mike on grandstand.” The Vancouver Sun reported a misunderstanding:
Drum majorettes and smartly uniformed American children paraded under the arch into Canada while Canadian children dressed as gypsies and farmers moved from the Canadian side into the U.S.A.
A murmur went through a group of Americans as they saw the Canadian boys in patched trousers and plaid shirt move under the monument:
“Those poor Canadians!”
Someone added: “Isn’t it too bad Canada doesn’t come under the Marshall Plan?”
The boys were in costume for a dance number.
At the behest of Rogan Jones, 1948 was the year two student speakers—one from Canada and the other from the United States—were chosen to address the audience. He had successfully experimented with that approach during the Armistice Day radio broadcast of 1940. It became a tradition, with Blaine School District Superintendent Vernon C. McDonald elected to choose the yearly topic until his retirement from the International Peace Arch Program Association board of directors in the fall of 1965. Betty Vogel, Duke of Connaught High School, and Everett Harris, Meridian High School, each aged 16, were the selected student speakers. The full text of their speeches appears in the KVOS radio script, chapter five.
“Creating a Better Understanding Among Nations” was the topic McDonald chose for year 1948, reported the Sun. New Westminster Mayor William Mott, addressing the topic, was reported to have said, “This shrine and this program envisage a future of peace between these two nations, and we hope between all nations. The future belongs to the youth of Canada and United States.”
1949
As a rule, the Blaine Journal covered the yearly celebrations in detail. But press coverage of the 1949 celebration held Friday, September 23, was comparatively sparse. The Vancouver Sun, on the other hand, reported careful planning and preparation “on a larger scale than ever before” for “elaborate and colorful ceremonies.”
Reportedly, two hours had been devoted to a schoolchildren’s program, following a radio broadcast. “School-aged youth played a prominent part in the observance of peace between nations,” reported the Journal. Student youth speaker Darline Gearon, Nooksack Valley High School, reportedly said, “No amount of money is too much to spend for peace. We are proud Canada and the United States are free of conflict.” Don Wilson, South Burnaby High School student speaker, “pointed out that the world has made great strides in scientific brilliance, but has failed to keep pace in wisdom.”
1950
A crowd estimated at 10,000 attended the September 24, 1950 celebration. At this mid-century year, sometimes called the beginning of the postmodern era, one may notice increased participation of minorities such as seen by the Gypsy dances in 1948. Native American participation was seen in 1950. “A program of folk dances by the Children of the Setting Sun, and by Joe Hillaire and Herb John, Lummi Nation and Goosberry Point, was one of the most enjoyable numbers ever presented at these programs,” noted the Blaine Journal. “And Messrs Hilary and John were the recipients of much praise and appreciation of their attendance and performance at the program. The Danish drill team by some 3,000 from New Westminster schools was perfection intensified and well earned the vociferous applause accorded them.”
Keynote speaker that year was Wilson Compton, president of Washington State College, “who gave a powerful address on world conditions and the desire for international peace.” The Vancouver Sun reported that he “told youngsters ‘we have not won a war to lose a peace.’ He added that liberty may be too dangerous for the community as a whole, but said it was the best possible system in today’s world crisis.”
Student speakers Josephine Friesen of the North Surrey schools of British Columbia and Kenny Love of the Lynden schools “reflected upon their schools, their country and themselves as they stood before the microphone and delivered short addresses on the subject of peace between countries.” Friesen, noted the Sun, “told students ‘our international friendship is an example to the whole world,’ and at the same time urged Canadians and Americans alike to work for world understanding and peace.” Love said “peace the world over could be had ‘if we hold fast and continue in our present spirit of cooperation and friendliness across the border.’”
Another mark of the post-modern trend toward a secularized society that year was introduction of an Easter egg hunt in Peace Arch Park. It was an annualized trend that stood in contrast with the customary Easter sunrise services.
1951
This was the only year known to have witnessed the cancellation of a Peace Arch celebration due to inclement weather. It had been scheduled for Friday, September 28. Peace Arch Association president Norman Dews, Lynden, Washington, “said the cancellation was a severe disappointment to officials, program participants and hundreds of schoolchildren who were to have gathered at the Peace Arch for the event,” reported the Vancouver Sun.
“During the past three years the event has become more and more one for the younger citizens of both countries,” wrote Ed Meade for the Sun. “While the older citizens fell by the wayside, as shown up when a meeting of the program executive failed to draw enough members to elect a slate of officers, faith in the youngsters brought forth greater efforts from the few and the organization has grown rapidly to new stature.”
Had the event not been cancelled, Meade reported it would have been the year that there would have been “no adult speeches to take away the honor of the children.” Youthful high school students of the two nations would have been the sole keynote speakers.
1952
Heavy rainstorms forced cancellation of the 1951 celebration. But, as if to compensate for the loss, major revisions were introduced for the June 29, 1952 event. The Blaine Journal alluded to three changes.
First, the celebrants assembled during early summer instead of the usual early autumn. “Surely June 29 is a day when our Puget Sound weather can be more dependable and fully delightful,” noted the Journal.
Secondly, Canadian and American families were invited to picnic together. “Children will be the theme as always, but children as part of family units rather than of schools. Families are people. Schools are governments. In the new IPAPA there will be a better chance during the two-hour basket lunch period and the program period for families to get to know each other by actually visiting each other.” Thus, “a family picnic for Americans and Canadians” was slated between 11:00 A.M. and 1:00 P.M.
Finally, a union church service was added to the program. “Bishop Gerald Kennedy from Portland, Oregon, bishop of the Methodist Church for Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Alaska, [brought] the message of peace and spiritual import for the U.S.-Canada union church service at the Peace Arch.” Considered “the first church service held as part of an International Peace Arch celebration,” it also featured “special sacred music” from 1:00 P.M. to 2:00 P.M.
When Bellingham High School student speaker Lilly Thal said, “Mankind must end war before war ends mankind,” it must be remembered the Soviet Union announced its first nuclear detonation only nine months earlier. And when Princess Margaret High School student speaker Sidney Buttress said, “Willingness of nations to settle their difficulties with good faith, understanding and recognition of human rights has escaped too many people the world over,” Seoul, capital of South Korea, had fallen to the northern invaders one day earlier.
While unrest was plaguing the world, bringing a somber tone to Peace Arch speeches in 1952, “Little Miss Marlene Hollinger of Blaine presented a bouquet of flowers to Lila McCormik, New Westminster soprano, who sang ‘Where the Peace Arch Stands.’ The presentation was in behalf of John Booth, the [lyricist] and architect of the Canadian side of the park.” It marked the premier performance of the song published with composer D.L. Heywood [see Appendix B].
1953
Joseph Stalin, rude promoter of the communist state, died March 5, 1953. Then, with the Ides of March one day away, Premier Georgi M. Malenkov addressed the 1,200 or so members of the Supreme Soviet with a new keynote: “There is no question which cannot be solved by peaceful means,” he said. “This is our attitude toward all states, among them the United States of America.” His audience cheered.
Assembled at Surrey Municipal Hall, Cloverdale, Bellingham resident Charles E. Moore, American president of the International Peace Arch Program Association, opened the March 23 meeting saying, “Our aim is not only to carry on our celebration, but to exemplify our love of each country by right living and brotherly love.” As if to place parameters around that living and love, the minutes ruled “that the only flags specifically recognized shall be the national flags of Canada and the United States and any flag of the British Empire.”
It may be noticed, in passing, that the practice of picturing crossed flags on the printed programs became traditional practice to this day. When Canada sponsors the celebration, the Canadian flag appears on the right side; the same rule applies when the United States assumes sponsorship. Attendees are thereby given a convenient means for determining which country is in charge of a given celebration. With few exceptions, sponsorship alternates yearly.
The Peace Arch celebration held June 28, 1953, occurred one month before a truce was signed at Panmunjom, marking the end of the Korean War.
The event amply covered by the Blaine Journal, it was a time of renewed hope for world peace. An ambitious celebration unfolded at the Peace Arch.
“Two sets of brothers in the Scouts, Fred and Richard Moritz of Blaine and Fred and Dave Robertson of White Rock, raised the Canadian and American flags to the top of the arch,” noted the Vancouver Sun.
Eileen Schafer, a Trapp Technical High School senior from New Westminster, and student speaker for Canada said, “The people of the United States and Canada with 129 years of peace and 3,000 miles of undefended boundary, have set a pattern for international behavior. We must realize the tremendous responsibility of our role in international relations. The future of Western civilization may depend upon it.”
Denis Durnan, Blaine High School senior and student speaker for the United States side praised the accomplishments of the United Nations. “This organization, which is only the second of its kind in history, has gone a long way down a road to peace. One of the most important acts was to settle the Israel issue,” he said. “The UN established an International Board of Arbitration, which effected a settlement that was satisfactory to all. Thus, a situation, which could have developed into a major war was averted.”
New that year was the presentation of international trophies to the student speakers and their respective high schools, a feature introduced and preserved to the present day by the New Westminster and Bellingham Rotary Clubs
With the secularizing postmodern era gaining momentum, the Peace Arch Ministerial Association, perhaps threatened by the trend, edged the summit of its ecclesiastical role by adding a “Peace Arch Religious Service” to the 1953 celebration, featuring Christian hymns and an address by the Right Reverend Stephen F. Bayne, diocesan bishop of Olympia—an outstanding leader according to Time magazine. “Peace grows from the realization that the things that bind people together are more important than those that divide them,” he said. “Peace has to be paid for, and men and nations who want peace must be willing to pay the price and compromise and sacrifice to the common good of all who fight for freedom and against enslavement. Peace is a continuing thing. Just as you work to get it you must work to keep it. Peace is not a matter of conquest.”
The celebration closed with Victor Hoppe’s “Birth of the Border,” a musical pageant featuring an introduction that covered the Oregon Treaty of 1846, followed by three musical episodes: (1) Arrival of the first Caucasian settlers in 1852, (2) the Fraser River gold rush of 1858, and (3) the meeting of the railroads at the border in 1891.
1954
While Bellingham and New Westminster radio station crews covered the celebration of May 13, 1954 in “perfect weather,” the advance of airwave technology brought the KVOS-TV team to the event, where it was taped and “telecast at a more convenient time and date.” The Annual Peace Arch Celebration appeared for the first time on television May 19 at 7:00 P.M.
Having agreed “that the hope of world peace lies in the brotherhood of man and such unity between nations as the Peace Arch symbolizes between the United States and Canada,” senior high school student speakers Garry Mitchell of the Trapp Technical High School, New Westminister, and Margo Waid of Blaine High School, addressed the theme: “Our World Community.”
“To a world living in the shadow of the H-bomb and war guns of the Far East, we alone who stand here in the shadow of this Peace Arch—symbol of more than 100 years of friendship between two great nations—can say, ‘Here is unity,’” said the Rev. Patrick Ellis, Anglican clergyman of Vancouver, B.C., whose speech was the highlight of the second “Peace Arch Religious Service” prepared by the Peace Arch Ministerial Association and reported by the Blaine Journal. “There is anything but unity among the peoples of the western democracies today,” he said, as told by the Vancouver Sun. “We are scared of Communism because it has a unity that leaps all international boundaries. The democracies can attain unity only through developing a Christian brotherhood under the fatherhood of God.”
Acting as master of ceremonies was Reeve Charles Shultz, Surrey.
1955
Although President Dwight D. Eisenhower had been invited to address that year’s celebration, Nelson A. Rockefeller, grandson of John D. Rockefeller, and “special assistant to the president,” did appear. Held Sunday, May 22, a “record-breaking crowd of over 20,000” was reported by the Blaine Journal.
The event opened with an organ prelude performed by Gunnar Anderson, Bellingham.
Parade marshals William Breuer and J. Walter Hunter attended the parade led by the Western Washington College Band, directed by Dr. Don Walter. Dr. Theodore Rasmussen was master of ceremonies while Paul Herbold of Western Washington College of Education narrated.
Immediately ensuing was a flag-raising ceremony conducted by United States Boy Scout Dennis Thibault and Canadian Scout Colin Sharpe. The ceremony was institutionalized thereafter, becoming increasingly an important aspect of the yearly celebration. Initially, one young man—always a Boy Scout—raised his nation’s flag. The two “flag raisers” were accompanied by four “side boys” who were actually Girl Scouts, Girl Guides and Campfire Girls that year. Although they will not named in this narrative, the “side boys” or “side-boys” or “sideboys,” were accompanied by “side girls,” by 1961, if not a year or two earlier. Terminology evolved. By year 1964, “side attendants” became the permanent replacement for “side boys” and “side girls.”
Dr. W. Carl Calhoun, Congregational Church, Bellingham, offered a prayer for peace.
A threefold greeting was given by Washington State Representative Arthur Langlie, Hon. William N. Chant, Province of British Columbia, and Dr. Joyce Cooper, assistant State Superintendent of Public instruction.
Before Rockefeller spoke, high school students Kim Maleng of Mount Baker High School and Marion Campbell of Trapp Technical High School addressed the subject, “Youth and the 20th Century Challenge.”
Reported by the Journal, Rockefeller first presented a message from the president: “It is appropriate, I think, that the peoples of this Republic and this Commonwealth should meet each year at this Peace Arch, symbolizing nearly a century and a half of mutual trust and confidence. This spirit offers a guarantee of their respective national integrities that no system of military defenses could hope to match. It is our steadfast resolve and our unrelenting effort to give a similar significance to boundary lines on maps throughout the world.”
Highlights of Rockefeller’s speech were then published:
We have achieved that kind of family relationship symbolized by brothers who are independent in their own right, but feel strong bonds of common inheritance, common purposes, and common destiny.
Because of the pressure of Communist activities, both nations have been forced to give major attention to immediate crises, military operations and defense arrangements. However, there are indications the past few weeks and months that the Russians may be changing their tactics, if not its long-term strategy, in which the strictly military pressures of the Communists may be lessened.
Canada and the United States can switch a great deal of attention to the nations of the free world which are now “reawakening” after being, in a sense, asleep for centuries.
These people are awakening to new needs, new desires, new hopes. Previously resigned and fatalistic about their meager lot, they are now wanting more and demanding more out of their lives. And who, indeed, can blame them?
Communists go into these nations and appear to be the only advocates of change and progress in the direction sought by these people, posing as “merchants of hope.” Since the only way to change for these people is by war, revolution or evolution, the United States and Canada have responsibility to work with them to help them attain their desires through evolution. The expression of freedom is probably understood better by those in the New World than by those of the Old World.
The Vancouver Sun published excerpts of its own, thereby amplifying those of the Blaine Journal:
Unfortunately, because of the pressures of Communist imperialism through arms and subversion, we have been forced since the end of World War II to give major attention to immediate crises, military operations and defense arrangements. Thus public attention has been diverted from the significant progress the free world has made in the advancement of the dignity and well being of the individual.
We cannot be sure, but there have been indications in recent months—and especially during the last few weeks—that the Soviet Union may be changing its tactics, if not its long-term strategy.
This may permit new, more affirmative policies on our part. We may be on the eve of a new situation in world affairs in which the strictly military pressures of Communist imperialism may be lessened. It may be a period where we can and should apply on the international front our precious spirit of flexibility and boldness, inspired by our fundamental belief in human progress.
If this should prove the case, we must be very clear about our objectives and our basic approach.
We must start with the realization that much of the world about us is going through a series of upheavals—economic, political, social and psychological.
These people are awakening to new needs, new desires, new hopes. Previously resigned and fatalistic about their meager lot, they are now wanting ore and demanding more out of their lives. And who, indeed, can blame them?
More than 2,000 children were said to have exchanged flags at the celebration.
“I wouldn’t trade my job today with the president of the Unites States; besides, he’s got more worries,” said “Flowers of Peace” Commander Albert T. Hayes, 82, who represented Albert Woolley, 108, of Duluth, Minnesota, the only Civil War veteran living in 1955. E.N. Pitman, past president of the Canadian Legion, also participated with Hayes in the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony.
“Blaine should take more notice of this occasion,” grumbled one unnamed celebrant.
1956
Hammond organs, portable and popular at the time, made their way into the Peace Arch. Arne Flack, Newton presented a recital accompanied by accordionist Joseph Morelli, Vancouver.
Hal Davis, program director of Radio CKNW, New Westminster, narrated as field marshals Alderman Halford Wilson, Vancouver, and William Ridenhour, Deming, led a parade through the Arch, followed by a flag-raising ceremony handled by Queen’s Scout Gary Schmidt, Cloverdale, and Eagle Scout David Brummel, Bellingham.
Extending their welcome were Reeve Robert M. Nesbitt, Surrey, president of the International Peace Arch Program Association, and Hon. Lyle Wicks, Minister of Labor, British Columbia.
During the twenty-ninth anniversary of Lindberg’s challenge to pilot the Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris, Donald George, a student of North Ladner High School, and Patience Wheeler, student from Mount Baker High School, addressed the topic, “Freedom—An Obligation and a Challenge,” followed by presentation of Rotarian plaques for them and their schools.
Seven Canadian bands and five Whatcom County school bands participated in the parade and program. The 250-voice girl’s choir of Como Lake High School sang two numbers, followed by soloist William Conner, a youthful baritone from White Rock, who sang, “He.”
Dr. John K. Friesen, director of the Department of Education at the University of British Columbia, was the keynote speaker. He described the celebration as “a moving dedication of the youth of America and Canada to preserve and perpetuate the freedom of the two countries.” Although this event, has here relayed, was covered by the Blaine Journal, additional excerpts of Friesen’s speech were found in the Vancouver Sun:
Cooperation carried the world from savagery to civilization and we have the right to hope that cooperation will carry it yet to universal brotherhood.
While the people from Blaine and Bellingham rub shoulders daily with the people of Surrey and Vancouver, this process of getting to know each other better should be extended.
It would be even better if the people of Altlanta got to know the northerners of Aklavik and the citizens of San Diego became acquainted with the citizens of Saskatoon.
As was so often the case, the exchange of flags between Canadian and United States young people was judged a highlight of the celebration held Sunday, May 20, 1956.
1957
Bellingham resident Nellie Browne Duff, American president of the International Peace Arch Program Association, remembered Nelson Rockefeller’s remark during the 1955 celebration. “Had President Eisenhower realized the importance of this program and the influence that it could have upon the youth of the world, he would have been here in person,” said Rockefeller, as reported in the May 16, 1957 Blaine Journal. Taking him at his word, Duff peregrinated to Washington, D.C., apparently under the impression that she had received an invitation to meet President Eisenhower himself.
It seems, however, that she only succeeded in interviewing Presidential Secretary Bernard Shanley who sent a short letter, June 6, 1957, to Vernon C. McDonald, then secretary of the International Peace Arch Program Association, informing him that President Eisenhower “has reluctantly decided he just could not add this engagement to his schedule.”
Minutes mimeographed from the June 28 meeting of the International Peace Arch Program Association opened with President Duff’s report from Washington, D.C.
Miss Nellie Browne Duff, reporting on her recent trip to Washington, D.C., stated that Mr. Howard Pyle, Administrative Assistant to the President of the United States had been selected as this year’s speaker. Mr. Pyle has served as governor of the state of Arizona for two terms. He has had a newspaper and radio career. He covered the surrender of the Japanese aboard the U.S.S. Missouri. He narrated the San Francisco Conference as well as Easter services at the Grand Canyon. He has been active in the Rotary and youth clubs.
Miss Duff stated that while in Washington she had talked with officers of the National Geographic Magazine concerning an article on the Peace Arch.
She announced that this year our celebration would be filmed in color by the United States Information Agency (U.S.I.A.) and these would be sent around the world. Miss Duff said this year’s program would be broadcast over the Voice of America.
It was announced that Miss Caroline Jones of Langley High School, British Columbia, had won the elimination contest and would represent the youth of Canada at the Peace Arch on August 4, 1957.
David Dickson of Meridian High School was finalist in the state of Washington. He will speak for the youth of the United States at the Peace Arch. He is a member of the 4-H Club team that was chosen to go to England, where he is at the present time.
With the ceremony set for a sunny August 4—the day before President Eisenhower told Congress his middle east doctrine was producing progressive stability there—the editor of the Blaine Journal begged the city to get ready for a gala celebration. “Every possible community effort should be made to prepare the city in becoming attire for this event which will be officially photographed and televised,” he wrote. “This is Blaine’s big day in the publicity world, and every effort should be made to present our city to the world audience to its best advantage.”
Howard Pyle’s speech, according to the Blaine Journal of August 8, was entitled “Waging the Peace.” He reportedly told an estimated 7,000 listeners, “The policy of the American administration is the waging of peace as hard as a war is waged.” The report continued:
“By every source at our command we are waging peace,” he said.
“Peace, however delightful, is not a thing to be gained without waging the necessary movements throughout the world to make it a fact,” Pyle said. He noted that the United States avoided such “necessary movement” after World War I. World War II and the Korean action resulted.
“There never will be any peace—any real peace—until we have become as successful in developing character in men as we have become successful in creating devices that destroy men.”
He attributed the success of the American-Canadian unguarded border to what he termed “the common character and understanding of the citizens of the two nations.”
The world cannot expect peace when its many people think so differently, Pyle said. He called for a “uniform moral code throughout the world.”
The program included talks from public officials from both sides of the border that included Mayor Wynn Haws of Blaine; Mayor John Westford of Bellingham; Secretary of State Victor Meyers, the Hon. George Massey, Province of British Columbia, and the Hon. George Hahn, Member of Parliament, speaking for Prime Minister of Canada, John Diefenbaker.
President Eisenhower and Prime Minister Diefenbaker sent telegrams wishing success to the program and expressing their disappointment at not being able to attend the celebration.
The Vancouver Sun heard Pyle say, “This beautiful and handsome memorial is a dramatic punctuation mark to remind us of an impregnable bond of friendship and understanding.” And again, “We need to be alerted to the fact that peace, however delightful, needs waging with the same determination as during wars,” and, “Quoting from Milton, he added, ‘Peace hath her victory no less renowned than war,’ and, from the Psalms, ‘Seek peace and pursue it.’”
The flag-raising ceremony, appropriately called “Call to the Colors,” complete with a dozen buglers, was well institutionalized. But with Boy Scouts Dennis Thibalt and Mike Terry hoisting the United States flag while Boys Scouts Allan Fry and Rickie Adsit raised the Canadian flag, it may be noted that the number of “flag raisers” had doubled.
1958
The Peace Arch Program Association was off to an unusual beginning. The Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce invited the association board to meet with chamber leaders January 9 to discuss a mutual date for combining a chamber summer festival with the annual Peace Arch celebration. Because the 1958 program “was entirely in the hands of Canadian officials,” no date could be set.
The Canadians had provincial history in mind. Year 1858 saw scores of California prospectors rushing to Fraser’s River in search of gold. The British Colonial Office created a crown colony called British Columbia, James Douglas was named the first governor, and the prospectors were required to obtain licenses before heading up the river. It was British Columbia’s provincial centennial, and Canadian members of the International Peace Arch Program Association wanted to remember it.
The program, originally set for May 15, was delayed until a suitable speaker could be found. Finally chosen was F. Henry Johnson, Ph.D., head of the University of British Columbia’s department of education. The program, directed that year by Reeve Robert M. Nesbitt, Surrey, was rescheduled for June 1.
Reeve, president of the International Peace Arch Association, and Nellie Browne Duff, vice president, welcomed the gathering.
Boy Scouts Chris Jackson, White Rock, Ted Rogers and Bob Bell Jr., Bellingham, took charge of the “Call to Colors,” commonly known as the flag-raising ceremony.
Bonnie Dickson, a Meridian High School student, and Andrew Black of the Langley Junior-Senior High School, addressed the topic, “During the Next Five Years, What Can I Do to Help Bring About World Peace?” in the presence of a crowd estimated at 6,000. After the Rotary International had presented them with trophies and plaques, the Chilliwack Band played while the children exchanged flags.
With Johnson’s address alluding to a provincial birthday, the program included the Royal British Engineers Girls Drill Team, the participants wearing costumes reflective of 1858 as they mimed the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace in London, while Chilliwack’s Royal Canadian Engineers Band lent musical support.
Additionally, after the veterans had placed wreaths at the foot of the Peace Arch, Dr. John K. Friesen, University of British Columbia Extension, addressed the crowd, followed by a maypole dance, with children of Fleetwood School, Surrey, participating.
1959
Multiple connections spell the strength of the Peace Arch message. August 2, 1959—the day U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon was warmly welcomed in Warsaw—exemplified those multiple connections when the city of Blaine celebrated its diamond jubilee as a feature of the annual Peace Arch celebration, with Blaine Mayor Wynn Haws actively participating in the event. Radio KVOS broadcast the ceremony, narrated by William Taylor.
So vital was that Sunday celebration, that State Representative Jack Westland heartily anticipated its success five days earlier as he addressed the House of Representatives assembled at the Capitol. The July 28, 1959 issue of the Congressional Record revealed his speech.
Mr. WESTLAND. Mr. Speaker, among the communities in my district of Washington State that are celebrating key dates in their histories is Blaine, which is 75 years old. I want to take this opportunity to point out the importance of this celebration and the hard work that is being done to make it a success.
The city of Blaine is situated a the Canadian border where there is an arch bearing the words, “Children of a Common Mother.” It is fitting, therefore, that Blaine is known as the Peace Arch City and that each year thousands of adults and schoolchildren from the United States and Canada meet on common ground at the arch to commemorate the 145 years this boundary has existed without border guards.
It is fitting, also, that Blaine’s Diamond Jubilee will be celebrated in conjunction with the Annual Peace Arch Celebration. The Peace Arch parade on Sunday, August 2, will herald both the jubilee and celebration. The parade will end at the Peace Arch, where Miss Jeanne Sewell, 15, of Langley, British Columbia, and Merle Overland, who was graduated from Bellingham High School this year, will deliver the traditional student speeches.
President Eisenhower’s personal representative to the Peace Arch celebration will be the Honorable Richard B. Wigglesworth, U.S. Ambassador to Canada. Following his address, the student speakers will receive Rotary Club plaques for their schools.
During the week of August 2-9, Blaine will have an historical pageant, daily program, street dancing and a spectacular fireworks display. On August 8, the diamond jubilee parade will pass through Blaine’s streets. Our neighbors from British Columbia will contribute military marching units, floats and drill teams will join in the festivities.
Mr. Speaker, hundreds of Blaine residents have contributed many hours of hard work to make this weeklong celebration one to remember. It would be impossible to name every person who has contributed so much, but I shall name those who have been entrusted with the leadership and administration of both the Diamond Jubilee and the Peace Arch celebration.
President of the International Peace Arch Program Association is Miss Nellie Browne Duff. Committee chairmen include Dr. Theodore J. Rasmussen, Clarence M. Beal, Joe Imhof, Mario Pagano, George Marus, Walter Grant, Ted Hovde, Herbert Viereck, Roy A. Howard, C.T. Gardner, Jerry Thorne, Mrs. Marvel Smith, Mrs. Harold King, Mrs. Walter Collins, Mrs. Leila Kagey, and Capt. Walter Hunter.
Members of the diamond jubilee are Mel Hollinger, general chairman; Fred Kerns, and Richard A. Nelle. Division chairmen include Al Dohner, Randy Ramstead, Wayne Parrish, Gertrude Goodman, Vernon McDonald, Wynn Haws, Harold Dodd, Bill Hay and Traverse Skallman.
Mr. Speaker, the history of Blaine is filled with stories of industry and courage. The citizens of this border community can be proud to reside and work in such a beautiful, growing city, and I predict they will continue to bring prosperity throughout the years to come.
With an estimated 5,000 in attendance, student speakers Jean Sewell of Langley Junior-Senior High School, and Merle Overland, Bellingham High School, presented addresses on “The Role of Education in World Peace.”
Unfortunately, Wigglesworth’s speech was hardly covered by the Blaine Journal, leading one to wonder if a reporter had actually been present during the delivery. He was known to have been a United States ambassador to Canada, a former congressman, a secretary of the World War Debt Commission and chairman of the National Republican Speakers Committee.
1960
May Day opened with U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers parachuting into the Soviet Union after his U-2 reconnaissance spy plane had been shot down near Sverdlovsk. The date of the annual Peace Arch celebration, May 15, 1960, was the day the Soviet Union announced the launching of a five-ton satellite. Hardly alleviated was the universal fear of nuclear war.
Hayden Raynor, United States consul-general, Vancouver, was chosen to speak. He opposed Canadian neutrality in the Cold War. The Vancouver Sun carried a short summary of his speech:
This great debate revolves around the question of the most effective role a middle power such as Canada can play in the defense of the free world.
A few extremists do advocate cutting all military ties with the United States, and that Canada should become neutralist. But based on my observations, Canada will continue to cooperate with the United States in defense.
Raynor read a telegram from President Eisenhower.
This annual celebration has a deep meaning for the state of Washington and for their good friends across the border in British Columbia. As a symbol of the friendly ties which unite the people of Canada and the United States, it has a deep meaning for mankind. Please give my greetings to all gathered on this occasion.
Appropriately, Dana Wilgress, former ambassador from Canada to the Soviet Union, was another speaker chosen that year. He had been the Canadian representative to NATO, he was then chairman of the Canadian section of the Permanent Joint Board of Defense and the high commissioner to Great Britain. The Sun summarized his speech in a sentence: “[He] said, only by compromise and give-and-take were common problems between nations resolved amicably at the conference table.”
Student speaker Cheryl Stradling, a 16-year-old junior from Bellingham High School was chosen to address the subject, “The Peace Arch—A Symbol of World Peace and Understanding.” The competition for selecting the Canadian student speaker had been scheduled only three days before the celebration. David Ablett, Surrey, was the chosen speaker.
Between 6,000 and 7,000 were reported to have attended on a day of favorable weather, reported the Blaine Journal. According to the Sun, it was more like 10,000.
Three days after the celebration, a notice had been posted in the Blaine Journal:
To the Men at the Peace Summit
People the world over look to you the representatives of the most powerful nations to reduce and eliminate the massive danger to human life represented by a Nuclear Arms Race in an atmosphere of rising world tensions. The present situation requires genuine leadership. We urge you to give effective disarmament first consideration in your historic meeting. In particular, we are looking to you to resolve the few difficulties that stand in the way of a treaty ending Nuclear Weapons Tests. This achievement would be hailed by all people as a tangible step towards durable peace. At this narrow place in human history, you have an unprecedented opportunity. We wish you success.
Supporters included Martin Luther King and Norman Cousins. The Blaine Chapter of National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, Inc., paid for the notice.
1961
An estimated 2,000 men, women, boys and girls marched through the portal September 17, 1961 during the fortieth anniversary of the Peace Arch, while up to 3,000 more looked on. It was the day the Cuban government deported the Roman Catholic bishop of Havana and 135 priests.
Up the flagpole went a modified American flag. With Hawaii having been granted statehood in 1959, a fifty-state flag, formerly flown over the capitol of the United States, was anchored atop the arch. Given to Henry M. Jackson the previous June by capitol architect James Stewart, the state senator had forwarded the flag to the Veterans of Foreign Wars for the Peace Arch.
“An important feature of these programs has been the exchange of flags by hundreds of children from the two countries,” stated the Blaine Journal of September 21. “In past years, this has been a time-consuming number. But on this occasion, President Nellie Browne Duff and her committee had envisioned a new arrangement which resulted in a general exchange by all children at one time that gave an excellent picture of the friendliness and freedom of the two nations. And it accomplished the results in double quick time.”
Six months passed after the governmental freeway fence dispute had been settled, but keynote speaker Maurice Stans, director of the Federal Bureau of the Budget, had chosen “No Fences in Democracy,” for his topic.
Student speakers had been assigned the theme, “The Peace Arch, a Symbol of Faith, Hope and Brotherhood.” Evonne Johnsen, a student of Lord Tweedsmuir High School in Cloverdale, recovering from a broken leg, managed to make it to the microphone. But Michael Mideke of Whatcom County’s Mount Baker High School, was unable to be present. Program narrator Paul Herbold, affiliated with Western Washington College, read his paper.
Lulu Fairbanks, Seattle, who had attended the Peace Arch dedication of September 6, 1921, highlighted the fortieth anniversary with her memories of Samuel Hill and the dedicatory celebration.
Kudos followed the ceremony. Upon hearing from Congressman Jack Westland, Ed Murrow, director of the United States Educational and Information Television Service, became interested in the International Peace Arch Program Association and its annual celebrations as grist for future broadcasting. “It’s the biggest and most powerful publicity outlet that Blaine has, and as this year’s program is to be used on the U.S. International Educational TV broadcast, it will carry the name of Blaine to all parts of the world,” trumpeted the Blaine Journal. “Blaine might profit more from this program by taking greater interest in the event and lending more support to its preparation and production.”
Browne Duff surrendered her presidency during the January 1962 meeting of the International Peace Arch Program Association. It was Canada’s turn to take charge.
1962
Of importance for the role of the Peace Arch was the 1962 World’s Fair. Members of the Blaine Journal staff, welcomed to an April 20 preview of the fair, journeyed to Seattle where a disappointment awaited them. “It was quickly noticed that the artisans of the large relief map of the state of Washington had omitted the Peace Arch from the various points of tourist interest,” complained the editor. “The attention of Chamber of Commerce President Art Lawrenson was called to the omission. He is planning to make a special visit to the fair this week, to contact officials with the purpose of having this omission rectified.”
Blaine treasured the Peace Arch identity. Local businesses claimed it. The Colonial Kitchen and its Peace Portal Room opened at Peace Portal Drive in late April.
Later, with fifty International Peace Arch Program Association committee members present at a May 17 planning session led by President Art Wallace, White Rock, preparation for the annual celebration had been thorough. Enthusiasm and hard work were rewarded with refreshments provided by the Peace Arch Chapter of the Washington Children’s Society, an altruistic organization that had received its charter two months earlier.
“A new feature of the 1962 program to be held June 24, will be a complete television take and broadcast by KVOS-TV with arrangements by KIRO of the Columbia Broadcasting Company to pick up and relay the program,” trumpeted the Blaine Journal. “This is to be KVOS’ big original feature program of the year. Technicians are making detailed arrangements to cover the program with their cameras and recorders. It has been a long sought desire of the committee to have the program televised. At different times short takes have been made, but this is the first time a full program recording will be made.”
Ten years had passed since Paul Robeson stood on a flatbed truck snuggled against the border where, barely inside Peace Arch State Park, he sang “Joe Hill,” whose family name matched that of the Peace Arch founder’s. Committee plans were afloat to invite representatives of foreign embassies to the celebration that year; open invitations were sent to the Consular Corps of Seattle and its Vancouver, B.C. counterpart. While the Kennedy Administration applauded liberty and justice for all, ethnic minorities, hardly mentioned forty years earlier, were given roles in the annual ceremonies. “An added attraction for the day’s event is to be provided by the Canadian Legion in preparing a chicken barbecue for the veterans of their camp in the Semiahmoo Indian Reserve,” noted the Journal.
Final preparations were concluded May 6, with a compliment passed to the association’s secretary. “Without Vernon McDonald, who has been an active participant in these programs since the original production, Blaine might have lost contact with the International Peace Arch Program Association,” noted the Blaine Journal.
Nurtured by the Sunday sunshine of June 24, an estimated 7,000 celebrants attended the twenty-fifth Peace Arch program. The Vancouver Sun estimated nearly 10,000. An unusually large procession marched through the portal. According to the Journal:
With the Canadian and high school color bearers stepping to the strains of martial music in the same column and with the same purpose of expressing a desire for world peace, and with hundreds of children in the numerous marching units—many in colorful uniforms, all of whom later exchanged flags with their neighbors across the line—the parade presented such an inspiring picture, that Gen. Geoffrey H.S. Jackson, British Consul at Seattle, was moved to remark: “You think you have seen everything and then you see something unique, so imposing and inspiring as this. I am grateful that I was invited.”
American astronaut John Glenn, aboard the Friendship VII space capsule, had completed three orbits of Planet Earth on February 20, 1962. Understandably, “Education for Peace in the Space Age” was the topic chosen for student speakers Dennis Schmal of Aldergrove High School and Christine Wider, Bellingham High School.
The Honorable George Pearkes, lieutenant governor of Canada, had accepted the invitation to present the keynote address. The Sun reported a few highlights:
Free movement of people, goods and ideas must continue between Canada and the United States, B.C. Lieutenant Governor George Pearkes said Sunday.
“More than 100 years ago, differing loyalties separated the populations here. But happily a man-made line did not, could not in fact, interrupt the daily movement of people, goods and ideas,” he said.
The lieutenant-governor said such movement must continue today although the countries adopt differing attitudes toward world problems.
Two months after the celebration had ended, the Peace Arch was promoted when the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce sent a “Blaine Peace Arch and Harbor Exposition” float to Vancouver, B.C., where it joined a massive Pacific Northwest Exhibition parade viewed by an estimated one million people.
1963
Nellie Browne Duff, president of the International Peace Arch Program Association, “has been making a determined effort to secure President J.F. Kennedy, but a scheduled visit of some eleven western states in October is too late to bank on good weather,” noted the September 5 edition of the Blaine Journal. Two and one-half months later—it was November 22, 1963—Kennedy died in Dallas, the victim of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald’s gunfire.
Had he lived, Kennedy’s Dallas speech would have included the sentences, “We in this country, in this generation, are—by destiny rather than choice—the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility—that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint—and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of peace on earth, good will toward men.”
John Davis Lodge, former governor of Connecticut and younger brother of Vietnam ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, agreed to be the main speaker that year. Of special interest to the International Peace Arch Program Association was Lodge’s presidency of Junior Achievement Inc., a program founded in 1919 by Horace Moses, president of the Strathmore Paper Company, and Theodore Vail, president of American Telephone & Telegraph. Junior Achievement was designed to prepare young people for future business success.
“In her search for a speaker, [President Nellie Browne Duff] had the purpose of securing a man who would receive recognition from the television stations, as well as a man who could bring an interesting and inspiring message to the schoolchildren, and to the several veteran organizations of both America and Canada,” explained the Blaine Journal. “In the person of the Hon. John Davies Lodge, former governor of Connecticut and congressman from that state, and president of the Junior Achievement, Inc., a national service organization, with a program purposed to benefit the teenagers of this mysterious modern world, she has such a man.”
The 1963 Peace Arch Annual Celebration was held September 22, exactly two months before President Kennedy was assassinated. It was the 186th anniversary of the day Tacy Richardson mounted her horse, “Fearnaught,” and after riding several treacherous miles, warned General George Washington that the British were coming.
In spite of propitious announcements heralding Lodge’s speech, the Blaine Journal reported nothing beyond “a rousing and forcible address on the importance of world peace, and the dangers that confront the world today.”
Student speakers Grace Haythorne of Delta Secondary School in Surrey, and Kurt Swenburnson of Lynden High School, presented addresses on the theme, “Freedom with Peace—The Hope of the World.”
It was a rainy day, the parade ground program was curtailed, the award-winning Eaglets and Drillets show from Olympia was cancelled, and the estimated number of attendees was unpublished.
1964
Impressed with the services of the International Peace Arch Program Association, the Bellingham Coin Club designed and presented the members medals of silver and bronze, depicting the Peace Arch and crossed flags in remembrance of 150 years of international peace. The coins, sealed in plastic and mounted on plaques, were presented to the members one month before the May 24th celebration. Leslie Eggleton, Cloverdale, had been elected president of the association; it was Canada’s turn to take charge of the 1964 celebration.
Across the state of Washington, over 300 community events had been planned to commemorate the 75th anniversary of statehood. In view of the fact the United States federal government backed away from erecting fences around Peace Arch State Park, the International Peace Arch Program Association chose “Boundaries, Not Barriers,” as its theme for year 1964.
Not wishing to see the ceremony shortchanged, Nellie Browne Duff, associational vice president, succeeded in scheduling a 1,100-passenger excursion train to bring passengers from Seattle to the 1964 celebration with the assurance that “all children from the excursion train will be invited to march in the parade, the opening feature of the program, and to take part in the flag exchange between American and Canadian children.”
The May 28th edition of the Blaine Journal reported a successful celebration that year:
One of the largest assemblies that has attended the International Peace Arch Program for a number of years was in readiness Sunday as the bugle sounded the start of the extensive pedestrian procession, from the assembly area at the north side of the International Park, down the much discussed freeway to a point beyond the arch, and then back through the arch to the assembly greensward.
The favorable weather and the additional attendance, resulting from the excursion train from Seattle, and the inclusion of the special entertainment following the regular program, added to the increased attendance.
Previous to the start of the procession the Bellingham Civic Band had favored the assembly with an hour of concert music.
As the many units of the parade took their position on the greenswards, Hal Davis of CKNW, New Westminster, announced the international raising of the flags of the two countries over the arch.
The flag ceremony was followed by the Surrey School Band playing, “O Canada,” and the Whatcom Junior High School band playing “The Star Spangled Banner.” A prayer for Peace by Rabbi Bernard Goldenburg of Vancouver was followed by the “Alleluia Chorus” by the Cloverdale Junior Secondary School Choir. It was a very credible number and well deserving of the tremendous applause it received.
Canadian honor veteran of World War I and II Walter Portwood and American honor veteran Ray A. Howard, past department commander, and escorts in the Flowers for Peace ceremony, placed huge floral wreaths at the base of the arch.
Two extensive lines of children, one of Canadians bearing Canadian flags, and one of American children bearing American flags, reaching from the arch to the cloverleaf, were turned loose upon signal from Hal Davis and rushed forward to exchange flags.
The youth speakers, David Frith of the Delta Secondary School, Canada, and Kathie Berg of Ferndale High, speaking on the subject “Boundaries Not Barriers,” each give an excellent address worthy of the most learned authorities. Each received enthusiastic applause.
After the address by Reeve Emmott of Burnaby, and the benediction, there was an interesting program of entertainment by the Vancouver Police Pipe Band, the Surrey Schools Brass Band and the Ukrainian Folk Dance group of Vancouver.
The special excursion train from Seattle of fourteen coaches carrying 700 passengers, was received by Mr. and Mrs. Vernon McDonald and Jim Cramer of the International Peace Arch Program Association, and Bob Bainter, president of the Blaine Chamber of Commerce. Each member of the excursion had been presented with “Welcome and Directive” cards, prepared by Blaine Mayor Joe Clark, who, owing to illness could not be present to welcome the excursionists.
Although the Blaine Journal made no mention of the “missing Canadian flag flap,” the Vancouver Sun gave it top billing:
A vanished Canadian Red Ensign caused a flap at the Peace Arch Sunday.
It was run up early in the day by Leslie Eggleton, president of the Peace Arch Association.
The Ensign and the Stars and Stripes fluttered side-by-side through a two-hour hands-across-the-border ceremony attended by about 6,000 Canadians and Americans.
Eggleton later took down the $96 twelve-by-eight-foot Canadian flag and went home. His American counterpart was supposed to do the same thing but didn’t.
When Bill Watling, a color sergiant with the Army, Navy and air Force Veterans Association delegation, saw no Canadian flag, he pulled a six-by-four-foot Ensign from his car and ran it up.
Scores of people turned in reports that the Canadian flag either had been stolen, or that pranksters were at work.
“It was shocking to see no Canadian flag up there,” Watling said later. “We just got our flag up there without thinking too much.
Apart from the flag flap, the ceremonies went smoothly. Children from both countries exchanged miniature flags.
Ranger Bob Weatherly devised a “scientific approach” toward estimating attendance, “which, by actual official count of the parked cars, allowing 4.2 persons to the car, yielded an attendance in excess of 12,000,” or twice the Sun’s estimate.
Although “programs have enjoyed a continuous improvement, year after year,” as indicated above, the editor of the Blaine Journal, in attendance at a December committee meeting in White Rock, aired his observation:
Participation by Vancouver and New Westminster has been lacking in the later years. Lynden and Ferndale and neighboring cities to the south have found the preparations too time-consuming and have gradually been leaving the program to a few keenly interested committeemen and women from White Rock and Bellingham.
Blaine should take a more active part in the program as it is of extensive value to our city. No northwest community event receives a smattering of the publicity that Blaine receives from this international event.
The Journal has often suggested that a complete professional movie be secured of the action portion of the event, with the purpose of having it released for school assembly sessions throughout the nation.
1965
Elected president of the International Peace Arch Program Association January 22, 1965, Vernon C. McDonald “accepted the honor of producing and directing the 1965 program with trepidation but with determination.” Ever since he became superintendent of the Blaine School District in 1937, he had been keenly interested as a member of the association.
The association set high goals. But evangelist Billy Graham, scheduled to conduct a July rally in Vancouver, would not be able to be the 1965 guest speaker—or sermonizing preacher—at the annual Peace Arch celebration. June 13 then became the scheduled date for the celebration “unless the Washington D.C. speaker President McDonald hopes to secure will ask for a different date.” Although that hint appeared in Blaine’s local newspaper, a clue toward the outcome is detected in an April 16 letter that association board member Harriet Seely, Seattle, sent to McDonald. “The president [Johnson] announced today that he is cutting down his activities and is not making trips, etc., for the next two or three months until the situation in Vietnam clears up,” she wrote.
With the Southern Baptist and the Liberal Democrat out of the picture, the board settled for the appearance of Washington State Representative Lloyd Meeds, whose topic was “The Challenge of Peace.” During the course of preparation that spring, the association presented Nellie Browne Duff “a beautiful silver tray suitably engraved in honor of her able administration of the Association as American President from 1955 to 1965.”
A crowd, estimated high as 15,000, appeared for the annual celebration. Covered extensively by the Blaine Journal, part of its coverage included the following:
Dr. Theodore J. Rasmussen, master of ceremonies, was, as usual, at his very best. The introductory welcome [was] given by Vernon C. McDonald, President, and Leslie Eggleton, vice president of the International Peace Arch Program Association, followed by the concert of the Surrey schools concert band.
The flag exchange, where over 4,000 flags of both nations were exchanged between as many youngsters, was a most inspiring sight. At the request of flag exchange captain Haines Fay, assisted by Dave Cummins, assistant scout executive, the many flags were held high and waved, and a lump formed in many a throat as the adults watched not only the intermingling of the flags of two nations, but of the young of those two nations, in such joyous, youthful exuberance.
Following greetings from Canada, given by the Honorable Leslie Peterson, minister of education and labor, B.C., greetings from the state of Washington, given by Charles Odegaard, director of Washington state parks and recreation commission, stated more land was being purchased for the American side of the park, which was very welcome news to those who have seen this most beautiful park at its crowded best, which is most every weekend the entire summer.
A special nineteen-car train from Seattle, sold out weeks in advance, carried over 1,500 passengers from towns and cities in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, mainly the youth of these states as evidenced in the long parade.
The Honorable Lloyd Meeds’ address, “The Challenge of Peace,” ably described the way two mighty countries, Canada and the United States, have maintained their peace these many years. He dwelt—as did youth speakers Lowell Bakke, speaker from the U.S.A., and Miss Marion Rutz, speaker from Canada—on “Freedom—Our Responsibility.”
Mr. Meeds, Washington’s Second District Congressman, main speaker for the Peace Arch program, told his audience, in referring to exports and imports through the boundary line, “The United States imports more from Canada than from any other nation, and Canada imports more from the United States than from any other nation,” and “our economic ties are close and with fewer restrictions upon the importation of goods from one nation to the other, the citizens of both the United States and Canada could achieve an even higher standard of living.” . . . The time is close at hand when the establishment of a free trade of the United States and Canada must be seriously considered,” said Meeds, continuing, “The day will soon come when we will find we must freely trade together.”
The Honorable Leslie Peterson, minister of education and labor, B.C., in bringing his greeting from Canada, praised the United States. He said, “The United States is fighting our battles. It is quite conceivable that if she had not gone into Vietnam when France was driven out, all of Southeast Asia would have been under Communist domination and our national security threatened.” Mr. Peterson also said, “I urge all Canadians to stop plucking feathers from the American eagle and, instead, be grateful that the battle for liberty and self-determination for all people is being fought on our behalf.”
Youth speakers Lowell Bakke of Mount Baker High School and Marion Rutz of Langley, B.C., emphasized basic and individual freedoms in their talks. They were presented Rotary plaques by J.M. Streight, president of the New Westminster, B.C., Rotary Club, and George Knowles of the Bellingham Rotarians. Each received trophies for themselves and their schools.
Although 5,000 printed programs were distributed, the supply ran out, leaving some celebrants empty handed. McDonald had written a description and historical sketch of the Peace Arch that year. His essay has been reproduced in every annual program printed since 1965.
1966
Cloverdale historian Leslie Eggleton was elected president for the 1966 celebration; it was Canada’s turn to take charge. “Sold out weeks in advance,” a chartered nineteen-car train brought an estimated 1,100 passengers from Seattle to the Peace Arch celebration of June 5.
Dignitaries were given lunch at the Princess Elaine, a floating restaurant anchored in Blaine’s harbor. Union Oil presidents William Farrar of Canada and Fred L. Hartley of the United States were seated at the head table. Hartley, reared in Canada, said he anticipated the lunch because years earlier he was a dishwasher aboard the Princess Elaine; it was then a Canadian ferry. The job afforded his education at the University of British Columbia. Several additional representatives had flown from California to attend the celebration, and later to participate in the dedication of a peace memorial at a Union Oil station on D Street in Blaine.
An attendance estimated at 8,000 [12,000 according to the Vancouver Sun] saw a mile-long parade march through the portal on a sunny afternoon. “The colorful costumes of folk dancers from various ethnic groups, the veterans from both countries with flags of their nations, bands from schools in the U.S.A. and Canada with their flags, banners and baton twirlers all helped to make it a colorful parade,” reported the Blaine Journal.
“Greetings from the state of Washington were given by Senator E.W. Lennart, who spoke very ably on the honor of being a citizen of two friendly nations, who have, side by side, always settled their differences around the council table,” noted the newspaper. “Greetings from British Columbia were given by Hunter Vogel, MLA, who spoke on the friendship of our two countries and the Peace Arch in particular.”
Adjit Mehat, 16 [17 according to the Sun], of Lord Tweedsmuir Senior Secondary School, Cloverdale, who came from India to Canada at age eight, and Linda Holms, Mount Baker High School, Deming, were the chosen youth speakers whose topic was “Youth Pleads the Cause for World Peace.” F.P. Trotto, president of the New Westminster Rotary Club, honored them with plaques.
The Sun presented Mehat as the main attraction, but oddly omitted naming his country of origin:
All hope for world peace rests on the shoulders of energetic youth, a high school student told a Peace Arch ceremony Sunday.
The plea for peace does not stem from Washington or Ottawa. It begins with intelligent youth around the world, said 17-year-old Adjit Mehat.
“The diplomats have to take a firm stand and back up their nation’s policies. It is only youth that can shift opinions and change ideas,” he said.
“We’re not authorities on world problems, but we can differentiate between right and wrong. It’s up to us to lead the way to peace.” . . .
Mehat said youth wants security and progress and sees war not as something glorious but only as a barrier against these ideals.
The youth movement around the world is growing and becoming more vociferous. It must be heard, he said.
Robert Bainter, vice president of the International Peace Arch Program Association, “felt the entire program made a lasting impression on the Union Oil officials from California who were guests on the speakers’ platform.”
1967
When Blaine bank manager Bob Bainter was elected president of the International Peace Arch Association in 1967 he prepared for the celebration by gaining an early start toward educating his community. It was the United States’ turn to take charge of the event; Bainter was ready for it.
“He told how this program, the only one of its kind in the world, is held each year and of it being a joint yearly event between Canada and the United States,” reported the February 23rd edition of the Blaine Journal. “Mr. Bainter spoke also of the impact this program has on the city of Blaine, a great asset to the city and one which he feels should be attended and supported by every man, woman and child within the city itself. Blaine is indeed ‘the Peace Arch City,’ he stated.” Upon the arrival of March, he asked the city to hold a “cleanup and paint up” week.
County Sheriff Bernie Reynolds provided traffic control for the May 14 celebration while a parade one and one-half miles long passed through the portal. An estimated 7,000 celebrants were in attendance [5,000 according to the Vancouver Sun]; more than 1,000 had come from Seattle by way of Great Northern’s special train service. As each contingency passed through the Peace Arch, Dr. Paul Herbold of Western Washington State College provided introductory remarks while William Brink’s commentary was broadcast over Radio KARI, Blaine.
President Bainter succeeded in his effort to gain the presence of Washington State Representative Dan Evans, keynote speaker. “In his address, Governor Evans noted that seldom had the world honored peace in such a way as with the Peace Arch and he added that there are many monuments, both to peace and war,” noted the Journal. “‘May these Gates Never be Closed’ was a true tribute to the peace between these two countries. ‘The challenge of peace dawns every day, in Blaine as well as Berlin,’ he said in reference to the comparison of the Peace Arch and the Berlin wall. ‘The Arch symbolizes man’s hope, the wall his despair,’ he said in conclusion.”
The Journal of May 11 recorded additional highlights:
Following the “Greetings from Canada” by the Hon. John Nicholsop, Minister of Labor, Ottawa, and “Greetings from British Columbia,” by the Hon. Grace McCarthy, Minister Without Portfolio, the two youth speakers spoke on “A Century of International Friendship: An Example for the World,” very ably covered by Stan Dodd of Meridian High School the U.S.A. speaker and Leslie Kenyon, Princess Margaret Senior Secondary School, as speaker from Canada. Both young people, well received by the audience of thousands, received the Rotary International plaques, given to youth speakers each year. They were also each presented as a special gift, a silver Centennial Dollar, in honor of the 100th anniversary celebration of Canada.
Both nation’s veterans organizations placed wreaths of flowers at the base of the Arch in memory of those who had died in the cause of peace. William Hanson, Ferndale, and Louis Sangster, New Westminser, were honor veterans from the two countries. Glenn Maddux, post commander, V.F.W. Custer and Richard Rigby, ANAF, WW II, veteran, New Westminster, were both wreath bearers. Escorts were John E. Jensen and Waldo Evans, both of the American Legion of Arlington, and Alfred Pratt of Vancouver and Charles Gregory of New Westminster. “Taps” was played by Cecil Bannister, American Legion, Bellingham, “Last Post” and “Reveille” by Syd Kenyon, Royal Canadian Legion, Whalley.
The Sun presented a report comparatively guarded:
“A century of peace was celebrated Sunday without a peacenik in sight! . . .
“Doug Jacobs, vice-president of the association said he kept a particular lookout for the long-haired set during the program, attended by VIPs from both sides of the border. He said peaceniks almost disrupted the annual ceremonies at the Canadian-U.S. border last year when they tried to stage a demonstration.
“‘I looked around for them and I looked hard, but I didn’t see any,’ he said.”
Although bandmaster Donald C. MacDonald had been killed in a train-car accident but a few days earlier, the Surrey Schools Band presented a concert without their conductor.
1968
With Canada responsible for the 1968 celebration, Douglas Jacobs, Vancouver, was elected president of the International Peace Arch Association. “An Unguarded Border; a mutual agreement between Two Nations” was the chosen theme for the high school speakers.
“Jacobs said he will be taking part in the parade on crutches or in a walking cast,” reported the April 16th Vancouver Sun. “He has been on crutches since being shot in the leg September 19 in a holdup at the British Ex-Servicemen’s Hall, Victoria, where he is club treasurer.”
“Youth will be emphasized in this year’s program, and the above speakers will be the only speakers on the program,” noted the May 2nd Blaine Journal, a change that was in the making, but not quite true for 1968; the president of Simon Fraser University was guest speaker as noted below. But children were chosen to lead the parade, and the flag exchange remained high priority.
Year 1968 marked the beginning of a trend toward briefer newspaper reports of the annual celebrations. The May 9th Journal carried nothing beyond a caption beneath a photo of the event. It was, however, quite a generous description, the entirety of which is presented as follows:
THE ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL Peace Arch celebration was held under sunny blue skies at Peace Arch Park in Blaine Sunday afternoon, May 5. A special Great Northern train, with 23 cars brought 1,150 men, women and children to the celebration. For the most part, they were groups of Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, etc., who were in uniform and marched in the parade. All entertainment was held on the speakers’ platform and was thus made visible to more of the 7,000 people [5,000 reported the Sun] who attended this beautiful ceremony held each year between two great countries, the United States and Canada, who jointly plan and participate in the program. Youth speakers for the day were Marsha Scutvick, Mount Baker High School senior and Leonard Wiebe, Secondary School, Aldergrove, B.C. Guest speaker was Dr. P.D. McTaggart-Cowan, president of Simon Fraser University of Burnaby, B.C. Of special interest on the entertainment this year was the Sechelt Indian Schools’ Band of Sechelt, B.C., and the Seattle All American Indian Dancers. In the later entertainment, featured dancers were a man and his three-year-old son from New Mexico who danced an interpretive dance in a costume he made himself of colorful pink and white feathers. The B,.C. Highland Lassies of Vancouver, B.C., accompanied by Pipe Major Fred Brodle (P.M.P.B.) concluded the entertainment and the 40th anniversary of the dedication, Sept. 6, 1921 of the International Peace Arch. The next annual Peace Arch celebration will be held in June 1969 and will be planned by the Americans. The program will commence on the American side of the border as it began on the Canadian side this year.
The Sun highlighted McTaggart-Cowan’s speech:
Dr. Patrick McTaggart-Cowan said that when Canadians and Americans develop serious disagreements they talk about them rather than fight.
“We can do this because we have both sought high standards of education,” he said. “This education is why our border has survived without fighting.”
Peace will be in the world’s grasp when all states follow the Canadian-American example and sit around the table as intellectual equals, the Simon Fraser University president said. . . .
He said Canadian-American peace is not bore of equality between the two countries—two American states, California and New York have populations equal to that of all Canada, he reminded the crowd.
“At times we disagree and I hope it will always be so. We have learned to disagree and live in harmony at the same time,” McTaggart-Cowan said.
1969
Bellingham resident Sig Hjaltalin was chosen president of the International Peace Arch Association; it was the United States’ turn to take charge of the celebration. Again, the children led the parade, and their flag exchange was highlighted.
Plans were formulated for a June 8 program. “The day will begin with a no-host luncheon at the International Café at 11:00 a.m., followed by a band concert from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. with the 13th Naval District Band from Seattle and the 724th Air Force Band from McChord Air Force Base providing the music,” noted the Blaine Journal.
Attendance was estimated at 10,000 with nearly 1,000 drawn from the Seattle area by an eighteen-car Great Northern Railway train. By contrast, one of the greater participatory discontinuities may be seen by means of the Vancouver Sun’s estimate of only 4,000 attendees.
Leading the march through the portal were parade marshals Fritz Johnson, Bellingham; William Magnall, Langley, and Al Pratt, Vancouver. Dr. Theodore Rasmussen, Bellingham, narrated.
Greg Brehaney, Eagle Scout, Troop 26, Ferndale, and John Boogs, Queen Scout, First Brookswood Troop, raised the flags while the drums were rolling.
Rev. Don Walter, United Church of Christ, Blaine, offered a prayer for peace.
Although Seattle resident Steven F. Chadwick, former national commander of the American Legion, was the chosen main speaker, “well known for his ability to please both old and young,” the Sun highlighted a stern speech:
U.S. draft dodgers were called “spineless, gutless and the great unwashed,” during Sunday’s international Peace Arch commemoration ceremony.
“To you Canadians, all I can say is take them. I only hope they do not dilute the blood of your great people,” said Steve Chadwick, 75, of Seattle, a First World War army veteran. . . .
Chadwick, a lawyer, said he noted that Canadian Immigration officials are now allowing U.S. citizens to come into Canada to avoid the draft.
“While I may differ with such a policy, I am not prompted to harsh or unkind words. Nor would I fight over the issue,” said Chadwick, a past national commander of the American Legion.
“As a veteran of an earlier war, I could put no reliance on the spineless and gutless who are either unwilling or too timid to take their chances.
“I have no confidence in them. They are the great unwashed. Our soldiers don’t want this war either, but they don’t run away. These men (draft dodgers) have deserted our courageous soldiers.”
Given the topic, “Everlasting Friendship Between Two Countries,” Steve Austin, Meridian High School, Bellingham, and Maria Hamer, North Delta Secondary School, were the chosen student speakers.
The “Flowers for Peace” ceremony was attended by honor veterans Ralph Spaulding, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Bellingham, and S. Stanley, Royal Canadian Legion.
Honor veterans Ralph Spaulding, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Bellingham, and S. Stanley, Royal Canadian Legion, oversaw the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony.
Rev. T.D. Barnett, First United Church, White Rock, pronounced the benediction.
Reviewing the event, the association’s president presented his summary before the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce July 15. “Sig Hjaltalin spoke on the Peace Arch program, and said that the Blaine business community is not capitalizing on the celebration,” noted the Journal. “He asked if there wasn’t some way to make it mean more to Blaine.”
1970
Perhaps a flashback entitled “Peace Arch Activity Waking Up Canadians” from the January 22, 1925 Blaine Journal-Press is appropriate at this point:
The activities of Peace Arch Post of the American Legion here toward improving the grounds on the American side of the Peace Arch are waking up our Canadian friends as the following article from the Vancouver Sun of recent date will show. Doubtless the grounds on the other side of the arch will not long remain as they are, for there is a considerable amount of pride in our Canadian cousins. The article follows:
“British Columbia is to be shamed into action in the matter of improving the ground surrounding the Peace Arch by the activities of the American Legion.
“The Blaine post of the American Legion, which has taken the name, ‘Peace Arch Post,’ has obtained the endorsement of the National Executive of the Legion for the development of a memorial park on the American side of the Arch.
‘The park has been officially added to the list of memorials under the jurisdiction of the National Memorial committee of the Legion, and the Washington division has perpetually guaranteed the upkeep of the park
“With the sanction of the National Executive, an appeal has been launched by Peace Arch Post to all other posts for subscriptions towards laying out and developing the site.
“A generous response has already been obtained.
“This information has been laid before R. Howe Holland, president of the International Peace Arch Association [sic] of British Columbia, by a delegation of the Blaine Legionnaires. Mr. Holland states that consideration is being given to the best means of launching a drive on this side of the line to undertake a similar development on the Canadian side.
“The difficulty which has always stood in the way is the high figure demanded by the private owners of the land on the Canadian side required for the park.
“The association has in hand a sum of money raised some time ago, largely through the support given to the campaign by the Vancouver Sun, but has been unable to make use of it for the reason mentioned.
“Vigorous efforts are now called for, Mr. Holland states, if the Canadian portion of the park is to be worthy of the American portion, which, with such a strong organization as the Legion back of it, is assured by completion.
“With the American Legion now actively undertaking its share of the work, President Holland states that it is absolutely incumbent upon the Canadian nation to do its share and a campaign is now under consideration.”
The Peace Arch with its parklands was Mr. Holland’s opus. He was appropriately honored at the 1970 celebration. Because he—then a prominent Vancouver lawyer—was considered the International Peace Arch Association’s first president (although his office was with a forerunning Canadian counterpart called the International Peace Memorial Association of British Columbia), “R. Rowe Holland, who was the first president of the association and one of those who helped to get the Peace Arch erected was made an honorary president,” reported the December 4, 1969 issue of the Blaine Journal. “He says he is now 80 years old but still interested in the Peace Arch.”
Scheduled for June 11—one month after “The Blaine Incident” discussed in chapter eight—major disappointments occurred. Burlington Northern Railroad withdrew “the train that usually took hundreds of children to view the ceremony.” Shrine groups on either side of the border rejected their invitations. Moreover, the border-bound truck route got the nod from the state of Washington that year. Its ominous construction would leave the Peace Arch out of sight.
Reported by the Vancouver Sun, Leslie Eggleton, Peace Arch Association secretary, said, “There have been rumors going around that the celebration has been cancelled this year, but there is no truth in them. The celebration will definitely go ahead.”
The Canadians arranged the celebration, but few pleasantries prevailed for Ocean Park resident Anne Woods, international president. A depressing record of the 1970 celebration was briefly summed in the June 18th edition of the Journal:
The 49th annual Peace Arch celebration held Sunday, June 14, drew one of the slimmest crowds on record [the Sun estimated 250 “after the exchange of flags . . . at the end”]. The weather at the border was cold and windy, and rumors of a demonstration put a damper on crowd attendance.
The State Patrol, Sheriff’s Department and the RCMP were out in considerable numbers. Hundreds of phone calls were received by the Border Patrol concerning the possibility of any trouble, according to Chief Armand Hysette.
The program, as in past years, was preceded by a parade through the Peace Arch. Though plagued with problems this year, Association spokesmen indicate that their enthusiasm has not been dampened and that next year’s fiftieth celebration will be a big and colorful spectacle.
The Sun published the names of the student speakers that year, adding its observation of an unpleasant interloper: “Barbara McCormick, of Blaine, and Michael Lomb, of Cloverdale, addressed the crowd from a raised platform just north of the arch.
“Meanwhile, a Vancouver resident, about fifty-five years old, circulated in the crowd, carrying a Confederate States of America flag, which he claimed he bought in Vancouver, and circulating leaflets urging people to join the ‘united white race party’ and fight ‘race pollution.’”
Among the few signs of cheer were beautiful eleven-by-fourteen-inch full-color photos of the Peace Arch that the Journal placed on sale at thirty-five cents each. The Peace Arch Garden Club International, not yet defunct, toured the park that summer. Hope dawned for a finer fiftieth anniversary celebration in 1971.
1971
Don Snow, a Whatcom County resident who was vice president of C.F. Liebert, Inc., Customs House Brokers, was elected international president for year 1971. It was the United States’ turn to take charge of the annual Peace Arch celebration scheduled for September 12. He “indicated that chances for President Nixon coming to the celebration looked good, but that no definite commitment had been made.”
This, having been the fiftieth anniversary of the Peace Arch dedication, the Blaine Journal publishedseveral historical sketches of the monument while final plans were being formulated. Paramount was a September 9 editorial:
A symbol of peace between two countries for a half century will be honored Sunday at Blaine at the International Peace Arch Park.
The arch, the only one of its kind in the world, stands higher than ever in today’s world of unrest and mistrust among nations that two countries can live together in peace. It does not take a guarded border between nations; this can be seen with the unguarded border between Canada and the United States, the longest in the world.
In spite of some of our friendly nations pointing their finger at us and calling us bullies and warmongers, the showcase between Canada and United States and the Peace Arch slaps their theory to envious accusations.
This Sunday the eyes of the world will be on Blaine during the golden anniversary of the Peace Arch, and justly so.
Introducing the September 12 festivities at 12:30 P.M. was a one-hour band concert presented by the British Columbia Branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee. Paul Herbold, Western Washington State College, was master of ceremonies. A summary of the celebration appeared in the September 16, 1971 edition of the Blaine Journal:
With the weatherman in full cooperation and a crowd of 4,000, the International Peace Arch Association hosted the 50th anniversary of the Peace Arch at Blaine.
The event started with a parade of bands and veterans’ organizations from Canada and the United States as they marched through the Arch and lined up on the north side of it. The flag-raising ceremony followed the parade.
“Flowers for Peace,” was the veterans’ ceremony as they presented wreaths. Joe Imhof, Ferndale, was the USA honor veteran and Thomas Evans of Canada. After the wreaths were placed on the Arch, Taps and Last Post and Reveille were played.
Donald Snow, president of the Peace Arch Association, welcomed the crowd. Anne Woods, vice president, from Surrey, read letters from the Canadian government.
One of the main attractions of the annual event came when children from the United States and Canada exchanged flags. This ceremony takes place with a long line of children facing each other with a flag in hand. At the command of “Exchange flags,” they rush to each other and trade.
“The Peace Arch, for fifty years a symbol of peace,” was the subject of the youth speakers. James Visbeek, Lynden Christian High School, represented the United States; Georgialee Monkman, New Westminster Secondary School, spoke for Canada.
Andrew Borg, a member of the United States-Canadian Permanent Joint Board on Defense, represented President Nixon, as he called the ceremony a demonstration of international understanding. “Let us never take each other for granted,” Borg stated. “We are among the most fortunate peoples in the world. No other two countries in the world have a symbol of peace donated by schoolchildren of both countries. No other two countries in the world have a 3,000-mile non-patrolled border like our two countries.”
Stan Jeffcott, guest speaker, related some of the events that took place during the dedication 50 years ago when he attended as a boy. Jeffcott said flags were raised simultaneously along the border. Thousands of people poured into Blaine by train, cars and ships to see the dedication.
President Don Snow expressed his thanks to all who helped make the event a memorable one, like Jeffcott stated, “Many monuments are built to wars and victories in wars, but this one is to peace. It is quite rare.”
1972
When W. Morton, secretary of the New Westminster and District Veterans Council, sent his January 9, 1940 letter to Rogan Jones, wherein he suggested establishing the second or third Sunday of June as the occasion for future annual Peace Arch celebrations, Jones replied, “Whatever date is ultimately decided upon for the future, should be based upon a careful consideration of the question of student attendance and student transportation.”
Morton’s suggestion was accepted thirty-two years later, when the Annual Peace Arch Celebration was held Sunday, June 11, 1972, in contrast to the 1971 celebration that had been held September 12—six days after the fiftieth anniversary of the portal’s dedication. The second Sunday of June remained, annualized to become the institutionalized date.
“If someone wants to shoot me on the street corner, I’m prepared to have that done,” said Watergate culprit G. Gordon Liddy, eight days before the June 11th celebration. Surrey resident Anne Woods was associational president, Canada was in charge of the program, and the United States, it seemed, was hardly at peace with itself.
Student speakers Adrian Vanden Dungen, Lord Tweedsmuir, Cloverdale, and Lorraine Terpstra, Lynden Christian High School, addressed the theme, “Youth Speaks its Mind on Peace,” while the hippie flower children, so used to speaking minds of their own, were a fading movement.
The custom of inviting a guest speaker, often an esteemed dignitary, appears to have ended.
Cheaply mimeographed anniversary programs reflected a loss of funding while—perhaps worse—there was a noticeable loss of press coverage. Little beyond a photo appeared in the Blaine Journal of June 15. Below it was a short caption:
PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION—Celebrating the unbroken peace between two nations, Canada and the United States, were veterans of both countries, during the annual Peace Arch Celebration last Sunday, June 11 at Peace Arch Park. Blaine Middle School band played the National Anthem and youth speaker Miss Lorraine Terpstra, Lynden, highlighted the program with a speech on peace. Pictured marching are the Canadian Legionnaires. Journal photo.
No mention was made of the Canadian youth speaker, nor was the estimated attendance revealed.
1973
The stresses and strains of the seventies led to the International Peace Arch Association’s financial hardship. Annual programs, so professionally printed, were reduced to mimeographed script for the June 10, 1973 celebration sponsored by the Canadian contingency, but chaired by Ted King of Deming, Washington. Still, the crowd that attended was estimated at 3,000 to 5,000 visitors.
Youth speakers Mary Ann Van Dongen, student of Saint Angelus Academy in Delta, and Marinus Voskuilen of Lynden Christian High School, addressed the theme, “The International Flag Exchange and its Implication.”
Interestingly, the traditional flag exchange was moved toward the end of the ceremony in 1973, appearing immediately prior to the benediction pronounced by Rev. H.M. Butcher, Church of the Redeemer, Cloverdale. Not long after, the flag exchange became an informal event, appearing after the benediction and march-off. Additionally, Peace Arch patches and other memorabilia were increasingly traded—not merely after, but before, and even during the ceremony.
“The idea behind the border celebration—brotherhood among nations—is indeed a most heartwarming gesture,” stated a Blaine Journal editorial. “And such gestures are especially important in America’s present state of confusion when our news is flooded with Watergate crimes, when we are being strangled by inflation and when the country continues to be involved with the killings in Cambodia.
“Perhaps every community needs its own Peace Arch to remind how innocuous borders are, to stir an awareness of man’s inhumanity to man and to make cognizant the equality of nations.
“Unfortunately, that’s not the way it is. But that’s the way it was Sunday at the Peace Arch.”
1974
Led by International Peace Arch Association president Eve Puppyn, Burnaby, it was Canada’s turn to prepare the June 9th celebration that year. The Delta Community Band presented a half-hour concert before the portal was opened for an international parade led by parade marshals Al Pratt, Canada, and Fritz Johnson, United States. Don Snow, Custer, served as master of ceremonies while an estimated 3,500 visitors enjoyed weather “that couldn’t have been better” that day.
Addressing the topic, “Youths’ Impression of International Relations Between Two Countries,” Adele Spoelstra of Lynden Christian High School and Gordon MacDonald of Lord Tweedsmuir, Surrey, were the student speakers. “The basis of a relationship between two people has a basis in international relations between two countries,” Spoelstra reportedly said. “The two countries must look at each other as separate and unique, but having something to share.” MacDonald argued the same cause.
Samuel Hill, 17, was introduced to A.J. Cassatt, who put the teenager to work with a railway survey crew one hundred years earlier.
1975
The bicentennial of the American Revolution of 1776 lent special distinction to the fifty-fourth Peace Arch celebration of June 8, 1975. The Blaine Revolutionary War Bicentennial Commission, moved by thoughts of “a past to remember; a future to mold,” created the short-lived Peace Arch Historical Society the previous May.
Heavier than usual was the responsibility of International Peace Arch Association president Ted King of Deming, Washington, who occupied that chair for a total of eight years (not always consecutive), and who served the longest of all associational presidents.
It was a day served by four fine bands. The Whalley Legion Junior Band and Port Moody’s Pipe Band introduced the ceremony with an hour’s concert. The Ninth Infantry Division Band from Fort Lewis and Tacoma’s 133rd Army National Guard Band marched through the portal and contributed additional music.
“Youth’s Conception of the Working of International Politics,” was the topic chosen for Blaine High School senior Chuck Block and a Canadian speaker unknown.
The end of the annual celebration at 2:00 P.M. marked the beginning of a long journey from the Peace Arch to Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. One report suggested 5,000 onlookers were there, while another thought that figure was double the estimation.
Given a “move ‘em out” signal to wagon master Ken Wilcox by American Revolution Bicentennial Administration deputy administrator Marjorie Lynch, former Yakima legislator acting as President Gerald Ford’s representative, the bicentennial wagon train charged through the portal, initiating a 3,000-mile journey, destined to end at Valley Forge July 4, 1976. Washington state’s Conestoga wagon, a Pennsylvanian prairie schooner, chuck and sanitation wagons, powered by fourteen faithful mules, was driven by 63-year-old Pat Dorian, Blaine.
“Lummi Indian tribal dancers “performed a ceremonial farewell dance as the wagon train departed, escorted by colonial-garbed riders, members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and hundreds of mounted horsemen from many parts of the United States,” reported the Westside Record-Journal.
1976
Canada’s interest in the Bicentennial year was expressed by the release of a book, Between Friends Entre Amis,that Prime Minster Trudeau presented to President Gerald Ford at Washington D.C., June 16, 1976. Some 20,000 had been published.
The wagon train journey was not without occasional difficulties, but Valley Forge was reached one day early, July 3, 1976. Dorian became “the first man in America’s history to drive a 14-mule team cross-country.”
Later, Blaine historian Lillian Barnes-Hinds, noting the wagon train reached a memorial arch at Valley Forge, wrote “From Arch to Arch,” the first chapter of The Wagon Train Pilgrimage by Jem Publishers of Kenosha, Michigan.
In passing, it may be noted that year 1976 was the centennial of the Peace Plow and Pruning Hook, created from swords donated by Mexican and Civil War veterans for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Soon after, these were nickel-plated, sent to the Paris Exposition in 1886, and later displayed in Geneva, Switzerland.
Ted King remained president for the second consecutive year—an unusual occurrence for the International Peace Arch Association with its practice of choosing presidents representing each country on an alternating basis from one year to the next.
The Ninth Infantry U.S. Army Band presented a concert before the program began at 1:30 P.M. Several bands were said to have participated. The traditional flag exchange occurred. Addressing the theme, “Two Hundred Years as Children of a Common Mother,” Mary Monaghan, a student of Blaine High School, was the youth speaker representing the United States, and Arthur De Jong of St. Thomas More High School, Burnaby, represented Canada.
The June 13 celebration occurred during the fifty-fifth anniversary of the Peace Arch dedication and the bicentennial anniversary year of the United States. A “second Peace Arch” had been dedicated April 19, 1976. Bob Robbins built a wooden replica of the portal for the campus of Blaine High School from whence he had graduated in 1954. Associated Student Body President Jim Horgdal unveiled the monument, explaining its future use as a reader board for school events. Students could walk through the replica; it was quite tall.
But it gradually deteriorated and was eventually removed. Robbins built another model in 1987; that one was treated with fiberglass for preservation. “I appreciate the time and work invested, because the Peace Arch is such a symbol of the school,” said Principal Gordon Dolman. “It’s truly representative of Borderite pride. The old one was missed after it was taken down.”
1977
“Otto Zylstra will be the American Parade Marshal and Al Pratt the Canadian Marshal, announced the Westside Record-Journal. “The U.S. Naval Band, Northwest, and three Canadian bands will participate.
“The Rev. George Whitford, United Church of Canada, and the Rev. Thurmon Scevers, representing the Blaine Ministerial Association, will offer the prayers. Representatives of various Veterans’ organizations will place memorial wreaths at the base of the Peace Arch in remembrance of those who sacrificed their lives in the cause of freedom. Taps will be played by Charles Day with Riggs Nelson playing the echo. Following this, flags will be exchanged by the children of Canada and the United States”
“Keeping the Gates Open” was the theme addressed by Roger Koops of Lynden Christian High School and Betsy Terpsma of the University of British Columbia School of Education during the fifty-sixth celebration held at the Peace Arch June 12, 1977.
Attendance is unknown, but Canadian participants came from distances far away as Cowichan on Vancouver Island. Americans arrived from points far away as Eugene, Oregon.
Especially active in promoting world peace that year was the Fraser Valley Peace Committee.
The Blaine Assembly of God church renamed itself the Peace Arch Assembly of God in 1977. The sanctuary was enlarged, a Peace Portal façade adorned the entrance, and the building was painted white with black trim—colors designed to reflect the Peace Arch and its graphics.
1978
Assisted by Washington State Representative Norman Dicks, the Totem Girl Scout Council and Friends of Girl Scouting reserved an Amtrak train to bring some 900 Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls and Boy Scouts from Edmonds, Everett, Mount Vernon and Bellingham to the June 11 celebration.
One group of Camp Fire Girls, upon raising funds for the trip, reportedly made train connections from California to the Peace Arch.
Washington State Governor Dixy Lee Ray was present to tell her audience the Peace Arch was “a testimony to the openness of friendly neighbors,” as recorded by the Westside Record-Journal. “Our similarities are vastly more important than our differences,” she reportedly said.
“As the United States and Canadian flags were raised on the Peace Arch, the children waved their flags and cheered,” reported the press. “A woman directing her husband with a movie camera yelled, ‘Turn around! Take pictures of the children. That’s what it’s all about.’”
“The audience from two countries listened to speakers from two countries, including Blaine’s recently graduated Linda Graham.” The Canadian speaker is unknown.
1979
Welcoming over 4,000 participants to the fifty-eighth anniversary of June 10 were former British serviceman Doug Jacobs, Vancouver, B.C., president of the International Peace Arch Association, and Tom Marshall, vice president from Seattle.
Addressing the theme, “The Peace Arch: Its Fifty-eighth Year of the Child,” were youth speakers Brian Janssens, Lord Tweedsmuir High School, Surrey, and Barbara Branson, Mount Baker High School.
Honor veterans chosen that year were George Hunsby of American Legion Post Seven and John Stewart, representing the Canadian Army, Navy and Air Force.
The flag exchange remained popular. The Canadians spent $474 for flags that year; the United States contributors invested $452. “Both had more children than flags for the 1979 celebration,” reported the Westside Record-Journal. “Canadian revenue is from federal and municipality grants. American revenue is from voluntary contributions. In 1979 the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Department of Washington and the Sumas American Legion, Post No.212 accounted for two-thirds of the total donations.”
1980
Tom Marshall, a resident of Tukwila, came from afar to render presidential leadership to the International Peace Arch Association in 1980; it was the United States’ turn to assume responsibility for the June 8 ceremony.
Fifty busloads of children arrived from the Seattle area that year, greeted by showers at the park.
Addressing the theme, “Youth and the Eighties,” Patrick Murphy of Blaine High School was the American speaker. The Canadian speaker is unknown.
1981
An estimated 3,000 visitors participated in the June 14 ceremony while 2,000 more came to observe. One group reportedly came from England, and another arrived from Manteca, California.
Canada, under the guidance of International Peace Arch Association President Grant Ward, Langley, was in charge of the event, assisted by Vice President Thomas Alexander, Bellingham. Little could be learned of that year’s celebration.
1982
Unusual for the June 13 celebration with its estimated crowd of 8,000, was the fact a crowd estimated at the same size had attended one day earlier. The June 12 assembly, discussed in chapter eight under the heading “The Peace Rally that Fooled Law Enforcement Agents,” failed negatively to impact the annual Peace Arch celebration.
“The only hitch in Sunday’s dedication was a faulty public address system,” reported the Westside Record-Journal. “State Patrol electronics expert Roger Grundstron was called to the scene and fixed the system after almost an hour’s interruption and some understandable fidgeting by the children.”
After the Whalley Legion Junior Band, opened the ceremony with a concert, the march through the portal was led by parade marshals Otto Zylstra, Bellingham, and Al Pratt, Vancouver.
Welcoming the visitors was Ted King, Deming, president of the International Peace Arch Association, and Grant Ward, vice president, Langley, B.C. Don Snow, Custer, moderated the event.
“Youth in the Eighties: A New Beginning” was the theme set for Ralph Remillard of Blaine High School and Kim Ross of Abbotsford High School, chosen speakers.
The annual “Flowers for Peace” ceremony was conducted by George Paul, Robby Robinson, Edward Pattison and Jack Meigo of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 1585, Bellingham, and Fred Brewer, Army, Navy and Air Force Unit 100 Vancouver; John Steward, ANAF Unit 100 New Westminster; and Gordon Woods and Ray Korb ANAF Unit 46, White Rock.
About 5,000 children participated in the traditional flag exchange.
Vernon and Rose McDonald, Blaine, were honored guests; they had been present at the Peace Arch dedication in 1921. Flag raisers are unknown.
1983
After conductor Peter Murray led the Summer Pops Orchestra in an abbreviated concert, the Whalley Legion Junior Band and parade marshals Al Pratt, Canada, and Otto Zylstra, United States, led the parade through the portal at 1:00 P.M., June 12. Alderman Bob Bose, Surrey District Council, moderated the ceremony.
Accompanied by several side attendants, Scouts Owen Hubbick and Conrad Rae, First Hazelmere Scout Troop, raised the Canadian flag. Eagle Scouts Ryan and Roger Pugh, Troop Twelve, Ferndale, raised the United States flag beneath partly cloudy skies.
Grant Ward, Langley, president of the International Peace Arch Association, and Ted King, vice president, Deming, welcomed the crowd.
The theme, “Today’s Youth, Tomorrow’s Hope,” was addressed by student speaker Marlene Nelson, Earl Marriot Senior Secondary School, and Kecia Cossett, Blaine High School. Ross Preston, White Rock Rotary Club, and Duane Reike, Rotary Club of Whatcom County North, presented the student speaker trophies.
Wreath bearers and escorts accompanied honor veterans George Clapshew, Canada, and Howard W. Pope, United States, in the annual “Flowers for Peace” ceremony.
The ceremony concluded with the traditional flag exchange by children of both nations and the marching off of colors and bands.
Meanwhile, in the Semiahmoo Park Interpretive Center Museum at the neck of the spit, west of Blaine, a premiere photo and memento exhibit, “Peace Arch Through the Years,” awaited the 5,000 or so celebrants.The exhibit was repeated through the years.
1984
Moderated by Ted King, Deming, the June 10 ceremony included the launching of 100 helium-inflated balloons, red, white and blue, in commemoration of Blaine’s centennial. Notes were attached, instructing the finders to send them back to Blaine with their names and addresses included.
Eagle Scouts Todd Medearis and Alan Rogers, Troop 29, North Bellingham, sent the Stars and Stripes to the top of the Arch. Chief Scouts Ray Ochitwa and Randy Urban, First Cloverdale Troop, likewise sent the Red Maple Leaf on its way.
The Air Force Band of the Pacific Northwest performed the “Star Spangled Banner,” the Whalley Legion Junior Band performed “O Canada,” and Kirsten Ostrom led the singing.
A prayer for peace was offered by Rev. Kenneth D. Killin, National Chaplain, Veterans of Foreign Wars.
King and vice president Muriel Arnason, Langley, welcomed the assembly.
The theme, “Unity and Youth in the Eighties,” was addressed by Linda Tamis, Marion Regional High School, Burnaby, and, for the second year, Kecia Cossett, Blaine High School.
Hiram Lloyd, Post Ninety-two, American Legion, Stanwood, and Gordon Hendry, British Ex-servicemen’s Association, were honor veterans.
The children’s flag exchange followed the benediction by Monsignor J.E. Brown, Church of the Precious Blood, Cloverdale.
Only a few days later, a beautiful Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce Peace Arch float, built to commemorate the city’s centennial, burned while it was inside the “pink barn” near the city hall. Measurements were taken from the charred frame in order to build a replica.
1985
The sixty-fourth anniversary of the International Peace Arch dedication, celebrated June 9, drew a large, congenial, international crowd. Why the gathering was so large is not understood. The event was held one year after Blaine’s centennial and one year before Canada’s Expo ‘86.
Blaine Police Chief James “Butch” Hinchey estimated 20,000 people attended. “It’s by far the largest crowd we’ve ever had,” he said. “The crowd was just perfect. We had absolutely no problems. They were even polite and orderly in the traffic backups. It’s a neat, family-oriented celebration.”
Welcoming the gathering were Muriel Arnason of Langley, B.C., Canadian president of the International Peace Arch Association, and Ted King, Deming, American vice president.
John Harris of CISL Radio, Canada, was master of ceremonies. The Richmond Legion Band No. Five, directed by Band Master Bob Mullet presented a concert.
Accompanied by side attendants, Ray and Leonard Firkus, Sixth Chilliwack Venturer Group, hoisted the Canadian flag. Eagle Scouts John L. Moler of Blaine Troop 25 and Todd Kean of Custer Troop 33 raised the American flag.
Megan Likkel of Lynden Christian High School and Linda Tamis, Surrey 4-H Club, addressed the topic, “Youth in the International Society.”
The veterans’ ceremony, entitled “Flowers for Peace,” is a highlight of the Peace Arch celebration. Jessie McGregor, ANAF Vancouver, was the Canadian honor veteran. Merle J. Mooney, USN retired, was the American honor veteran.
The flag exchange by the children of Canada and the United States occurred as usual.
“If every crowd of that size behaved in that manner,” said Peace Arch State Park Ranger Tom Poplawski, “our jobs as park managers would be considerably easier.”
Whatcom County residents Lillian Barnes-Hinds and Tamsin Hekala’s three-month effort to reorganize the defunct Peace Arch Historical Society failed for lack of local participation.
1986
Bill Quehrn, Radio KGMI, Bellingham, narrated while the Seaforth Highlanders Regimental Band opened the June 8 ceremony, leading a parade through the portal. It was the Statue of Liberty’s centennial year. A gift of France, it was erected at Bedlow’s Island (renamed Liberty Island), New York, in the fall of 1886.
Accompanied by rolling drums, the United States flag was launched by Andy McAfee, Troop 6, Bellingham, and Todd Rightmire, Troop 26, Ferndale. Philip Nikiforuk, and Corey Roosdahl, Venturers, Second Burnaby South Tomcats, sent Canada’s flag skyward.
International Peace Arch Association President Ted King, Deming, and Pat Webb, vice president, Surrey, welcomed an unusually large crowd.
“These Gates Must Never Close” was the theme addressed by student speakers Mary Anne Jorgensen, Blaine High School, and Diane Tamis, Holy Cross High School, Surrey.
Overseeing the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony were honor veterans Bob Howard, Fleet Reserve Association, and Howard Miller, Branch 175, Royal Canadian Legion.
Rev. Ross Connal, United Church, Cloverdale, pronounced the benediction, followed by the children’s flag exchange.
Canada’s Expo ’86 was no doubt a factor that explained the size of the gathering, estimated at 25,000. Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce exhibited a float built upon the theme, “Blaine—Gateway to Expo ’86.”
1987
With Grant Ward, Langley, acting as master of ceremonies, the Richmond Branch No. Five Royal Canadian Legion Band, presented a concert before the June 14 event opened with a parade at 1:00 P.M.
Raising the flags were Carole Fraser, Salmon Rock Ranger Unit, Gibson’s, and Matt Attebery, Life Scout, Troup 40, Bellingham.
Following a prayer for peace by Rev. Oswald Sorel, Pat Webb, International Peace Arch Association president, Surrey, and Ted King, vice president, Deming, presented welcoming speeches.
Addressing the theme, “The Peace Arch, an Enduring Symbol of Peace and Friendship,” were student speakers Dean Wautier, Otter 4H Holstein Club, Langley, and Kim Staheli, Blaine Highs School.
Wautier said today’s youth are concerned about world peace and international relations between generations as well as between lands.
“Our generation has lived without war,” he said. “This peace must be upheld. Peace is the only way to live.”
He said the Peace Arch represents goodwill, unity and peace.
“We do not have to look far to see nations that live side by side without peace,” said Staheli. “Yet Canada and the United States share a common bond of peace that has existed for 173 years.”
She reviewed the phrases and components of which the Peace Arch is composed, relating how each tells a story about peace.
“Flowers for Peace” was administered by Irene Evan, British Ex-servicemen’s League, and Joe Norby, American Legion, Ballard.
After Rev. Thomas H. Purcell pronounced the benediction, the children’s flag exchange honored the 80th anniversary of world scouting and the 75th anniversary of Girl Scouts of the United States.
1988
Following a 45-minute concert by the Richmond Branch No. Five Royal Canadian Legion Band, John Romberg, Sumas Post 212 American Legion, joined Al Pratt, longtime Canadian participant, as parade marshals in charge of leading the parade through the portal the afternoon of June 12.
Drums rolled as Eagle Scouts Ian Jones and Blaine Lorimor raised the American flag, and Patrol Leaders Tyson McLaren and Aaron Robertson raised the Canadian flag.
Members of the Washington State Patrol and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police lined the inner walls of the Peace Arch as attendants, a customary practice in effect for many years and institutionalized at every ceremony.
Ted King, Deming, president of the International Peace Arch Association, and Pat Webb, Surrey, vice president, welcomed the crowd estimated in excess of 25,000.
Alec Gordon of Watson, Otter Fourth Lamb Club, and Achiel Van Wanseele, Blaine High School, delivered speeches on the topic, “The Peace Arch, Binder of Nations.”
Trophies, annually presented by Rotary clubs from both sides of the border, were presented by Ed Brown, Whatcom County North, and Brian Tapp, White Rock.
Honor veterans Jim Raymond, Department Commander, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Alec Norreg, Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans of Canada, attended the “Flowers of Peace” ceremony.
The children’s flag exchange included remembrance of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.
Traditionally, the celebration concluded with “marching off of the colors and bands,” a phrase often printed in the programs. As Peace Arch nomenclature evolved, the phrase became a “march off of the color guards and bands.” Although “march off” isn’t in the dictionary, the author decided to insert a hyphen, creating a “march-off,” meaning “to leave the scene as a company or a group, rhythmically in step with one another.”
1989
The Peace Arch Celebration of June 11 was held in honor of the Washington state centennial and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lady Olaue Baden-Powell who visited the Peace Arch October 22, 1955 (see chapter four: “Lady Baden-Powell’s Left-handed Welcome” under “Waves of Glory.”)
After a Royal Canadian Legion band concert was finished, Grant Ward, Langley, narrated the portal parade led by Canadian parade marshals Al Pratt, Vancouver, and Gill Caffyn, Crescent Beach and United States marshals John Romberg, Sumas, and Otto Zylstra, Bellingham.
The Canadian flag was raised by Lance and Churee Mercer, Surdel Venturer, B Company. Brent and Geoff Smigun, Bellingham eagle scouts, raised the United States flag.
Rev. Ross Connal, United Church, Cloverdale, offered a prayer for peace.
Pat Webb, Surrey, president of the International Peace Arch Association, and Ted King, Deming, vice president, welcomed the visitors.
“The Peace Arch, an Everlasting Symbol of Peace and Harmony,” was the theme addressed by student speakers Gail Anderson, Langley 4H Beef Club, and Shane Stanfill, Blaine High School.
Canadian Boer War Veteran George Ives and United States Vietnam Veteran John Forgette were honor veterans participating in the “Flowers of Peace” ceremony.
Following the benediction pronounced by Bishop Mark Lambert, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was the traditional children’s flag exchange.
Peace Arch photos gracing the printed programs annually displayed the legend CHILDREN OF A COMMON MOTHER as viewed from Peace Arch State Park. Beginning in 1989, BRETHREN DWELLING TOGETHER IN UNITY was displayed as seen from Peace Arch Provincial Park. The views alternated yearly, according to the nation—United States or Canada—highlighted by the International Peace Arch Association.
1990
The June 13 celebration was stormed by rain and wind, causing difficulties for flag bearers, not to mention an understandably lower than average attendance. The parade was rerouted to save park lawns perpetually prone to easy soakings.
Honoring the 150th anniversary of the Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans of Canada, chartered by Queen Victoria in 1840, the June 10 ceremony opened at 1:00 P.M. with a portal march led by parade marshals Otto Zylstra and John Romberg, United States, and Al Pratt and John Helmboldt, Canada. KGMI radio host Bill Quehrn, Bellingham, narrated.
Nick Stout, Troop One, Mount Vernon, and Jeffrey Bearden, Troop 36, Bellingham, launched the United States flag. Senior Scouts Curtis McLaren and Mark Egerton, 112th Carlton Troop, Vancouver, sent the Canadian flag skyward.
Ted King, president of the International Peace Arch Association, Deming, and Pat Webb, vice president, Surrey, welcomed the visitors.
“The Peace Arch, a Monument for all Time,” was the theme addressed by student speakers Jared A. Liebert, Blaine High School, and Michele Uytehaag, Surrey 4H Dairy Club.
Attending the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony were honor veterans Helen Hildebrand, American Ex-Prisoners of War, and Ian McLellan, Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans of Canada.
After the benediction was pronounced by Envoy John Schaeper, the traditional children’s flag exchange brought the 1990 program to a conclusion.
1991
Honoring the fiftieth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and the seventieth anniversary of the Peace Arch dedication, Grant Ward, Langley, served as master of ceremonies as parade marshals Gill Caffyn, Canada, and Otto Zylstra, United States, led marchers through the portal’s open gates.
Carla Wilks, Kingsway Rangers, Burnaby Royal Area, and Catherine Ann Deans, First British Columbia Cadets, hoisted the flag of Canada to the Peace Arch roof. Eagle Scouts Sean Moena and Nick Stout, Troop One, Mount Vernon, likewise sent the United States flag on its way.
Singing their national anthems were Colin Mason, White Rock, and Danielle Garnett, Puyallup, followed by Rev. J. Malcom Wilson, Anglican chaplain, Royal Mounted Police, who offered prayers for peace.
International Peace Arch Association President Dolly Greensides, Surrey, and vice president Richard Monacelli, Bellingham, welcomed the attendees.
“The Peace Arch—A Shining Example of Peace and Harmony,” was the topic addressed by student speakers Stephanie Michaluk, Hazelmere 4-H Horse Club, and Mike Dahl, Blaine High School, who called Samuel Hill a “big thinker.”
Honor veterans Bill Thompson, Canada, and Glenn Lane, United States, attended the traditional “Flowers for Peace” ceremony.
After Rev. Tom Purcell pronounced the benediction and the march-off of color guards and bands had concluded, the traditional flag exchange united children from both countries in the fellowship of sharing and the fun of trading their national symbols and souvenirs.
1992
Acting as master of ceremonies during the June 14 celebration, Don Snow, Blaine, narrated as the rituals opened with a parade through the portal led by marshals Otto Zylstra, United States, and Ernie Thompson, Canada.
Drums rolled while an unnamed Eagle Scout affiliated with the Mount Baker Council set the United States flag flowing toward the portal roofline. Venturers Garret and Ryner Lawlor, with the First Walnut Grove Venturer Company, accordingly acted on behalf of the flag of Canada.
John O’Connor, Seattle, sang “The Star Spangled Banner; Grant Ward, Langley, sang “O Canada.”
Commander David Young, Naval Air Station, Whidbey Island, offered prayers for peace.
Welcoming the crowd were International Peace Arch Association President Vi Lieb, Oak Harbor, and Vice President Dolly Greensides, Surrey.
“The Peace Arch—Carrying the Banner of Two Nations,” was the theme addressed by student speakers Lee Johnson, Blaine High School, and Stephanie Michaluk, Hazelmere 4-H Horse Club.
Honor veterans Oscar Gjertsen, Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, and Bill Thompson, Royal Canadian Legion, attended the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony.
After Blaine High School student Brent Johnson sounded “Taps” and “Last Post and Reveille,” the soloists sang “God Bless America” and “God Save the Queen.”
The event concluded with the benediction by Rev. Ross Connal, march-off of color guards and bands, and the children’s flag exchange.
Harmonious with the Peace Arch spirit is “Reconciliation,” the name given Canada’s Peace Keeping Monument, unveiled in Ottawa October 8, 1992. Construction of the $2.8 million monument began September 1991, during the seventieth anniversary of the Peace Arch dedication.
1993
The Peace Arch, under major repair, was covered by a tarpaulin. The author reported the following account to the Westside Record-Journal, published June 16, 1993.
“It is almost apropos that the Peace Arch should be covered this year,” said Master of Ceremonies Grant Ward, Langley, on the occasion of the monument’s 72nd anniversary Sunday afternoon [June 13].
Ward said Leslie Eggleton, Surrey, who died this year, had been a pillar of the Peace Arch Association for 45 years. He was Canadian secretary-treasurer at the time of his death. In remembrance of Eggleton’s service, he said the Peace Arch appeared draped as if in mourning.
An estimated 18,000 people gathered around the monument, covered for the first time since it was dedicated in 1921. Ward said repairs were urgently needed; damage was more extensive than anyone had realized.
“I’m only 17,” said Canadian speaker Debbie Flessa, Hazelmere, “but I have come to realize the Peace Arch is more than a picnic spot for recreation. It’s a symbol of freedom, peace, hope and love.”
She said it was built to commemorate 100 years of peace between Canada and the United States. “And 79 years later, we are still celebrating our peaceful co-existence.” This, in spite of arguments over free trade and fishing rights, she added.
Realizing how long the two nations have been at peace, she wondered why other nations cannot do the same—in some cases, even for a year.
She cautioned against taking the Peace Arch for granted, reminding her audience, “Samuel Hill left us a legacy to keep the peace and freedom the Peace Arch represents.”
“It’s not an impossible dream,” she said. “Who could have imagined the wall separating East and Wes Germany would one day come down?”
American Speaker and Blaine High Senior Adrian Newell said Samuel Hill had a vision to promote peace and good will. “He always sought to build up and not o tear down,” he said.
Newell said peace can exist between all nations if they will only build upon their likenesses and understand their differences.
“There are no hinges on the gates,” he said. “They were never intended to be closed. Think what it would be like if Canada and the United States had a hostile relationship. The Peace Arch represents ‘brethren dwelling together in unity.’ All nations and people should make Samuel Hill’s goal their own.”
The veterans growing ever older, presented their ceremonial “flowers for peace,” the bugle sounded the last post, reveille, and an echoed taps. The usual patriotic songs were sung, and children exchanged their flags.
The student theme was “The Peace Arch—Pointing the Way to the Future.”
Taking charge of the Canadian flag-raising ceremony were Lynn Ingeberg, Link, Otter District, Cheam Area, and Hayley Riesterer, First Fraser Delta Cadets. Jolene Busby and Amber Kerrer, Totem Council Girl Scouts of America, hoisted the United States flag.
Honor veterans Walter Beck, World War I and II, Canada, and Terry Corbett, Commander, Post 4760, Sequim, attended the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony.
Rev. Wilfred Sullivan, Surrey, rendered prayers for peace. Lt. Commander Dan E. Nichols, Naval Air Station, Whidbey, presented the benediction.
March-off of the color guards and bands was followed by the traditional children’s flag exchange.
1994
Parade marshals Otto Zylstra, United States, and Jim Holland, Canada, opened the June 12 ceremony, leading the many marching units through the portal while Don Snow, Custer, narrated the event.
Raising the United States flag were Eagle Scouts Ryan Knowlton and Nathaniel Williams. Matthew Leach and Trevor Brookshaw, 18th and 19th Sur-Del Scout Troop, raised Canada’s flag.
International Peace Arch Association President Vi Lieb, Oak Harbor, and Vice President Dollie Greensides, Cloverdale, welcomed those in attendance.
“The Peace Arch—An Awesome Sight to Behold,” was the theme addressed by student speakers Dan Burden, Blaine High School, Todd May, Richmond-Delta Holstein Club, and Hugh Roberts Jr., Richmond, B.C. Two Canadian students apparently tied in the contest for selecting speakers in 1994.
Honor veterans attending the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony were James Viskocil, Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, and Nora Fyfe, Royal Canadian Navy, World War II.
Warren Pugh, who offered a prayer for peace, also pronounced the benediction prior to the march-off of color guards and bands that preceded the children’s flag exchange.
1995
Honoring “Canada Remembers” and “A Grateful Nation Remembers,” campaigns commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the ending of World War II, the June 11 ceremony opened at 1:00 P.M., with a parade led by Canadian marshal Jim Holland and United States marshal Otto Zylstra.
Kristen Austring, First Semiahmoo Pathfinders, Peace Arch Area, and Julie Stevens, St. Roch Rangers, Burnaby Royal Area, were in charge of raising the Red Maple Leaf to the Arch roof. Dan Burden, Blaine Troop 14, Mount Baker Council and Brendan Rensink, Bellingham Troop 36, Mount Baker Council, hoisted the Stars and Stripes.
International Peace Arch Association President Dollie Greensides, Cloverdale, and Vice President Vi Lieb, Oak Harbor, extended welcomes to the attending devotees.
“O Canada” and “The Star Spangled Banner” were performed by the First Capital Barbershop Chorus, directed by Mike Wilcox. Later, they sang “Kum Ba Yah” and “Let there be Peace,” before closing with the traditional “God Save the Queen” and “God Bless America.”
Lisa May, Richmond-Delta Holstein Calf 4-H Club, and Matt Eller, Blaine High School, having won the annual student speaker contest, addressed the theme, “The Peace Arch—Beacon of Hope for Nations Remembering.”
Honor veterans John Hart, Royal Canadian Army, White Rock, and Ted King, Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Deming, attended the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony.
Mike Kirkelie, retired United States Army chaplain, Lynden, offered a prayer for peace before bringing the celebration to a close with a benediction. March-off of color guards and bands preceded the annual children’s flag exchange.
1996
“At a time when Canada and the U.S. are feuding over everything from salmon to Cuba, international relations are better at the tiny, often-ignored Peace Arch Park,” opined Harold Munro for the Vancouver Sun. “A joint Canada-U.S. committee has big plans to mark [the] 75th anniversary of the Peace Arch. . . .”
Attractively printed programs in gold, red, white and blue, were provided by the Rotary Club of Whatcom County North in honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Peace Arch dedication, September 6, 1921, celebrated June 9. The event, according to the Northern Light, “attracted a record-breaking number of boy and girl scouts and onlookers.”
Parade marshals Otto Zylstra, United States, and Jim Holland, Canada, led a march through the portal, narrated by Don Snow, master of ceremonies.
Rolling drums accompanied the lifting of the United States flag by Heather Harrison and Jessica Gunning, Girl Scouts Troop 1596, Auburn. Chief Scouts Ashley Fisher and Dustin Fettback, Langley Meadows Group, raised the flag of Canada as the drums continued rolling.
International Peace Arch Association President Jim Lieb, Oak Harbor, and Vice President Ian Dingwall, Langeley, welcomed the crowd.
Student speakers Eli Hanacek, Blaine High School, and Lisa May, Richmond-Delta Holstein Calf 4-H Club, addressed the theme, “The Peace Arch—Seventy-five Years of Friendship.”
State Commander Chuck Vitiritti, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Department of Washington, and Bill Hagan, Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 123, Seattle, were honor veterans in attendance at the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony.
Anthems and patriotic songs were sung by Warren Pugh, Lynden, and Grant Ward, Langley.
The children’s flag exchange succeeded the march-off of color guards and the 15th Field Artillery Canadian Army Militia Band and Mission Pipe Band, and Merlin Alcorn’s benediction. Alcorn, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ferndale, earlier offered a prayer for peace.
An additional celebration of the Peace Arch’s anniversary, sponsored by the United States Canada Peace Anniversary Association, aided with Blaine City Council funding, was held September 7. An impressive program, featuring dignitaries and musicians from both sides of the border, drew a light attendance due to uncooperative weather.
Elsewhere, after a two-year period of restoration, the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, was reopened December 2, 1996. Built of Nepean sandstone in 1927, its height is over 300 feet. It houses fifty-three bells played by means of a large keyboard, struck by human fists or feet, depending on the size of the bell.
1997
Honoring the sixtieth anniversary of the International Peace Arch Association, Canadian parade marshals Jim Holland and Nils Dahlgren, and United States marshals Otto Zylstra and George LaPold, led the traditional march through the portal. Traditionally, two parade marshals—one from each nation—led the marchers. Four appeared in 1997.
Carrie Steward, First Otter Senior Branch, Cheam Area, and Tanya Hillman, First Vancouver Cadet Unit, sent the flag of Canada aloft as it ascended toward the top of the Peace Arch. Kevin Smith, Knights of Columbus Troop 53, Monroe, and Matt Dierck, Masonic Troop 84, Marysville, launched the United States flag.
Welcoming attendees were International Peace Arch Association President Ian Dingwall, Langley, and Vice President Vi Lieb, Oak Harbor.
“The Peace Arch—A Tribute to All Peoples,” was the topic chosen for student speakers Lisa May, Hugh McRoberts High School, Richmond, and Julie Shoemaker, Meridian High School.
Joe Davis, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Legion, Cloverdale Branch Six, and State Commander Jane Adamson, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Department of Washington, were honor veterans attending the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony.
Rev. Kris Jensen, Cloverdale United Church, earlier offered a prayer for peace. At the ceremony’s conclusion he pronounced the benediction, followed by the march-off of color guards and bands, and the children’s flag exchange.
1998
Whatcom County Executive Pete Kremen, master of ceremonies, narrated the June 14 celebration, launched by United States parade marshals Otto Zylstra and George LaPold, and Canadian marshals Jim Holland and Nils Dahlgren, as thousands of celebrants marched through the portal.
Honored to attend the solemn call to colors were Ben Rhodes, Eagle Scout Troop 19, Bellingham, and Kin Snider, Eagle Scout Troop 36, Bellingham, who raised the United States flag. Brent McKenzie, Sixth West Whalley Venturers, and Craig Mutchler, Fourth West Whalley Scouts, raised the flag of Canada.
George LaPold and Mary Holtz, vice presidents of the United States and Canadian sections, International Peace Arch Association, welcomed the crowd.
Addressing the theme, “The Peace Arch—A Symbol of Two Nations in Unity,” were United States youth speaker Brett Venn, Nooksack Valley High School, and Canadian youth speaker Katie De Jong, Surrey 4-H Dairy Calf Club.
American honor veteran Col. Joe Jackson, holder of the Congressional medal of honor, Air Force, Tacoma, and Canadian honor veteran Gordon Woods, Army, Navy, and Air Force Veteran, Vancouver, attended the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony.
Virgil (Skip) Suess, Good News Fellowship Church, Ferndale, Washington, offered prayers prior to the usual march-off and flag exchange.
1999
Five marshals were in charge of the June 13 parade: Rob Gardener and Jim Holland, Canada, and Otto Zylstra, Bob Hines, and Nils Dahlgren, United States. Mary Holz, Surrey, vice president of the International Peace Arch Association, Canadian section, was master of ceremonies.
Ascending colors are a major feature of every celebration. Katrina Long, Blue Heron Ranger, Peace Arch Area; Jenny Zeigler, Eighth Richmond Pathfinders, Fraser Delta Area; Eagle Scouts Matt Stewart and Kyle Gebhardt, Troop 21, Mount Baker Council, were honored to send the flags skyward.
After Rev. Jim Fergusson, St. Mark’s Anglican Church, offered prayers for peace, International Peace Arch Association President Grant Ward, Langley, and Vice President George LaPold, Lynden, welcomed their audience.
Student speakers Ryan Pugsley, Chilliwack 4-H Club, and Josh Zender, Mount Baker High School, addressed the topic, “The Peace Arch—A Symbol of Strength, Hope and Faith.”
Attending the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony were honor veterans Ted Scriven, Royal Army, Royal Canadian Legion Branch 229, and Marvin Jordan, retired Army chaplain.
Rev. Jim Fergusson pronounced the benediction, followed by the traditional march-off of color guards and bands, and the children’s flag exchange.
2000
Langley resident Grant Ward, vice president of the International Peace Arch Association’s Canadian section, was master of ceremonies during the June 11 ceremony that opened with a parade through the portal led by Canadian marshals Rob Gardener and Ralph Janisse, and United States marshals Bob Hines and Nils Dahlgren.
The call to colors, dramatized every year by rolling drums, drew celebrant eyes skyward as Craig Mutchler and Ryan Tardif, Fourth West Whalley Troop, Fraser Valley Region, tugged the Red Maple Leaf to its resting place atop the arch. Matt Stewart and John Hoyt, Troop 21 and 12, Mount Baker Area Council Eagle Scouts, rendered the same service for the Stars and Stripes.
After Mary Holz, president of the International Peace Arch Association, and George LaPold, American section vice president, welcomed those in attendance, the youth speakers delivered their messages.
Addressing the theme, “Hands Across the Border—Into the 21st Century,” Ryan Pugsley, Chilliwack 4-H Horse Club, was first to speak, followed by Kevin Hastings, student of Blaine High School.
Canadian Honor Veteran Gordon Woods, Army, Navy, Air Force Veterans, Unit 34, and United States Honor Veteran Otto Zylstra, Post 7, American Legion, attended the “Flowers of Peace” veteran’s ceremony.
Prayers offered by Rev. Richard Hall, Chaplain, Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 17, Comox Valley, preceded dismissal of the marchers, with remaining time dedicated to the children’s flag exchange.
2001
Warren Pugh, Lynden, narrated the June 10 ceremony as United States parade marshals Bob Hines and Ken Gulliksen, and Canadian marshals Ken Harvey and Jim Holland led the march through the open-gated portal.
Rolling drums accompanied the climbing colors attended by Amanda Johansen and Ainsley Nix, Troop 89, Blaine, and Elaine Biehl, First Ceder Shadow Guides, and Courtney Eastman, Royal East Lake Rangers.
Rev. Wolfgang Schweder, Lynden, offered a prayer for peace, preceding a welcome by International Peace Arch Association President Stan Lieb, Oak Harbor, and Vice President Sue Head, Canadian section, Abbotsford.
Student speakers Jeremy Schweder, Lynden High School, and Brittany Hubbard, Langley, addressed the topic, “The Peace Arch—Two Countries—Common Goal.”
Honor veterans Carl Hamm, American Legion, Post Seven, Bellingham, and Arthur O’Neil, Royal Canadian Navy, attended the “Flowers for Peace” ceremony.
After Rev. Wolfgang Schweder pronounced the benediction, the march-off of color guards and bands preceded the children’s flag exchange.
2002
The following account, reported by the author, appeared in the June 12 edition of the Record-Journal:
The Peace Arch celebration of June 9, 2002 was a moving event. Emotion transcending the beauty of a cloudless day moved the hearts of thousands gathered around the great monument that afternoon. Awareness of the tragedy of those twin towers that fell beneath the ruthless attacks of mad terrorists cast a dark pall over the crowd.
Not long after the march through the portal had begun, a bald eagle flew westward over the United States of America. Seen by one, that powerful but graceful bird was seen by all. A spontaneous cheer peppered with applause spilled over the crowd. Courage displaced the dark pall at 1:21 p.m.
With this year’s celebration assigned to Canadian members of the International Peace Arch Association, President Sue Head’s suggestion that the September 11, 2001 tragedy ought to be translated by the theme, “Children Helping Children,” was a concept heartily endorsed by board members living on both sides of the border. It went well. For the first time, children donated food for the needy.
During the June 1952 celebration, just nine months after the Soviet Union announced its first nuclear bomb test, New Westminster soprano Lila McCormik sang, “Where the Peace Arch Stands,” a premier performance composed by D.L. Heywood, and Canadian park architect John Booth, lyricist. Fifty years passed. Then nine months after the towers fell in New York City, soprano Christina Alexander, founder of the United States Canada Peace Anniversary Association, sang her fitting composition, “Children of a Common Mother” [also entitled “Standing Tall,” and “The Peace Arch Anthem,” see Appendix B]. It was a moving moment that introduced the traditional ascension of the flags, slowly rising 67 feet to the portal roof.
Youth speaker Becky DeJong, a grade ten student of Holy Cross High School, Surrey, ably addressed the “Children Helping Children” theme. The United States speaker was absent.
“They tell you that school’s important,” she began. “And don’t get me wrong, of course school’s important. But I still go by that old saying, ‘Everything I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.’”
Consider a few excerpts that promoted adult thinking that afternoon.
“When I look back, I see how right kids really are, and how much they can teach us, who have forgotten the simplicity of living lives of peace.
“I remember when I was a bit younger, and I would hear political problems on the news, I would sigh, and shake my head at the craziness of adults. I thought to myself, ‘If kids ruled the world, everything would be simple.’ Of course, now that I look back, I can see that my ideas about free chocolate and candy for everyone were a bit unrealistic, but I can also see that there is some truth in that logic. Kids are not greedy, not power hungry, friends and family are always more important than money, and their ideas about peace are usually right on.
“If we don’t let the world’s fascination with money and power corrupt us, their simple lessons will continue to guide our two great nations, ensuring that our friendship remains strong and that these gates are never closed,” she concluded. “This strength will allow us to lead the world into a future of peace, harmony and friendship, with our nations’ children leading the way.”
An emotional summit was expressed during the Flowers for Peace ceremony led by Canadian honor veteran Dan Lee, with his wreath bearer Charley Lee and escort Roy Breitkriecz, and American honor veteran William Schrier with his wreath bearer Lee Compton and escort Ray Isakson.
Warren Pugh, of Lynden, Washington, a Peace Arch Association board member with an unyielding sense of humor, acted as master of ceremonies and vocalist.
Printed programs were “streamlined” that year. The traditional “march-off” and “children’s flag exchange” were not cited, nor were those who offered the prayers and benediction. For years the “march-off” had been taken for granted, and the flag exchange reduced to an informal appendage since 1973.
2003
This year’s annual celebration bore the theme, “Freedom and Friendship.” Astronaut George Nelson, honored guest, participated in the veteran’s wreath ceremony. The author covered the story for the Record-Journal.
“Almost all friendships go through difficulties occasionally. In fact, it is often said that a friendship is only weak and superficial until it has stood the test of time and has weathered all of its storms,” said Canadian speaker Nicole Van Zanten, representing Surrey Dairy 4-H at Sunday’s annual Peace Arch Celebration.
Perhaps she was mindful of her country’s decision to abide by the United Nations ruling during the Iraq war. But she gave no hints; examples were not important. Warmth of international friendship graced her audience, supplemented by a United States colleague and a sunny afternoon.
“The relationship between Canada and the United States is no exception,” she continued. “Like all good friends, we have had our minor disputes and differences; it wouldn’t be natural if we didn’t. In the midst of our differences, however, we remember that we share a unique bond.”
“Having such a close relationship with a neighbor country is very important,” said Blaine High School junior Amber Rucker. “If we didn’t have such a great connection between the United States and Canada, many opportunities would have been lost. Many of us travel between the two countries, enjoying all aspects that they both have to offer. Having this growing friendship makes life easier and happier for many.”
The Peace Arch parking lot was filled before noon, and the parade lasted an hour before the American and Canadian flags were raised, signaling the formalities of song and speech moderated by Gail Kilmer, New Westminster.
* * *
The Annual Peace Arch Celebration, informally known as “Hands Across the Border,” still held on the second Sunday of each June, draws thousands of visitors every year. Still sponsored by the International Peace Arch Association, the events continue to include marches through the portal, raising of the flags, national anthems of both countries, youth speakers, and “Flowers for Peace,” a veterans’ ceremony.
“Hands Across the Border” has been a chosen theme in additional contexts. The Peace Arch Toastmistress Club of Blaine invited Aldergrove’s Halkomelen Club to a dinner meeting in 1974 where the theme, “Hands Across the Border” was shared. The Washington State Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Club chose “Hands Across the Border” for a large, carefully planned international meeting at the park held September 14, 1975—an event that concluded with the planting of an Atlantica cedar tree in remembrance of International Women’s Year 1975.The annual “International Hands Across the Border” picnic sponsored by the Extension Homemaker Clubs of Whatcom County and the British Columbia Women’s Institute of the Lower Fraser Valley assembled initially at the Peace Arch in 1950.
This, then, is the celebratory routine that has evolved since the Peace Arch’s early history.
Islendinga Midsumarmot and Islendingadagurinn: Icelandic Picnics
Icelandic families in Canada were aware of popular Icelandic picnics held each summer in Gimli, Manitoba. Impressed, Icelanders living in Victoria, Vancouver, Bellingham and Blaine set out to enhance their celebrations by assembling internationally. In the July 17, 1941 edition of the Blaine Journal, a full-page announcement was introduced with bold print:
ANNUAL ISLENDINGA MIDSUMARMOT
To be held at
International Peace Arch Park
Sunday, July 27, 1941
“Big plans are being made for the annual Islendinga Midsumarmot, which, this year, is to be held in the International Peace Arch Park in order that Canadians may attend without the use of passports,” explained the Journal. “Dr. Richard Beck of the University of North Dakota has been secured as the principal speaker, and he is deemed to be one of the best authorities in America on Iceland and the cultural heritage of its people.” Icelandic residents of Victoria, Point Roberts and Blaine were well represented at that event.
The Vancouver Daily Province, having covered the event, noted Alderman H.D. Wilson, Vancouver, and Arthur B. Langlie, governor of Washington, were additional speakers. Taking cues from Wilson’s speech, the newspaper stated, “The first parliament, or ‘Althung’ of Iceland was founded August 2, 980 A.D., by a group which went to Iceland to escape the tyranny of Harold the Fair-headed, King of Norway. Prior to this, settlers had arrived from Scotland and Ireland. Alderman Wilson stressed the benefits which had accrued to Iceland since the founding of the first democratic parliament.” Later, he “revealed the interesting fact that in Iceland there are more poets and artists per capita than in any other country.”
These midsummer Icelandic picnics, previously held in Blaine’s Lincoln Park, and traceable to 1928 or earlier, were later called the Islendingadagurinn—Day of the Icelanders. Unaffected by the World War II years, the picnics continued without interruption. “In his address, Minister Thors remarked that back in 1938, Hitler approached the Icelandic government with a request to be permitted to install airports and landing fields in Iceland for scientific purposes, but that Island had emphatically refused the request,” reported the Blaine Journal, upon covering the 1942 Peace Arch picnic.
July 25, 1943 marked the largest attendance on record; “1,000 or more in attendance,” reported the Journal. “It took thirty auto trips over to Cloverdale to bring the Vancouver and New Westminster crowd to the park, but everyone was transported in due time.”
By year 1944, the Islendingadagurinn was assuming a new name, understandable to English-speaking people. The Blaine Journal simply referred to the July 30 Sunday event as an Icelandic picnic. Three countries were represented that year: L.H. Thorlakson, vice counsul from Iceland to Canada, Hon. Mr. Carson, minister of mines of British Columbia, and Dr. W.W. Haggard, president of Western Washington College of Education, who brought greetings from Gov. Arthur B. Langlie.
Attendance was well maintained with 800 reported present for the August 2, 1945 gathering. Sveinbjorn Johnson of Chicago, former attorney general of North Dakota, had to cancel his appreance, but Andrew Danielson, program chair, read his speech.
Postwar reports thinned. No news releases could be found from 1946 through 1951, but Prof. Halldor Karason, a former Blaine boy teaching psychology at Western Washington College of Education, participated in the picnic held July 24, 1952.Keynote speaker Prof. Finnbogi Gudmundson, addressed the topic, “Raeoa [sic], Minni Islands.” Perhaps a typo concealed the topic, “Faroe: Little Iceland.”
Little more is known, other than the fact the annual picnic continued, with people from Vancouver, Blaine, Bellingham and Seattle in attendance Sunday, July 26, 1953 “at beautiful Peace Arch Park.”
No press coverage could be found for years 1954 and 1955, but the July 29, 1956 picnic hosted speakers Eirikur Brynjolfsson, Vancouver, B.C., and T. Asmundson, Bellingham. Up to 700 gathered at the park June 28, where H.S. Thorlakson, former Icelandic consul in Vancouver, received the cross of the Icelandic Falcon.
News of the 1957 event could not be found, but Bellingham Mayor John Westford was reported to have addressed the picnickers July 27, 1958.
The 1959 gathering included guest speakers Prof. Halldor Karason of Western Washington College of Education and Rev. Kolbeinn Saemundson, Seattle. The Breidford quartet presented several selections. No record of the 1960 event could be found.
Keynote speaker T.B. Asmundson, Bellingham, addressed those gathered to celebrate Iceland Day July 30, 1961. Additional speakers included Dr. and Mrs. Sveinn Bjornson, White Rock, and Stefan Eymundson, Vancouver, B.C. Tani Bjornson, Seattle, was the guest soloist. Elias Breidford, Blaine, directed community singing.
Noted were the distances from which guests had come for the July 29, 1962 annual picnic. Iceland, Chicago, New York, Michigan, North Dakota, Saskatchewan and Ontario were among the cities, states and provinces named. Mrs. Wilbur Freeman accompanied the chorus.
Icelandic poetry was the keynote theme delivered by by Halldor Karason, professor from Western Washington State College, during the summer Islendingadagurinn of 1963. He presented historic sketches of Iceland poets Bjarni Thorarinson, Jonas Hallgrimson and Mattias Jukumson, bringing his speeches to a climax by translating Iceland’s national anthem, “O Gud Vors Lands,” into English.
M.K. Sigurdson of Vancouver, B.C. presented a 1964 keynote speech dedicated to Iceland’s industrial modernization, improvements in educational institutions, and an upgrading of its living standards. Singing and poetry, as usual, were important features, followed by the annual picnic. Attendance had declined that year.
The Icelandic Day Committee, like the International Peace Arch Association, drew members from both sides of the border. Einar Simonarson, Lynden; G.P. Johnson, Ed Johnson and Elias Breidford were board members in 1965. Again, like the International Peace Arch Association, guest speakers were sometimes drawn from afar. Keynote speaker Richard Beck from Grand Forks, North Dakota, addressed the annual assembly July 25, 1965.
The yearly emphasis on the quality of Icelandic culture rang year after year. Consider the 1966 address by Rev. Harold Sigmar, guest speaker from Vancouver, Washington, who, according to the Blaine Journal, “enumerated three special things that he had found of value and interest in Iceland during his two-year stay there with his family. The first was the intellectual and cultural interest found among the people of Reykjavik and every part of Iceland. The second was the intellectual integrity and emotional honesty and lack of social deception among the people. The third was the intellectual independence and freedom of thought found in Iceland. Rev. Sigmar stressed his love for the heritage of freedom and concluded his address with the whispered blessing in Icelandic, ‘Gud blessi ikkur oll,’ meaning ‘May life make all of you truly happy.’” Attendance was estimated at 400 participants.
Although the record appears to indicate the first Icelandic Day picnic was held in the summer of 1941, year 1967 was chosen to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the gathering. Some picnics were likely not covered by the press. It is possible that an event may have been cancelled, particularly during the late 1940s when the polio epidemic was spreading, especially in British Columbia. Held July 30, the picnic also celebrated “the 80th anniversary of the Icelandic settlement in Washington and British Columbia.”
The summer of 1969 may have introduced a new trend. “Presentation of the Blossom Time Queen of Whatcom County and her attendants by Darlene McNutt, a first-time event on this program, adds an interesting highlight,” noted the Blaine Journal. Characteristic of the late sixties, Icelandic values, like those of the larger society in which Icelanders found themselves, may have undergone subtle changes, bringing greater attention to people and places beyond their heritage. Notable, too, were two addresses given by Vancouver residents; the first, given by Gunnar O. Eggertson, was in English. Only the second by M.K. Sigurdson, was in Icelandic. Moreover, the performing Vancouver Choral Society was unlikely to be of Icelandic origin.
If there was any price to pay for the reduction of such ethnocentrism, it may lie with the fact no further Icelandic Day picnics were recorded until 1972. Picnic notices appeared in the 1973 and 1974 Westside Record-Journal, and a 1975 report was more detailed than usual: “With the weather in one of its finest moods Sunday [July 20s, 1975], Peace Arch Park was the scene of hundreds of people enjoying family and club picnics,” reported the newspaper. “Foremost among the gatherings was one on the Canadian side where a tour group of 180 people from Iceland were given a buffet picnic dinner. This was hosted jointly by the Icelandic Canadian Club of Vancouver, B.C.; the Icelandic Club of Seattle and the Icelandic Committee of Blaine, the Freyja Club of Bellingham and the Stafholt Auxiliary of Blaine.”
Reflection marked the 1978 picnic. Picnic enthusiast Elias Breidford had “a program dating back to 1928 when J.M. Johnson was the choir director, Thordis Veum was the Fjalikona, Andrew Danielson was the master of ceremonies and Blaine Mayor M.A. Keys gave the welcome address.”
Noted the July 26 edition of the Westside Record-Journal:
It used to be that arrangements included long drawn-out programs that lasted all afternoon with many species by noted speakers from Winnipeg, Canada, and cities in the US. There was also much music with many voiced choirs and a “Fjalikona” (Maid of the Mountains) who had her place among the special guests.
Those old days are gone but still remembering them are the few old timers who remain in Blaine. Ninna Stevens, soloist and director of many choirs, and Elias Breidford, also soloist and director of many choirs for the event.
Elias still has a program dating back to 1928 when J.M. Johnson was the choir director, Thordis Veum was the Fjalikona, Andrew Danielson was the master of ceremonies and Blaine Mayor M.A. Keys gave the welcome address.
There is also the memory of the Ladies Aids who in those days and later, contributed their services in serving the big dinners using the proceeds to help their churches and the community.
Maybe those “Good Old Days” are gone but the memories of fun and fellowship linger on.
Once again the Icelanders will gather at Peace Arch Park for their annual Icelandic Day picnic, Sunday, July 30 at 1 p.m. There will be coffee and cake during the afternoon.
Einar Simonarson, head of the Blaine committee, says he has already received letters from far away as Wapata enquiring about the picnic, and usually there are visitors from Seattle and far south as California and also from the Canadian prairies.
The 1980 picnic was noted in the Westside Record-Journal, but “only a small group of Icelanders gathered at Peace Arch Park for the annual picnic Sunday” July 27, although “people came from Vancouver, B.C., Bellingham, Lynden, Ferndale, Edmonds and Blaine.” Greater than the 1981 event that followed, was that of July 25, 1982 picnic, when newspaper contributor Allie Johnson, Blaine, reported seventy participants plus seventy-eight additional guests from Seattle.
The picnics were recorded through the summer of 1992. Since 1928, when Icelandic picnics were first held at Lincoln Park, Blaine, and since 1941, when the picnics were relocated at the Peace Arch, the annual celebrations concluded in 1992 or during a year not long after.
Trees Across the Border: An International Junior Fire Wardens’ Meeting
Amid the rumble and trumpeting of the Royal Air Corps Cadet Drum and Bugle Corps and the Drum and Bugle Corps of Bellingham, assembled at the Peace Arch on June 20, 1943, the Junior Fire Wardens of British Columbia and Washington state marched through the portal “for an international demonstration of goodwill.”
Harold Lant, president of the Bellingham Rotary, presented the keynote speech, while C.R. Wilkinson, representing the Forest Service of British Columbia, directed the program, complete with the planting of two trees—one on each side of the border. Calling the event “Trees Across the Border,” the Vancouver Sun noted: “Two hundred Junior Forest Wardens from Blaine and Vancouver took part in the ceremony. Each group planted a fir seedling on the other’s soil.”
Although the Sun had earlier announced that “one hundred Vancouver wardens, representing the 15,000 red-shirted lads now organized in clubs throughout the province, will leave by Great Northern train for Blaine at 9 a.m.,” the Blaine Journal published a complaint. Hope for ensuing tourist trade in Blaine was squelched that day because “the Great Northern train was necessarily stopped on the Canadian side for disembarkation as the sponsors had neglected to make arrangements allowing them emigration privilege from Canada.” They were forbidden to leave the park grounds.
A. Wells Gray, provincial minister of lands, attended the ceremony, where he had hoped formally to announce the purchase of 5.74 acres of property purchased from the nearby Semiahmoo band, for enlargement of Canada’s portion of Peace Arch Park. If the purchase succeeded and the announcement occurred, it wasn’t mentioned by the press.
Centennial Celebration of the June 15, 1846 Oregon Boundary Treaty
“In order to understand clearly what led to the Treaty of June 15, 1846, between Great Britain and the United States, whereby the forty-ninth parallel became the boundary line west of the Rocky Mountains, it is necessary to give a brief historical review of what had been done in discovery, in exploration, and in occupation, so that we may have a fair perspective of the claims of the contending nations,” wrote Otto Klotz in his essay, The Forty-ninth Parallel, prepared for the International Peace Arch Program Association in the spring of 1965.
Certainly, Klotz spoke the truth, but the historical review must be left for this book’s readers extensively to explore. It’s a long story. Suffice it to say the second boundary marker dedicated to the remembrance of that treaty was erected in Peace Arch Park exactly one-hundred years later—the first, an impressive stone obelisk, was constructed near the western shore of Point Roberts in 1861, or eighty-five years earlier.
June 15, 1946 was a rainy Saturday at the Peace Arch. Nevertheless, thousands attended the event, where Washington State Representative Henry M. Jackson set the thematic tone with his opening remarks reported by Don Gooding, longtime staff writer for the Bellingham Herald: “This event does far more than commemorate the end of one century of peace: it heralds the beginning of another,” the congressman was reported to have said. “I do not think an arch of this kind is to be seen anywhere else in the world. At a time when the world has just emerged from the most terrible holocaust of war since the dawn of civilization, this Peace Arch is a symbol of hope, a fact of tremendous implication because it pints a course towards amity between all nations. Our forebears laid the foundation for an empire of such durable texture that it bids fair to stand for all time, because they set for themselves a goal of peace and progress rather than arrogance and violence.”
Recorded in detail was the celebration according to the June 20, 1946 edition of the Blaine Journal:
An international assemblage of people estimated at anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 witnessed the unveiling of the International Boundary Monument marking the hundredth anniversary of the Oregon Treaty that permanently established the boundary line between Canada and the United States.
The centennial celebration managed by the Washington State Historical Society and the Historical Association of British Columbia was initiated by a dinner tendered invited guests from British Columbia and from Washington and to Blaine home folks by the Blaine Chamber of Commerce, at which President Andrew Danielson presided.
President Danielson officially opened the dinner hour by a clap of his gavel, and he ten gave a short talk on behalf of the chamber. He then asked H.S. Helgason to lead the assembly in singing one verse of “America.”
The dinner menu consisted of Boundary Bay crab cocktail, Blaine vegetable salad, baked Puget Sound spring salmon, Point Roberts scalloped potatoes, Ferndale green peas, Peppett strawberries and Lynden ice cream, with rolls and the usual relishes, tea and coffee.
Prepared under the culinary art and science of Mr. and Mrs. C.T. Goff, with the assistance of other members of the Congregational Church, service was directed from a large table at the east end of the gymnasium on which were the electrical bakers in which the salmon had been baked, ala Goff style.
Through the carefully detailed organization everyone at the tables was served with fifteen minutes from the time grace was pronounced, and everything went on the table piping hot. Many fine compliments were received from the distinguished guests on the quality of the dinner and extra fine service. The tables had been beautifully decorated with numerous vases of roses and other homegrown garden flowers, and the seating arrangement was ideal.
The stage curtain was beautifully hung with flags of the two countries with the flag of our northern neighbors given special prominence. White pedestals were topped with baskets of flowers on each side of the stage, all of which was fronted by two silken American flags in standards.
The after dinner speeches were confined to an address of welcome by Mayor George Borden and responses by Willard Ireland of the British Columbia Archives and Tom Swayzie, of Tacoma, co-chairman of the International Centennial event, all of whom were introduced by M.H. Hollinger, vice president of the chamber.
Many distinguished guests were at the dinner table, among them being Lieut. Governor Vic Meyers, Secretary of State Belle Reeves, Tom Martin, Director of Washington Sate Parks; Chapin Foster, Director of the State Historical Society; Captain Sobieralski of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Senator A.E. Edwards, Dr. Theodore Rasmussen, National Committeeman of the American Legion; Col. And Mrs. Howard A. Hanson of Seattle; George Ekvall, State Parks Architect; Thomas Swayze, Co-Chairman of the Centennial event, and Mrs. Swayze; James Green, Commander of Washington District American Legion and J.E. Colder of Montesano, Washington National Committee of the American Legion.
Among the distinguished guests from our neighboring country were Willard Ireland, Co-Chairman of the International Centennial; Mayor and Mrs. Cornet of Vancouver; Mayor Percy George of Victoria; Mayor and Mrs. William Mott of New Westminster; George Brine, City Clerk and Mrs. Brine of New Westminster; Dr. Sage and Hon. George Wier of University of British Columbia, G.A. Morrison, Reeve, and Mrs. Morrison of Burnaby; J.L. Archibald, Reeve, and Mrs. Archibald of Cloverdale.
Following the dinner service the guests proceeded to the International Park where a large platform had been prepared by Park Superintendents McKenzie and Barbeau, facing along the International boundary line to the east, with the Cairn, which marks the event, placed at approximately 250 feet from the Arch, screened behind beautiful flags of the two countries.
Following a concert by the Canadian Eleventh District Military Band, the program was opened with a word picture of the setting and inspiration of the event, which was followed by Delbert Anderson singing “Goddess of Liberty,” an inspiring song equally applicable to both countries, after which the Honorable Henry M. Jackson, who had arrived by plane just in time for the program, was introduced and spoke of the influence of the Peace Arch and the Centennial upon the world, and said, “This event does more than commemorate one century of peace; it heralds the beginning of another. At a time the world has just emerged from the most terrible war since creation, this Peace Arch is a symbol of hope, because it points a course of true amity between all nations.”
Following Congressman Jackson, the Honorable George Wier of Victoria, representing Premier John Hart of British Columbia, spoke on the enduring peace existing between the two countries and the example it sets for all countries of the world.
Lieut. Governor Victor Meyers spoke in equally enthusiastic terms of the great importance of the event, and the fact that the entire world must come to such a world understanding of peace as exists between Canada and the United States.
To the strains of soft music by the Fort Lewis Military Band, Dr. M.W. Gage of the University of British Columbia and Captain A.M. Sobieralski of the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey stepped to the draped cairn and reverently drew back the two national flags which had up to then hidden it from public view.
Just a plain, modest monument solidly set on a foundation deeply imbedded in the ground, and located on the international border in line with the previous official monuments, the cairn stands as a marker to 100 years of peace and agreement between two great nations that stand for personal liberty and world peace. Bronze plaques are later to be attached to either side of the granite bearing suitable inscriptions of the occasion.
Following the speaking and unveiling ceremonies, a great file of veterans from both World Wars, together with members of the auxiliary organizations, a club of colorfully uniformed veterettes [sic] of Bellingham, and Boy Scouts were led by that splendid state prize winning organization, the Drum and Bugle Corps of Alex J. Hamilton Post of Bellingham and a splendid and inspiring array of color bearers from various posts in western Washington, marched from American soil through the massive Arch into Canada; after which, an equally imposing file of Canadian color bearers, war veterans, servicemen, New Westminster Sea Cadets and Boy Scouts led by the Pipers Band of New Westminster and Frazer River Valley, stepped blithely through the portals of the Arch, onto American soil.
Carefully arranged maneuvers then brought the two files around the front of the reviewing stand, where the massed colors of the two sister countries presented a picture of lasting inspiration to the vast assemblage.
Following the formal program, Mrs. Fowles directed a group of girls in a flag drill.
Left to be remembered by a stone monument unveiled, a highly significant day in the history of the Peace Arch had been witnessed that water-soaked Saturday. Explanatory bronze plaques, commemorating the crucial treaty of a century gone by, were placed upon the monument and dedicated November 8, 1947. Further discussion may be found in chapter six.
International Chess Matches
Although the British Columbia Chess Federation and the Puget Sound Chess League had previously held two matches in Mount Vernon, Washington, and one in Vancouver, B.C., the Sunday of August 17, 1947 saw “a spectacular international match played under the shadows of the Peace Arch.”
Elaborate plans were initiated for the fourth match. With up to 100 competitors expected, preparation included placing a white tape along the boundary line with rows of chess tables placed on each side. British Columbia’s players were instructed to sit on the Canadian side, and Washington players were required to sit on the United States side. Top players on one side of the tape faced top players on the other side.
The state performers wore Uncle Sam carnival hats, while the provincial performers wore maple leaf equivalents. Included, too, were some elaborate chess sets. James Cramer, editor of the Blaine Journal, “who has a set of hand-fashioned ‘overgrown’ chessmen with the blacks having been made from ‘badland’ juniper gathered from the ranch territory owned and operated by Teddy Roosevelt during his youthful ranching activities in the Dakota badlands, has been invited to provide this set of men and the four foot board that it takes to accommodate them for use at one of the head tables.”
“A beautiful replica of the Peace Arch constructed of white oak, highly polished, and to the most minute detail, including all lettering, will be awarded to the winning side to be retained until the next formal meeting of the two federations,” reported the July 3 Blaine Journal. Vancouver resident Ed Purrott made the trophy. “Arthur Dale of Portland, Oregon, one of the America’s masters, who has represented America at the international chess tournaments in Moscow, has tentatively accepted Puget Sound Federation’s invitation to attend this international match providing a suitable opponent can be secured from Canada for him, and the B.C. federation is making an effort to secure a noted master from Toronto to top the event.”
The trophy was presented to the Canadians, who beat the United States participants 16 ½ to 13 ½.
“My good friend, R.C. Cannon, president of the Skagit County Chess Club of Mount Vernon, Washington, said in one of his letters, and I heartily agree with him, ‘What we can show all the countries of the world in these troubled times, in international goodwill, together with living in peace and harmony and good fellowship is far more important than a mere chess tournament. We have a theme before us which, through the medium of chess, can well be copied by others,’” said D. Creemer, president of the British Columbia Chess Federation, as quoted by the Blaine Journal.
Twelve years later, another chess match was reported in the July 30, 1959 edition of the Journal. “Another one of the international chess matches was held at the Canadian Peace Arch park kitchen Sunday, when some forty tables were arranged for the individual seeded matches,” reported the Blaine Journal, July 30, 1959. “The match was between players from Washington and British Columbia, and the play was supplemented with a basket lunch. These international matches have been conducted intermittently for the past 12 or 15 years with honors going first to one side and then to the other.”
Memorial Ceremonies
The American Legion’s Tribute to Fallen Soldiers
By year 1948, postwar remembrances of fallen soldiers and movements dedicated to world peace grew, increasingly gracing the Peace Arch as a favored setting for relevant activities. “For the first time since the war, the American Legion of Whatcom County met at the Peace Arch on Sunday, May 30, to pay respects in a solemn ceremony to the departed soldiers of this country,” began a front-page story in the June 6, issue of Bellingham Progress. “This year, joining the American Legion groups and other veterans, were the Canadian Legion Posts from lower British Columbia.”
Although it had not been customary to hold a service of this kind there, an attendance estimated at 1,000 gathered from both sides of the border.
The Hon. William M. Mott, mayor of New Westminster “spoke of the fine tribute of Canadians in helping to observe the war dead of their fellow neighbors south of the border,” reported the Blaine Journal, published June 3, 1948.
Bruce T. Rinker, a Bellingham attorney, presented the main address. He highlighted the permanent peace stretching over 3,000 miles of unguarded border. “In the future we must take a forward place in the vanguard of nations,” he was reported to have said. “It is our duty with our economy still intact to assist other nations in the task of rebuilding, just as one would give succor to brothers or neighbors in distress. We as sister nations must point the way to friendly relations between peoples based on mutual respect which we so long have enjoyed.”
A wreath was placed at the foot of the arch, eight men aimed their rifles skyward and fired a solemn salute, and bands from both nations performed “America” and “God Save the King,” while the audience sang.
Remembering President John F. Kennedy, Victim of an Assassin’s Bullets
An international memorial service was held at the park November 25, 1963, in honor of President John Kennedy, who had succumbed to an assassin’s bullets three days earlier. Lyle Kemp, commander of the American Legion’s Peace Arch Post 86, and Alfred J. Naigle, colonel in charge of the U.S. Air Force Station at Birch Bay took swift action to arrange the ceremony.
“The gathering was international in flavor with many persons of prominence from Vancouver, White Rock and Surrey Municipality of British Columbia, and from Blaine and the Blaine Air Force Station, Ferndale and Sumas in attendance,” noted the Blaine Journal.
Sir Winston Churchill’s International Memorial Service
Sir Winston Churchill, born November 30, 1874, gained his fame early, after he, as a correspondent captured in the heat of the Boer War, successfully escaped and was dubbed a hero. But is fame reached its zenith when he, then Great Britain’s prime minister, played a dynamic role in leading his people and their allies to victory over Nazi Germany at the conclusion of World War II.
After Churchill succumbed to a stroke at age 90, the Canadian Legion of White Rock and the American Legion of Blaine and Sumas held a memorial service January 20, 1965 at the Peace Arch.
“The Canadian Legion was represented by the White Rock color guard, Legion officers, Mayor Douglas and the White Rock band,” noted the Blaine Journal. “The American Legion was represented by Peace Arch Post officers, its color guard, a marching unit and firing squad from the Blaine Air Force, a color guard from the Sumas Post, and Vernon C. McDonald, who gave a short talk on the importance of Churchill to history. Mayor Douglas also gave a short talk fitting the occasion.”
Due to short notice, attendance was low. Nevertheless, it was a fitting tribute that included the solemn laying of a wreath and Taps.
An International Farmers’ Meeting
After the annual meeting of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, held May 27 to June 11, 1949 at the Ontario Agricultural College, in Guelph had concluded, about seventy of the delegates decided to visit Vancouver and Seattle. They scheduled a stopover at the Peace Arch Tuesday, June 21.
Harry J. Beernin, general manager of the Washington Cooperative Farmers Association, was elected to chair the Peace Arch meeting. He was favorably moved. The Blaine Journal recorded his remarks: “This annual meeting, I feel, is a wonderful medium of providing the opportunity for farmers and their leaders from many nations to become acquainted, exchange ideas and explore the areas of common agreement as a basis for concerted action, with each member organization then following through in its own country,” he said. “The meeting exemplified the idea once expressed by Albert Goss, that farm people the world over seem to be able to get along together. It was heartening to see delegates from farm organizations in France and Germany working together. I am certain the farmers of these countries have not and will not promote armed warfare.”
Beernink had grown accustomed to annual meetings. The year before, he attended a conference in Paris. He was scheduled to attend the next year’s meeting in Stockholm. But the Peace Arch meeting was important. He believed agricultural cooperation’s “strong influence for future peace through better understanding among the great agricultural populations of the various countries is the most valuable result of these annual meetings of the top leaders among the farmers of the world.”
Mother’s Day at the Peace Arch
Announcement of a Mother’s Day program at Peace Arch Park was noted in the May 11, 1950 edition of the Blaine Journal. Scheduled for the Sunday afternoon of May 14, “Several hundred mothers have been invited to attend this program by members of the Eagles, their wives and members of the ladies auxiliary to be,” noted the Journal. Indeed, it was a successful program:
Special tribute was paid to several hundred mothers at the Peace Arch Park, Sunday, at a public Mother’s Day program by Peace Arch Aerie No. 3029, Fraternal Order of Eagles.
Master of ceremonies, Jack Chute, introduced the main speaker for the occasion, Senator Jess Sapp, of Sedro-Woolley, also a past state president of the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
Others on the program included Rev. Canon Holden from White Rock, B.C., giving the invocation; a short talk by Rev. A.E. Kristjansson of Blaine; music by the Unitarian church, directed by Elias Breidford and accompanied by Celeste Hanson; the Rev. Ernest Roberts of White Rock, B.C., giving the benediction.
Senator Sapp, on behalf of the local Eagles, presented a corsage of white carnations to Mrs. Warren, age 92, of White Rock, who was honored as the oldest mother present. A corsage of red carnations was presented to Mrs. Walker, age 19, also of White Rock, who was honored as the youngest mother present. While a piano medley was played by Ernest Kirstein of White Rock, the members of Peace Arch Aerie presented over 100 mothers present with a carnation corsage.
A lunch of tea, coffee and cookies was served to all after the program.
An estimated crowd of over 100 from Blaine, Bellingham, Lynden, Everson, Sedro-Woolley, White Rock, New Westminster and many other cities, attended the occasion.
No further press coverage could be found until the Blaine Journal of May 6, 1954 announced a Mother’s Day service for the ensuing Sunday, noting, “Music is now being arranged. Soloists and other musical arrangements will be accompanied at the piano by Mrs. A.K. Westland. Rev. George Foster Pratt, Blaine Episcopal minister, assisted by Rev. Warren of Cloverdale will be the speakers. This is sponsored yearly by the Eagles aeries of White Rock, Blaine and Lynden. ‘All mothers are invited especially,’ said president Jack Chute of the Blaine lodge. Master of ceremonies will be Jack McClain, White Rock past junior president of Peace Arch aerie.”
Knights of Columbus Annual Assemblies
The first annual Knights of Columbus Peace Arch picnic was held August 8, 1954 with an international attendance estimated from a low of 3,000 to a high of 4,000 persons drawn from Washington state and British Columbia councils. State Deputy C. Mertell, Spokane, and Deputy James Hughes, Vancouver, B.C., organized the event, while Joe Bannan, Blaine; Tom Moore, Oak Harbor and Pat Bibby, Chilliwack, were masters of ceremony. Recreation played a major role in the first assembly. A Canadian gymnastic team won the traveling trophy cup for its impressive exhibition. The United States won a softball game, defeating the Canadians, 4-2.
The second event, held August 21, 1955, assumed a comparatively serious nature that included a morning field mass conducted by Archbishop Thomas A. Connolly, Seattle, and Archbishop Martin M. Johnson, Vancouver, B.C. Afternoon recreation included softball and a tug-o-war, but the results of these international contests were unknown.
Press coverage became sparse with the passing years, but Knights of Columbus picnics drew an attendance estimated at 6,000 by August 18, 1958.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation
The Treaty of Ghent was signed in 1814 and ratified in 1815. One hundred years after the signing, Christians, assembled at an ecumenical conference in Switzerland, were searching for ways to prevent war in Europe.
Unfortunately, before the 1914 conference had ended, World War I had begun. German Lutheran Friedrich Sigmund-Schulz and English Quaker Henry Hodgkin, having attended the Swiss conference, met at a railroad station in Germany, and there they pledged to serve the cause of peace. The Fellowship of Reconciliation was founded in Cambridge, England in 1914—100 years after the Treaty of Ghent was signed. It was founded in the United States in 1915—100 years after the Treaty of Ghent was ratified by Canada and the United States. It was the year J.J. Donovan announced Samuel Hill’s plan to build the Peace Arch.
The first meeting of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Peace Arch Park was held June 21, 1959, or forty-five years after it was formally organized at Cambridge. “Peace Pilgrim,” a woman said to have walked thousands of miles, “talking peace through peaceful means,” addressed the international assembly.
Incidentally, a few days later—it was June 27—Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip met U.S. Vice President and Mrs. Richard Nixon at the Moses-Saunders Power Dam, linking Canada and the United States over the St. Lawrence River near Massena, New York. There they unveiled the International Friendship Monument with its bronze inscription: “This stone bears witness to the common purpose of two nations, whose frontiers are the frontiers of friendship, whose ways are the ways of freedom and whose works are the works of peace.” Here a “common purpose” on black granite replaces the familiar “common mother” gracing the Peace Arch entablature, and “frontiers of friendship” replace “brethren dwelling together.” Straddling Canada and the United States, an aluminum arch rises sixty feet above the monument, flanked by 88-foot stainless steel standards bearing the flags of each nation.
Victoria’s Voice of Women Rally
“In a news item from Victoria, B.C., it has been announced by the chairman of Victoria’s Voice of Women that plans have been made for a giant rally, in conjunction with Seattle religious and student bodies, for a rally at the Peace Arch Aug. 7,” stated the August 5, 1965 edition of the Blaine Journal. “The day chosen for the rally is Hiroshima Memorial Day. A short service will be held in commemoration as part of the rally. The park will be adequately policed.”
Just how the event fared was never recording by the newspaper.
Oil Company Honors Peace Arch
When the Union Oil Company constructed a Blaine service station on D Street in the spring of 1966, it featured a memorial monument of granite erected in honor of the Peace Arch. After Union Oil officials had attended the annual Peace Arch celebration that year, they held a formal dedication of the monument. The Blaine Journal of June 9 published the following account:
From a red-carpeted speakers platform, W.I. Martin, Northwest Division sales manager acted as master of ceremonies, introducing Mel Hollinger, president of the Blaine Chamber of Commerce, acting as Mayor Pro Tem of Blaine, in the absence of Joseph Clark who was unable to be present.
Mr. Hollinger, speaking to several hundred attending the dedication, welcomed the Union Oil Company and their employees to Blaine and vicinity. He stated that William Schouten, manager of the new Union Station is no stranger to the people of Blaine, having been for several years with the Union Oil on the corner of Peace Portal Drive and Mitchell Avenue.
When the monument was unveiled, it disclosed a beautifully designed structure, with the American Eagle on one side of the front facing the station, and the Canadian insignia on the other. It is of black marble and granite with gold trim. At its base is a little island of crushed white rock. Two white benches are enclosed by a wrought iron fence.
Although the monument has long since disappeared with the service station, the concept of honoring the Peace Arch in such an unusual way was quite revolutionary.
The All-County Republican Picnic
Groups representing family, religion, the economy and government have appeared on the Peace Arch grounds for picnics, rituals, business and promotional activities. Not to be forgotten, too, is that familiar institution known as the political order. Thus, an all-county Republican picnic assembled there July 19, 1966. The July 14th Blaine Journal published the following announcement:
Republican candidate for Second District Congressman, Eugene Smith, will speak at the all-county Republican picnic at Peace Arch Park, July 19 at 6:00 p.m.
Announcing the picnic, County Chairman Scott Barron noted, “The picnic will be an informal and relaxed summer gathering where Republican candidates will mingle with the crowd and be available to meet everyone. The welcome mat is there for anyone who wishes to attend.”
Attending will be Senators Ernest Lennart and Frank Atwood; Representative Fred Veroske; Dr. Cas Farr, candidate for 42nd district representative; Frank Roberts, candidate for third district commissioner; Wella Hansen, county auditor; Harry Loft, county clerk; Undersheriff Jim Tooker, candidate for sheriff, and Dr. Robert Rood, county coroner.
Mel Hollinger will act as master of ceremonies with Bella Hrutfiord and Ruth Kvamme in charge of arrangements.
Relatedly, it is not known when the Peace Arch Women’s Republican Club was formed, but the group discussed the Panama Canal “giveaway” at the Whatcom County home of Veda Dixon Roberts April 21, 1875.
Cherry Trees for Friendship
Originally, the Peace Arch and its park were the common ground of brethren from Canada and the United States, with additional attention given to France and Belgium. Increasingly, other nations became involved, having been invited to share their interest in world peace as expressed through their cultural traditions, societal and business practices.
This change, gradual at mid-twentieth century, accelerated during the late sixties and early seventies. The trend is illustrated by a tree-planting ceremony that occurred in 1967, recorded by the Blaine Journal of May 25:
A Japanese cherry tree was planted in Peace Arch State Park May 23 at 11:30 a.m. It was one of 72 already planted within as many communities in the state of Washington as the project “Cherry Trees for Friendship” continues by members of the Washington State Federation of Business & Professional Women’s Clubs.
Washington state is the first in the United States to form a Business & Professional Club in Japan. This first club is at Kobe, reports Miss Marguerite Birmingham, Executive Director, USO, Oak Harbor. For the first time representatives of that club in Kobe were present at the planting of one of these 72 aforementioned cherry trees, she said. They were Miss Kozue Ogawa, president of the Ogawa Dressmaking Institute and chief designer of the Mitsukashi Department Store of Kobe. She was accompanied to the States by Mrs. Kaoru Maeda, executive director of the Outdoor Activities Association from the office of the Minister of Health and Welfare in Japan.
The pair came to the United States as guests of the Washington Business & Professional Women, representing the Japanese government in this project, announced Birmingham. Following the dedication, a lunch was served at the Border Café before the pair from Kobe returned to San Francisco, then to Hawaii and home to Japan.
Among those present at the dedication from Blaine were Bob Bainter, president of the Peace Arch Association, who gave the welcome. Al Forsythe represented the Chamber of Commerce, Bessie T. Smith the Blaine Journal, and Ranger Bob Weatherly the Peace Arch.
Others present were Miss Reike Takeyama from the University of British Columbia, who acted as interpreter; Mrs. Ruth Johnson, White Rock, who represented the Provincial President of the Business & Professional Women; Mrs. Veronica Bowker, past president of the Washington State B & P Women; Miss F. Curtin, past president of the Bellingham club who presented both guests with tiny replicas of the Peace Arch in memory of the occasion of the tree planting ceremony; Miss Lily Maye, president of the White Rock Club, and Mrs. Lulu Fairbanks, chairman of the state of Washington cherry tree planting project of the Federation of Business & Professional Women’s Club.
Ron Rau’s Extraordinary Reenlistment
Perhaps it would seem irregular for military institutions to be represented at the Peace Arch. Yet, veterans of foreign wars, from Canada as well as the United States, march yearly through the portal to administer the Flowers for Peace ceremony in remembrance of those fallen in foreign wars.
Not every Peace Arch military ceremony has been associated with veterans alone. Enlistees have also visited the Peace Arch for rituals of their own as exemplified by a United States Army ceremony published in the Blaine Journal, June 27, 1968. Ron Rau, a U.S. Army air defense artillery technician, reenlisted that month. As a specialist, the Blaine Air Force Station happened to be the site chosen for his tour of duty.
Interestingly, his reenlistment, complete with the ceremonial oath of allegiance to the military, occurred at the Peace Arch Tuesday, June 18.
Associated Country Women of the World Picnic
The Whatcom County Extension Homemakers’ Council and the British Columbia Women’s Institute of Canada met at the Peace Arch for their thirty-first annual picnic July 10, 1981. Both groups, of which 125 women picnicked, were members of the Associated Country Women of the World.
The Association Country Women of the World traces its heritage to rural America where it began as a women’s self-help organization.
They concluded their program by marching through the portal in pairs with United States members holding the hands of Canadian members as they marched.
Peace Arch Country Christmas
One of the more ambitious international events organized by White Rock-South Surrey and Blaine was the Peace Arch Country Christmas held in the park December 7, 1985. Considerable planning occurred to assure success, although the appearance of an estimated 250 visitors didn’t represent a robust crowd.
Parades complete with marching bands, floats, hay wagons and clowns marched to the portal from both sides of the border at 1:30 P.M. Those who had been children attending the Peace Arch dedication in 1921 were given special recognition. County Executive Shirley Van Zanten and Mayor Tom Burton presented speeches, as did Member of Parliament Benno Friesen and White Rock Mayor Gordon Hogg. Greetings from Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and President Ronald Reagan were read. Schoolchildren sang carols and exchanged their handmade Christmas tree ornaments.
The celebration failed to become annualized.
Hoards of Fords
Given the many times Peace Arch Park is visited by antique autos or cars of a special kind like, for example, the Edsel, one is tempted to believe Samuel Hill’s Pacific Highway is honored additionally to the cause of peace for which the portal stands.
Over 100 Model-T Fords chugged into the parking lot of Peace Arch State Park Wednesday July 16, 1985. Driven by members of the Model-T Ford Club of America, Donna McGinnis, national secretary, said they came from distances afar as Kentucky. After touring La Connor and Deception Pass, tour chairman Al Murray, Woodinville, said the tourists suffered no more than one broken crankshaft, a blown valve and a flat tire.
A Two-nation Celebration Attended Largely by One
Hundreds of Canadians enjoyed dancing, singing, and picnicking Thursday afternoon and evening, July 2, 1987, at a “Two-nation Celebration” in International Peace Arch Park. With the exception of a few dignitaries, one nation was virtually absent. The story was covered in the July 18th edition of the Westside Record-Journal:
The event, sponsored by international chambers of commerce and departments of tourism, swelled with expressions of friendship, even though friends south of the border were hardly there to appreciate it.
“We in Surrey consider our Washington friends to the south to be the best neighbors in the world,” said Bonnie Schrenk, alderman, and acting mayor of Surrey.
It wasn’t all fun. One little girl, dressed in a kilt, couldn’t get her highland fling quite right. So when the piping was over, she flew off the stage, ran for the shelter of her mother’s embracing arms and burst into tears. Out of pure empathy, tears started flowing down the cheeks of one of her dancing partners.
Even though maps may portray Washington in green and British Columbia in pink—a difference that caught her attention when she was six—the bottom line is that there are no differences between the people in the state and the province, said State Sen. Anne Anderson.
Over in the field, Canadians were throwing Frisbees. In the grass, Canadians spread out picnic lunches. On the benches Canadians watched entertainers.
Visitor information director Rick Alexander, vice president of Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce and anchorman for the American side of the party, introduced his family to dignitaries and mingled with the crowd.
“I have crossed a lot of borders,” said Benno Friesen, MP, Surrey, White Rock and North Delta, “and that border between East and West Germany has such heavily guarded gates that it looks like a penitentiary. Our 4,000-mile border is a remarkably peaceful contrast.”
Northward, across the field and near Canadian customs, another party was being held. Floats from White Rock and Blaine were there. Miss Blaine and Miss White Rock were chatting with each other and meeting their guests.
White Rock Mayor Gordon Hogg and Blaine City Councilman William Dollarhide exchanged friendship gifts, shook hands and joked. Dollarhide got a picture. Hogg got a mug.
Clowns wandered through the crowd, twisting balloons here and there, turning them into airy little animal sculptures.
Canadians celebrate July 1. Americans celebrate July 4. Between those dates, two-nation friendship partying days have been declared, announced Bill Taylor, Washington state tourism director.
Five thousand red, white and blue balloons were imprisoned within a large fishing net, anchored securely to the ground. Two additional large collections of balloons were woven together in a kind of wall that leaned to and fro as the wind blew.
Bill Reid, MLA, B.C. ministry of tourism director, said the province was happy to be part of the two-nation celebration. Tourism results have been incredible, he said. “As a result of Expo ’86, our two nations of the Pacific Northwest are closer knit as a result of tourists from everywhere who came through Washington and into British Columbia,” he said. “It’s providing an incredible year. We are currently ahead of 1986 touring activities.
“Border-crossing traffic is up seven percent, ferry traffic both from Washington to British Columbia, and from Vancouver Island to the Lower Mainland is up eight percent, and restaurant sales are up seven percent.
“We are currently running 100 percent above June 1986 for tourism visits and inquiries to our Seattle office.
“There are more festivals, such as this one, that are drawing people into smaller communities.”
Reid said a 1,000-unit sample of Expo first visitors was taken and a questionnaire was administered to them for survey purposes.
What attracted them to northwestern communities?
Three reasons were most frequently given: (1) Friendliness of communities, (2) cleanliness of communities and (3) safety of communities.
Some 85 percent of those surveyed at Expo said they would be back within four years. Another 37 percent said they would return within a year.
“They have already done that,” said Reid. “Friendliness is our biggest marketing tool. The key is to be a super host.”
It was time to remove the fishing net.
Five thousand balloons took to the air like liberated hostages. They danced in the wind, quickly found their course, and promptly headed for Vancouver, B.C.
There were no further international celebrations sponsored by the Blaine and White Rock chambers of commerce until year 2000, when “A Toast Across the Border,” first held in January, and later in July, was annualized.
The United States Canada Peace Anniversary Association
Blaine High School biology teacher Phil Claymore’s hand-carved wall plaque of the Peace Arch was flown to Campbell River, B.C. during the summer of 1972, where it was presented to the winner of the Campbell River Multi-hull Yacht Race on behalf of the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce.
His carving, one of many more much like it, exemplifies a natural association of the Arch with art.
Initially presented in the spring of 1998 by the United States Canada Peace Anniversary Association, sculpture exhibits from both sides of the border are placed in Peace Arch State Park for viewing by visitors each summer. Pioneered by Whatcom County resident Christina Alexander, this non-profit organization also presents entertainment, music, fine arts sales, food and children’s activities. The association became known early as 1995 when the following account appeared in the August 11 edition of the Northern Light:
“We know it’s there, but we take it for granted. How many communities have a monument in their backyard?” With these words, Christina Alexander set a major project in motion.
Two dynamic local women with a vision—Alexander and Carrelyn Banner—have announced a major project to put Blaine and the Peace Arch on the map in a big way in 1996.
The monument was dedicated in 1921 and next year will mark the 75th anniversary of the landmark. It is this event that Carrelyn Banner and Christina Alexander have focused on with ambitious plans to turn the monument area into much more than an imposing edifice that cross-border travelers see in passing.
In a recent presentation to the Blaine chamber of commerce, Alexander and Banner announced the formation of the “1996 United States-Canada Peace Anniversary, Inc.,” with ambitious plans that include a possible museum, playground, “peace” foundation, statewide history days and school essay contests.
The new association intends to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Oregon Treaty, all to culminate in a September 6, 1996 celebration of the day the monument was dedicated by Samuel Hill.
The organizers give much credit for their project to historian Richard Clark, and they plan to duplicate some of the activities first begun in early days of the monument and park.
One of these will be variations on the theme, “Pennies for Peace,” a program in the 1930s where Washington state schoolchildren, with pennies, nickels and dimes, collected and donated $1,200 for the park, which was used for landscaping.
The association developed a state-approved educational curriculum “complete with teacher background information, international and Washington state history elements, Peace Arch history, and activities that include a model of the Peace Arch for students to assemble.” Year 1996 saw the Blaine City Council allocate $8,000 “to take the school program forward” as reported in the March 14 edition of the Northern Light. The British Band of the Adjutant General’s Corps supported the curriculum fund with a concert at the Performing Arts Center, and “the Canadian Consulate General in Seattle donated $2,000 to the school program, writing, ‘This curriculum which you have developed will, I am certain, bring a very important part of our shared heritage into classrooms in the state. I hope that eventually it will find its way into schools on the Canadian side of the border.’”
Additional accomplishments of the association are cited under appropriate topics elsewhere in this book.
A Toast Across the Border
An annual celebration of two nations, sponsored by the White Rock/Surrey and Blaine chambers of commerce, was initially held January 1, 2000 in recognition of the new millennium. Although a champagne toast was “by invitation only,” a time capsule complete with photos of both cities “to be opened 100 years hence” was placed in the Peace Arch for every attendee—an estimated 200 celebrants—to witness.
Presiding speakers included Member of Parliament Val Meredith, Member of the Legislative Assembly Gordon Hogg, White Rock/South Surrey Chamber President Elect Gordon Shaffer, Washington State Rep. Georgia Gardner, Blaine Chamber President Ed Magner, Blaine Mayor Hobberlin, Surrey Mayor McCallum, and White Rock Mayor Staub.
Covering the event was the Northern Light, January 6: “‘The chambers are starting to work together, and in some fashion, the ties between the communities are being rekindled,’ alleged Crystal Rich, Blaine’s community relations and marketing coordinator. The chambers are working together toward organizing more cross-border events. Already being planned is a possible early July celebration of independence for Canada and the United States.”
Chamber leaders decided a wintertime occasion at the Peace Arch was too cool for comfort. The second annual event was held Sunday, July 1, 2001, in honor of Canada Day and Independence Day. The date triggers a sense of déjà vu. International Flag Day, the earliest public event held at the Peace Arch, having been initially celebrated July 2, 1927, also occurred annually during the first week of July. The celebration also reflects the “Two-Nation Celebration” sponsored by both chambers of commerce July 2, 1987.
A Canadian Ceremony for Missing Children
According to the Northern Light, a ChildFind B.C. fundraising tour that began during International Missing Children’s Day, May 25, 2000, terminated May 31 at the Peace Arch. Canadian Customs and Royal Canadian Mounted Police cyclists, approaching the Peace Portal, were met by local schoolchildren who, marching through it, had come to underscore their concern for the plight of missing children.
Chapter Four
The Peace Arch Spirit: A Tide Rising and Falling
We didn’t used to discount their [Canadian] money when they bought our wooden coins, but they started to buy such large quantities that we had to.—Earl McKinney
Peace Arch Fame Rises with the Flow of Traffic as Local Support Falls
Since the Peace Arch’s dedication many years ago, the world has not yet beaten its swords into plowshares, but the handsome memorial was gradually catching worldwide attention. It didn’t take long to catch the attention of the United States Senate, which, on March 29, 1922, passed resolution 263:
Resolved, that the Senate of the United States desires to express its cordial sympathy with the erection and dedication of the Peace Portal between the Dominion of Canada and the United States as a memorial of the peaceful relations so long existing between the two countries, and extends to Samuel Hill and his associates its warm appreciation of their valued services in promoting this new bond of friendship between Canada and the United States.
Meanwhile, a second monument to a century of peace between England and the United States was nearing completion in Chicago. Lorado Taft’s sculpture, “The Fountain of Time,” was dedicated November 15, 1922.
Tourism Flourishes
Although Samuel Hill wasn’t given large-scale recognition after the Senate took action, Washington state residents were proud of the monument. The opening of the Pacific Highway drew record numbers of autos across the border. Deputy Collector Kartzmark of the U.S. Customs said 81,662 cars from every state, Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Cuba and even one from Europe, had crossed the Blaine border in 1922. With new Ford sedans selling for $595 and a state speed limit set at 30 miles per hour, traffic began to burgeon, and the city of Blaine began to worry about the unattractive setting of the Peace Arch and the absence of restrooms.
A park was developed, gardens were added, and those acres dedicated to the monument and park, multiplied. But the pathway to success was not without its pitfalls.
The City of Blaine Pleads Poverty
According to the May 17, 1923 issue of the Blaine Journal, “The city of Blaine has long since acquired the title to a block of ground around the Peace Arch, but is not financially able to improve it. As it is either a state or a national affair, either the state or national government must take hold now and make the improvements necessary and provide for maintenance.” J. Grant Hinkle, secretary of the state parks committee, had met a Canadian delegation at the park that month to discuss negotiations, a process that was not finalized until the spring of 1931.
After the Blaine editor noticed the posting of a Bellingham Herald complaint from a Bellingham Peace Arch visitor, he published the following plea January 24, 1924:
A Bellingham party, through the Herald, asks if its tourists who go to see the Peace Arch at Blaine are to be greeted again this year by the unkempt surroundings that have been there in the past, and makes some “suggestions” to the mayor of Blaine. Following are the words of the writer:
“Is the Peace Arch going to be surrounded this year as before with the rubbish, broken-down stands, etc.? Shall we tell our tourist friends that it is not worth seeing, when they inquire about it this summer? Last year we drove up with visiting friends who wished to see it. They didn’t enthuse at all. Why should they? Get the citizens interested in cleaning up the place, plotting and sowing grass and putting in a few shrubs. We Bellingham people try to improve our sights of interest, why shouldn’t you? There are going to be swarms of tourists here this year. I’m going to show them all the Peace Arch and Blaine, providing the ground is beautified and that they are made worth seeing.”
There may be some well-justified criticism of the people of Blaine as to this matter of the appearance of the Peace Arch grounds. Maybe we are negligent. But the facts are that Blaine provided the site for the Peace Arch and park, a piece of ground of considerable value. It was the understanding at the time that the arch would be constructed and extensive improvements would be made in the grounds with outside funds and under the direction of competent landscape artists. The people of Blaine came through. The others have not as yet. Blaine is not financially able to properly improve these grounds, but it can and would have before this at least made them more attractive had it not been for this promise.
Parenthetically, in a news article entitled “City’s Finances are in Fine Condition,” the December 4, 1924, issue of the Blaine Journal-Press noted that “the balance of cash on hand Jan. 1, 1923, totaled $22,568.46 and at the close of this examination $29,901.22” as authenticated by the state auditor.
Scheming for a Restroom or Two
In the meantime, Blaine’s chamber of commerce, acting upon a proposal offered by Samuel Hill, set a goal for construction of two restrooms, an information office, and three rooms plus a bath for a park caretaker. The September 20, 1923 issue of the Blaine Journal spread the word: “The Blaine Chamber of Commerce, at its meeting last Friday night, endorsed the proposition of the Automobile Association of Western Washington and Samuel Hill for a restroom and information building in Blaine, and a committee of three was appointed to get out and raise the necessary funds, about $700.”
Why so little? “Mr. Hill and friends offered to pay for all the construction work and the plumbing fixtures and the Automobile Association will maintain it by keeping a man there, providing Blaine furnish the site and purchase the lumber and material for the structure itself. This will require close to $700,” concluded the newspaper account. Although the chamber thought the location should be near the customs office instead of the foot of D Street between the pavement and the Great Northern right-of-way as Hill had proposed, committee members J.O. Magnusson, J.H. Getschmann and R.H. Smith raised the $700 within a week.
Samuel Hill immediately sent a letter to the Blaine Chamber of Commerce stating “he is ready to telegraph instructions to his men to begin work just as soon as he is assured of the passage by the city council of Blaine and the council of Surrey municipality of resolutions placing the matter of concessions [within 1,000 feet of the portal] at the Peace Arch Park in the hands of the Pacific Highway Association.”
Blaine City Council complied, but Surrey municipality did not.
It is a matter of curiosity to know what Hill would have done with his requested concessions, had he received full approval, granted from both sides of the border. The September 27, 1923 edition of the Blaine Journal, which had published Hill’s revelation, speculated, “It is not known exactly why the control of concessions is desired by the Pacific Highway Association, but it is believed that it is because they do not want a lot of grafting concessions given in the area in times of heavy traffic, either on this side or the other side of the line.”
Given the municipality’s rejection, nothing more was heard from Hill. This, in spite of the fact the June 5, 1924 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press reported “nearly 250 percent more cars crossed the line here in May over the same period last year, 22,425 cars in all.” The Blaine Journal, early as September 20, 1923, had warned, “This summer’s traffic has shown that a rest room of this kind was one of the things that must be provided here. No local hotel could accommodate the throngs of visitors as they waited for clearance at the customs house.”
Tourism had increased with such momentum that a new Pacific Highway customs office, under construction that spring, was completed the following fall. “It is 60 feet long and has a shelter roof its entire length under which cars can be inspected without exposing the inspectors and the passengers to rain in wet weather,” reported the October 16, 1924 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press. “The space between the new building and the pavement has been planked to avoid any mud in wet weather.” Collector of Customs Millard T. Hartson, declared the new office would close only from 1:00 A.M. to 7:00 A.M., while the “uptown office”—soon to be moved near the Peace Arch—would be open 24 hours daily.
After Hill announced his concessions requirement, ten months passed before the restroom issue was revived, this time by the mayor of Blaine. The July 24, 1924 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press revealed his plan:
Mayor Hunter has started inquiry as to why no move is being made to erect the public rest room and information building that was promised the city last fall. At the time the proposition first came up to Blaine, haste was urged so that construction work could be started as soon as possible. That was along in September. Blaine raised her quota of funds at once, or had the sum pledged, but no move has been made since.
The rest room idea was one of Samuel Hill’s, who was working in conjunction with the Automobile Association of Western Washington. It was their idea and they apportioned the amount that Blaine was asked to raise.
Mr. Hunter has taken the matter up with Mr. Hill and it is expected that it will be known what they will do in the near future.
Should it develop that the idea has been given up, the American Legion has plans that will take its place, at least in a measure. Just at this time these plans will not be explained in detail.
The American Legion’s Peace Arch Post, aware that 12,000 or so posts existed in the nation as potential donors, assumed the restroom plan, originally proposed by Hill and promoted by the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce. The $700 that Magnusson, Getschmann and Smith had raised was turned over to the Legion. The August 21, 1924 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press reported the Legion’s initial action: “The first move of the Legion will be to send a delegate to the state convention of the American Legion at Walla Walla on the 28th, 29th and 30th of this month. If the state convention will endorse the move, then the posts of the entire country will be appealed to.”
Two delegates—Paul Crilly of Peace Arch Post, and Henry Wise of Seattle’s University Post—were sent to the Walla Walla convention, with $100 donated by the Blaine Chamber of Commerce to cover expenses. Their baggage included a large painting of the Peace Arch, an exhibit of such quality that it had been valued at twenty-five dollars.
Their presentation was a glowing success. Crilly and Wise received such support at the state convention, that they decided to shoot for support at the national level, as reported by the September 4, 1924 issue of the Blaine Journal-Press.
The proposed plan of Blaine Peace Arch Post, American Legion, for enlisting the aid of the Legion posts of the country in raising funds for the improvement of the grounds around the Peace Arch here on the American side, was unanimously endorsed by the state convention of the Legionnaires at Walla Walla last week.
The proposal was heartily championed by many influential Legion men about the state, who lent their influence to the Blaine delegate, Paul Crilly, and the convention gave its unanimous endorsement. Henry Wise of University Post, Seattle, and Frank N. Brooks of Alfred Hamilton Post, Bellingham, both effectively aided the plan of Peace Arch Post. Mr. Brooks will be one of five delegates from this state to the national convention at St. Paul Sept. 15 to 19, and has signified that he will do his utmost to get that convention to endorse the proposal.
With the hearty endorsement of the state legions, the movement has been given an impetuous [sic] that will surely carry it through the national convention
It may be noted above, that the original plea to raise funds for restrooms, became generalized to become fund-raising “for the improvement of grounds around the Peace Arch on the American side” that would include the restrooms.
The national delegates reported another glowing success. “Charlie Jones of Peace Arch Post, American Legion, received a telegram Saturday last from St. Paul stating that the plan of the local post for enlisting the aid of Legion posts throughout the country in financing the improvement of the grounds surrounding the Peace Arch at Blaine, had been endorsed in committee by the national convention of the American Legion,” reported in the September 25, 1924 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press. “This means that, in addition to the endorsement of the state legion at Walla Walla, the national organization has given its endorsement.”
The report continued with elation: “The Journal-Press feels that the Peace Arch Post has started something that is now virtually a complete success.” And so the community looked forward to a new chapter in the Peace Arch saga with early signs printed in the October 8, 1924 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press.
Henry Wise and Ed Ivers, state Legionnaires, were in Blaine Saturday last and that night attended a meeting called to discuss plans of procedure in the matter of improving the Peace Arch grounds.
Nothing of a very definite nature was settled upon to give to the public except that steps will be taken at once to get the state to take over the park to be under the State Park Commission. This will provide for the future maintenance of the park, a very important matter if a large amount of money is to be expended in making it beautiful.
It was also decided to secure an engineer and landscape artist to visit the site and make a survey of what will be necessary to make it what is desired. It is possible that these experts will decide that additional land will be necessary to make it what it ought to be. In that case it will probably be necessary to condemn some of the surrounding property.
The preliminary expense of these surveys will probably be for the people of Blaine to stand.
Plans were promptly underway. “H.C. Bertelsen of the firm of Wells & Bertelsen, architects and engineers, of Spokane, was in Blaine Monday for the purpose of viewing the Peace Arch and its site with a view of making recommendations to the local post of the American Legion as to improvements under consideration, reported the October 30, 1924 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press. “Mr. Bertelsen went over the matter with a local committee and is now familiar with the proposition. It is too early to make any definite suggestions, but he did positively state that the idea was feasible and that there was sufficient ground at present to make the site look as it should. It is expected that his firm will be heard from later.”
Oddly, in the wake of such progress, nothing more was heard of the plan for Peace Arch park improvements that included the much-sought restrooms. Weeks became months. Months turned into years. Not a word was mentioned about the nationwide program for thousands of Legion posts to donate toward the cause. Although 400 legionnaires held a district meeting in Blaine April 6, 1929, nothing was reported about the restrooms project that had been announced by the Peace Arch Post five years earlier.
After the summer of 1931, when the park was in the hands of the Washington State Parks Commission, action was taken on behalf of the restrooms, known to the board as a “comfort station.” The following spring saw landscaping moving forward, and the April 14, 1932 issue of the Blaine Journal-Press noted that Frank E. Headrick, a Bellingham contactor, won his $1,200 bid to construct the aforementioned comfort station “to be completed by May 10th” and located “east of the arch and the new United States customs and immigration buildings.”
Designed to match the federal buildings, the structure sports brick walls, but the original tile roof has been replaced with shingles. To this day, the 1932 comfort station serves the needs of visitors touring Peace Arch State Park.
Peace Arch Repairs, Improvements and Refinements
“When the Peace Arch was conceived, the necessity of getting to its lofty top was not considered and no ladder was included in the specifications,” reported the December 9, 1937 Blaine Journal. “On many occasions it has been necessary to use the [Blaine] Fire Department or other ladders to get to the top of the arch. Now a steel ladder will be constructed.” Peter Barbeau, the park’s dynamic superintendent, convinced the State Park Commission to award A.Y. Seeley a contract to erect a ladder inside the monument, and hire Ted Veum to give the monument a new coat of paint.
Painting and repair of the Peace Arch has been a shared experience between Canadians and Americans. By the spring of 1959, “with the new paints now on the market, an improvement in whiteness and gloss can be noted,” reported the Journal. “The wearing ability is expected to be much improved.”
One may wonder who would bear the price for painting such a large structure. When it was painted in the summer of 1963, the cost was shared between the Department of Recreation and Conservation of British Columbia and the Washington State Parks Commission.
Steenmeyer Corporation of Lynden, low bidder, painted the monument in the spring of 1966 in preparation for the June 5th annual celebration, with costs shared between the provincial and state governments.
Deterioration prompted the patching of the Peace Arch’s eroded surfaces during April 1975. Sponsored jointly by Washington state and British Columbia province, repairs included construction of a new ladder inside the arch, new flag poles, a new roof and “a quarter inch of granite put on the entire arch” that was painted white.
By year 1990, the Peace Arch was showing serious signs of deterioration. Canadian workers dug deeply to install drainage pipes beneath the monument in the late summer of 1992; it was a necessary step before removing the peeling paint and sandblasting prior to a fresh coat. Later came an automatic ventilation system and power-saving lights.
After the drainage problem was corrected, the Peace Arch was surrounded by scaffolds in the spring of 1993. Pacific Renovations Ltd. Of Burnaby, B.C. covered the concrete and steel structure with a large tarpaulin in preparation for a new roof membrane, sandblasting and painting. A $74,000 (U.S. currency) restoration project shared by state and provincial parks was underway.
While repairs were underway a strange act of sabotage occurred about 7:30 A.M. Sunday, May 2, 1993. A 22-year old vandal from Sumas drove over the rain-soaked lawn, leaving it with deep ruts. The May 5 edition of the Westside Record Journal completes the story:
A passing motorist informed the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Agents visiting the site saw a car on the lawn. A young man was in the car. The Blaine Police Department was called.
“Apparently, he was upset because the Peace Arch was covered,” said Blaine Police Deputy Chief Gary LaBree, “so he made about fifteen circles around it.”
Blaine Police called the Washington State Patrol. The State Patrol declined to act. So Blaine police arrested [the man].
“Personally, I think the guy should be made to pay,” said Charles Francis, Canadian proprietor for the Provincial Park on his side of the border. “Hit him where it hurts—right in the pocket book.
“I think you are looking at up to $3,000 in damages. Labor is expensive. And it’s a bad time for this. We have to leave the flower beds in order to take care of this mess.”
The Peace Arch, currently under repairs that include sandblasting and painting, is covered with a large tarpaulin.
The fence surrounding the tarp was vandalized. Little metal off-limits signs were twisted. A metal post was shoved to one side, allowing the culprit to enter the arch and remove anchor boards that held the tarp in place. Higher up, plastic tie straps were removed, causing sections of the tarp to be separated and exposing the monument to rain.
On the fence was posted a full-page AT&T ad, pulled from the weekend edition of USA Today. The ad, in large print, displayed the word “Freedom,” to which a ballpoint pen inscription added, “is not a right but is earned.” In the lower right-hand corner appeared a “smile face,” and the initials EMH.
A World Peace Monument Fails to Overshadow the Peace Arch
A draftsman’s enigmatic drawing of a “world peace monument,” unnoticed and untouched, is kept in the Blaine Public Library. Nobody knows who donated it, or how it made its way into the file cabinet. An obelisk, reminiscent of the Washington Monument, but eighteen times as tall and comparatively slim for its immensely greater mass, is rooted in a gigantic round base, from which extend—like overgrown spokes jutting from a massive axel—eight huge buildings.
Had it been built beside the Peace Arch as originally intended, it would have been a monument of uncommon dimensions, reducing Samuel Hill’s famous portal to a wee neighbor. The proposed obelisk, a structure of steel and glass, was designed to rise no less than 10,000 feet, and each building sprouting from its base, would have measured 100 feet from ground level to roof, 500 feet wide, and 1,500 feet long—the length of five football fields.
A modest precedent had been set when Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, funded by the state of Ohio, was completed June 1915—one-hundred years after the Treaty of Ghent was ratified. Although it’s a Doric column that rises a mere 317 feet, an elevator brings tourists to an observation platform that affords a fine view of Lake Erie. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory of September 10, 1813 was seen as the turning point of the War of 1812 when his nine United States vessels defeated six British ships a few miles northwest of Put-in-Bay, off Sandusky, Ohio.
Although it was one of those plans wherein the yawning discontinuity between everything that idealism could imagine was eliminated by anything reality could afford, Cape Cod resident Charles Davis, founder and president of the National Highway Association, and creator of the impossible dream, nevertheless won the support of world-famous architect Frank Lloyd. Wright, a member of his board of trustees.
Each of the monstrous buildings was numbered and assigned a theme with seven subdivisions as follows:
1. The philosophy building
Natural Theology
Doctrinal—Dogmatics
Devotional—Practical
Institutions—Work—Homiletic
Religious History
Christian Churches
Ethnic (non-Christian)
2. The religion building
Metaphysics
Psychology
Mind and Body
Systems
Logic
Ethics
Philosophers
3. The sociology building
Statistics
Political Science
Political Economy
Law—Administration
Education—Customs
Associations—Institutions
Commerce—Communication
4. The philology (literature) building
General
History
Comparative
Dictionaries
Major—Ancient
Major—Modern
Minor—Language
5. The natural sciences building
Mathematics
Astronomy
Physics
Chemistry
Geology—Paleontology
Biology
Botany—Zoology
6. The useful arts building
Medicine
Engineering
Agriculture
Domestic Economy
Transport—Commerce
Manufacture—Mining
Building
7. The fine arts building
Landscape
Architecture
Sculpture
Painting
Drawing—Engraving—Photography
Music
Amusements
8. The history building
Geography—Travel
Biography
Europe
Western Hemisphere
Asia
Africa
Oceanic—Polar
Given 750,000 square feet per floor, one is hard-pressed to imagine how space so abundant might have been utilized, particularly if each building supported, say, seven or more floors within its 75 million cubic feet.
Three statements appeared on the faded sheet:
WORLD PEACE
Monument
COST—fabulous—TIME centuries, like the Pyramids, Wall of China, Cathedrals of Europe—but WAR, past, present and to come costs vastly more—over 80% of our taxes—which, if saved, would within one year pay for this monument for human brotherhood, friendship, good-fellowship, love, contribution,
CO-OPERATION and PEACE
SHAFT 10,000 feet high of steel encased in glass. At base:— AMPHITHEATRE 2,500 feet in diameter 250 feet high surrounded by an EIGHT POINTED STAR of great buildings 1,500 X 500 X 100 feet high representing and containing evidence of all the activities of the human race throughout the ages—emblematic of
GOD, KING and COUNTRY
STEPS eight great flights leading up to the base of the SHAFT. SEVEN flights representing the shores of the SEVEN SEAS of the BRITISH EMPIRE
Canada New Zealand India
Australia South Africa Newfoundland
BRITISH ISLES
Emblematic and built of material from their shores.
THE EIGHTH FLIGHT OF STEPS
UNITED STATES of AMERICA
While Samuel Hill’s portal was built to celebrate peace between two nations, Charles Davis’ mammoth monument would celebrate peace the world over. Yet, according to the description provided, it seems his tally excluded much of the Third World. One must admit that, be it the case of Hill or Davis, both men catered to Anglo-Saxon roots, paying little attention to the indigenous peoples of the nations they saluted. Hill, addressing the crowd at the 1921 Peace Arch dedication—a ceremony Davis would have attended, had he accepted Hill’s invitation—did allude to “the hope that where science, the arts and religion have failed to control the passions of man, that the still small voice which spoke to Socrates, Plato, Savanarola, and the other wise men of old, to the red man of the plains, and in the forests of North America, to the Buriat and Oatiak in Siberia, which I felt rather than heard in the Vatican at Rome and in the Shrine of Nikko, may foreshadow a deeper spiritual life.”
Criticism aside, Davis, an incredulous dreamer, planned to construct his giant monument beside the comparatively little Peace Arch. During the fall of 1931, he revealed his plan to the Automobile Club of Washington. He would invite Edward Albert, Prince of Wales, to lay the cornerstone the next year. After all, Edward helped U.S Vice President Charles G. Dawes cut the ribbon for the Ontario-New York International Peace Bridge in 1927. The Blaine Journal-Press of September 24, 1931, published the news:
To rededicate the Peace Portal, erected at Blaine in 1921 by Samuel Hill, as a symbol of worldwide peace and to build a World Peace Monument next to the portal, are purposes of an international committee, now being organized among prominent business and civic leaders, according to information just received in Seattle by D.A. Shelor, general manager of the Automobile Club of Washington, who has been appointed to serve as a committee member from the Pacific Northwest.
The committee hopes to extend the doctrines of peace by means of the symbolical arch and monument, throughout the English-speaking world.
It is planned to have the Prince of Wales visit America, cross the continent and lay the cornerstone of the monument at Blaine in 1932 as further exemplification of the unity existing between English-speaking peoples and particularly between the United States and Canada.
The Hon. Charles Davis, of Bass River, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, founder and president of the National Highway Association, is sponsoring the committee which includes as its nucleus:
Hal E. Hoss, secretary of state of Oregon; Ralph Budd, pres. of the Great Northern Railroad Company; Dr. Howard R. Driggs, professor of English education at New York University; C.V. Wilder, mayor of the city of Blaine; John E. Gratke, managing director of the Broadway Association, New York and George C. Warren, of Boston.
The committee’s program has the endorsement of the British-Israel-World Federation, the Anglo-Saxon Federation, the English Speaking Union of the British Empire, the Oversees League of the British Empire and the All-Peoples Association.
It is expected that the English Speaking Union of the United States, of which John W. Davis is president, and George W. Wickersham is chairman, will sponsor the plan as well as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of the Carnegie Endowment, has assured the committee of his personal support and has advised that the Endowment has a fund of $500,000 a year to be spent in the cause of peace, a portion of which may be allotted to the World Peace Monument.
Mr. Davis, who is the active sponsor of the proposed committee, is an internationally known figure in world peace and was invited to be the speaker at the dedication of the Peace Portal by Mr. Hill.
The Peace Portal, or Peace Arch, is half on United States soil and half on Canadian soil, at the international boundary at Blaine. It is of concrete, and is illuminated by red, white and blue lights. On it are inscribed two plaques, the words “Open for One Hundred Years—May These Doors Never Close” and “Children of a Common Mother—Brethren Dwelling Together in Unity.” The Portal was completed in 1921 and the first International Flag Day was celebrated there on July 2, 1927.
Invitations to become members of the international committee have been extended to twenty-one men, nine of whom are from Washington, five from Oregon, three from Minnesota, one from Washington, D.C., and one from Massachusetts.
First a correction: The Peace Arch is not “half on United States soil and half on Canadian soil,” with one foundation straddled totally in the United States and the other totally in Canada, as poetically nurtured and popularly believed. Most of the east wall rests in Canada, and about half of the west wall is grounded upon the United States. While the proof lies in the state archives at Olympia, one may visually align the park’s two markers against the position of the portal to realize the straddle story is a myth. But, à la Hemingway, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” And that’s why the sun also rises on the myth.
Obviously, Davis’ plan failed to materialize. Had the obelisk, approaching two miles in height, collapsed by way of an earthquake or a northern windstorm, a good portion of downtown Blaine could have been buried beneath twisted steel and shattered glass. The cloud-flirting shaft would have proved hazardous for the military aircraft that patrolled the Pacific Coast and both sides of the border during World War II, not to mention the many private planes aloft then and now.
But that’s not the end of the story. The international committee of twenty-one reported by the Blaine newspaper had risen to sixty-one members. Called the “monument trustees,” the membership had nearly tripled. And the monument’s prospective location had shifted from the Peace Arch grounds to—of all places—the headwaters of the Peace River. It’s in northern British Columbia. Was that the river he had in mind? Or had he planned to rename the Campbell River immediately north of the Peace Arch?
It seems that, given the 5,500-foot diameter of the amphitheater and its eight tangent buildings—more than a mile’s width—there simply wasn’t enough room at the border.
The February 13, 1939 issue of the Blaine Journal described Davis as a successful builder. “Mr. Davis is one of the most noted men of Industrial development in the world today, having designed the first skyscraper in 1890, having suggested tunneling the Hudson river, and having been instrumental in developing many of the problems [sic] that has made electricity such an important cog in modern civilization,” wrote Editor James Cramer. “He is the first to have suggested the National Highways Association, and in 1931 was made trustee of the World Peace Movement.”
Peace Arch Wooden Coins: Local Support Rises as the Bank Falls
About eight million cars were traveling American roads in 1920. By 1930, the number had climbed to 23 million. That, coupled with the fall of the stock market in 1929 prompted popular actor and entertainer Will Rogers to say the United States was “the only country that went to the poorhouse in an automobile.” But a month before the only bank in Blaine closed its doors “due to the economic depression and causes beyond their control,” an enterprising young man stepped forward with an innovative idea.
Albert Balch: A Man With a Plan
A rare spread head, “PEACE ARCH WOODEN MONEY POPULAR HERE,” graced page one of the January 12, 1933 Blaine Journal-Press. Although the Home State Bank was doomed to close its doors on Valentine’s Day one month hence, hearts that would have been left cold by an insolvent bank and the Great Depression, were warmed, thanks to an unorthodox antidote created by Blaine businessman Albert Balch, who had lost his candidacy for the State Legislature, but won the admiration of Blaine’s unemployed.
Balch had been keeping an eye on Tenino, a community of less than 1,000 residents, immediately south of Olympia, Washington. Although Tenino had once gained fame for its sandstone building blocks, concrete emerged to compete aggressively for the market. Logging and the lumbering industry remained, but the Great Depression struck the community’s only bank, forcing its doors to close. Galvanized, the Tenino Chamber of Commerce launched a wooden money experiment in 1930. Balch accordingly sent selected pieces of wood to Tenino for production of the wafer-thin, bill-shaped units of local currency.
If Tenino could do it, why not Blaine? Balch favorably impressed the Blaine Relief Association and Chamber of Commerce with the idea. By January 1933, the Blaine Journal-Press began printing images of the Peace Arch on round, three-ply wooden “coins” consisting of nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars and dollars. One needed to be careful not to break them; their thickness was one-sixteenth of an inch. Although they were of thin wood, these coins, designed by W.Y. Chester of Jan Jose, California, were at par with gold in Blaine, Washington.
“A quantity of non-interest-bearing city warrants was set aside as security for the round wooden nickels, dimes, quarters, half dollars and dollars,” reported the Blaine Journal-Press. “Blaine citizens are subscribing one to ten dollars for the wooden coins. No coins are to be issued except for 100 percent exchange for United States money after city warrants are marked for redemption. The quarters, halves and dollars will be kept at par during 1933 in exchange for Blaine merchandise, due to restrictive coinage.”
Each coin destined for circulation was numbered and recorded by the Blaine Relief Association. Rev. Floyd Green, the association’s president, then initialed each piece in waterproof ink, later to be initialed by treasurer Earl McKinney. “Unemployed throughout the city of Blaine are given work, payment for services being made in wooden money, which is redeemable for merchandise,” explained the Blaine Journal-Press. Mayor C. Vince Wilder sanctioned payment to the workers.
Peace Arch Wooden Money Widely Sought
Hardly any approach, with the possible exception of Rogan Jones’ Peace Arch radio programming, could have accomplished more to spread the news of Samuel Hill’s Peace Arch in and beyond the North American continent. To John D. Rockefeller was sent a wooden dime, a wooden quarter was sent to President Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, president-elect, was given a wooden half-dollar. Canadians bought the coins as souvenirs. And as news dispatches soared across the states and Canada, Blaine Relief Society Secretary Belle Montford, busily mailing money far and near, found herself working overtime, while Earl McKinney, treasurer, was reportedly “burning midnight oil, keeping the books straight.” Noting the rushing demand for the unusual currency, the February 9, 1933 Blaine Journal-Press stated”
The Blaine Relief Association cannot provide wooden nickels fast enough to supply the demand. One thousand eight hundred and fifty wooden nickel and 1,700 wooden dimes have been put into circulation in the last three weeks, but the supply is exhausted and Blaine merchants are calling loudly for more of the circles of veneer in the small denominations.
Despite the cold weather and the off-season for tourist trade, the Blaine Relief Association has issued $775 in wooden money to date and a third printing of the exchange is on the press. Members of the association are kept busy initialing the money before it is placed in circulation.
The demand of souvenir hunters continues to increase. The association has received orders for the exchange from every state in the Union except one. The exchange has been accepted at par by merchants in Seattle, and Bellingham. Canadians, with their own money discounted, have been paying a premium for the disks.
Blaine’s thriving Peace Arch wooden money business was not a problem-free operation, as described by the March 30, 1933 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press:
In recognition of the preponderant use of wooden money in Blaine, which is issued in denominations of one dollar or less, E.C. Davis, representative of a national cash register company, removed the twenty and fifty dollar keys of Blaine’s cash registers and replaced them with wooden money keys.
“The wooden money has caused any number of new adjustments to be made, but it has been worth it in the increased circulation, the absence of which seemed to be the previous trouble,” Earl McKinney, overworked treasurer, declared. “The Canadians still provoke most of the arguments. We didn’t used to discount their money when they bought our wooden coins, but they started to buy such large quantities that we had to.
“You see, we thought it was fine of them buying it for souvenirs, we were going to make lots of money if they disappeared from circulation. However, that’s the thing that didn’t happen. The Canadians would buy the wooden dollars at par with their Canadian money in one store and then buy goods at one hundred cents on the dollar in a store up the street. Editorials and articles in the Vancouver Sun and newspapers throughout Canada point out the injustice of discounting Canadian silver for Blaine’s wooden money, but I ask you, what can we do?
Signboards have been painted by A. Kruse informing the tourists about the celebrated Peace Arch and the more publicized wooden money. They will be erected at the city limits. Dozens of wooden nickel tire covers have been painted and distributed this week by Kenneth Still.
In spite of the many problems having to do with foreign exchange, parity with gold, and operation of the local mint, upwards of a hundred dollars of the wooden money a week is being mailed to all parts of the North American continent.
Sweet While it Lasted
Blaine’s Peace Arch wooden money era, traceable to January 1933, faded and finished before the year’s end. Why so? Rumor revealed action had been taken by the federal government to terminate an illegal operation. If so, its closure was the best-kept secret in town. “For those who have not had an opportunity to see a scrapbook on Blaine wooden money, it is now on display at the public library,” reported the Blaine Journal-Press, dated May 10, 1934. “It will remain there for one week only, so you had better hurry.” It seems the wooden money had become museum material.
A few years later—it was November 5, 1936 to be exact—the Blaine Journal-Press published a story that originated in Iceland. Clipped from a Reykjavik periodical, it was forwarded to the newspaper headquarters, where it was translated by Marius A. Karason as follows:
A little city in the United States, named Blaine, was troubled with financial difficulties for a number of years. But now the little city has emerged from the depression by a very simple method.
A few years ago a quantity of “wooden money” was made and circulated in Blaine where it was accepted as legal tender. All working people, whether employed by the city or by someone else, received ‘wooden money’ in payment for their services. The city had bonded itself to redeem this ‘wooden money’ with U.S. currency at the end of one year.
When the time came to redeem the “wooden money” only about a third of the amount issued was presented for redemption. The remaining two thirds were apparently in the hands of coin collectors or souvenir hunters. So, in this simple way, the finances of the little city were greatly improved.
Peace Arch wooden money penetrated beyond Iceland. While Hitler was rising to power, a photo of the coin was published as a curiosity in a German publication. Nearer to home, a wooden nickel found its way into the famous coin collection of the Chase National Bank of New York.Nearer still, theywere displayed at the Bellingham Coin Club’s coin and stamp show in 1974 and the University Coin Club exhibit at Seattle in 1977.
Coins were valued high as $35 by 1977, “with coins showing a flag atop the Peace Arch commanding a higher price. The flags were later removed from the coins when their makers found the flags obscured serial numbers.”
The coins have been reproduced as curios, the original pieces bearing inked initials of the Blaine Relief Association president or treasurer are indeed rare finds.
Although the coins are remembered with greater clarity than the man who first conceptualized their possibilities for a depressed border town, Albert Balch had promoted the Peace Arch earlier than the “wooden money” era, when he personally addressed the radio audiences of stations KOMO and KJR in the summer of 1932. Upon introducing the Peace Arch theme, the August 4, 1932 Record Journal-Press relayed his address as follows:
A broad new highway named Peace Portal Drive was constructed through Blaine last month and ends at the Canadian border. New ornamental streetlights are being installed at Blaine this month so one must only follow the wide, lighted way to view the park. However, as the Peace Arch is near the water on the new highway, not yet completed on the Canadian side, many thousands of tourists who pass through Blaine do not chance to see it. No one should fail to view the arch. The attention of the whole northwest is directed again to the beautiful park.
The state of Washington, under the direction of the state park board has spent $15,000 in the last six months improving the park. New lawns, flowers and shrubbery have been planted. Schoolchildren throughout the state last year contributed enough pennies and nickels to plant $1,500 worth of shrubbery this month.
Visit the great Peace Arch as soon as you can, then you too will be telling your friends about it.
A man of romance and adventure, Albert Balch, a recognized collector of autographed letters and photos of famous figures, later accepted the invitation to become KOMO and KJR’s advertising manager—a position he utilized for further promotion of the Peace Arch. He married Edith McGinnis of Seattle July 21, 1933. Less than a month later, he faced a lawsuit approaching $6,000 for his part in a Pacific Highway auto accident north of Bellingham. The outcome could not be found.
The rest of the Balch story was found in the HistoryLink Database Output website, where David Wilma submitted thumbnail sketches of two Seattle subdivisions in July 2001.
Accordingly, by year 1935—in the midst of the Great Depression—Balch had moved to Seattle, where he enlisted the partnership of radio broadcasting veteran Ralph Jones, and with twenty-five dollars down for neighborhood development, they began clearing land and grading streets. The pair having ventured into real estate, “View Ridge became a neighborhood in northeast Seattle just west of Sand Point.” They built their homes on 50th Avenue Northeast, where they lived the rest of their lives.
Balch and Maury Seitzer’s proposal to develop a one-million dollar housing project northwest of View Ridge in 1941 became a second successful real estate venture. Edith never cared for the View Ridge name, so Balch asked her to name the new neighborhood. She collected English china of a famous brand, so she graced it with the company name.
Thus, the man who introduced Blaine to Peace Arch wooden money, introduced Seattle to a neighborhood named for wood of another kind. Wedgwood.
Albert S. Balch, Blaine High School graduate of 1922, died a wealthy entrepreneur in a Seattle convalescent home September 27, 1976 at the age of 73.
Celebrating the bicentennial wagon train pilgrimage that began at the Peace Arch and ended at Valley Forge little less than three months before Balch died, replicas of the wooden coins were on sale, thirty-five cents apiece, at the Westside Record-Journal office. The replicas were a project of the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce.
Theme Proposals Met with Ambivalence, Apathy or Antagonism
Blaine Ignores Peace Arch Theme Proposed by Chamber of Commerce
After Samuel Hill announced the opening of the Pacific Highway in 1915, it attracted a growing number of autos. Subsequently, as border traffic increased year by year, the prospects of tourism began to dawn upon Blaine’s prominent citizens. At first, it was thought Lincoln Park would attract tourists. “Blaine has one thing it can be proud of,” wrote the editor of the Blaine Journal-Press in the August 27, 1925 publication. “That is her tourist camp at Lincoln Park and the whole park as well. If there is any free tourist camp in the country with a prettier setting, better water, and more inviting from every standpoint than Blaine’s, we should like to see it. The park is a monument to the town’s civic farsightedness and to the board of park commissioners as well.” Lincoln Park was the city’s gem, much as Marine Park is its current jewel.
But with the prospects of tourism came an awareness of competition. Just one day after Kiwanis International dedicated the Harding Good Will International Memorial at Vancouver, B.C., prospective tourism set the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce thematically thinking, as revealed in the Blaine Journal-Press of September 17, 1925:
Blaine Wants Big Yearly Event
The Chamber of Commerce of Blaine wants to inaugurate some kind of an annual celebration here that will attract the people from outside, as well as those from the immediate vicinity. Bellingham has its Tulip Festival, Sumas its Roundup, Lynden its county fair and Ferndale its annual Old Settlers’ picnic. These annual events pretty well take up the list of ordinary events of this kind, so Blaine must originate some event different from any of the others. It is conceded that Blaine should work out some event that would be in keeping with the Peace Arch idea and to this end the Blaine Chamber of Commerce will devote its energies and ask the cooperation of all citizens interested.
This was one of the things that came up for discussion at last Friday night’s Chamber of Commerce meeting, following the monthly luncheon at the Legion hall.
Maoon’s Café served the luncheon at the nominal cost of 50 cents per plate.
Nothing definite has been decided upon—just a discussion of the need of some annual festival or celebration for the city. Of course the Peace Arch is one of the first things to be mentioned in connection with such an event because this magnificent arch is widely advertised and stands for something different. Some event in keeping with the idea of peace, something devoid of rough and tumble stuff seems to meet the approval of most people.
Competitive challenge struck the chamber when Lynden—a thriving Dutch settlement seventeen miles to the east—had attracted thousands of visitors to a well-organized event. “What is estimated as the largest crowd ever assembled in the county outside of Bellingham except that at the Peace Arch [1921 dedication] celebration in Blaine, was that which attended the Ku Klux Klan ceremonies at the Lynden fair grounds last Saturday evening,” reported the October 1, 1925 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press. “The ceremonies were impressive and several hundred Klan members were present in regalia, but no masking was seen. Powerful searchlights swept the field and three fiery crosses presented a beautiful sight in the darkness.”
With that report in mind, the chamber tried harder. Three weeks before a California peace tower was dedicated at Mount Rubindoux to honor Riverside’s Frank A. Miller, plans were formulated for a mass meeting to be held at the Blaine Legion Hall the evening of November 20, 1925, for a veritable brainstorming session centered upon the Peace Arch as its city theme. “This is purely a Blaine affair and anyone and everyone who desires is asked to attend and offer suggestions,” noted the November 19, 1925 Blaine Journal-Press. “The Chamber of Commerce has started this movement, but does not hope to carry it out without the hearty support of every citizen.”
Rowe R. Holland, attorney and friend of Samuel Hill, who had earlier moved the editor of the Vancouver Sun to establish a plan for motivating Canadian children to donate toward park development on their side of the border, was invited to address the crowd, and Prof. Paul Lustermann’s band was invited to perform. Finally, an anonymous poem, “The Peace Arch Festival” [see Appendix B] accompanied the front-page invitation.
Alas, the mass meeting “was not as well attended as expected and therefore disappointing to the Chamber of Commerce which called it,” complained the local press. “To add to the lack of a big crowd, the speaker from Vancouver, B.C., failed to arrive. Why this failure [occurred] is not known at this time as Mr. Holland had specifically promised to be present or to send a substitute in case he could not come. Neither came and no explanation.”
Nor was there an explanation for the sparse attendance of Blaine residents. Although “it was moved and unanimously carried that the meeting go on record favoring this Peace Arch celebration,” ten and one-half years passed before the chamber again attempted to highlight the Peace Arch theme by means of formally organizing its community for that purpose.
Fortunately, during the chamber’s retreat from portal promotional activity—it occurred from September 1925 to March 1936—visionary individuals like Adolph Miller, Rogan Jones and Albert Balch kept alive their heroic efforts to promote the Peace Arch.
A White and Black Theme that Failed
A 1972 “Blaine City/Waterfront Improvement Study” concluded that “the social, physical and visual environment of Peace Portal Drive requires detailed improvement through demolition of hazardous structures, planting street trees, encouraging a sequence of individual canopies and controlling signing, lighting and limiting blatant use of color.”
Short-range improvements suggested “shop canopies, unified signing, unit paving and street-end view parklets.” Subsequently, a model block plan depicting the conjunction of Peace Portal Drive and H Street was designed by Bellevue architect Richard Haag.
“Paint the town” was “high on the list of short-range improvements for the downtown area.” Explained by the August 24th Blaine Journal, “A black and white paint job is suggested to create a dynamic theme for the downtown area. Buildings would be painted white with black trim and all sign colors would also be restricted to black and white.”
If it was “a dynamic theme,” it was also subtle. White paint represented the color of the Peace Arch. Black symbolized graphics such as “Children of a Common Mother” and “Brethren Dwelling Together in Unity.”
The color scheme was part of a Blaine waterfront study that, in turn, belonged to the city’s comprehensive plan. The package was approved by the city council in December 1972. The Blaine Interagency Improvement Committee agreed the theme could not be legally enforced, but by March 1973, the committee found itself urging government officials to adopt the color scheme for United States customs and immigration buildings at the border. But Blaine’s port director claimed no authority to impose the theme upon a government facility. The committee approached the General Services Administration with an appeal. The Port of Bellingham agreed to paint its web houses accordingly.
The color scheme was then presented to Blaine’s school board. “After a greeting of snickers that might as well have been a universal guffaw, the suggestion was tabled,” reported the Blaine Journal. “Blaine might not have black and white trim at their local school.” It should be noted, however, that the Peace Arch itself was of thematic interest to the board. A model of the Peace Arch was erected on the campus three years later.
One merchant’s view was expressed in a March 21 letter to the editor:
It really is annoying every time I read that the Blaine Interagency Improvement Committee has decided that the Blaine business section be painted white and black.
We paid a professional an outrageous sum to tell us to paint our buildings white and black. Now we are writing to, and talking to, the General Services Administration in Auburn, to try talking them into painting our government buildings the same way.
It would seem to me if a town were thinking of carrying out this project, the first thing to do would be to poll the business people concerned. We own two downtown buildings and have never been asked our opinion. We have talked to approximately six others, and they think the idea is ridiculous, and have no desire to go along with this plan.
Realtor Mel Hollinger, active with the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce, painted his historic home enthusiastically according to the scheme. But few followed suite.
Years after many thought the color scheme had died, the following letter to the editor appeared in the Westside Record-Journal of August 10, 1983:
EDITOR:
The Blaine City Council has called a special meeting for 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, the 10th of August, for the purpose of reviewing the proposed painting of City Hall. The Council will decide whether the existing “black and white” theme should be altered. The public is invited to attend the meeting to voice their opinion.
Dale Ennor, City Manager
Accompanying his letter was a guest commentary by Stuart Andrews, M.D., Blaine, who wrote, “I think the black and white theme has done more harm than good for Blaine, even though the intentions were good. I think more color—much more—is needed in downtown.”
Accompanying the guest commentary was an editorial:
Choose Your Color
The old peeling paint is coming off the Blaine City Hall and the new paint will soon be on. But wait. The residents of the city are being asked to help with the decision.
City Manager Dale Ennor has called a public meeting for tonight to discuss the subject. You may agree with one resident. Dr. Stuart Andrews, that the black and white color theme should be brightened with a little color. Or you may like it the way it is.
Whatever your preference, make it known tonight. Or write a letter right away to Mr. Ennor before he goes out to buy the paint. City Hall will be the leader in how the city should dress up for its Centennial and Expo ’86. Now is the best time for residents to have a say.
Although there wasn’t much discussion at all during that special Wednesday night meeting, the Blaine City Council nevertheless decided to keep the original black and white color scheme—or theme—and the Blaine City Hall accordingly received a new paint job in September, 1983.
The Hollinger home, the Blaine City Hall and the currently defunct Blaine Bookstore were among those few structures that adhered to the painting scheme. Today, as one tours Blaine, a few buildings may be seen bearing white and black coats of ageing paint.
Most residents, considering it a silly idea, allowed the theme quietly to fail.
An Accepted Theme that Lay Dormant
Few people in or out of Blaine, Washington, know that an official city theme, drafted and proposed by the author, has been adopted in honor of the Peace Arch, and, more specifically, toward the cause for which the Peace Arch stands.
The theme, “Promoting Peace,” was unanimously approved and adopted by the Blaine City Council while the membership was in session October 9, 1995. Slightly revised and improved, the theme was again unanimously approved and adopted February 9, 1998, bearing the signatures of Mayor John Hobberlin and City Clerk Shirley Thorsteinson.
Although Blaine’s theme was announced by public proclamation (see Appendix D), specific action on behalf of the community remains a challenge for creative action. Peace, far or near, is an elusive value yet to be universally embraced while the Old Testament psalmist and George Frederic Handel continue to plead, “Why do the nations so furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing?”
Waves of Fame and Glory
Marshal Joffre is Greeted by Thousands
When Blaine Mayor Harold W. Hunter received word that Marshal Joseph Jacques Cesaire Joffre of France, accompanied by Great Britain’s Ambassador and Lady Geddes were scheduled to arrive in Blaine March 30, 1922, he called a public meeting to prepare for a grand welcoming.
Eulogized by the Vancouver Sun when he died in 1950, Pennsylvania-born Hunter came to Blaine in 1899, where he engaged in the lumber business. After the Peace Arch was built, he “was instrumental in promoting the International Peace Memorial Association and the subsequent Peace Arch at the international border at Blaine-White Rock.”
The five posts of Whatcom County’s American Legion were called upon to present a special demonstration, the streets were strung with banners and flags, and fingers were crossed with the hope that favorable weather would bless a thousand visitors.
The three, having first arrived at Vancouver, B.C., boarded a train for Blaine. Although the party was behind schedule when they detrained at 3:15 P.M., “there were several thousand people surrounding the great Peace Arch when they arrived” to address the crowd. Greeted by American Legion members “from all parts of the county,” the marshal presented a short address in French,” translated in English by an interpreter. Samuel Hill, who accompanied them to the portal, then presented a short address. Professor Lustermann struck up the Blaine Juvenile and Bellingham Elks bands
“While the visitors could not remain long here, it was a distinction to have them even for a short time, and the program, while short, was most impressive,” reported the March 31, 1922 edition of the Blaine Journal. “Marshal Joffre, in appearance, is exactly like the pictures so often seen of him, but he is an older man than most people imagined. While of military bearing, his step was not quick such as a younger man would have.”
Henry Ford Liked Queen Marie, Too
Variously spelled as “Rumania” or “Roumania,” Queen Marie of Romania visited the United States in the fall of 1926, arriving first at New York with an energetic travel schedule that included a pause at the Peace Arch and Samuel Hill’s new guesthouse.
“Unless something happens to alter the schedule, she, with her party, will arrive in Blaine by special train at 8 a.m. on Nov. 5th,” disclosed the Blaine Journal-Press. “About two hours will be spent here, viewing the Peace Arch and stopping at Mr. Hill’s Semiahmoo Villa, after which the train will proceed to Vancouver, B.C. The following day the train will pass through Blaine southward, and may again stop here for several hours. It is understood that Blaine city officials will pay proper recognition to Queen Marie on her visits here.”
Blaine business owners decorated their premises. Romanian flags were displayed. Mayors and other dignitaries were invited to welcome the queen. A program was scheduled to commence Saturday, November 6 at 8 A.M., arranged as follows:
Music Prof. Lustermann’s Band
Invocation Canon Smith, Bellingham
Address of welcome Mayor Keyes of Blaine
Music Prof. Lustermann’s Band
Address Mayor Kellogg of Bellingham
Presentation of flowers Campfire Girls
Address Hon. Samuel Hill
Presentation Boy Scouts
The queen’s visit was covered in the November 11, 1926 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press:
A crowd estimated at about 2,000 people, greeted the visit of Queen Marie of Rumania to Blaine Saturday morning last. People were present from all over the northwest part of the county, eager to get a good view of the world’s most popular and most loved queen.
The queen’s special train arrived in Blaine about 2:30 o’clock in the morning from Vancouver, B.C., having passed through Blaine in the early afternoon of Friday, when the queen and the princess and prince left the train to breakfast with their host, Samuel Hill, at his Semiahmoo Villa, just across the boundary line.
Promptly upon the arrival of the caravan of 13 Lincoln cars from Vancouver, the queen and party left the train and were whisked to the Peace Arch for a short formal program. The queen rode in an open car with her host, Samuel Hill, and Col. John Carroll, who has charge of entertainment for the Great Northern Railway. The princess and prince followed with the party.
With brief introductions the short program started with a welcoming speech by Mayor Keys of Blaine who presented her majesty with a neatly tied packet containing the story of the founding of the Peace Arch and the settlement of Blaine and Semiahmoo by early pioneers. An address was also made by Mayor Kellogg of Bellingham.
After the address of welcome by Mayor Keyes, Canon E.B. Smith of Bellingham, Episcopal church, invoked the divine blessing upon the royal party. The prayer which was typewritten and read by the reverend pastor, made a deep impression upon her majesty who afterwards asked if she might have a copy as a memento of the ceremonies, and the same was given her.
The presentation of a beautiful bouquet of chrysanthemums by the Campfire Girls was impressive, the presentation speech being made by Miss Doris McElmon, daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Gordon McElmon of Blaine. The queen halted the program for a minute to call Miss McElmon closer and inquired of her what was the aim of her organization, the Campfire Girls.
Troops 25 and 35 Boy Scouts of Blaine then presented Queen Marie with a small American flag. She continued to hold this flag in her hands throughout the program and spoke appreciative words in accepting it.
The Boy Scout presentation was made by Walter Flamming.
The Girls’ Glee club of the Blaine High School sang the “Star Spangled Banner” and the Romanian national air.
Samuel Hill then spoke in welcoming words, referring to the Peace Arch and its significance and his pleasure in having her come so far to view it.
Queen Marie in responding expressed the hope that peace portals might soon be erected at the boundaries of countries all over the world.
“All monuments erected before have been in commemoration of war and its deeds,” she said. “Therefore this Peace Portal carries a special message to me. I am in America, the land of my friends. I am in Great Britain, my old country. I am greatly pleased at being here in this far-off corner of your great country in the shadow of this great peace portal. My friend, Mr. Hill, has done a splendid deed in erecting it and his speech wishing such peace monuments to go up on all boundaries is also a splendid thought.”
Immediately upon the completion of the program just before 10 o’clock the queen and party were whisked back to the train, which pulled out immediately. At Bellingham the party left the train again and autoed to Burlington over the Chuckanut drive.
Queen Marie, although visibly wearied from the constant receptions, made a pleasing sight. She is not only a beautiful woman, looking young for her years, but she has a most pleasing personality. Such was the expression on all sides. She lost no sight of any courtesy shown her as she appeared here.
The short but appropriate little program at the foot of the great Peace Arch was well gotten up and well executed, and just fit in for the period of time allotted.
Among the guests presented to Queen Marie at Semiahmoo Villa, the summer home of Samuel Hill at Douglas, B.C., were Mr. And Mrs. Daniel Hill and Mrs. William Holmes, of Seattle, Mrs. Katherine Austin, of Victoria B.C., and Mlle. Marguerite de Guesseme of Harrison Hot Springs, B.C.
Samuel Hill was not the only gentleman who took a liking to Queen Marie. The Blaine newspaper presented a second story that depicted an expensive, but interesting role, played by Henry Ford. To what extent he was merely interested in promoting mass-produced autos is a matter of speculation.
J.B.Ayres, personal representative of Ford in the queen’s special train said, that Queen Marie’s incidental expenses will have cost Henry Ford, automobile manufacturer, $500,000 by the time she and her royal party return to New York.
These “incidental” expenses, (including “loans” to nearly every member of her majesty’s party for the purchase of almost anything from cigarettes to chewing gum) covered also all automobile transportation and baggage expense and cost of the queen’s party whenever the special makes a stop—the biggest item of which is automobiles, 168 having been furnished to date. At every stop Lincoln sedans and limousines have been furnished at the orders of Henry Ford who also pays the drivers wages.
Besides this special tribute to the Queen of Rumania, the millionaire automobile manufacturer has caused to be built a special sedan trimmed in dark blue with royal purple wheels and carrying the royal coat of arms, which will be presented to the queen upon her return to New York as a personal gift of Henry Ford.
Mary Waterstreet Remembered the Schoolchildren Exchanging Flags
Although she is hardly remembered today, Mary Waterstreet was known as a gifted entertainer in the 1930s. Rogan Jones tried without success to feature her during one of his Peace Arch broadcasts. Although her schedule precluded an appearance, she nevertheless remembered the monument, and while she was in Seattle, took a side-trip to the monument in mid-February, 1950. James Cramer, editor of the Blaine Journal, described the visit:
When the pictures of the flag exchange of five thousand schoolchildren, taken at the second annual International Peace Program held at the Peace Arch at Blaine, Nov. 11, 1938, found a place in the rotogravure sections of many of the metropolitan newspapers, the Sam Hill Memorial was first brought to the attention of Mary Waterstreet, nationally known monologist.
Miss Waterstreet has dipped into the lives and history of all “first women” of the land, adapting their individual personalities and favorite gowns, especially favoring the historical comments by our first women on the uselessness of war. She has appeared in every state of the Union before many important clubs and societies impersonating our first women in dress and one-sided conversation.
She has had the present first lady as a guest in her Green Bay, Wisconsin, home and has been a recent guest at the White House. On this trip west, in company with her husband, Robert M. Desereau, she appeared at the Forest Ridge Convent in Seattle, where she presented her “parade” of the first ladies, for which she received elaborate mention in the Seattle papers. She also filled an engagement at the Western Washington College at Bellingham.
Miss Waterstreet was “relayed” to Blaine by Seattle parties who directed her to Dr. Theodore Rasmussen of Bellingham, hence to Stanley Rogers, and hence to the editor of the Blaine Journal, who piloted the party to the Peace Arch where this noted portrayer of history was photographed in the foreground of this massive arch.
Miss Waterstreet gazed upon this great Arch standing for everlasting peace between two great democratic nations, and remarked, “I have wanted to view this wonderful edifice ever since I saw the pictures of the interchange of flags between the schoolchildren of the two nations; and little did I think, when in my home two months ago, that I would have this opportunity so soon. And now I am here!”
“Why,” said Miss Waterstreet, “the rulers and monarchs of all the European countries should be invited here to view this great monument to peace.”
Lady Baden-Powell’s Left-handed Welcome to the Peace Arch
Lady Baden-Powell of England, en route from Canada to the 33rd Girl Scout National Convention in California, paused at Blaine, Saturday, October 22, 1955, where she dined with a welcoming committee at the new Border Café, and addressed some 300 Girl and Boy Scouts, Cubs and Brownies and their leaders, gathered at the Peace Arch that afternoon.
It was a formal ceremony, complete with a presentation of colors, the Pledge of Allegiance and patriotic music accompanied by the Blaine High School Band. In the course of her 15-minute speech, the Blaine Journal reported her to have said “the left-handshake is the sign of friendship and trust,” and “twelve out of every 100 girls in the United States are Girl Scouts.”
Children from Blaine, Custer, Ferndale, Bellingham, Sedro-Woolley and Anacortes were present. Oddly, no Canadians were there.
The Columbia River Treaty: President Meets Prime Minister
Activism, controversy and annual celebrations were not the sole markers of action at the Peace Arch during the second half of the twentieth century. There were glorious moments, like, for example, the meeting of President Lyndon Johnson and Prime Minister Lester Pearson. To no avail, leaders of such stature had frequently been invited to attend Annual Peace Arch Celebrations. But a treaty was the stimulus for a president and prime minister actually to meet at the monument.
President Lyndon Johnson and Prime Minister Lester Pearson signed the Columbia River Treaty at the Peace Arch September 16, 1964. Some 30,000 people attended in pouring rain for a ceremony that lasted 40 minutes. According to “Millennium Milestones” published in the August 27, 1999 edition of the Bellingham Herald, “Johnson used at least ten pens to sign his part of the treaty. In preparation for the ceremony, all the flowerbeds in the park were replanted the day before, having been earlier cleared for the winter. The border crossing was closed from 7 A.M. till after the VIP entourage departed that afternoon.
“During the event, Lummi Indians, dressed in traditional outfits, barbecued more than 1,000 pounds of freshly caught salmon over an open pit,” noted the Herald.
The Burnaby Courier, Blaine Journal and Marysville Globe jointly published a supplement covering the treaty. “This is the first time in the history of international relations that such a joint agreement has been concluded between two Sovereign states,” reported British Columbia Premier W.A.C. Bennett. “Now the magnificent river which flows across our friendly border will be developed and controlled for the lasting benefit of the people of our two nations. In British Columbia we rejoice at the completion of this agreement and my government and I are proud to have been a part in bringing it to pass.” Happily agreeing, Washington State Representative Albert D. Rosellini said, “This treaty will corral the last wild horses of the mighty Columbia River and use their energy for constructive purposes. Not for the destruction of lives and property as has occurred in the past.”
“As the activities were terminated, the President came down from the podium and traveled the length of a long restraining rope, and grasped the hands of literally thousands of kids as they clamored for attention” reported the September 17th Blaine Journal. “It was a grand day for Blaine, and one that will not soon be overshadowed by any event either at Blaine or in this northwest area.”
State Park Ranger Robert Weatherly recorded an attendance of 71,230 park visitors during the month of July 1964. Attendance grew to 83,654 during July 1965. International news coverage of the Columbia River Treaty played a major role that led to an increase of over 12,000 visitors, he believed.
The Columbia River Treaty was an international act that moved fifteen Kiwanis clubs from both sides of the border to hold their November 28, 1965 division conference aboard the Princess Elaine, a retired ferryboat and floating restaurant docked at Blaine harbor. The treaty was about to be memorialized.
After the business session and lunch had concluded, the members visited the Peace Arch, and there—during the Kiwanis golden anniversary year—they unveiled their commemorative plaque and placed it beneath the their Kiwanis International Boundary Peace Tablet of April 25, 1936, a monument located a few feet east of the portal. It bears the following inscription:
IN COMMEMORATION OF
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF PEACE 1914-1964 BETWEEN
CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
THE SIGNING OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER TREATY ON SEPTEMBER 16TH 1964
AT THE INTERNATIONAL PEACE ARCH PARK BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, AND THE PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA,
THE RIGHT HONORABLE LESTER B. PEARSON, P.C.
ERECTED AND DEDICATED TO CONTINUED PEACE AND GOOD WILL OF THE PEOPLES OF
CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES BY KIWANIS INTERNATIONIAL ON NOVEMBER 28, 1965.
Attending the dedication was James M. Doliver, administrative assistant to Washington State Representative Dan Evans.
Two years later—it was October 25, 1967—the Peace Arch International Club, “unique in the fact that its membership is composed of both sides of the border,” received its charter at a Blaine ceremony.
The Evans-Bennett Memorandum of Agreement: Governor Meets Premier
British Columbia Premier W.A.C. Bennett and Washington State Governor Dan Evans signed a memorandum of cooperation, July 10, 1972, relevant to oil spills and their prevention in adjoining waters. It was thought to be the first meeting of its kind between a state governor and provincial premier.
The July 13th edition of the Blaine Journal carried the following report:
Meeting at the International Peace Arch, Governor Dan Evans and British Columbia Premier W.A.C. Bennett formally signed a “Memorandum of Cooperation” drafted to create an oil spill program between the two governments.
Addressing about 300 people, mostly Canadians, Gov. Evans said the Memorandum is only as good as the willingness of both governments to live up to the spirit of the document.
Premier Bennett commented on the beautiful “park lands” of Washington and British Columbia and expressed the hope the two governments would act as “park rangers” to protect the area in their charge. Bennett said the Memorandum was a “meaningful beginning.”
British Columbia’s Attorney General L.R. Peterson stated that the Canadian delegation was at the Peace Arch “not to make a lot of ineffectual noise” but were there for action.
The agreement includes:
A new communications system connecting spill control efforts.
Establishment of oil tanker traffic patterns and approach procedures.
A British Columbia-Washington monitoring and inspection program.
Creation of a data bank for exchange of oil spill information.
Controls of times, procedures and places for transfer of oil from ships and barges to shore.
The joint oil spill program will be developed further by a task force of British Columbia and Washington government officials.
Evans said he hoped the agreement would give the two governments an opportunity to prevent environmental damage before it occurs.
Bennett said the new agreement does not change the position of the provincial legislature that has voted opposition to all US oil tanker traffic through Canadian waters.
Princess Prem Purachatra’s Visit
Bill Hastings, writing for the Peace Arch News, described a royal visit to the Peace Arch in 1976. “The newly elected president of the International Council of Women, Princess Prem Purachatra and husband Prince of Thailand were given a reception at the arch at which representatives of many countries attended,” he wrote. “It was there that she described her husband as a ‘princely man and a manly prince.’”
Why the Princess of Thailand would wish to visit the Peace Arch is understandable, given the fact that the International Council of Women, founded by Susan B. Anthony, May Wright Sewell and Frances Willard in 1888, is a worldwide organization that serves agencies devoted to peace, equality, health and education.
Her “princely man and manly prince” was a scholar who translated Thai classical literature into English. At age 19, while he was a student of Oxford, he produced the play, “Magic Lotus,” by translating a fifteenth-century Thai classic, “Phra Law,” into English. He spent many years translating Thai poems into English.
Chapter five
Admirers Promote the Peace Arch
Remember, if I fall, I fall for peace.—Lieutenant Hugh Macpherson, M.C., British Army
With the Peace Arch grounds as its chosen site, imagine a powerful radio station broadcasting short-wave messages of peace to every corner of the world. Its round-the-clock theme, “Peace on Earth, Good Will to Mankind,” would be broadcast in thirty-one languages.
Such was the desire of Scottish author and playwright, L.A. Macpherson, sister of British Army Lieutenant Hugh Macpherson, who was killed during World War I. “Remember, if I fall, I fall for peace,” he had told her. She remembered well. The Peace Arch radio station would become her tribute to his noble sentiment. Her dream, published in the April 20, 1924 edition of Radio, a New York Tribune and Times magazine, was relayed as a front-page story in the ensuing May 1 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press.
“She believes that the constant broadcasting of that message would have a profound effect on millions,” stated the Blaine newspaper. Although her dream never materialized, the Peace Arch nevertheless played an important role over the airwaves not many years later.
Rogan Jones and Radio Station KVOS
The year 1937 saw the Peace Arch prosper with renewed admiration and such revitalization of interest that it became a monument of growing fame for several years to come. Idealism was accompanied by objectives and projects that—in part at least—were fulfilled, delighting the newly organized International Peace Arch Program Association (IPAPA), and thousands more who would benefit from the membership’s definitive actions.
Since the death of Samuel Hill, it is probably correct to assume no person ever elevated the value of the Peace Arch with more idealism, compassion and outright achievement than did IPAPA founder and charter president Lafayette Rogan Jones (1895-1972), the Bellingham admirer who owned and managed KVOS after he had bought the fledgling radio station in 1929. He enjoyed broadcasting countywide talent; the gates of opportunity were never closed.
The Peace Arch Chorus of Blaine directed by Paul Lustermann presented an hour’s broadcast Friday, April 12, 1929. Aired by KVOS at 8:30 P.M., the program included the 40-member mixed chorus, a vocal quartet, instrumental trio and brass quartet. The chorus had hardly existed more than a year, having made its first public appearance in Blaine’s new $32,500 city hall the evening of February 16, 1928. The women, wearing white dresses, and the men sporting black suits and bowties, while every member displayed a chest-mounted Peace Arch patch below the left shoulder, the chorus presented selections by composers that included Schubert and Dvorak.
Rogan Jones was an avid admirer of the Peace Arch. As the owner of Bellingham radio station KVOS, he was able to broadcast Peace Arch events through the airwaves—a means for spreading awareness of portal programs that was new and efficient. It seems he kept nearly every scrap of paper that reflected his involvement. After his death, his collection was given archival protection, assuring the possibility of sharing programs he had directed.
Jones was a fighter for radio rights and privileges—one needs only to survey the twenty-nine boxes of material that constitute the Rogan Jones collection housed by the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies at the edge of the Western Washington University campus in Bellingham. KVOS established precedence for the nation when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the station’s right to publish news, overruling objections from several newspapers. Similarly, his International Good Music operation won a high profile case against the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1964, thereby freeing radio stations to air music without threat of lawsuits. Understandably, freedom became a key cause in his energetic efforts to promote the International Peace Arch. Every Peace Arch program would feature freely announced news that would scoop the newspapers, and music that ASCAP, losing its case, would allow the liberated radio public to hear and enjoy.
Using KVOS-790 stationery, Jones sent a memo to the IPAPA officers and executive committee, dated June 19, 1946, in which he proposed “a ten year program for IPAPA” based upon discussions between state and provincial officials held three days earlier. The focus, it seems, was turning toward children. He asked the association to prepare a Peace Arch celebration for 1947 with activities to include “an all-day picnic and intermingling of children from as many schools as possible.” A radio broadcast would cover the United States and Canada, and “worldwide if possible.” Student speakers were to be selected “based on an essay contest from which the best one or two is chosen.”
After the defeat of Germany and Japan, a postwar enemy of a different kind appeared on the scene to cancel plans for a September 26, 1947 celebration that would have encouraged “intermingling of children from as many schools as possible.” The enemy was polio. Jones received a message indirectly from the Washington State Department of Health when, on September 17, 1947, acting director W.R. Geldt, M.D., sent a letter to G.W. Gannon, secretary of the Bellingham Chamber of Commerce. “In view of the epidemic of poliomyelitis currently in progress in Vancouver and the surrounding territory,” wrote Geldt, “the State Department of Health recommends against holding this celebration in line with our policy of advocating avoidance of unnecessary exposure such as would certainly occur in the assembly contemplated.”
“If this celebration is to be postponed, it is our opinion that it will be advisable to postpone it until March or April, since epidemics of poliomyelitis usually follow a pattern which requires four or more months to subside after the peak has been reached,” concluded Geldt. Word of the cancellation had come so late, that Blaine Journal editor James Cramer could publish the news only one day prior to the event. Many unsuspecting people must have arrived at the Peace Arch only to be turned away.
The cancellation was a great loss for the International Peace Arch Program Association. A three-part program featuring one and one-half hours of recording for an international broadcast had been planned. The first part would have featured children’s parades and an explanation of the program’s purpose. High school students from both nations were prepared to present speeches during the second part, followed by “an official presentation of a memorial table to the provincial government by the schoolchildren of British Columbia; and the placement of appropriate plaques on the monument memorializing the ‘Hundredth Anniversary of the Signing of the Oregon Treaty,’ by representatives of the Washington Historical Society and the Historical Society of British Columbia,” as reported September 18, 1947 by the Blaine Journal. The third part of the program would have featured rituals by British Columbian aboriginal boys in native dress, and a folk dance by 500 New Westminster schoolchildren in costume, and several drill teams from Washington schools. A 15-coach train had been scheduled to bring 1,500 schoolchildren from Vancouver. All was lost.
Rogan Jones and the International Peace Arch Program Association
From the year Hitler’s army invaded Poland until the day polio plagued the United States, Rogan Jones’ plans for the Peace Arch were hampered. But he was no weakling. The mission moved forward. It would be of greatest value to invite Jones to tell his own story as conveyed through a pamphlet he wrote and published in 1947—ten years after he assumed leadership of the International Peace Arch Program Association.
International Peace Arch Program Association
so that the children of the world may join hands in peace
The world is still scarred and shaken by the most terrible war in all history. Peoples of the earth are hungry for lasting peace so that they can live together in harmony and happiness and progress.
Efforts now on behalf of peace and international good will could not be more timely. Here is an introduction to an idea, and an invitation to participate in an association dedicated to the concept that we can have lasting peace, based on world-wide understanding and friendship among all peoples.
The International Peace Arch Program Association was formed in 1937 in connection with a broadcast at the Peace Arch by Radio Station KVOS in Bellingham, Washington. Its purpose was to spread knowledge of a unique lesson in peace: the two nations of Canada and the United States have, for over 100 years, lived together side by side in peace and prosperity with more than 3,000 miles of unfortified border between them.
Now, ten years later and despite the occurrence of a long and devastating world war, the I.P.A.P.A. is looking forward to the time when representatives, and especially school children, of all nations meet each year a the Peace Arch to promote good will and understanding among the peoples of the world.
Development of the I.P.A.P.A.
At the beginning, membership included representatives of veterans organizations of both Canada and the United States, a few public officials and educators, and some civic-minded citizens from Bellingham north to Vancouver, British Columbia.
These men knew that to impress the idea of peace on the coming generation of both nations was to give life and permanence to the idea of the Peace Arch. In the name of the association, they sponsored and developed annual programs at the Peace Arch from 1937 through 1941. These were broadcast coast-to-coast by the Mutual network in the United States and by the Canadian network in Canada.
In 1937 the program attracted several thousand people, including about a thousand school children. In 1941, there were 15,000 people, including 7,500 school children.
From 1942 to 1945, no programs were held because of the war. In 1946, the Historical Societies of British Columbia and the State of Washington commemorated the 100th anniversary of the signing of the last peace treaty between Canada and the United States.
Now, in 1947, the I.P.A.P.A. is resuming its annual programs and following plans to enlarge its activities greatly.
Plans for Annual Program
Each annual program was more successful than the previous one. At first the entire celebration was built around the radio broadcast, which lasted thirty minutes. But in 1941, there were so many school organizations such as bands, choral groups, marching groups, etc., that the general activity took more than an hour. The speakers of that year were students.
Current plans for even more extensive celebrations in this post-war period with programs lasting as long as four or five hours. Members of the association feel that the children of two or more nations should be encouraged to visit and play together as long as possible. When these plans materialize, the radio programs will be the brief, formal part of a rather full day of “international mingling.”
It is hoped that eventually every nation of the world will be represented at the Peace Arch programs either by nationals now resident in Canada or the United States or by school children from the individual nations, or perhaps by school projects sent from distant nations.
The attention and interest of consular and diplomatic representatives of all nations represented in the United States and Canada is particularly invited. Plans for year round displays of school work from all nations are being worked on. Support for this work is keenly desired.
The I.P.A.P.A. is also looking ahead to the time when the radio part of the celebration is broadcast, not only in Canada and the United States, but throughout the world.
The park surrounding the Peace Arch has been developed and improved as a result of the I.P.A.P.A. activities. Today it is impossible to distinguish the Canadian side from the American side. Additional plans for improvement are being considered. For example, the Washington State Parks Committee has funds earmarked for the construction of a swimming pool when materials are available. Plans for housing school displays are being formulated.
Proposed Peace Arch College
During the war, the I.P.A.P.A. was kept alive by occasional meetings. At one of these, the Honorable W.M. Mott, mayor of New Westminster, British Columbia, proposed that an educational institution be established at the Peace Arch on the site of the park which surrounds the monument. According to Mayor Mott’s suggestion, this college would be one to which students from all over the world could come for study and perhaps graduate work in the important subject of peace.
A number of meetings, attended by prominent Canadians and Americans, have been held to consider the proposed college, with overwhelmingly strong sentiment in favor of the idea.
No finer or more beautiful site is to be found anywhere for either school or college intended to foster and illustrate the ideas which may bring about a growing and lasting desire for peace and understanding.
Rogan Jones, president of the I.P.A.P.A. and one of the directors of the movement since its beginning, has suggested that the association raise money for the building of a permanent fireproof library to which may be sent every known book, pamphlet or other publication pertaining to the subject of peace. This would be the first stage in the plan for the college.
Such a library would occupy an important place in international relations and would be a shrine to peace in the world seemingly stricken with the disease of war.
Summary
The I.P.A.P.A. intends to look forward educationally rather than backward historically. Therefore, the children of the world are invited to join the children of Canada and the United States at the Peace Arch each year to establish friendship and hope for lasting peace among the people of the world.
Contributions to this worthy project in the form of money, time, talent or ideas are most welcome. The association, with limited funds but with a basic desire to spread the effects of the Peace Arch far beyond the limits of Canada and the United States, intends to go forward with a constantly enlarging program to achieve its cherished ideal.
Only with the help of much needed contributions and with the cooperation of many will this be possible.
Communications and contributions should be addressed to the secretary.
President
ROGAN JONES, Bellingham, Washington
Vice President
WM. M. MOTT, New Westminster, B.C.
Secretary
JAMES H. CRAMER, Blaine, Washington
Assistant Secretary
GEORGE BRINE, New Westminster, B.C.
Treasurer
W.E. SHRADER, Blaine, Washington
●
The 1947 meeting will be held at the
Peace Arch in September.
Rogan Jones, full of ideas and hope, reached the top of his dreams when he and Mayor Mott initiated the notion of constructing a Peace Arch College or University in the portal park.
Jones and Mott’s Peace Arch College was “No Idle Gesture”
“The British Columbia legislature will be asked to consider the advisability of establishing an international university,” heralded the Vancouver Sun. “This was proposed by the International Peace Arch [Program] Association meeting at Blaine on Thursday [February 3, 1944]. “It is suggested that the entry system would be patterned after the Cecil Rhodes scholarship plan. The suggestion will also be placed before Ottawa and Washington authorities. The plan is to locate the college close to the Peace Arch.”
Calling it “a fitting memorial,” the Vancouver Daily Province portrayed it as “an international college to serve as a center for the teaching of democracy,” adding, “Industrial leaders throughout the world would be asked to subscribe to an endowment fund for its financing and upkeep.” Later, the February 28 edition elucidated:
Permanent buildings including dormitories, topflight faculty and comprehensive library would call for an initial outlay of several million dollars. Supporters of the idea point out that cost would be less than that of a single saturation raid on an enemy city, and that the returns might well remove the need for such grim expenditures in yours to come.
Governments of each contributing country would foot the bill for their selected students.
What about the youth of Germany and Japan—would boys and girls from enemy lands be considered eligible?
That would depend to a great extent on the status of those countries after the war, and the advocates of the international university would sooner wait until peace is restored before dealing with the problem.
It was pointed out, however, that youth is receptive, and that even students who had imbibed the poison of totalitarianism in their childhood might be brought to an appreciation of self-government and democracy if taken in hand while their minds were still pliable.
To be international in the true sense of the word, the university must be the responsibility of all countries sending students, and each land would be expected to contribute toward the upkeep.
As Mayor Mott portrays it, the university would have a board of directors no less international than its student body. Graduates, when they returned to enter the state or political life of their homeland, would do so unconfined by bounds of narrow nationalism.
The plan might lead to an adoption of standard legal forms and practice, as well as an international code of law more durable than those that have failed in the past.
Number of students would depend on funds available, but Mayor Mott feels that to make a success of the venture, the project couldn’t be tackled in picayune fashion.
Criticism is expected, particularly from isolationist groups in both Canada and the United States.
It was more than local news. The Canadian edition of Newsweek published a short account March 13, 1944: “There’ll be some talk at the session of Parliament—but probably nothing definite in the way of action—on the Mott idea of establishing an international university astride the border at Blaine, Washington. The suggestion, thrown out casually by the Mayor of New Westminster, B.C., is gaining increasing attention in Canada and the United States.”
The Vancouver Sun picked up comments from high places. “It may well be that this idea will result in the founding of a temple for international good will,” Ian Mackenzie, minister of pensions and national health, was reported to have said. “There may be practical difficulties, but if the desire is strong enough among the people, then these can be overcome. But the move must come from the people and not from the governments in the first instance.” Sidney Smith, president of University of Manitoba, went on record as saying, “A university astride an international border would of itself stimulate and promote understanding and confidence so essential in world order and peace.” But Prof. Watson Kirkconnell of McMaster University had his doubts. “Geneva, London or New York are much more likely as locations, and Geneva already had the beginnings of such a course of instruction,” he said.
A Sun journalist, attending the March 29, 1944 meeting of the International Peace Arch Program Association filed an optimistic newspaper report:
“Every other method tried for securing lasting peace has failed and now it is time that we tried something new along the lines of education,” the mayor [Mott] said.
He mentioned that during the First World War Henry Ford spent $5 million on a peace ship and it is possible that the auto magnate would be glad to invest a similar sum to secure this peace through an educational institution.
Cooperation towards the project was promised by other speakers including Hon. Arthur Case, Washington State Treasurer; P. Hetherton, representing Governor Laglie of Washington; Mayor Cornett, Vancouver; William Matthews, representing war veterans; R.C. MacDonald, MLA for Dewdney; Arthur F. Loft, Bellingham, president of the Peace Arch Association; Prof. J.A. Irving, University of B.C.; Reeve J.T. Brown of Surrey.
“William Matthews believed students for the university should be selected from dependents of men killed during the war and fully maintained by the country which sends them,” added the Daily Province. “‘Only by evolutionary methods can peace in the world be obtained. Woodrow Wilson’s idea of the League of Nations was given to the world before the people had been sufficiently educated, and, consequently proved unsuccessful.’ Prof. J.A. Irving said.”
Before the Peace Arch University dream passed, Mayor Mott visited Blaine, where he presented the university topic to “500 graduate students of Blaine High School” Monday, May 29, 1944. The number was hyperbolic; there were 45 Freshmen, 22 Sophomores, 41 Juniors and 32 Seniors enrolled at the school that year. But School District Superintendent Vernon C. McDonald was no doubt pleased with the assembly and its guest speaker.
Favorable comments came from distances far away as New York City, where journalist William H. Fisher’s essay, “The Proposed Peace Arch College” was published in the September 22, 1945 School and Society journal. In part, he wrote:
To educators, a curriculum based on the quest for peace may seem to be somewhat visionary. When adequate consideration is given the subject, it becomes plain that such a curriculum must go to the heart of the social studies, and with the current emphasis on education for citizenship there would be ample justification for a broad and realistic program of studies. Those who understand that, while the West has passed the pioneer stage of society, its people [who] have kept much of the pioneering spirit will realize that the plan for a Peace Arch College is no idle gesture.
The Puget Sound country, with its mild climate and its industrial potentialities, may be the center of a growing population in the postwar era. As the future may show a growing population and a rising standard of living in this area, so may all the peoples of the nations bordering the “Pacific Rim” contribute to the building of a new and higher civilization. Geographically, politically, intellectually, and morally, the proposal of a Peace Arch College has much to recommend it.
Apparently, there was “nothing in the way of action” on either side of the border. This leads to a conjectural aside: Should Canada and the United States ever decide to open the border, their customs and immigration offices, modified for educational purposes, could become a stunning international university with a ready-made campus.
Rogan Jones, never one to surrender, promoted the Peace Arch in additional ways. Consider, for example, the following letter, dated May 19, 1947, that he wrote to Knute Everts, Bellingham. “You have a small plastic model of the Peace Arch at Blaine,” he wrote. “Do you think it would be possible to make these in large quantities at a price that would enable the International Peace Arch Program Association to sell them at a profit? Proceeds of such an activity would be a great help in financing the activities of the Association which, as you know, operates entirely free from any profit motive and has no paid officers.”
Again, the following letter gives further detail of plans Jones had in mind for the future of the Peace Arch. The pamphlet mentioned in the letter may have been the one previously cited as “International Peace Arch Program Association” that Jones had written in 1938. But this cannot be proved, and the parts he had underlined are unknown. Nevertheless, the letter, shown in full, presents an ambitious and idealistic visionary, busily sending a proposition to Olympia.
September 17, 1947
Honorable Art Garton, Director
Department of Conservation and Development
Olympia, Washington
Dear Art:
A UP story by Litfin quoting you on the tourist accommodation problem leads me to write you. It goes without saying that I think you are completely right in the need for these accommodations.
This organization needs help, not because anybody in particular is a part of it but because this Peace Arch at Blaine has more possibilities for development of tourist traffic than anything in the Puget Sound Area. These possibilities can be developed for less money than anything. Fully developed, the Peace Arch can attract as many tourists the year round as Grand Coulee Dam. A very few thousand dollars is all it takes to put the project in a preliminary position to do this.
Please read the enclosed booklet carefully. A good deal of reading between the lines is necessary. One sentence underscored by me is the key to what I am talking about.
A paragraph above that sentence on the same page indicated by a marginal line also is a part of the idea.
I have asked Tom Martin of the Parks Committee if his men could design for us a building that could be built at Peace Arch Park in very small units. Each unit would house a display of student work from a different country. The building should ultimately be big enough for 60 or 75 nations to display their work.
All we need to do is produce a plan and build the first unit which need not be more than 15 by 15 feet or thereabouts. If we could get enough money to build this first unit from you or any other source, then the pressure could be put upon nation after nation to build its unit, each nation adding its display and keeping it current from year to year.
I am not putting the bite on your department even for the construction of this unit. I’m only trying to interest you to perhaps urge Tom Martin to get a plan out for me. Then, of course, any sort of publicity that could be built around this Architect’s drawing would be where you could do most for us. Visualize an attractive building of a design that would look finished at any stage of its completion, each housing school work from one of the nations of the world. When 25 or 30 nations have put their displays in the shadow of the Peace Arch you then have a very strong tourist appeal. The Peace Arch itself is not enough. Our annual program at Blaine is not enough, but a combination of all of these things becomes quite worthwhile.
One other thing you might do for us without too much expense. The enclosed booklet was got out with the hope that we might interest consular representatives in Vancouver and Seattle and perhaps get a little money from individuals who might take a fancy to the idea. We got the editorial help for nothing and the art work and printing for 1,000 copies only came to about $125. This was about all we had to spend.
After the next program, which will be held September 26th, it is our hope that we can get out a new booklet that would include some pictures of this year’s activities. Such a booklet in a supply of one to ten thousand copies ought not to cost too much. Could I cry on your shoulder for that much assistance? Please give this consideration. I know that this project can become one of the great tourist attractions of this State and for less money than anything else that can be developed.
Sincerely yours,
Rogan Jones, President
One may well imagine the wondrous impact a series of units, representing nations from various parts of the world and displaying the artistic and literary achievements of children, would have made upon Peace Arch visitors, had Jones’ proposition materialized.
The American Broadcasting Company Spreads the Word
KVOS had become part of the American Broadcasting Company, and the radio script featured Roger Patrick as ABC host for the 1948 international celebration. Marked with greater sophistication, the script bore a heading, time slots were interjected, and space was provided for comments or instructions.
INTERNATIONAL PEACE ARCH CEREMONY
International Peace Arch
Blaine, Washington
Friday, September 24, 1948
KVOS – American Broadcasting Company
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
(OPEN ON BRIEF BAGPIPE MUSIC) ( :05)
PATRICK: Listen to the skirl of the pipes. As our ABC microphone stands here on the border between Canada and the United States, in the shadow of that great monument to peace, known throughout the world as the Peace Arch at Blaine, Washington, midway between Bellingham, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia, we are thrilled by the stirring music of the “Ladies From Hell”. These Pipers are swinging down the field with the measured tread of veterans….some of the last war, some of the first great war, and some who came through both wars. They won their title “Ladies from Hell” in the hand-to-hand fighting so prevalent in the first world war because they carried a tremendous threat of death to all who met them in bloody combat. There are here today on a mission of peace….not because their kilts and their courage give them this fighting nickname. They are the men able to set an example to the thousands of school children from the United States and Canada who are gathered here today.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
(PIPE MUSIC DIES AWAY….WWCE BAND PICKS UP) ( :55)
PATRICK: Here comes a different music….music by the nearly all-veteran band from Western Washington College of Education, Bellingham, Washington. The music is different….the measured cadence of their tread differs from the lilting swing of the Scottish Kilts, but the theme of their message is the same. These two groups are here to impress upon the coming generation of youth that war does not pay. This monument, built more than 25 years ago to commemorate more than a hundred years of peace between Canada and the United States….two great nations, with four-thousand miles of unfortified border; this monument, surrounded by a beautiful park….has since 1937, except for the war years, been the scene of these annual gatherings of school children and veterans who come here to send a message throughout the world that there must be no more war. Nothing illustrates better the thinking of the International Peace Arch Program Association than these stirring words from the preamble to the Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, I quote: “Since wars begin in the minds of men it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.”
So, this program is held each year in this beautiful spot that veterans may gather with school children to impress upon the coming generation of these two nations, and God willing, the children of all the world, that war has no glamour, that only peace has hope for happiness and prosperity. ( 2:20)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
(BAND DIES AWAY)
The veterans of both nations, some with scars of both wars, all with the scars of at least one war, on their hearts, or their minds, or their bodies, join now in prayer that these children gathered here and all who come after them in the subsequent annual programs, may learn and hold the unshaken determination to find a solution for the world’s problems without conflict. We hear now this prayer, led by the Rev. Canon Ernest B. Smith, vicar of the Whatcom County Mission of the Episcopal Church.
SMITH: (Prayer – 1 Min.) ( 2:50)
PATRICK: The national anthems of these two equal nations—first our own Star Spangled Banner, sung by the ——voice Glee Club from the Bellingham High School, Bellingham, Washington. ( 4:00)
(STAR SPANGLED BANNER BELLINGHAM H.S. GLEE CLUB) _ _ _ _ ( 5:00)
PATRICK: The Vancouver School Choir leads the assembly in the anthem of our good neighbors of the North————
O Canada.
(O CANADA – VANCOUVER SCHOOL CHOIR) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ( 6:00)
PATRICK: Guiding light of the International Peace Arch Program Association is distinguished leader and well-known advocate of peace between all nations. His worship Mayor of New Westminster, British Columbia, W. M. Mott. Your worship.
MOTT: This shrine of peace was erected in honor of 102 years of peace and prosperity between two democracies living beside this open border. But this shrine and this program envisage a future of peace between these two nations, and we hope, between all nations. The future belongs to the youth of Canada and the United States, and this year, as in previous years, our speakers are the citizens of tomorrow. Our speaker representing the youth of the United States is Everett Harris, student at the Meridian High School, Meridian, Washington. Mr. Harris. ( 6:50)
HARRIS: From the students of the United States, I bring greetings to our neighbors dwelling in Canada.
Peace throughout the world is the deep hope of mankind. How to realize this hope is today the greatest concern of us all. It is significant then, that we are here today to commemorate the 102nd year of peace between neighbors. Since 1846, the people of Canada and the United States have lived as “Brethren Dwelling Together in Unity.”
In 1846, an agreement was signed between the two great countries which provided that there would be no hostilities between them. Neither was to erect fortification along the 3,000 miles of border. Since that time, 102 years have passed in which neither side of the boundary has been fortified. There is no cannon or a fortification of any kind anywhere along the 49th parallel. Nor is there any fear. We do not fear attack from Canada and they fear no attack from us. When we of the United States cross the border into Canada, we are met with friendship and respect. When Canadians travel south to our states, we welcome them with friendship and respect. This relationship between two nations might well point the way and set the pattern for other countries in establishing world peace.
If international peace is to be achieved, there must be faith and mutual trust between the nations of the world.
In contrast to our unfortified boundary, European borders have bristled with armament. Suspicion, fear and hatred have existed between neighboring countries. World peace cannot be achieved as long as these conditions exist.
The world has need for our faith in friendship, and our example of living as “Brethren Dwelling Together in Unity.”
It is the duty of the people of the United States and Canada, “Children of a Common Mother,” to keep that faith – and to see that suspicion and fear shall not arise between us, and that our border shall ever remain unfortified. ( 9:20)
MOTT: Student speaker representing CANADIAN YOUTH is Miss Betty Vogel, student at the Duke of Connaught High School.
VOGEL: Canadian and American Friends:
In the streets of Berlin today there is anxious conjecture and uneasy foreboding. It is present everywhere, unspoken, yet felt intensely. The British sentry feels it as he paces up and down the troubled line of his border. The American G.I. feels it and is grimly reminded of the hushed expectancy at Iwo Jima. The Russian soldier feels it and clutches his rifle harder than before. An awkward silence covers all the Soviet-Western border, and is broken only by the hollow tramp of military boots ceaselessly patrolling. This same uncertainty is not felt in Germany alone, but is noticeable along the borders of Greece, of Yugoslavia, and of almost every country of Eastern Europe.
How different is the feeling at the Peace Arch today. Here we move unarmed and freely in each other’s territory. We are at liberty to practice our four freedoms without fear or sudden arrest. There is no tenseness here, no uneasiness, no nervous expectancy. Why is this?
It is because we, of the United States and Canada, have confidence in each other. In Europe, where minds are warped with distrust and suspicion, there can be no such confidence. War springs from this distrust and suspicion. Peace is rooted in the hearts of men. It is our duty to work for this peace as persistently and patiently as we fought for it during the war. Our weapons, instead of planes, tanks, and ships, must be tolerance and understanding. This spirit of goodwill is symbolized in our ceremony today. It is up to us whether this goodwill spreads throughout the world. The stakes are too high and the terrible losses too certain for us to give up our striving for a lasting peace. We must continue to work for this and until we eventually achieve a united and democratic world. Only when fear is abolished in every corner of the earth, will men everywhere enjoy security and freedom, and ceremonies like the one here today will become universal thanksgivings. (11:50)
(GOD SAVE THE KING – VANCOUVER SCHOOL CHOIR)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ (12:50)
AMERICA OR MY COUNTRY ‘TIS OF THEE – BELLINGHAM GLEE CLUB (13:50)
PATRICK: The American Broadcasting Company through the facilities of the Peace Arch Station, KVOS, Bellingham, has presented this unusual international celebration from the Peace Arch at Blaine, Washington, midway between Bellingham, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia. The international committee in charge will be pleased to receive letters of comments, addressed to Peace Arch, Blaine, Washington, United States. This program was beamed to all parts of the world by Armed Forces Radio service. Roger Patrick speaking. AND THIS IS ABC, THE AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANY.
Jones had enlarged his radio audience. The September 24, 1948 Peace Arch event was broadcast beyond the American continent, as revealed by KVOS Assistant Manager Fred Elsethagen’s letter to John Wallin of the Puget Sound Power & Light Company on September 28, 1948. “You will be interested to know that not only did we feed this broadcast to the American Broadcasting Company, but also the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as well as the Armed Forces Radio Service who short-waved it internationally,” he wrote. Perhaps other broadcasts in the series were also sent overseas.
When he met the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce for a dinner engagement at the school cafeteria May 2, 1949, Jones said KVOS had built a replica of the Peace Arch as a float that had been entered in the Bellingham Blossom Time Festival, and that “it would be entered in every important parade in this Northwest country.” But that wasn’t all. “Then the speaker branched out in explaining his belief in the possibility of having a great international exposition building erected at Peace Arch Park as a final development of the international college idea as authored by Mayor William Mott of New Westminster,” reported the Blaine Journal. “The exposition building would be so designed as to offer space for the display of school and historical events and libraries on International Peace, with Washington Parks Commission erecting the first unit and this to be followed by a Canadian unit, and other units to be added as other countries were approached and sold on the idea.”
His ideas were not limited to the contributions of a radio station, nor did he stop when it seemed the Peace Arch college or university idea wouldn’t materialize. Jones, enthusiastically anticipating his role as keynote speaker, attended the December 11, 1951 membership dinner of the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce. There he introduced his “World Peace Memorial” plan. He proposed construction of a stage in Peace Arch State Park, replete with acoustical shell covering and “semi-circular wings extending from each end of the shell, where displays could be arranged from all the nations of the world, exhibiting especially schoolchildren’s work on the theme of peace,” as reported in the December 20 Blaine Journal. “The structure would augment the Peace Arch itself and could possibly be supplemented by other ideas symbolizing peace.”
Jones reportedly stated, “Nothing in the world has the inherent possibilities of the Peace Arch Park. More help is needed to keep the park going. This is something the whole community could work on, and every man, woman and child would benefit from it, striving for a fitting memorial to peace among all the nations of the world. It should be started even if it takes 100 years to build it.”
Bellingham Architect Dick Stradling promptly displayed a sketch of the plan for the shell and wings “where the displays from the various nations could be segregated and arranged.”
Rogan Jones possessed an endless enthusiasm peppered with an undying idealism. Having heard of a Russian folk dance ensemble and its appealing program, he sent a letter to Senator Henry M. Jackson on August 15, 1957, expressing his desire to book a performance at the Peace Arch in 1958. “It has always seemed to me that Russia is forever ahead of us in a lot of things about peace—making hay out of nothing, so to speak. . . . I think we could build a temporary stage at the Peace Arch, get some tents for dressing rooms and really show the world that we not only believe in peace but that we have been celebrating our belief for many, many years.”
“I cannot say what the reaction of the State Department would be, but I certainly think the effort would be worth making,” replied the senator two weeks later. Jones lost little time sending a plea to the State Department at Washington, D.C. “The invitation coming from the International Peace Arch Program Department could gain worldwide attention,” he argued in a letter dated September 27, 1957.
“The Department would have no objection in principle to such an invitation as you propose, provided the Soviet Government were willing to reciprocate by permitting performances in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics by a comparable American group,” replied John S. Hoghland II, acting assistant secretary for congressional relations, October 17, 1957. He cautioned Jones over “more complications than you would consider warranted for its appearance,” and suggested Jones should find an impresario to tackle the necessary arrangements.
Although Jones was unsuccessful in his attempt to bring the ensemble to the Peace Arch, his concept of peace promotion between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War era was unorthodox but courageous.
The Peace Arch State Park Swimming Pool Dream
While the quaint Semiahmoo lighthouse, built in 1905, was being demolished in Boundary Bay during the spring of 1944, the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce heard Clark T. Goff, “dreamer of a proposed bathing beach,” present his proposal for construction of “a pedestrian pass under the Great Northern tracks, and a general beautification of the shoreline, together with the necessary bathhouses and showers, making the beach accessible to the public.” Guest Senator A.E. Edwards “gave a very enthusiastic talk supporting the bathing beach idea, and warmly supporting Blaine in whatever project we might earnestly undertake.”
But a year later, Edwards became enamored with a project of greater proportions. The Rogan Jones swimming pool proposal became a goal nurtured by Edwards, and publicly revealed in the spring of 1945. “The [Blaine] Journal is confident that construction work on a swimming pool will be started,” wrote editor-owner James Cramer for his May 3, 1945 issue. Quite thrilled, he wrote a glowing editorial the next week, certain that “Blaine has much cause for a feeling of confidence in the future,” with its boating and fishing industries, plus “the pull that Peace Arch Park, with its stately arch standing as a monument of peace, will have upon the tourist trade, and the attention that a commodious open air swimming pool will have upon the local people of the Northwest.”
Enthusiasm grew. A sketch of the pool and bathhouse, designed by state architect George Ekvall, heralded page one of the Blaine Journal published February 28, 1946. High hopes prevailed, as revealed five months later. According to the edition of July 25:
The Journal is in receipt of a blueprint from George Ekvall, state architect, showing the plans of the new swimming pool at Peace Arch Park for which the contracts are soon to be let.
The new pool is to be of ample dimensions, with all necessary locker rooms, bleachers and complete lighting system of floodlights. It will be made accessible by gravel paths leading to it from the new main entrance and from other portions of the park and will have drainage facilities direct to storm sewers.
On the south side of the pool, accommodations have been planned for the proposed wading pool that is being sponsored by the Blaine Active Club and plans have been prepared for a wading pool, in keeping with the general surroundings of the park and swimming pool.
It should be understood that the swimming pool is purposed only for swimming and that it will not offer accommodations for little tots who are yet too young to learn to swim. It is for these little ones that the Active Club has conceived and volunteered to sponsor the addition of the wading pool.
The entire structure is to be located opposite the U.S. Customs and Immigration House and Mr. Ekvall has designed it all to be in keeping with the architecture of that building.
With the new entrance for pedestrians at the corner now occupied by the Woodward store signboard, which will be beautified and supplied with a very appropriate drinking fountain by the Woodward stores, the park is being brought nearer and nearer to the city.
What happened after that is anyone’s guess. The plan evaporated, the swimming pool never materialized, and the press was silent.
Chapter Six
The Park: Its Conception and Development
Individually, we may find peace cultivating our own gardens, but as a race, I hope we will continue to speculate and that we will refrain from withdrawing to our own little corners.—Elizabeth Archibald
British Columbia Initiates its Park Project
The Surrey Leader revealed provincial and municipal action had been taken to assure the presence of a Peace Arch park on the Canadian side of the border. At a meeting held December 28, 1930 in the Vancouver Hotel, “a number of British Columbia government officials and Surrey municipal councilmen passed a resolution to purchase certain properties in the vicinity of the International Peace Arch for park purposes.”
Consider an aside at this point. A news item in the February 28, 1919 edition of the Blaine Journal raised a question with regard to the Canadian resolution. Just how the story fits into British Columbia’s 1930 quest for parkland seems a mystery. The article is quoted as follows:
Judge W. Norman Bole of New Westminster, B.C., has tendered a gift of 102 acres of land abutting on the international boundary line on the British Columbia side of Blaine, to the British Columbia government to be used for and on behalf of returned soldiers who have been gassed or are otherwise disabled and prevented from resuming their former occupations in civil life.
For those victimized by World War I, Bole suggested “one large central home standing in its own ground,” or, at least, that was the way the Blaine Journal quoted him. It seems clear from the article, that the generous gift, “abutting on the international boundary line on the British Columbia side of Blaine,” would have bordered the Peace Arch. What became of Bole’s gift, allegedly tendered nearly twelve years prior to the 1930 quest?
“The International Peace Arch [sic] Memorial Association of British Columbia has started a campaign for funds to purchase the necessary ground in the immediate vicinity of the Peace Arch to complete the original scheme,” reported the Blaine Journal, April 21, 1922. “They expect that this will require in the neighborhood of $25,000. The property desired is the old St. Leonard site and that lying immediately east.”
The sentence that concluded the story is a puzzler: “To the Northwest of the arch there is a stretch of about 300 acres which it is expected the Canadian government will donate as a national park, and negotiations are now going on to have the provincial government deviate the highway so that it will pass either through or just around the great arch.” What became of those 300 acres? Did the anticipated donation include Bole’s 102-acre gift? Why was the area considerably reduced and designated provincial rather than national? Would such a development have impinged upon nearby Semiahmoo band’s tribal ground?
A Landscaping Challenge and an Undesirable Edifice
Later, Hastings met a White Rock Museum visitor, William J. “Bill” Booth, who said his father landscaped the park. As proof, he handed her a handwritten report signed by John Booth. It described a lonely, desolated area:
When I first saw the place in 1938 it was a wilderness of scrub, old buildings, weeds and disorder. Tents, men and machinery were brought in and the work went ahead under great difficulty. New roads had to be made, old ones done away with. We found that the new roads took up so much of the land that the B.C. government had to buy more land to finish the 15-acre park as planned.
That, it seems, was but part of the story. William Hastings, in his undated manuscript, described a scene of another kind that must have added a potential, if not actual, distraction to the Peace Arch dedication:
There was a row of shacks along the tracks at the border occupied by “ladies of the night” and, across the road, there was the St. Leonard’s Hotel, which had the dubious distinction of being the first establishment in Surrey to be threatened with cancellation of its license unless it cleaned up its act. (St. Leonard, by the way, was an 18th century Italian saint who is noted for his efforts to reconvert the “fallen away.”) The Women’s Institute tried valiantly to get the place closed down but were unsuccessful. Finally, the infamous structure burned down. [This has been disputed by the May 12, 1932 Blaine Journal-Press which stated, “During the past two weeks, just over the International boundary at Douglas, the old St. Leonard Hotel, historic landmark of this vicinity, has been completely demolished and the lumber removed. This has also been the case of the buildings at the rear of the hotel and just north of the Peace Arch. The work has been done in preparation to carrying on the landscaping now in progress on the U.S. side of the line at the Hill Memorial Park. The removal of the old buildings has resulted in a much finer view of the Peace Arch from either direction and once the parking and landscaping of the surrounding grounds is completed, this port of entry will be one of the most beautiful among the entire border.”]
One may only imagine what was whispered throughout the audience while the Peace Arch was being dedicated in 1921. Known as “Blaine’s snake ranch,” the hotel lost its liquor license mid-January 1914. Owner-operator James R. Brennan tried several times to regain it until he died about eleven months later.
British Columbia Schoolchildren Raise Funds for their Park
British Columbia’s schoolchildren began to raise funds for a Canadian park sometime prior to a similar cause initiated by Washington state schoolchildren who were promoting a stateside park. “In Canada it took longer,” wrote William Hastings, his undated and unpublished manuscript kept in the White Rock Museum. “For one thing, there were not nearly enough Canadians to do a quick job; that is until Sam Hill took R. Rowe Holland, a community-minded Vancouver lawyer, to see the editor of the Vancouver Sun.” The September 9, 1971 Blaine Journal remembered it this way:
In efforts to raise money, Mr. R. Rowe Holland, one of the main Canadian speakers at the dedication ceremonies and one of those instrumental in the building of the arch, paid a visit to Mr. Cromie of the Sun. Cromie, one of the members of the committee, called in a Miss McGeer, employee and sister of Senator G.G. McGeer, and told her to give Mr. Holland all the space and time necessary as he was in need of raising $25,000 for to complete the Peace Arch property and park. The Vancouver school board also helped and the British Columbia schoolchildren were canvassed similarly to the students in Washington state. The children paid twenty-five cents each. This was considered membership fee and they were given a certificate of membership to the British Columbia Boys and Girls Peace League. This certificate read:
“Know all men by these presents that (name) has been proposed and accepted as a life member of the British Columbia Boys and Girls Peace League and (his/her) name has been added to the great roll which is sealed in the Peace Arch on the International Boundary line between the Dominion of Canada and the United States, and that (he/she) has resolved to dedicate (his/her) life to the advancement of Peace throughout the World.”
The certificate was then signed by the president and secretary of the International Peace Memorial Association of British Columbia.
After the completion of the park, ten years after the ceremony, the International Peace Memorial Association turned the balance of monies on hand over to the Provincial Government in Victoria and the Park and Arch were put in their perpetual care. These monies remained pretty much as they were in the bank, gaining interest, until later transferred to the International Peace Arch Program Association.
The idea of appealing to provincial schoolchildren for donations originated early as July 13, 1921, when R. Rowe Holland was elected president of the International Peace Memorial Association at the Hotel Vancouver. Victoria’s Daily Colonist noted: “An appeal will be made to the public and a dime collection will be made in the public schools, with the consent of the various boards of school trustees and teachers.” By April 1930, the Vancouver Sun noted the Canadian association had banked $2,245 for development of its park.
“Money subscribed in ten-cent pieces by the school children of British Columbia will be devoted to laying out of a peace memorial park on the Canadian side of the Peace Arch at the international boundary, it was decided at a meeting Tuesday of the International Peace Movement [sic] Association at Hotel Vancouver,” reported the April 9, 1930 edition of the Daily Province. International Flag Day Association president Adolph Miller no doubt kept in touch with Peace Memorial Association president R. Rowe Holland, himself of a friend of Samuel Hill. Miller probably inspired Washington State School Superintendent of Instruction N.D. Showalter to take up the cause, while Holland chose to reach British Columbia’s schoolchildren with the help of the Vancouver Sun.
Park plans were on target according to front-page news released January 14, 1931. “Property on the Canadian side of the International Peace Arch at Blaine, after many years efforts, has been acquired at last by the International Peace Arch [sic] Memorial Association, it was announced today by Capt. Frank J. MacKenzie, former M.L.A. and now candidate for Reeve of Surrey,” reported the Vancouver Sun.
Three years passed before New Westminster Member of Parliament Tom Reid urged the provincial government “to provide work for 250 unemployed men quartered in relief camps near White Rock” by hiring them to develop Canada’s side of the park. Until the Great Depression began to thaw, such hope remained frozen.
Another year passed. Then, in March 1935, Reid, messaging from Ottawa, said the federal government would put the men to work if British Columbia’s provincial government would provide transportation for those employed. The minister of public works agreed.
Eight days before the ensuing Christmas, Reid met with the Lions Club in New Westminster, passing them the same promise, and complaining, “Our side of the line, I regret to say, is nothing but an eyesore and a disgrace to Canada.”
“Plans for development of a beautiful park and garden on the Canadian side of the international boundary . . . are being shaped by Federal and B.C. governments,” reported the Vancouver Sun, February 7, 1939. “The scheme, originated by Thomas Reid, M.P., New Westminster, calls for use of transient unemployed now in provincial government camps to lay out lawns, shrubberies and flower beds adjoining similar development already completed on the United States side of the Arch.”
“A direct grant might be given for the development or it might be arranged for a number of men from the Green Timbers relief camp to begin this work under supervision of a competent landscape gardener,” added the Vancouver Daily Province, published the same day.
“The Federal Government is willing to contribute up to $10,000 for development of the Peace Arch Park . . . if B.C. matches the contribution and supervises the work,” announced the Daily Province one week later.
By November 9, 1939, the newspaper affirmed “Peace Arch Park, comprising ten acres on the western terminus of the Canadian-United States boundary, has been established by provincial order-in-council. . . .” One day later the Daily Province announced: “A government order today set aside a portion of land on the international border near Blaine for perpetual use as part of the Peace Arch Park. Hon. A. Wells Gray, minister of lands, announced that the park will be opened on Armistice Day and will be administered by the British Columbia forest service which has directed its development.”
So did the 250 or so Green Timbers transients receive employment? That was Tom Reid’s aim as early as 1934. The answer remains to be discovered.
Peace Arch Provincial Park Landscaped
John Booth, “well known for his landscaping at the approaches to the Pattullo Bridge,” according to Vancouver Sun writer Freda Fennell, landscaped the emergent Peace Arch Provincial Park, adjoining the Samuel Hill Memorial Park. It was dedicated in 1939. Fennell believed Park Superintendent D.M. McKenzie “was connected with the park when the first shovelful of earth was turned.”
Washington State Senator A.E. Edwards, accompanied by Peace Arch State Park Superintendent Peter Barbeau and eighteen additional delegates, toured the newly landscaped park in the spring of 1940. According to the March 7th edition of the Blaine Journal, Booth was reported to have welcomed them, saying, “It is our hope to so develop this wonderful monument of friendship that no sense of border will be felt or realized anywhere within the boundaries of the park, and that the many folks from all over the world, who may visit it and enjoy it, may wander about anywhere within its bounds and just feel that they are enjoying this International park without check or restriction.”
The visitors saw ditches crisscrossing the grounds in preparation for a sprinkling system soon to be installed to moisten seeded soil and later to sprout a beautiful lawn for the joy of summer tourists.
Devoid of federal funds for further park development that spring, Tom Reid was working “to have a portion of the Indian reserve adjacent to the Peace Arch Park put aside as a tourist picnic ground” while welcoming “the appropriation of $75,000 by the Dominion Government which, with an equal amount by the province, is designed to complete the Peace Arch Highway,” as noted by the Vancouver Daily Province.
Three years passed. Then on June 17, 1943 the Vancouver Sun announced, “Lands Minister Gray today announced probable early completion of negotiations between the province and the Dominion Department of Indian Affairs for the purchase for park purposes of 5.74 acres in the Semiahmoo Indian reserve.” A Daily Province follow-up story appeared the next day: “Negotiations are being conducted between the Province and the Dominion for purchase of the property. It is hoped that it will be completed in time to be formally announced at the international gathering of Junior Forest Wardens of B.C., and of the state of Washington, sponsored by the Canadian Forestry Association and the Keep Washington Green Association on Sunday at the border.” Although the gathering, called “Trees Across the Border” occurred June 20, neither the Sun nor the Daily Province mentioned such an announcement.
Washington State Initiates its Park Project
Peace Arch State Park was abuzz with fun and laughter during the sunny Sunday afternoon of June 27, 1993. Children, some with faces freshly painted, were playing on the verdant lawn. Juggling, jumping on a trampoline, batting balls and rolling a giant ball to and fro were happy scenes at a picnic arranged by Finning Employees Association and their families. With Caterpillar dealerships in British Columbia and Alberta, the association had recently expanded to include Chili. A celebration was in order. Keeping international friendship in mind, the celebrants chose Peace Arch State Park for the occasion.
Theirs was only one within a myriad of picnics and a wide gamut of celebrations graced by the possibilities of a park. Certainly, the story behind the park’s creation and development deserves to be told.
Word that the Peace Arch project included creation of a park was published in the Blaine Journal nearly two years before Samuel Hill dedicated the monument. A Canadian hotel of low reputation stood at the chosen site. Its presence worried him. “The park would call for the elimination of the old St. Leonard,” stated the December 5, 1919 issue. Although the monument was dedicated September 6, 1921, the hotel stood until May 1932.
Schoolchildren Donate Their Nickels and Dimes
Sometime before mid-April, 1930, the International Flag Day Association formulated a plan whereby funds for a park at the International Peace Arch would be appropriated by means of small donations of money from schoolchildren enrolled in the state of Washington. State Superintendent of Instruction N.D. Showalter, approving the plan, distributed a statewide circular, inviting 355,000 public schoolchildren and their teachers to raise those funds. Called Lasting Peace, Showalter’s circular came right to the point. “At least $15,000 will be required to purchase our portion of the land, and in addition to this we should have a considerable amount to improve and beautify the park,” wrote Showalter.
He suggested the children should contribute a maximum of ten cents, while teachers ought to contribute no more than a quarter. To the children he wrote, “Will you try to earn a dime yourself, and invest it with all the rest of us in this new international park? You may not be able to get immediate returns on this investment, but I am certain that large dividends will come to you as the years go by.”
Meanwhile, United States and Canadian labor councils were collaborating to promote an international park at the Peace Arch. The Bellingham Central Labor Council addressed the Vancouver and District Trades and Labor Council May 6, 1930, “urging the local council to take an active part in the movement on the Canadian side,” reported the Vancouver Sun. “Mr. Charles Ayton, president, and Mr. W.J. Videtto, secretary of the Bellingham council explained that part of the money required for an 85-acre park on the United States side of the arch is being raised through school subscriptions of ten cents from pupils and twenty-five cents from teachers.
“A similar movement in British Columbia some years ago resulted in the raising of a considerable sum, about $2,250 of which is still available here,” noted the Sun.
Blaine School Superintendent R.H. Ewing took Showalter to the Peace Arch, May 9, 1930, there to examine the proposed 80-acre park site (five acres less than the labor council reportedly stated). During that month, Showalter sent Ewing a letter. “Blaine Public School was first to send in its report with full quota,” he wrote, asking Ewing to thank the students and teachers for their generous support.
Marjorie Mann, Tacoma, was ten years old when the Peace Arch was dedicated. “Now, eighty years later,” she said, “I still feel the same sense of loyalty to the concept of a memorial celebrating peace between the countries that I felt as a child.” While Canada and the United States were competing in the final hockey match for the gold medal, during the 2002 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City, she related her memories of the Peace Arch to her daughter, Mary Bess Johnson:
I was aware of the political and military strife in Europe, which had been going on ever since I could remember. Three of my brothers volunteered for military duty in World War I and, in school, we snipped cloth for the Red Cross to use as padding for wounds. When peace came there was universal happiness. I remember dancing in the street the day the Armistice was signed.
A few years later, when all the students at Lowell were asked to bring dimes, nickels and pennies to school for the Peace Arch, I was very enthusiastic. For over one hundred years there had been peace across such an enormous distance: from England across the Atlantic, from the East Coast of America and Canada all the way across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. What a contrast to war-torn Europe! I thought it was marvelous that the three countries had remained such good friends. Collecting money for a monument in celebration of that friendship made me feel that I was part of something big and wonderful.
Although Showalter’s statewide children’s fundraiser produced about one-tenth of the amount he had requested, the funds supplemented park construction, particularly in the development of rose beds that are popular to the present day.
Andrew Danielson Secures Funds for Peace Portal Drive and the Park
Years 1925 through 1928 saw mammoth paving projects moving through the state of Washington. In Whatcom County, the Pacific Highway had been paved between Ferndale and Bellingham by the fall of 1925. Paving from Ferndale’s Nooksack River to the city limits of Blaine was underway by the spring of 1928; Norris Brothers of Skagit County put more than fifty men and a fleet of gravel trucks to work. Laying 600 feet of concrete per day, the pavement was but a mile away from Blaine in mid-July.
Well aware that the pavement would meet Washington Avenue at Blaine’s city limits, the city council knew it was obliged to assure the pavement would extend to the international border where the Peace Arch stands. A special session was called in November 1927 to pass an ordinance authorizing $17,000 in current expense warrants to purchase a right-of-way for the Pacific Highway entrance into the city. A resolution to issue serial funding bonds was passed the following December. Then came January 2, 1928, when the council passed another ordinance that ordered Washington Avenue, from Dakota Creek bridge to Cherry Street, to be renamed Peace Arch Drive, complete with the power of condemnation of properties to secure a roadway stretched to a 90-foot width. Eventually, three families would need to be reimbursed in the wake of the ensuing condemnation of properties.
The last batch of concrete, completing the connection of the Pacific Highway from Ferndale to Blaine, was poured September 7, 1928. The $49,000 Dakota Creek bridge, 336 feet long, and under construction by Mason & Son of Seattle since February 1928, was completed in time for the October 13, 1928 opening of the Pacific Highway, paved from Bellingham to Blaine—a project that cost state taxpayers over $600,000.
The paving project’s success was measured by an increase in tourism. During 1928 some 303,449 autos passed through Blaine, an increase of 31,291 recorded in 1927.
Meanwhile, plans for a new United States customs and immigration building were in the making. To that end, November 1928 saw the Blaine City Council order additional roadwork. Beginning at the intersection of Washington Avenue and C Street, a connector called Peace Portal Drive, passing east of the Peace Arch, would reach the international border. Washington Avenue, passing on the west side, would be similarly routed.
Fortunately, by April 1929, Washington State Representative Andrew Danielson (1881-1954) was able to secure $16,000 from state road funds to pay for Peace Portal Drive right-of-way expenses. With paving complete from Dakota Creek to the border, Washington Avenue and Peace Arch Drive were street titles dropped in favor of naming the entire stretch Peace Portal Drive.
Two years later, not long after White Rock’s Frank K. MacKenzie announced “a complete program of road development to bring tourists into Vancouver by a new arterial highway” that would include a tunnel under the Fraser River, Danielson introduced House Bill 272, requesting $35,000 be appropriated for land to create a Peace Arch park.
A Golden Opportunity During Tough Times
It was an opportune time. It was the correct psychological moment for State Representative Danielson to act. Samuel Hill, the man who had made his international monument dream come true, died in Portland, Oregon, February 26, 1931. The Danielson bill passed Senate the following March. But the amount appropriated was reduced to $15,000. The March 26, 1931 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press reported, “The bill that called for the appropriating of $15,000 for the purchase and improvement of lands laying near the Peace Arch and along the international boundary, and the making of the same into a state park was signed by Governor Hartley the first of the week and thereby became law.”
“Development of an international park at the Blaine Peace Arch is worthy of continued support of the State Legislature, Grant Hinkle, secretary of state, and Clarke B. Savidge, state commissioner of public lands, say. The statement was made by both men after they had inspected land adjacent to the peace portal at the boundary,” reported the May 7, 1931 edition.
Also attending the inspection were Charles W. Hinton, state treasurer; Adolph Miller, president of the International Flag Association; and B.B. Cox, association treasurer. The newspaper article continued:
Hinkel, Hinton and Savidge are the state parks committee and are in charge of administering the $15,000 that the last legislature appropriated for purchase of land for a state park at the Peace Arch. This park will be dedicated to Samuel Hill, builder of the Peace Arch, promoter of international understanding, who died a few months ago.
Cox, Hinkle and Savidge announced that $1,700 subscribed last year by school children of the state for the park, may be used for beautification, when purchased.
“We hope prices will be reasonable,” Savidge said. “If property owners show a disposition to hold the park board up, we shall have to condemn and we do not want to do that.
One week later, the Blaine Journal-Press noted Savidge had appointed Danielson, Cox and Sen. E.J. Cleary, Bellingham, to be the park committee “whose duty it is to acquire lands necessary for the Peace Arch Park.” Here, according to the July 9, 1931 edition, is how the land was first appropriated for the park.
The Samuel Hill Memorial Park created under the Danielson Peace Park Bill (HBM 272) passed by the last State Legislature, is now established by the city of Blaine having deeded that portion of land laying along Peace Portal Drive from the Boundary line and extending south to A Street between the Peace Arch and the new Federal building, and also by the purchase of land owned by Dr. M.A. Keyes of this city and laying east of and adjoining the city tract, giving the State Park three acres to start with and has cost $4,000—the price paid Dr. Keyes for his land which is the amount offered by the State Park Board and accepted by him.
The city donated its holdings, deeded to it by the Great Northern Railroad for park purposes.
When the bill passed, and the land was ready, Danielson took action to see that park development would soon begin.
Visiting Blaine on December 3, 1931, Savidge and Hinkle decided to reserve $500 for removing and saving topsoil, where highway cuts and fills were to be completed by the next summer. The Pacific Highway would need alteration; they said the soil could be used for landscaping the portal park.
Laborers Hired at Four Dollars per Day
Blaine Mayor C.V. Wilder was put in charge of the landscaping project, with local help paid four dollars per day. The plan called for thirty men to be hired as park laborers, but each man would work only two days. Three teams of horses were requested. Initially, it was a sixty-day project.
The Great Depression was deeply felt at the time; over eighty men registered for work. With the park project underway, the December 10, 1931 issue of the Blaine Journal-Press published a relevant story: “The state pays eight dollars per day for a team and driver. The owners of the three teams have already agreed to turn back into the Relief Fund two dollars per day of their pay. This on the basis of the amount of work to be done, will provide one day’s additional work for fifteen men.”
The newspaper noted an apparent reluctance to use teams of horses. Much of the work, it was felt, should utilize no more than the men with their shovels and wheelbarrows, “thus employing a greater number of men,”
Work progressed until the next spring, when it appeared the project would remain incomplete before state funds were exhausted. Happily, children’s donations saved the day. The June 20, 1932 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press reported: “Work that had been practically finished at the Sam Hill Memorial Park owing to the fact that the legislative appropriation had been about exhausted, will go on for some little time. That part of the park not now finished and laying along East Peace Portal Drive, will be made into a rose garden, funds for which will come from the moneys raised by schoolchildren of the state some years ago and up to this time held intact.”
Twenty-two men went to work that month, preparing the park grounds for the planting of a rose garden, “finances for which have been provided from the funds raised by schoolchildren and which have been held intact awaiting the time when they could be used in a manner that was justifiable.”
Samuel Hill Memorial Park Project Completed
The Washington State Park Board approved the park July 1932, following an inspection conducted by board members. A celebratory dinner was held at Larson’s Café, Blaine, to honor the guests, including Savidge, Hinkle, Hinton and Showalter. Dr. M.A. Keyes was master of ceremonies.
Finally, reaffirming the role of the children, the August 4, 1932 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press noted: “The state of Washington under the direction of the State Park Board has spent $15,000 in the last six months improving the park. New lawns, flowers and shrubbery have been planted. School children throughout the state last year contributed enough pennies and nickels to plant $1,500 worth of shrubbery this month.”
Memory is a subjective phenomenon. One needs only to search the websites to discover someone who believes the Peace Arch itself was “financed largely by the donations of schoolchildren on both sides of the border.” Even the authoritative Encyclopedia of British Columbia, edited by Daniel Frances, got it wrong, stating, “Money to pay for the arch was raised by schoolchildren in British Columbia and Washington state.” Others mistakenly believe schoolchildren were solely responsible for the park’s creation. They fail to realize State Representative Andrew Danielson and the Washington state legislature, in fact, played the leading roles. The important fact to recall is that, although theirs was but one tenth of the amount the state allotted, children nevertheless made a significant contribution to Samuel Hill’s parkland in 1930-31.
According to the above-mentioned newspapers, the portal’s stateside grounds had been named Samuel Hill Memorial Park. Why was this name changed to Peace Arch Park in 1942, allegedly during a park superintendents’ convention sponsored by the Washington State Parks Commission? Those depression-era men who managed the wheelbarrows would have appreciated Samuel Hill’s contribution, not to mention Danielson’s action. It meant food and clothing in an age of abundant unemployment and scarce money. Samuel Hill Memorial Park for them was a meaningful name and title.
If Peter Barbeau “brought back with him a complete set of plans for the development of a greater Peace Arch Park, the name by which the International Boundary Park is hereafter to be known,” as reported in the January 29, 1942 issue of the Blaine Journal, the expression “greater” followed by reference to an “International Boundary Park” suggests the possibility that “Peace Arch Park” had been an umbrella title given to the provincial and state parks combined. The story made no mention of a Peace Arch State Park. It appears, too, that “a complete set of plans” for that “greater” park, may have inferred a coordinated approach between the Canadian and American park superintendents to maintain internationally balanced development. That, of course, made good sense. Had this been the intention of the 1942 assembly, it may be assumed Samuel Hill Memorial Park ought never to have lost its original stateside identity.
“Peace Arch Park” had become so commonplace by 1952, that a Vancouver, B.C. broadcasting station, apparently unaware of the park commission’s decision ten years earlier, came under fire when, in the course of a radio quiz program, a contestant was refused a one-hundred dollar prize for identifying “the park just south of the international border” by it’s new name instead of the original Samuel Hill Memorial Park. A flurry of protests, including American park Superintendent Arnold Montoure’s own, were telephoned to the station. The Blaine Journal, published January 31, 1952, presented its version of the misunderstanding:
In its early conception, the park consisted of a small, swampy tract south of the border. Andrew Danielson, a state representative at the time, was anxious to see this tract developed into a beautiful state park and immediately went to work with this idea in mind. Through him, Samuel Hill became interested not only in the park but also in highway U.S. 99 and through the latter’s generous financial assistance, the development of both became an actuality. Upon completion of the park, small though it was, it was officially named the Samuel Hill Memorial State Park in his honor.
Following the erection of the majestic Peace Arch monument which began in July, 1920, the park has more popularly been known as the Peace Arch Park and in more recent years the name, Peace Arch Park has been used by the state of Washington and is found listed as such in all literature and acquisitions of park property. The Canadian park developed in later years and adjoining the state park is also known as the Peace Arch Park, although occasionally it is referred to as the Peace Portal Park.
The park is maintained jointly by the province of Canada [sic] and the state of Washington.
From all that can be gathered, it appears the Blaine Journal refined the Samuel Hill Memorial Park’s identity by including “State” in its “official name.” The statehood of Samuel Hill Memorial Park had otherwise been assumed without question, while, apparently, the international status of Peace Arch Park was initially understood.
An International Atmosphere of Beauty and an Ambience of Peace
The International Park and Gardens: An Endless Dream
Samuel Hill’s first thoughts for gardens and beautification were not focused upon the Peace Arch. The Pacific Highway, for which he had formulated plans in late 1927, came first. The December 1 issue of the Blaine Journal-Press provided a few details:
According to a dispatch from Portland, Ore., Samuel Hill has announced plans for beautification of the Pacific Highway. He is organizing a “Memory Gardens Association,” and Queen Marie of Rumania is to be honorary president.
The purpose of the association will be to encourage the cultivation of flowers and general beautification along the highway. A prize of $500 will be offered for the most beautiful section of highway along the route with a second prize of $300 and a third prize of $200.
President of the association will be Mrs. R.P. Butchart of Victoria, developer of the internationally famous Butchart sunken gardens on Vancouver island, a few miles from Victoria.
Queen Marie has been honored by Mr. Hill on numerous occasions. A year ago she was his guest while visiting in the Pacific Northwest and dedicated the Hill palace at Maryhill, Wash., as an international museum of art.
The honorary presidency of the Memory Gardens Association has been accepted by the queen, Mr. Hill said. Vice presidents will be appointed from time to time as plans for the association go forward.
Hill’s plan gave Blaine resident Mary A. Kelly an idea. She expressed it in a letter to the editor of the Blaine Journal-Press:
Mr. Samuel Hill’s idea of planting Memory Gardens along the highway appeals to me. Why not start a Memory Garden right here in Blaine? It seems to me a very fine idea to show our appreciation of the interest Mr. Hill has shown in our community to at least plant a tree or beautify some spot in his honor, also to Mr. Adolph Miller of Bellingham, who, I understand, originated the idea of a yearly celebration at the Peace Arch July 2nd.
No doubt Blaine has many fine citizens who have worked hard in the past, for the good of the community and who have grown discouraged through apparent lack of appreciation of their best efforts.
A Memory Garden would give us an opportunity to show we remember their efforts for the common good and be an inspiration for others to follow in their footsteps.
Mary A. Kelly
May 21, 1929
Exactly what became of Hill’s plan for beautifying the Pacific Highway with memory gardens, and Kelly’s idea of starting a memory garden in Blaine (and later, perhaps more specifically, in Peace Arch State Park) to honor Hill and G. Adolph Miller, is not known. What is known, however, is the fact that Peace Arch Park eventually became beautified on both sides of the border.
Roses were among the first flowers planted in the park when schoolchildren donated nickels and dimes toward beautifying the grounds in the spring of 1932. Roses continued to be thematic flowers for the years ahead, and, in fact, to the present time.
Peter J. Barbeau, a dynamic young superintendent, was later hired to develop the park on the United States side of the border. The December 9, 1937 Blaine Journal reported Barbeau’s success in convincing the State Park Commission to underwrite a $600 project to develop the park, including new shrubbery, while on the Canadian side, landscaping was scheduled. Barbeau led a colorful life. As a teenaged telegraph lineman working in Huron, “a wild cow town and trading post” in Dakota Territory, he saw two gun-toting cowboys murder each other. Ambitious and popular, when Blaine suddenly needed a mayor, Barbeau was unanimously chosen to fill that position March 15, 1948, until Harold Dodd was elected in January 1949.
Not to be forgotten was a relevant reflection of the Peace Arch gardens that may have become a partial fulfillment of Mary Kelly’s request for “memory gardens” in Blaine. A Blaine Journal editorial, spotted in the May 12, 1938 edition, noted “the effort of the Peace Portal Garden Club to beautify the vacant lots east of the Journal office on H Street is one to be heartily commended.”
Exactly when the club formally organized is not known. It is known, however, that by early spring of 1940, the Journal editor believed the gardens would attract tourists. “If just twenty-five percent of our residents should exert themselves to develop an attractive lawn and a few flower beds, Blaine would quickly win the reputation of being ‘The City Beautiful,’” he wrote.
Year 1942 promised progress to stateside park development according to a Blaine Journal report published that January. Peter Barbeau had “put several men to work, taking out trees and moving dirt” with plans moving toward building a park kitchen. The propitious story continued:
Considerable new acreage, totaling about three acres has been added to the park, extending south to the old Jordan residence property and eastward to the present residence property, with the new kitchen to be on the newly acquired property. A new warehouse and tool shed is also to be constructed this year and the present tool shed is to be moved back onto higher land and used as an office.
The landscaping plans include extensive groundwork, with the slopes fronting onto the highway to be cut down, and artistically tapered off with all unsightly ditches tiled and covered. This is purposed to improve the general view of the expansive vista as one approaches the park from the south.
All roses will be moved up on higher land, and the plot of ground immediately south of the Arch will be developed in exact keeping with the open plot on the north side of the Arch, which will provide a vast expanse of greensward on either side of the Arch for such great assemblies as attended the International Peace Arch program last September.
Improvements on the railroad side of the south highway will include grading and lawn extension on to the right-of-way as close to the tracks as the danger line will allow with a shielding hedge hiding the tracks and serving as a dividing line between the park and railroad. The railroad company has granted an easement on that portion of the right-of-way sufficient to make this improvement possible.
Annual perennial plantings will be on a much more extensive plan than has been possible in past years, and will be largely in keeping with that of the north side of the park. An extensive pool and scenic gulch is to be constructed where the old gulch cuts down just east of the present park property, and in general the south side of the park will be developed so as to present a general uniform appearance.
January 1942 marked the unfolding of a plan designed to beautify grounds. When the park was inspected by the state commission the following June, Barbeau’s gardens favorably impressed the observers. Secretary of State Belle Reeves “expressed herself as being totally lost and completely amazed” as she viewed “that great array of blooming roses, salvia and marigold.”
Year 1943 became a time of review and anticipation with visits from dignitaries, settlement of a property dispute, and an acquisition on the Canadian side. Reported in the June 14, 1943 Blaine Journal, the article stated:
Mrs. Belle Reeves, secretary of state and chairman of the state park commission, accompanied by her granddaughter and Alan Roberts, and E.C. Carroll, superintendent of state parks, came up from Olympia Sunday to be in attendance at the Junior Fire Warden demonstration at Peace Arch Park. . . . They were guests of the Chamber of Commerce at Larson’s at dinner and took back with them a number of suggestions by P.J. Barbeau, superintendent of Peace Arch Park, for consideration by the park commission.
The park commission and Mrs. Reeves in particular, is enthusiastic in their support and further development of Peace Arch park, and she assured Mr. Barbeau he could go ahead with the work of clearing the newly acquired property to the east of the present park, and in the construction of a community kitchen for temporary use.
. . . Peaceful settlement has finally been made between the state park commission and Mrs. Ida Gilbert for the half block of land over which a condemnation suit was held a year ago, and an order has been entered in superior court dismissing action in the second trial which had been granted by the court.
It was also announced by Supt. MacKenzie of the Canadian park that five and one half acres had recently been added to the ark on the Canadian side. This is the flatiron corner of the Indian reservation.
Two trees were planted at the park during an international meeting of the Junior Fire Wardens of British Columbia and those of Washington state, June 20, 1943. In the course of a formal ceremony, “the boys from across the line planted a small tree on the American side and this was followed by the Blaine boys planting a small tree on the Canadian side of the Arch.”
Park Superintendent Peter Barbeau had gained such fame as a gardener that State Parks Director E.A. Carroll sent him on a tour of several state parks during the fall of 1944 to complete “a comprehensive survey of the possibilities for the future landscaping and development of those parks.”
The spring of 1945 saw Sen. A.E. Edwards promoting a state park swimming pool while action was underway to expand the park through state park commission negotiations with property owners.
Commission members, having visited the park in April, were “enthusiastic about the proposed improvements” to such an extent, that another park visit occurred Friday morning, November 2. None other than W.C. Woodward, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia and president of Woodward stores, accompanied by J.W. Butterfield, manager of Vancouver’s Woodward stores, attended. Explaining their presence, the Blaine Journal of November 8, 1945, reported:
Messrs Woodward and Butterfield had come down from Vancouver to consult with the park authorities regarding the removal of their sign which is to be placed on a piece of property purchased by the Chamber of Commerce and presented to the Woodward stores, just south of the Fowles Chicken Inn. These gentlemen are also highly interested in the plans for beautification of the corner lots which they are presenting to the park, and they plan to present a beautiful memorial fountain with either a suitable statue or plaque of Captain Vancouver, discoverer of the harbor named after him. They suggested that Washington or Blaine or Whatcom County interests should finance a like fountain favoring some important American on the Canadian side of the park.
Mr. Butterfield, lover of art, and Mr. Ekvall [state parks architect who designed a park swimming pool] went into close consultation regarding the kind of granite to be used on these fountains, as well as location [and] approaches.
Mr. Woodward remarked that he never drove from the south since the development of the Park, without having their sign strike him as a bit of good advertising, but very out of place, so far as the Park was concerned.
“We have just set out 150 new roses, and a new barberry hedge along the east side, but we still need more room,” said Washington park attendant Peter J. Barbeau in the spring of 1946. “The park will be a dream this year with the predominating colors running red, white and blue,” added British Columbia attendant D.N. McKenzie.
Exactly how a deed, notarized at Vancouver, British Columbia, September 8, 1946, was supposed to fit into the park picture is unclear. William Tizley Whitehead, grantor, intended to convey five northerly Blaine lots “to the State of Washington for the use of the State Parks Committee for public park purposes,” with a request “to construct a statue of Captain George Vancouver on the property hereby conveyed at some suitable place . . . with a suitable plaque engraved thereon or affixed thereto bearing words to the following effect: ‘This park donated and this monument erected and maintained by Woodward Stores, Limited, Vancouver, British Columbia.’” The deed, copied and preserved at the state archives in Olympia, is a puzzling contrast to the Blaine Journal story disclosed above. In any case, the statue never materialized.
After J.H. Crumley of Portland, Oregon, visited the gardens August 31, 1947, he was reported to have claimed “he and his family had visited a great many border parks, but Peace Arch Park outclassed them all.” He was especially impressed with “the big rhubarb” from Chile—a rare gunnera manicata, named in honor of the eighteenth century Norwegian botanist John Ernst Gunnerus. “There is a South American member of the rhubarb family in the sunken garden that is amazing,” noted the Blaine Journal five years later. “Its stalks at the base are as large as a man’s thigh, and perhaps ten feet long. One leaf can cover a full-sized bed and the root is estimated at something like 1,000 pounds.” By the spring of 1958, the Journal added, “It was this plant that drew forth a Texan’s remark, ‘Well, we can’t raise anything like that in Texas.’ It is the only one in the state of Washington so far as known.” The huge plant attracts widespread attention to this day.
Meanwhile, sometime before the end of 1949, the Peace Portal Garden Club extended its membership to Canada, thus giving itself a new name: The Peace Arch Garden Club International, often with quotation marks placed around “International.” It was another step forward, reflecting and complimenting the Peace Arch gardens. Most of the new members lived in White Rock.
Peter J. Barbeau retired June 1, 1949. His service for the cause of Peace Arch State Park was applauded in the July 28th edition of the Blaine Journal:
Mr. Barbeau’s retirement came after 16 years of service as the park superintendent. He still continues to serve as an adviser for all state parks in the district. At the time Mr. Barbeau took over the reins as superintendent, the park was small, swampy and underdeveloped. It consisted mostly of a small lawn near the arch. Little by little, more territory has been acquired by the state until the park now comprises about nine acres. Plans for acquiring more ground are underway. The park now has about six acres of seeded lawn; undesired trees have been cut, new trees and shrubs have been planted and flowerbeds have been arranged. Joined with an invisible boundary line to the Canadian Peace Arch Park north of the border, the entire park consists of 20 acres of scenic beauty. The community kitchen, planned by Mr. Barbeau was built in 1945.
Arnold Montoure, who helped build Samuel Hill’s monument in 1920, and the park employee who had assisted Barbeau for five years, became the latter’s successor.
A greenhouse, constructed in the state park, became an important new facility for gardening after the United Greenhouse Company of Tacoma built it during April 1950.
The Peace Arch Garden Club International proved its collaborative interest in the Peace Arch when “members from both sides of the border, undertook the chore of constructing an exhibit at the second annual flower show held in Bellingham by the Federated Garden Clubs of Whatcom and Island Counties.” A seven-foot model of the Peace Arch, designed by former park attendant Peter J. Barbeau, was a centerpiece exhibited during the weekend of May 10, 1950.
Liberty magazine, published in the second quarter of 1950, featured a colored cover photo of the Peace Arch that displayed flowerbeds surrounding the Peace Arch. Although floral designs so intimate with the monument were eventually discontinued, the scheme was popular during the mid-twentieth century.
A Blue Star memorial marker, placed in the US 99 highway’s right-of-way at Peace Arch Park’s southwest corner—and later lost—was dedicated June 10, 1950 by representatives of the Washington State Federated Garden Clubs. To what extent the Peace Arch Garden Club International may have played a role in that decision is a matter of speculation.
Gardening sometimes became problematic. Severe winter frosts destroyed the roses retained for planting during May of 1956. Such a setback did not prevent park Superintendent Arnold Montoure from planting the scheduled 14,000 to 16,000 annuals. The deprived rose beds were filled with dahlias that year, while marigolds surrounded the Peace Arch. “This is only a small part of all the work that goes into making the park such a beauty spot for the enjoyment of the many passing tourists and for the local people who picnic in the park through the summer,” noted the Blaine Journal. Student picnics from schools in Granite Falls, Bellingham, Lynden, Meridian, Ferndale, Custer and Blaine were pouring into the park during that busy season.
Although a stable winter set the stage for a normal 1957 spring planting, early crowds were larger than usual, and vacationing schoolchildren from Meridian and Bellingham traveled to the park by train. Bound for the Pacific Coast, tourists from Missouri visited Yellowstone Park that summer, and there they we encouraged to visit Peace Arch Park in order to see “those great big flowers they grow there.” Nels O. Johnson, a Sumas gardener who later received the American Dahlia Society’s Derrill Hart memorial medal for his dahlia, “hurricane,”—official flower for Seattle’s Century 21 Exposition—had donated giant dahlias for the park.
Shrubs, planted about ten feet apart, and edging the highway lanes, outlined the perimeter of the Peace Portal’s crescent-shaped lawn. This configuration was handsomely displayed on the cover of the Kenworth Craftsman magazine of June-July 1957. A new southbound Kenworth model 521 semi-trailer, its cab over the engine, appeared in the foreground.
KVOS radioman Rogan Jones met with members of the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce and Kiwanis Club members of British Columbia, assembled at the Peace Arch American kitchen February 28, 1958, to discuss his proposal for the creation of a Peace Arch World Gardens Foundation. It would necessitate an expansion of the park. Ten acres would need to be purchased north of the border, plus ten acres south of it. The twenty acres would then be landscaped, and fifty or more “leading nations of the world” would be invited to develop gardens reflective of their cultures in 50- by 100-foot plots.
Jones nearly got away with it. “Washington Director of Parks John Vanderzicht and Lloyd Brooks of British Columbia expressed enthusiasm for the idea and willingness of their respective park departments to cooperate. Canadian Kiwanians were also enthusiastic, volunteering to take the project to their clubs and secure endorsement,” revealed the Blaine Journal. “At the Friday afternoon meeting, twenty-four representatives of Kiwanis clubs from Mount Vernon to North Burnaby were present with announcements that their clubs are behind the project. Blaine city officials and Surrey park officials also attended. The name of the organization was decided upon and officers were elected.”
After Jones called another kitchen meeting the following June, the atmosphere appeared ambiguous; enthusiasm was curdled with hesitancy. “It was a bit difficult for his listeners to visualize the possibilities of such a venture,” detected the Journal. “However, the proposal is meeting with tremendous enthusiasm with excellent prospects of even greater success than the author visualized.”
In the face of an underlying uncertainty, the proposal had ballooned: “A tentative plan was explained by Ken MacKenzie of New Westminster,” noted the Blaine Journal of June 26. “While no set specifications have been established, the present picture reflects a plan including an amphitheater with a seating capacity of 100,000 or more, to be surrounded by individual national gardens, representing many nations of the world, something like 125 of them.”
After an initial burst of idealism, the Peace Arch World Garden Foundation plan failed to take root. It died, as had Jones’ hope for an international peace university.
But between Rogan Jones’ meetings of February and June, the park gardens were bursting in bloom as never known before. In one of its more thorough descriptions, the Blaine Journal of May 29, 1958 reported:
Visitors often refer to the Peace Arch as the Peace Arch Garden, and well they may. With its beautiful trees, shrubs, and plants, many of which are unusual varieties and the addition of 15,000 to 16,000 annuals each year, the park varies greatly from the natural ones. Planting the annuals was completed this week. The planting, preparatory work of beds, nooks and crannies have been under the supervision of both superintendents, Siggi Kristjanson of the Canadian park and Arnold Montoure of the American park.
The largest bed, the teardrop on the American side, consists of 1800 Tetra snapdragons. An unusual bed on the Canadian bank, commemorating their 100th anniversary [of the province of British Columbia], planted with white alyssum in the form of a “58” and surrounded with red salvia should be a thing of beauty as the summer progresses.
The six Peace Arch beds have been planted with verbenas and phlox, two and four of each. New annuals being tried for the first time this season are Wee Willie Dianthus, Torenia Fournieri and Cacalia. The Gunnera Manicata, commonly called “the rhubarb,” is nearly as large now as it was last year. The dahlia bed should be outstanding, weather permitting. Approximately 100 tubers with few duplicates have been planted. Mr. and Mrs. Nels Johnson of the Johnson Dahlia Gardens near Sumas have contributed a considerable number of their choicest varieties. Mrs. George Fayette of Anacortes, Mrs. Charles DeMent and E. Fryer also added a number of tubers with Mr. and Mrs. Montoure furnishing the remainder.
In the rear yard, the Montoures have more dahlias, a bed of iris, one of glads, a number of chrysanthemums and many annuals to complete the garden. Specimens of interest around the Peace Arch residence are their Nellie Mosher clematis with approximately 200 blooms, the gloxinia that is presently supporting 15 blossoms and their patio of fuchsias.
During the four months of May through August, more than 110,000 had been registered as park visitors, the greatest number on record. “On Labor Day and the preceding Saturday and Sunday, the park was comfortably crowded with individual and party picnics, and hundreds of out-of-town visitors to the park came downtown to window shop,” commented the Blaine Journal. “Business places open Sunday and Monday were given a big rush. As a commercial asset, the value of the park to Blaine is not always appreciated, but it is an asset of no mean value.”
Examples of working relationships between Peace Arch Park employees and local clubs holding gardening interests once prevailed.Assisted by Park Superintendent Arnold Montoure, the Peace Arch Home Demonstration Club exhibited twenty-five dahlias in the park during the summer of 1959. The show “received many fine comments.”
The summer of 1960 saw more than 700,000 southbound vehicles pass through Peace Arch Park at the United States port of entry. Ten years earlier, 300,000 vehicles had been cleared. Given an increase of more than 230 percent, a record number of travelers saw the famous gardens that year.
Year 1961 opened with worries about governmental determination to erect a freeway fence around Peace Arch State Park. “The freeway architects in the Department of the Federal Bureau of Roads likely have never seen nor visited Peace Arch Park, nor the Peace Arch, nor the beautiful span of greenswards reaching from the U.S. Customs to the Canadian Customs, a short distance which must, by circumstances, be traveled at a slow, controlled speed, complained the February 23 edition of the Blaine Journal. “Had they visited the park, they no doubt would have the vision to recognize that there are points at which hard and fast rules must be dropped. In the case of these fences, even the draftsmen are at a loss how they are going to abide by the fencing regulation, and yet not have the department appear like a lot of ninnies.” The fence never materialized.
Beginning with the June 22, 1961 edition of the Blaine Journal, Arnold Montoure, who had traditionally been called the park superintendent, received a new identity. He was called the Peace Arch Park ranger, a title that continues to the present.
Adjacent to the east end of Peace Arch State Park lived Arthur Prendergast. By the beginning of 1962, after his death, the Blaine Journal was lobbying the State Park Commission to purchase the three and on-half acres that had been bought years earlier by the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce. “This property should be added to Peace Arch Park, and this should be done now, which would give ample time for the park authorities to have it cleaned up and prepared for the reception of the thousands of visitors to the park during the World’s Fair,” argued the January 4 edition. “A proper and forcible presentation of the situation and facts to Governor Rosellini, would be almost certain to receive his attention and consideration.”
The commission requested an evaluation of the acreage, agreeing to purchase the land from the Chamber of Commerce by late winter. “At the time of purchase there were visions of a greatly enlarged international garden and amphitheatre park,” noted the Journal.
Ongoing ties between Peace Arch Park and the Peace Arch Garden Club were expressed when the latter toured the former in the summer of 1962, reported by the Journal: “The borders of varicolored nemesia leading up to the front entry of the Montoure home are indeed an eye catching display of color, and the potted begonias now all in bloom, of rich and riotous color are something special to see not forgetting to mention the many lovely fuchsias in the entryway of the Peace Arch Park home.”
While a White Rock firm vainly proposed construction of a twelve-story, 108-room hotel and convention center between the Peace Arch and Boundary Bay, the park ranger, four mayors, the state of Georgia and gorgeous dahlias were peculiarly united during the summer of 1963. The Blaine Journal of August 8 carried the story:
The beautiful flower gardens at Peace Arch Park are so familiar to local folks, that their real value as an asset to Blaine is to a great extent completely overlooked.
However, to the many thousands of tourists that pass through the park, these gorgeous and multi-colored flower beds present a magnetic influence that result in the expenditure of thousands of film exposures, from which colored prints and slides are made that go to all parts of the world.
Two years ago [during the summer of 1961], the mayors from many cities of the United States met in convention at Seattle from where various parties made side trips to Victoria, Vancouver and lower British Columbia. When a party of four consisting of Mayor Milton Hardy of Gainsville, Mayor Charles Cowan of Cartersville, Mayor Sam Welsch of Marietta and Mayor Willie Withers of Moultrie, all of Georgia, returned from Vancouver, they stopped at the park to admire the gorgeous and extensive dahlia bed in which Arnold Montoure has over 125 varieties of choice and registered plants.
They were so enthused over this display that they contacted Arnold to compliment him on the planting and artistry. The interview resulted in Arnold presenting the four mayors with a choice selection of blooms that they carried back to Seattle and displayed on the banquet table at the Olympic Hotel, attended by the National Convention of Mayors.
This week, Mr. Montoure received a lengthy and complimentary letter from Mayor Withers of Moultre, Georgia, telling of the attention paid to the dahlia display. Complementing him upon his hospitality and for the personal attention given the quartet of Georgia mayors, and inviting him to visit their cities, Mayor Withers enclosed a picture of the display of dahlias presented to them by Mr. Montoure.
When the letter and picture were exhibited at the directors’ meeting of the Chamber of Commerce Wednesday noon, responsive action was taken to ask the cooperation of Mr. Montoure in a project to airmail a shipment of choice varieties of the dahlias to Mayor Withers in care of the American Municipal Congress that is meeting this year at the Shamrock Milton Hotel in Houston, Texas this weekend.
Withers received the airmailed dahlias in time for a Peace Arch dahlia display at the American Municipal Congress held in Houston during the summer of 1963. “The result was that the name of Blaine along with the name of the park was extolled at the convention assembly and Blaine dahlias were lavishly displayed on the banquet table and assembly rooms of the conference,” beamed the Blaine Journal. “The Houston Press carried a large picture of the four Georgia mayors displaying the consignment of dahlias and a five-column banner story featuring ‘Dahlias for Peace Arch Park at Blaine, Washington.’”
As he approached retirement, only two months ahead, Montoure was privileged to see the Peace Arch, surrounded by dahlia gardens, published on the October 17, 1963 cover of the Washington Farmer, a statewide magazine devoted to progressive agriculture.
Arnold Montoure retired mid-December after nearly twenty years of employment, first as assistant to Peter J. Barbeau, and later as ranger of Peace Arch State Park. Blaine Journal accolades were published three months earlier:
Mr. Montoure went to work at Peace Arch Park in April 1944 under the late Peter J. Barbeau, and has worked continuously as an aid, an assistant and a ranger. He has participated in the many changes that have taken place during the intervening years.
At that time the park consisted of a small area around the Peace Arch, one restroom and a small office building, still used as a lunchroom for park employees. A number of acres have been acquired, and much landscaping has been done, lawns have been planted, shrubs and flowerbeds have been added to make a picturesque setting for international programs, clubs and picnics.
An additional restroom and enclosed dining room were built in 1945 with a community kitchen added in 1953, furnishing shelter for diners and entertainment during inclement weather. His home, built in 1951, they have occupied since December of that year.
Two weeks after the park rangers of district five had given Montoure a farewell party the evening of December 7, 1963, successor ranger Robert Weatherly, his wife and two daughters moved into the state park residence. Having created a cemetery that he managed for three years in Olympia plus two years of experience as the Sacajawea State Park ranger, he was “especially interested in flower propagation and landscaping,” declared the Blaine Journal. “It will be his prime purpose to keep Peace Arch Park up to the standard established by his predecessors. The Weatherlys are delighted with the park residential accommodations.”
Sometimes the park lawns and gardens were flooded, and other times they were too dry. Alleviating water problems was Weatherly’s initial goal. The International Peace Arch Program Association, realizing he planned to install a new $12,000 sprinkling system in the park by mid-May 1963, scheduled its annual celebration for May 24 or, if need be, May 31.
Excessive flooding, on the other hand, compelled the ranger to acquire funds for draining the floodlight pits. Surface water extinguished the floodlights during the winter of 1964, but a drainage system restored them by February.
Year 1964 saw the editor Bess Smith of the Blaine Journal express her belief that the state park was not receiving its share of finances. “A recent news release showed the State Park Department had tentatively distributed the hundreds of thousands of dollars allocated to parks by the 1963 assembly with a goodly proportion going to most every park in the state except Peace Arch Park,” she editorialized in the March 12, 1964 edition. “For fitting upkeep, greater development and minor enlargements it needs political pressure. Unless local and neighboring garden clubs, tourist associations and service clubs and ‘Washington Welcome’ bring some real boiling hot political pressure to bear upon the Park Commission, Peace Arch Park will continue to be bypassed.”
With a Seattle-based excursion train expected to bring visitors to the Peace Arch for its May 24, 1964 celebration, Weatherly and his limited gardening crew spent the spring painting restrooms, reconstructing a sunken garden, planting thousands of annuals, thinning trees, and edging a hedge row away from the driveway in order to accommodate more visitors.
Canadian park superintendent Helgason and Weatherly completed the spring planting by June 7, when 4,000 international Danish picnickers came to enjoy the gardens, 500 more came after “a body of Vancouver ladies spearheaded an international children’s day at the park,” and “the Fraser View Mennonite Brethren Sunday School brought an annual picnic party of well over 500 to the park.” About 5,000 visitors were in the park that Sunday.
By summer, Blaine city officials worried that the proposed Second Street entrance planned by the Department of Highways would be unattractive compared to the pretty entrance that would be obliterated in the face of the advancing freeway. “The park is too great an asset to Blaine and this northwest area to be snubbed by the Highway Department,” cautioned the Blaine Journal. Replying late August, State Parks and the Highway Department promised extensive park improvements.
“New park master plans currently being developed include the creation of new walkways, an information center, remodeling and extension of parking lots, and the relocation of play facilities as well as the building of a new comfort station,” reported the October 1, 1964 Blaine Journal. “Parks Director Charles H. Odegaard emphasized, however, ‘that many of these improvements will take several years to accomplish, but that all those directly affected by freeway construction will be accomplished during the spring and early summer of 1965.’”
A dozen “welfare workers” were employed during the summer and autumn of 1964, clearing and leveling three acres of land that would extend Peace Arch State Park eastward. Sod was removed and replaced. Meanwhile, freeway construction was scheduled to reach the park before Christmas.
By mid-December White Rock was entertaining plans to landscape roadside areas between the Campbell River bridge and the White Rock intersection while, similarly, Blaine was studying potential landscaping along the freeway from its city exits to Peace Arch Park.
But by March 1965, the Blaine Journal published a scathing complaint aimed at the State Park Commission for making no appropriations toward development of Peace Arch State Park. “Blaine folks, a solid, conscientious lot, are generally such a contented lot, that they overlook the fact that these important State Commissions are inclined to forget the peaceful communities, with the result that when we ask nothing, we get nothing,” fumed the March 11th edition. “It is time such a clamor and campaign for appropriations for Peace Arch Park be steamed up that the Park Commission and State Park manager will awaken and acknowledge the enormous number of visitors to this park deserve some important attention and development work, and the addition of a small area of adjoining land.”
Immediately, Chamber of Commerce President Bob Bainter invited Odegaard to come to Blaine with an explanation. But when Odegaard could offer no tangible guarantees, the Blaine Journal turned bitter. “In his response to President Bainter’s request for necessary park improvements, Manager Odegaard, a man of extreme retentive memory, explained to oblivion any possibility for improvements or capital outlay, although with a diplomacy that left one with the impression that he was only a reflection or image of the Park Commission, unable to say ‘yes’ to any request or to observe and direct any improvements or capital outlay until it had been okayed by higher authorities,” reported the generously sarcastic March 18th edition. “Although he recited all the rules and regulations, red tape, and restrictions of the Park Commission, committed to memory after a year as manager, he still left an impression that he did not consider the local requests for improvements unreasonable.” The story concluded with a barbed complaint: “The Second Street entrance to the park is a monstrosity, and a dangerous and inconvenient substitute for the picturesque entrance that originally invited tourists to the park.”
Odegaard sent ten Neighborhood Youth Corps workers to Peace Arch State Park, with foreman Stan Sleeth to direct them during June of 1965. The eastward expansion on the former Prendergast property continued. Odegaard again visited the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce that month, where he expressed his awareness of the Second Street complaint, and revealed his intention to create a parking area valued up to $17,000. Meanwhile, James Dunn, an engineer with the State Department of Highways, dropped in on the city council to say July bids would bring a new irrigation system to the park. Before the month was out, Odegaard sent complimentary letters to the International Peace Arch Program Association for an excellent June celebration and to the Blaine Journal with: “My compliments to you and the other wonderful residents of Blaine for your interest in this state park.” Journal editor Bess Smith wrote gentler Peace Arch news after that.
July brought an announcement from the Washington State Highway Department that the freeway through Blaine, complete with Second Street renovations, landscaping and sidewalks, would be completed by October 15. Status and plans for the park were detailed in the August 5th edition of the Blaine Journal:
Paul J. McKay, district superintendent of the Washington State Highway Department, William Dugovich, public information office from the State Highway headquarters in Olympia, and Lowell Smith, project engineer with District No. One, State Highway Department out of Bellingham, were callers at the Blaine Journal office Thursday, to give in detail the work to occur at Peace Arch Park in the vicinity of the old entrance and along the freeway at and coming into the park itself.
The Washington State Highway promised to make a new entrance to the park and landscape it when it became apparent that the old entrance would have to be taken in order to widen the freeway at that point and bring it into the park on a gentle curve. They also promised to landscape where the old entrance had been, and will with the sanction of the Washington State Parks Commission, grade and landscape the general area around the old comfort station where the shrubbery has grown way past its prime, up to and including the area south to the old entrance.
As previously explained in this paper several weeks ago, this will entail the grading down of the hill behind and around the comfort station to allow for an all-around view of the Arch itself. A new irrigation system will be installed therein and also in that area south of the Arch and in between it and the Customs buildings. New shrubbery and seeding of grass will be placed in this area. A new information center, just east of the American kitchen, to include the totem pole that is at present at the ranger’s house, will be made and at the new entrance, a sign, shrubbery and flagpole are planned. All this work will be let for bids August 17.
The freeway landscaping bids will be called Oct. 15, but will of necessity be seeded with grass at first to afford a grading erosion-protecting coat to be followed with landscaping.
Some of the shrubbery to be used in the landscaping is various types of elm, pine, etc., rhododendrons, azaleas and annuals and others. Dedication of this entrance work will be held Sept. 15-17.
This is the first time in the history of the Washington State Highway Department that they have hired a trained and graduated landscape engineer. Mr. McKay and staff have made several trips to Blaine regarding the Peace Arch Park so far this summer. They have been very cooperative in meeting with officials and citizens of Blaine and vicinity and giving news releases to the local newspaper. So it is as reported in the July issue, “things are indeed looking up for the Peace Arch Park,” and by spring next year, many changes for the better will have been accomplished in this park.
It is the wish of Ranger Bob Weatherly and the State officials that when this work is begun, the citizens will be patient as many flowerbeds and much shrubbery will be torn up to be replaced with new, will add materially to the appearance of the entrance to Peace Arch Park on the freeway.
The Neighborhood Youth Corps cleared the eastern expansion of Peace Arch State Park by the end of August 1965; the ground was ready for seeding. Plans for picnic areas included tables accompanied by trees of several species, including chestnut, beach, birch, maple, cedar, redwood and sycamore. Prior to opening the last leg of the freeway, the park was landscaped at $29,007 by a private firm.
The Blaine area freeway was completed and dedicated November 23. “This 2.5 miles of freeway is the north end of 276 miles of Interstate Highway Five and Highway 99, the major north-south freeway of Western Washington,” described the Blaine Journal. “It stretches from Dakota Creek on the south to within 400 feet of the Peace Arch, thus preserving the beauty of that area dedicated to peace between our two countries, Canada and the United States.” The State Department of Highways called for bids to landscape the freeway and install an irrigation system.
It had been a gala year. Burgeoning freeway traffic compelled the U.S. Border Patrol to expand its offices, constructing a new facility on H Street in Blaine. While he was attending a Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce meeting February 1966, Secretary Vernon McDonald read a letter.
[It was] from the Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Club of the United States asking for brochures on the Peace Arch. They report their theme for the convention to be held this year in Paradise, California, will be “The Peace Arch,” and they need information on the Arch and park.
Supt. Irvin Ricketts of Blaine school exhibited a book entitled “Journeys through the United States and Canada” published by a large book company that had on its front cover a fine picture of the Peace Arch. The nearest big office of this company is at Belmont, California.
These two reports are to acquaint the Blaine people of the fact that the Peace Arch and this Northwest District are being studied by people all over the United States.
The Peace Arch stood high in 1965. Aware of the trend, Canadians erected a large sign in their park by March 1966. It featured a carved and painted dogwood, flower of British Columbia. “The rhododendron, Washington state’s flower, would be just as attractive used in such a sign for the American side,” pled an envious Blaine Journal.
Park Ranger Weatherly had far more concerns than the Journal’s proposed sign. March was a hectic month. Odegaard’s promised parking area was under preparation; two houses at the park’s edge were removed from the north side of A Street, and their lumber was given away. The freeway, completed the previous fall, had received roadside surgery; banks had been sliced to expose naked soil wintering past the park entrance that had been permanently closed to favor the controversial Second Street entrance. Of course, the new entrance would need to be beautified, too. The State Highway Department willingly provided shrubbery, but it was up to park personnel to complete the planting. The newly opened acreage to the east would need to be seeded, not to mention beautification with additional flowerbeds. Park laborers were working at a feverish pitch by May; a goal had been set to complete their many chores before the Peace Arch celebration occurred the following June. The goal was successfully achieved.
One success led to another, come July. The Bureau of Outdoor Recreation awarded Peace Arch State Park a $9,550 grant for 2.38 acres, needed “to provide parking and a buffer zone to separate the park from adjoining residential properties.” Meanwhile, park attendance had increased by more than thirteen percent over the previous year. At least 8,000 visitors had visited the state park for the single day that happened to be Sunday, July 17, 1966. Weatherly thought new freeway signage had raised public awareness.
Wrapping up the season, the Peace Arch Garden Club International toured the international park in August. “Amazed at the number of beautiful dahlias of every color, kind and size, the group moved through the gardens, viewing the color and perfection of the perennial phlox, the nemesia border plants and the large pansies grouped around a bird bath and threatening to cover an ornamental toadstool and green frog at its base,” reported the Blaine Journal. “Many other interesting plants were seen such as sunflowers with many blooms, flowering kale, and a host of lovely gladioli.”
Pat Irwin, who had been Weatherly’s faithful assistant for several years, was transferred to Birch Bay State Park as the busy season of March 1967 dawned. Harry Starkovich, a Bellingham resident with a background in private construction work, took his place. With the rigorous goals of 1966 met, 1967 was a year of comparative relief for park employees. Elected in October, Weatherly was afforded time to become vice president of the International Peace Arch Association.
March 25, 1968 was a noteworthy date of expansion for Peace Arch State Park. According to the Blaine Journal:
The State Highway Commission and State Park Commission signed an agreement March 25 to make the freeway right-of-way, from Dakota Creek to Peace Arch Park a part of the park system.
Maintenance of the freeway area by the park department will begin April 15. The highway department realized the freeway through Blaine is actually the front door to the state of Washington and therefore should receive a better standard of maintenance, which the park personnel can provide.
In an interview with Bob Weatherly, park ranger, it was learned that this addition to Peace Arch Park will include 54 acres of lawn, 17 acres of shrubs, over three miles of irrigation pipes and four men will be needed to care for the area.
Joyce Barker McDonald of North Vancouver, visiting the Peace Arch in 1968, described the floral scene. “Marigolds were featured in the garden beds that surround the base of the Peace Arch,” she observed. “The shape of the planting was a shield, with a golden star the central design. A carpet of snow alyssum and crystal palace lobelia bordered the petite marigolds. The overall effect was impressive. These flowerbeds operate on an alternating basis. One year the American side plants and tends them; the next year the Canadian side does the honors. Basically, twenty varieties of plants are used throughout the entire park, but in a different way each year. New strains are constantly being tried.”
The Samish Council of Camp Fire Girls presented 3,700 tulip bulbs to Weatherly in the fall of 1968, given “to be a blaze of red when hundreds of children from both sides of the border gather for the annual Peace Arch celebration,” which occurred June 8, 1969. Ranger Bob Weatherly managed his job so efficiently, that State Park Director Charles Odegaard sent him to Olympia the following August, where he became chief of special studies for all state parks.
Weatherly’s assistant, Harry Starkovich, became the park ranger. Upon assuming his appointment, he declared, “Flowers are like people; the better you treat them, the prettier they are.” Be that as it may, Starkovich faced a challenge of his own, beginning with March 1970. “Leather jackets”—not to be associated with motorcycle gangs—invaded the park. Although they had been seen on both sides of the border a year earlier, the invasion had gained momentum. The mosquito-like insects became permanently known as European crane flies rather than “leather jackets.” Malathion failed to eradicate the mosquito-like creatures; a European bird called the starling snacked on them with greater success. Thirty years later, the proliferation of starling droppings reduced the crane fly to an endangered species.
Portal popularity, crippled by a dramatic May 1970 demonstration, survived the social changes of the late 1960s to remain challenged—but not destroyed—come another decade’s dawning. The Peace Arch Garden Club International remained operational in 1970; Charles R. Woodward, a home gardening graduate from Guelph, Ontario, was guest speaker at the American kitchen May 5. The Blaine Border Café was renamed the Peace Arch Café that year. Press coverage of portal events, though often diminished, remained reasonably intact.
Peace Arch State Park received major improvements in 1976; a new water sprinkling system was installed. The $83,500 project occurred during March and April.
The Peace Arch Garden Club International remained intake at the close of 1978. Twenty-six members attended a December 5 Christmas party at the home of Frank and Florence Richardson “just across the border from Peace Arch Park” on the Canadian side. Twelve members lived in Blaine.
The spring of 1979 saw Ranger Harry Louch replace Starkovich, who had spent a nearly a decade as Peace Arch State Park’s ranger. The park had grown to 27 acres with plenty challenges awaiting him. Within he ensuing year, he had created a winding cement walk that reached from the highway to the American kitchen.
Tom Poplawski, who had been the ranger at Saltwater State Park near Kent, was transferred to Peace Arch State Park February 15, 1985, to replace Louch who had moved on. Soon joining him was professional gardener Joe Massett. During the summer, historian and park aid Carol Post, Blaine, conducted guided tours for park visitors while ten summertime gardeners kept the grounds in tiptop shape. Canada’s Katimavik and the Washington Conservation Corps sent twenty-two young people, early November, to top and shape Peace Arch State Park’s poplar trees. It was the month the Blaine Police Department sported new Peace Arch decals on the doors of their cruisers.
Not wishing to overlook the many children who visit the park, Poplawski developed the playground with a slide and additional exercise equipment.
A man of growing popularity, Poplawski received the Westside Record-Journal Man of the Year award in 1990. Much of his volunteer service benefited the Blaine School District.
More than twenty years after “leather jackets” had been discovered in the Peace Arch lawn, professional gardener Joe Massett found another undesirable varmint called the European cherry bark tortrix. He became “the first person to discover the United States had been invaded by the cherry bark tortrix, a European tree pest that enjoys the flavor of cherry wood.” The cherry tree in which the tortrix lived was promptly removed.
Massett was honored with a certificate of recognition April 5, 1991 from Eric LaGasa, chief etomologist with the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
Poplawski became a member of the Blaine City Council August 22, 1992, after incumbent Bill Padden, Ward I, died suddenly. While Poplawski was in office, an important action impacted Peace Arch State Park. From state parks had come a request for the city of Blaine to annex 16 acres of Peace Arch State Park in light of heightened water bills foisted upon the state. At its June 26, 1995 meeting, the Blaine City Council voted 6-1 to approve the annexation. The story, written by editor Calvin Bratt, was published in the June 28, 1995 edition of the Record-Journal:
You thought the Peace Arch always was in Blaine. Well, now it may be.
The Blaine City Council agreed Monday to annex 16 acres along the international boundary, including the Peace Arch, probably Blaine’s most famous landmark.
The action, if approved by the county Boundary Review Board, will put Peace Arch State Park entirely in city limits.
The benefits are not financial. Blaine stands to lose about $5,000 it would otherwise collect for selling water outside city limits at a 50 percent premium, said Sylvia Goodwin, director of community and economic development.
City water is used for park irrigation.
But the annexation will clear up confusion about jurisdiction at the park and border crossing and improve coordination with park and border officials, Goodwin said.
The Washington State Park Department asked for the annexation.
City Council member Georgia Gardner was opposed, saying the average Blaine resident would rather keep the $5,000 for the city water fund.
Certainly, the Boundary Review Board approved the move, the water bills were handed to Peace Arch State Park, and the lawns have never been quite so green ever since. Uncontested, the popular ranger remained with the city council, elected without opposition in November 1995. But he left the state park April 1, 1996, to become ranger of the 5,000-acre Steamboat Rock State Park near Grand Coulee Dam.
Wayne Eden, Deception Pass State Park ranger for eleven years, became Poplawski’s successor June 1, 1996. His assumption of duties had been born of a smooth transition before Nine-Eleven suddenly interrupted the pleasantries of his role. Among his accomplishments in the spring of 2002 were construction of an attractive gazebo west of the American kitchen, and a sheltered stage standing north of it.
Kiwanis International’s Boundary Peace Tablet
Immediately east of the Peace Arch, one may view the Boundary Peace Tablet, one of several erected in Canada and the United States by Kiwanis International, and bearing the following inscription:
THIS UNFORTIFIED BOUNDARY LINE
BETWEEN THE
DOMINION OF CANADA
AND THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
SHOULD QUICKEN THE REMEMBRANCE OF MORE THAN A CENTURY OLD FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THESE COUNTRIES.
A LESSON OF PEACE TO ALL NATIONS.
ERECTED APRIL 25, 1936
KIWANIS INTERNATIONAL
Dedication of the tablet was covered in the April 30, 1936 edition of the Blaine Journal:
In an impressive ceremony Saturday noon at the boundary line at Blaine, witnessed by 300 or 400 people, a bronze peace plaque was dedicated. The ceremony was conducted by the Pacific Northwest District of Kiwanis International, and is one of several to be placed on the border.
The dedication followed a number of addresses on the peaceful relations enjoyed by the two countries separated by the international boundary line and the fact that there are no fortifications along the whole line.
The address of welcome was given by F.W. Agee, acting mayor of Blaine, and Kiwanian Harold L. Huton, New Westminster, as that mayor’s personal representative, responded.
From 1935 to 1937, twelve tablets had been placed along the international border at sites reaching from the Peace Arch to St. Croix Bridge that links Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Of similar design was the Rush-Bagot Memorial Tablet that Kiwanis International erected in Washington D.C., April 1935.
The Fateful Jefferson Davis Highway Marker
Immediately west of the Peace Arch, standing on the borderline, and located six feet, nine inches east of the southbound traffic lane, stood a roughly cut stone marker with a well-polished face, bearing a deeply incised inscription:
JEFFERSON DAVIS
HIGHWAY No. 99
ERECTED BY THE
WASHINGTON DIVISION
UNITED DAUGHTERS
OF THE
CONFEDERACY
SEPTEMBER 1940
Later—it was May 24, 1941, Canada’s Dominion Day and the 122nd anniversary of Queen Victoria’s birth—the United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated the marker. Rogan Jones of radio station KVOS broadcast the event, introducing it with his prepared script:
Today in Blaine there will be a most interesting ceremony.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy will dedicate a marker on the Jefferson Davis National Highway.
The guest of honor at the ceremony will be Mrs. Charles E. Bolling of Richmond, Virginia. Mrs. Bolling is the President-General of this historic organization of women whose fathers served the cause of the South in the War Between the States.
Perhaps no people in our nation’s history have so thoroughly shown a love of country than have the Southern people who believe in preserving their liberties.
The people of the South took a leading part in winning the nation’s freedom in 1776 and in 1812. They bore the brunt of the war for the Independence of Texas and the preservation of that section of the country.
And when the Southern cause was lost in 1865 the citizens of the South came back into the life of the nation with the same love of liberty and belief in the freedom for which they had so often fought.
Today, no part of the country is supplying so any men for the armed forces of Uncle Sam. The same Southern courage and love of liberty is being displayed in this trek of to the colors.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy are now dedicating a national highway to the memory of the man who was their leader in the war the south so bravely lost. This highway is more than a tribute to a leader. It is more than a tribute to the brave men who fought under him, and the courageous women who suffered for those men. This highway is an evidence of the virility and the courage of a portion of these great United States. These women are the descendants of those who suffered privation and want in support of a great ideal. That ideal still lives. It lives and expresses itself through service to the nation in its present hour of need.
Mrs. Bolling, President-General of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, is a resident of Richmond, Virginia. She comes to our community to dedicate this afternoon at Blaine, in the shadow of the Peace Arch which we all love so, the final marker on the Jefferson Davis National Highway.
We are pleased to present to our audience our distinguished visitor, Mrs. Charles E. Bolling, President-General of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The ceremony, documented by May Avery Wilkins, Seattle, opened with the Canadian Legion Kiltie Highland Band, Children of the Confederacy, the Boy Scouts, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Blaine High School Band, marching through the Peace Arch.
Assisted by his two grandsons, and another of Mrs. Bolling, the marker, draped with a Confederate flag, was unveiled by 94-year-old Confederate veteran J.B. Prichett. After an invocation, the band played “Dixie.” Then Mrs. E.K. Worthington sketched the history of the Jefferson Davis Highway, followed by President-General Bolling’s address.
Remembering historic foundations established by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the deeds of brave men and women who stood for freedom, she praised Jefferson Davis, describing him as a man of honor. Misunderstood and maligned, she said he was nevertheless gaining his rightful place in history as a soldier and statesman. She continued:
Starting at the nation’s capital on Number One, the Jefferson Davis Highway runs throughout the Southern States and west to California where at San Francisco, was to have been its terminus. But due to the interest of Mrs. May Avery Wilkins of Seattle, Director for Washington on the Jefferson Davis Highway Committee, and her eager research, facts were uncovered which brought the decision to extend the highway through the states of Oregon and Washington to the Canadian line. You may be familiar with the account written by Mrs. Wilkins giving the record of activities of Jefferson Davis during his term of office as Secretary of war and also a Senator (United States).
She cited Davis’ record, alluding to his role in the expansion of the northwest railway system, the acquisition of grants and completion of surveys while working with Washington State Governor Stevens, and several more projects completed between 1853 and 1858.
“With such a record of achievement it seemed fitting that a national highway should bear the name of Jefferson Davis,” she concluded, “and it is a source of pride that this is accomplished by the United Daughters of the Confederacy through whose efforts the highway has been designated and marked throughout its length—the only memorial of its kind ever planned and completed by a woman’s organization.”
Although Wilkins acknowledged that “Mrs. Bolling then presented the marker to Lieutenant Governor Victor Myers, who accepted it for the state of Washington with a few appropriate remarks,” the May 27, 1941 edition of the Blaine Journal added, “Vic Meyers received the big hand when he undertook to dedicate the monument to ‘Thomas Jefferson, the great southern statesman,’ and from the expressions, this statement of Washington’s Lieutenant Governor did not strike the audience as at all bad.” The Journal story, having reported “approximately 300” attendees, curtly concluded with a puzzling, if not provocative, paragraph: “Senator A.E. Edwards was present and when discovered in the audience by the alert chairman, was called to the platform to take a bow.”
Not everyone was pleased to see Jefferson Davis memorialized. Nearly a month before the ceremony occurred—it was May 1, 1941—the Blaine Journal had published an editorial comment: “Although the Daughters of the United Confederacy may have renamed the Pacific Highway in commemoration of Jeff Davis, it can scarcely be expected that Washingtonians will be telling their friends that they drove over the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway, upon returning from their annual vacation trip. It will continue to be the good old Pacific Highway or ‘99’ to most folks, and that is as it should be.”
The Jefferson Davis Highway was designated under the “trailway system” for naming routes. Replaced by a federally sanctioned numbering system in the 1920s, the 1980s saw a revival of interest in highway history and the trailway heritage. Lost markers were replaced, bronze plates were polished and again posted, and occasionally new markers were erected.
“What is ironic,” writes Mark Bozanich, author of The Jefferson Davis Highway posted at his website, “is that the Jefferson Davis Highway is becoming more real than it was originally. The number of highway markers is more than there was originally.”
But State Representative Hans Dunshee, a Snohomish Democrat who had been kayaking in Canada during the summer of 2001, saw the marker while approaching the Douglas border crossing. He was outraged. By winter he revealed his reaction. “In this state, we cannot have a monument to a guy who led the insurgency to perpetuate slavery and killed half a million Americans,” Dunshee allegedly told Herald of Everett writer Susanna Ray, whose feature story was published January 24, 2002.
He drafted a measure [January 20] to change the highway’s name to honor instead a man who came from one of the first black families to settle in Snohomish [William P. Stewart, who fought with the Union during the Civil War]. And if the bill passes, he said the state Parks Department has agreed to tear down the monument, which stands about ten feet from the road in Blaine. Dunshee said he’s even willing to drive up to the Canadian border and rip out the monument himself, if that and the likely ensuing jail time are what it takes to expunge what he considers an unjust memorial for this state. He’s so fired up about it, his wife has agreed to accompany him.
“The Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway is on its way to becoming history in Washington state,” declared the February 16 issue of the Bellingham Herald. “After a civil debate, the state House on Friday [February 15] unanimously approved a measure asking the Department of Transportation to rename the highway after black Union soldier and Snohomish County settler William P. Stewart.”
Statewide letters to editors, opposing the House decision, were soon published. Then the International Peace Arch Association, assembled at White Rock, B.C. February 24, unanimously opposed the move. Requesting the marker be left undisturbed in the park, the association’s decision was passed to State Senator Georgia Gardner, Representatives Doug Ericksen and Kelli Linville.
Dunshee’s bill died March 4, 2002, never to be resurrected and brought to the Senate floor. The Washington state Senate transportation committee had rendered its decision.
Or at least so it seemed. Wayne Eden, Peace Arch State Park ranger, received a telephone call from the city of Blaine in the late afternoon of March 11, advising him that a city crew, scheduled to remove the Jefferson Davis would be at the park the next morning. But the crew appeared neither that day nor the next. Apparently, the plan had been jinxed by the Seattle Times, published March 13. “It’s like a swastika by the side of the road, some say of the Jefferson Davis Highway marker in Blaine. A sign of hatred and anti-patriotism,” began the anonymous story. Three paragraphs later, the initial explanation was revealed:
Yesterday, a campaign was kicked off at the Seattle Urban League office to remove the marker and rename the highway after William P. Stewart, a black Civil War soldier who settled in Snohomish. A bill sponsored by Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, proposed the action, but it died in the Senate last month after passing the House 97-0.
Senate Transportation Committee members said the highway’s name wasn’t a priority and that the committee had more-important legislation to concentrate on during the 60-day session. At lease one senator defended Davis, saying he had accomplished good deeds before he led the South in the Civil War.
Those speaking at yesterday’s news conference urged citizens to write the Senate’s Transportation and Parks and Recreation committees, asking them to reconsider.
The death of the bill only aroused the outrage of those who demanded the marker’s removal. Galvanized into action as reported by the Bellingham Herald, the Whatcom County Council, in session June 4, voted 6-1 “to send a letter to state officials asking that a marker that had stood for sixty years along Interstate 5 in Peace Arch Park not be brought back.”
Details were never publicized, but at some date in the spring of 2002—perhaps it was early April—the Jefferson Davis marker, having stood undisturbed in the park for sixty-one years, had been quietly removed.
The removal of monuments was not without prior consideration, years before Mr. Dunshee pulled his kayak past the marker. In the wake of the Columbia River Treaty, the Blaine Journal published the following story October 8, 1964:
Since some members of the State Park Commission had an opportunity to take a good look at the park during their attendance at the multiple dam treaty-signing event, it is hoped that they centered their attention on the monumental intrusion of marble on either side of the park; and that orders will be issued for their removal.
At least one of these monuments was installed before any attempt had been made at landscaping and most anything was a relief from the quagmire in which the Arch was erected.
Now with the beautiful landscaping in the park and the gorgeous flowerbeds complimenting the Arch, these monuments are seemingly a detriment to the general appearance of the Arch, and many people are of the opinion they should be removed.
If the Park Commissioners that visited the park on Sept. 16 took a look at these intrusions, it may be expected they will order their removal.
Exactly which monuments the Journal had in mind was not disclosed. But the Jefferson Davis marker is suspect.
The American Kitchen
Park Superintendent Peter J. Barbeau noted 22,008 visitors had visited Samuel Hill Memorial Park in 1939. Although many had picnicked on the lawns, he believe “many more would have stopped for a meal had there been adequate parking space and a community kitchen.”
“Enough acreage should be added to the park to accommodate several hundred cars. A community kitchen second to none in the state should be constructed and equipped with water and lights and other necessities,” opined the Blaine Journal. “A bandstand should also be constructed so that band and other programs could be offered without the trouble of erecting temporary platforms,” adding that the State Park Commission “should exert all possible influence toward these much needed improvements.”
Barbeau returned with glowing news after he had attended a convention sponsored by the Washington State Parks Commission in January 1942. “He brought back with him a complete set of plans for the development of a greater Peace Arch Park, the name by which the International Boundary Park is hereafter to be known,” stated the January 29, 1942 issue of the Blaine Journal. “Mr. Barbeau now has a force of several men at work, taking out trees, moving dirt, etc. and before the season is well along, work will be started on a modern community kitchen which is being planned as much on the order of a clubhouse as on the community kitchen idea. The new building is to be built of stone, and is to be 24 by 40 feet in dimension, with a large fireplace and metered cooking plates, with complete installation of water and sewerage and light service. . . . A new warehouse and tool shed is also to be constructed this year and the present tool shed is to be moved back onto higher land and used as an office.”
Although the kitchen project was delayed until 1944, the Blaine Journal of October 12 noted, “Barbeau has recently completed the fireplace in the community kitchen at Peace Arch Park, having laid up all the facing stones himself, and has under construction a plaque that will adorn the space over the mantel. Additional furniture is to be installed in the kitchen, making this one of the homiest park kitchens in existence.”
By the spring of 1945, Barbeau realized the new kitchen was not large enough to accommodate conveniently the growing number of park visitors. Over 1,500 Canadians were in the park on Empire Day. He “found that the fine community kitchen lacked the capacity for crowds of this size. It was necessary to remain close to the scene of cooking activities and ask the picnickers to move over as soon as convenient and make room for the next ones.” As the number of visitors grew, the summer of 1947 found him complaining, “We need four times the present kitchen accommodations and there is a very great need for a permanent outdoor amphitheater.”
Barbeau and his staff received great relief when Ethan E. “Easy” Austin arrived from Seattle to become a park employee June 6, 1949.
Popularity of the kitchen was demonstrated by the December 1, 1949 Blaine Journal:
The Peace Arch Park kitchen is becoming increasingly popular as a setting for late fall activities. Numerous parties, dinners and special club meetings have already been held and many more are scheduled for December.
Thanksgiving day the long extended tables were ladened with a huge turkey, beautifully carved and served with all the trimmings to the Thomas Sebens of Everson and a number of their children and grandchildren from Sumas and Lynden. Twenty or more members had congregated for the holiday feast and joyous get-together.
Our Canadian neighbors gathered at the kitchen Friday evening where approximately ten tables of cards were enjoyed until a late hour. Refreshments and visitation rounded out a pleasant meeting.
John VanderZicht of Olympia, acting director of the state parks and recreation commission since the resignation of director Samuel Clark, was at the park on official business, Saturday. He was accompanied by Supt. Christianson of the Deception Pass State Park.
Monday morning, weather permitting, Ethan “Easy” Austin will report at Olympia for a week’s work. He will supervise the landscaping that is to be done in several of the state parks.
Barbeau’s successor, Arnold Montoure, redecorated the kitchen and restrooms during the spring of 1950. By autumn, John Vanderzicht, state director of parks, addressed the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce, announcing plans for “a new and larger kitchen with many advantages for local picnickers.”
Increasingly, the kitchen played a prominent role in the attraction of varied group activities as demonstrated by the following Blaine Journal story of November 22, 1951:
The Peace Arch Park community kitchen continues to grow in popularity as more and more fall and winter events are being confined within its walls. Various clubs and parties were calendared for nearly every day or evening of last week.
The Peace Arch Home Demonstration Club led off with their annual Thanksgiving dinner, Wed. Nov. 14. Following the junior play, “Our Miss Brooks,” Friday evening, the young folks congregated at the kitchen for snacks and gaiety to round out the evening. Saturday a Lynden group made use of the facilities offered them. It was Soroptimist night, Monday, and the members of the international club held their regular monthly business meeting. Tuesday evening the Wednesday Evening Home Demonstration Club gathered for their annual Thanksgiving dinner, and today the extended tables will groan with another turkey dinner, this time being enjoyed by members of the Dick Slotemaker family of Lynden.
The Peace Arch kitchen is one of the few state park kitchens opened to the public throughout the winter months.
When Governor Arthur Langlie reported the state had set aside $25,000 for park improvements in the spring of 1952, $13,000 had been marked for the grading and surfacing of roadways and parking areas. But $12,000 had been reserved “for the construction of a new comfort station as an additional component to the existing covered kitchen in the main picnic area of the park.” The State Parks and Recreation Commission awarded Blaine contractors Dodd & Eiford the contract for enlarging the kitchen by fall.
The kitchen assumed a “T” shape as an east wing was constructed. Progress was praised by the Blaine Journal of February 19, 1953:
For greater pleasure and service, various organizations, picnickers, family groups and the individual will find the kitchen equipped with four gas stoves, two sinks and two electric hot water tanks. Free hot water will be available to the public but the gas stoves will be operated on meters. Ample work top space and open cupboards on either side of the kitchen will be provided and both dining room and kitchen will be stocked with tables. In addition to the main restrooms in the rear of the building, a small utility room and restroom will be open directly from the kitchen, the latter being planned with an appeal for winter convenience. The kitchen is expected to be completed without delay, but some work on the restrooms will be delayed until after the April biennium.
The $15,000 project was finished in time for the Annual Peace Arch Celebration, held June 28, 1953.
Kitchen renovations have been reoccurring events. New electric stoves, as announced by Park Ranger Bob Weatherly, were added to the kitchen after it had been completely redecorated and opened to the public mid-April, 1966.
Twenty-seven years later—it was the spring of 1993—the kitchen was renovated anew. Improvements included new carpeting, tile flooring, cupboards, counter tops, sinks and a four-burner cook top.
The Peace Memorial Association Gazebo
“There is an interesting little summer-house, whose hexagonal roof is made of six different kinds of B.C. woods,” wrote Freda Fennell, describing the Canadian side of the park for the Vancouver Sun in 1950. Judging from a hexagonal table of polished black marble centered upon the floor of this six-pillared stone and mortar gazebo, the structure was built three years earlier. Etched in capital letters is the following inscription:
THIS TABLE ERECTED A.D. 1947 BY
INTERNATIONAL PEACE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION
OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
THIS LAND WAS ACQUIRED THROUGH THE EFFORTS OF
THE ASSOCIATION BY DONATION AND PURCHASE WITH MONIES
CONTRIBUTED BY THE SCHOOL CHILDREN OF THE PROVINCE.
THE PARK ITSELF WAS DESIGNED BY JOHN BOOTH AND BUILT
WITH FUNDS SUPPLIED BY THE DOMINION AND PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS.
THROUGH THE YEARS OF EFFORT NECESSARY, THE ASSOCIATION
ACKNOWLEDGES GRATEFULLY THE SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE
REEVE AND COUNCIL OF SURREY AND THE KIWANIS CLUB OF VANCOUVER.
OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION
R. ROWE HOLLAND VANCOUVER PRESIDENT
D.E. McKENZIE NEW WESTMINSTER VICE-PRESIDENT
J.W. CUNNINGHAM NEW WESTMINSTER TREASURER
F.J. ELKINS VANCOUVER SECRETARY
J.J. McRAE VANCOUVER SECRETARY
“After Me Cometh A Builder”
A small but attractive pedestrian bridge crosses a lily pond and moves eastward into the open end of the gazebo. Six log rafters reach from the center to the edge of the roof, adding v-shaped supports, terminating at the roofline, and unintentionally creating the familiar look of the late sixties peace symbols. Each of the six panels that make up the ceiling bears the name of a familiar wood: spruce, pine, Douglas fir, yellow cedar, hemlock and red cedar.
The Canadian Kitchen
Canadian park Superintendent Donald M. McKenzie saw his dream of a future Canadian kitchen begin to unfold by the end of June 1948, when the British Columbia Forest Service ordered land-clearing, grading and the preliminaries of a water and sewer system on coastal park land a short distance southeast of the Canadian customs and immigration facility.
“Work on the new building that will provide ample space for cooking and dining is expected to get underway in the very near future,” reported the Blaine Journal, July 1, 1948. “It will be constructed in T-formation with a dining room measuring 30 by 60 [feet] and a kitchen 17 by 20 with the most modern conveniences. The dining room, kitchen and restrooms are planned to be completed this season.”
More than a kitchen, and just as likely called a pavilion, plans called for a recreational setting that included a generous parking lot, softball field, horseshoe court, wading pool, and a compact observation station overlooking Boundary Bay.
With the exception of minor details and decoration, the building was completed by Christmas. Double doors of fine wood featured carvings of the Canadian maple leaf and the Washington state seal. A large fireplace graced the long, rectangular dining room.
“The exterior walls of cedar shakes combined with hand-hewn planks, and supported by huge hand-hewn beams, harmonize with the background of trees,” wrote Vancouver Sun author Freda Fennell. “The doors are solid panels of yellow cedar carved in dogwood design by the skillful hands of Joseph St. Pierre, the official wood-carver of the Forestry Branch.”
Designed to accommodate picnickers, the building “has four double electric units working on a meter system at ten cents for twenty minutes, hot and cold water in each kitchen unit and ample cupboard space for food storage,” reported Eric Cable for the Vancouver Daily Province.
The building, that cost over $30,000, was dedicated by Deputy Forest Minister C.D. Orchard and park officials at a public ceremony May 23, 1949, and opened to the public May 24, the queen’s birthday. By the following August, the Blaine Journal reported “both kitchens were filled throughout the day; tables, chairs and benches belonging to the park and additional borrowed ones were filled again and again as the many groups stopped to partake of their picnic dinners and lunches.”
The Oregon Treaty Centennial Marker
The Oregon Treaty of June 15, 1846 between England and the United States dismissed the latter’s claim to Pacific coastal land north of the 49th parallel, settled the Oregon boundary question, and removed the Hudson’s Bay regime from Washington state. Also called the Washington Treaty of 1846 as exemplified by the Point Roberts obelisk, the Oregon Treaty ought not be confused with the Washington Treaty of May 8, 1871—one that resolved issues emanating from the treaty of 1846.
The Oregon Treaty Centennial Marker was placed on the boundary line, east of the Peace Arch, on June 15, 1946, during a festive celebration detailed in chapter three. It must be noted, however, that the metal plaques remained to be fastened to the stone monument later, during a November 8, 1947 ceremony.
Explanations appear on both sides of the marker. The southern side, representing the United States, contains the following statement, topped by an eagle with wings spread:
UNITED STATES
(Image of eagle with wings spread)
1846 1946
WASHINGTON STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
OREGON TREATY
CENTENNIAL
IN COMMEMORATION OF
THE CENTENNIAL OF THE
SIGNING OF THE OREGON
BOUNDARY TREATY OF
1846
THE MONUMENT WAS ERECTED
JOINTLY BY CANADIANS AND AMERICANS
ON THE INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY
LINE WHICH HAS ALWAYS REMAINED
UNFORTIFIED AND UNDEFENDED
THE SYMBOL OF PEACE AND AMITY
BETWEEN TWO GREAT PEOPLES
JUNE 15, 1946
On the north side of the marker one may read the Canadian and French statement:
THE OREGON TREATY
LE TRAIT DE L’OREGON
1946
In 1819 an international agreement provided for
The joint Anglo-American occupation of the
Oregon Territory—the country west of the
Rocky Mountains between 42 N and 54 40 N.
By 1843, however, the conflicting claims of
American settlers and British fur traders raised
the threat of war between the two powers.
The dispute was settled peacefully by the Oregon
Treaty signed on 15 June, 1846, which
Established the boundary along the 49th paral-
lel to saltwater, and thence through the Strait
of Juan de Fuca to the Pacific Ocean
Une entente internationale dtermina en 1819
loccupation anglo-amricaine conjointe de la
cte nord-ouest de lAmrique entre les 42 et
54 40 parallles. Mais lexpansion de la coloni-
sation amricaine se heurta bientt au commerce
britannique des fourrures. Une menace de
guerre entre les deux puissances clata en 1843.
On vita le conflict par le trait de l’Oregon
sign le 15 juin 1846, qui stablissait la fron-
tiere au 49 parallle et dans le dtroit Juan de
Fuca.
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Government of Canada 1947 — Gouvernement du Canada
Following a no-host dinner at Blaine’s Border Café attended by twenty-six guests from both sides of the border, the plaques were dedicated Saturday, November 8, 1947. Had the poliomyelitis epidemic not been a threat, the plaques would have been dedicated two months earlier.
Chairing the ceremony was Rogan Jones, president of the International Peace Arch Program Association. Representing the Washington State Historical Society was Howard A. Hanson who, according to the November 13, 1947 Blaine Journal, was reported to have said,
Here in this scenic park, partly Canadian and partly American, we meet on common ground and, without let or hindrance, pass and re-pass the border line on which this historic, commemorative granite is erected. Yonder in the park stands the renowned Peace Arch.
The British Columbia Historical Association and the Washington State Historical Society proposed a joint celebration to be held at Blaine in 1946 to commemorate the centennial of the establishment of the international boundary between Canada and the United States from the Rockies to the Pacific. The plan met with prompt and cordial approval, private and official, resulting in the largest and most spectacular celebration of an international character ever held west of the Rockies.
The boundary has always remained undefended and unfortified, an object lesson to the nations of the world. We rejoice in the settlement of the treaty question in the peace and tranquility that has characterized the relations of our two governments and of their citizens. We face the involved and pressing problems of the future with the will and courage of free men, determined that reason, law and order shall prevail over might and power and in full confidence that we shall always enjoy the most cordial relations with the splendid people of the land across the border.
Prof. W.N. Sage, affiliated with the University of British Columbia’s department of history, remembering a century of peace that followed the Oregon Treaty of June 15, 1846, said,
In August 1946 on Campo Bello Island, New Brunswick, Mrs. Roosevelt unveiled a tablet erected by the Historical Sites and Monument Board of Canada, to the late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. On that occasion, the chairman of our board, Dr. J. Clarence Webster, M.D., alluded to our memory of June 15: “Canada was proud to do honor at Campo Bello to a great American president, who had for many years owned a summer residence on that island, situated almost on the international boundary.”
That unveiling also typified the strong bond of attachment between our two nations. The gates have been open 100 years. May they never be closed.
With about fifty in attendance, Boy Scouts Don Holmes of Blaine and Robert Allen of New Westminster removed a large American flag from the cairn, uncovering the plaques for everyone’s scrutiny.
The Blue Star Highway Memorial Marker
Soon after World War II, the United States witnessed a mounting movement of appreciation for sacrificial service rendered by that nation’s armed forces. Ways of paying tribute to veterans were of special concern. The Blue Star Memorial Marker program, approved by the National Council of State Garden Clubs in 1945, was launched two years later. With support from California Garden Clubs, Inc., the 1947 California Legislature declared route 80 (then highway 40) and highway 99 (now largely known as the I-5) official Blue Star Memorial Highways.
Three years later, a marker, attended by the media, was placed at the highway’s east edge, abutting the southwest corner of Peace Arch State Park near the United States customs and immigration building. “Following a three-day convention of the Washington State Federated Garden Clubs held in Bellingham, the greater portion of the 500 delegates motored to Blaine Saturday afternoon [June 10, 1950] and held fitting ceremonies dedicating highway 99 as the Blue Star highway in memoriam of the men and women who gave their lives during World War II that freedom might be perpetuated,” reported the Blaine Journal.
Attractively mounted on a metal post, the aluminum marker bore the following inscription:
Blue Star
Memorial Highway
A tribute to
the Nation’s Armed Forces
who served in World War II.
Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs
State Department of Highways
Many dignitaries, including State Senator Carlton Sears, who sponsored the Washington bill authorizing US 99 as a memorial highway, were present. The Blaine Journal report continued:
The party came to Blaine in a motor cavalcade consisting of two buses and 50 automobiles and piloted by Sgt. Bud Veleke of the state patrol.
From the platform erected near the international boundary and on the west side highway through the park, Mrs. Elmer White, as Blue Star chairman, presided at the dedication service.
With a color guard from the Bellingham American Legion Auxiliary standing at attention near the plaque that is mounted atop a steel post just at the right of the highway and following an invocation, Mrs. White presented Mrs. Boyd Andreus, president of the Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs; Mrs. Leonard B. Slosson, president National Council of Garden Clubs; Senator Carlton Sears of Olympia and sponsor of the legislation that gives the Blue Star dedication official standing; Mrs. H.J. Lenz, past Blue Star chairman; George Shearer, state highway engineer; Everett Baxter, district highway engineer; each of whom responded with appropriate short addresses.
Mrs. White then presented the plaque dedicating the highway as a Blue Star highway when the bunting was dropped and the plaque unveiled to the gaze of the public and the pleasure of more than 50 lens-happy garden club members. The exercises were terminated by a benediction by Rev. Warne Sanders. The party then moved to the American community kitchen where tea was prepared and served by the ladies of the Congregational Church and was exceptionally creditable to the ladies who so willingly gave of their time and efforts in making the event a success.
As the party of more than 300 garden enthusiasts formed a queue to the tables they were presented with a Blaine souvenir from the Chamber of Commerce—a wooden nickel, a decal of the Peace Arch, and a folder giving a complete description of the edifice.
It became the forty-third marker erected in seventeen states. Years later the Blue Star Memorial Marker vanished with one clue appearing in the August 27, 1964 Blaine Journal. As freeway construction approached the park, the State Parks and Recreation Commission, working with the Highways Department, planned “extensive landscape remodeling of the areas adjoining the highway, parking lot improvements, and the relocation of entrance signs and the flagpole within the park.” Additionally: “The right-of-way on the west side of the freeway will also be improved and landscaped to a park-like appearance in order to conform to other improvements currently being designed. It is anticipated that the Blue Star Memorial Marker located at the present time in an area outside the present state park will be relocated at a more desirable location, pending further studies by the Parks Department.” “Outside” meant the adjacent I-5 right-of-way.
Jim Collins, assistant regional supervisor for the state parks, received a memo from Peace Arch State Park Ranger Tom Poplawski, March 20, 1985, advising Collins that Poplawski “couldn’t find any record of this being in the park after approximately 1972. The highway department lead man remembers it, but not what happened to it. The Canadian park people couldn’t remember it at all.”
Lynden resident Elizabeth Trimmer, a member of the Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc., sent the park a memo on March 11, 1985, advising the ranger that the club had asked her to locate the missing marker. She was given the impression that it had to be removed due to rerouting of the highway, and that the marker had probably been taken to Olympia for storage. What actually became of the marker is not presently known.
The State Park Superintendent’s Home
As early as 1935 the dream of erecting a superintendent’s home in Peace Arch State Park had lingered one year after another until the summer of 1951 when a foundation was constructed and a Christmastime residence was ready for occupancy. A totem pole, symbolizing peace, was placed in the patio January 11, 1952. An elated Arnold Montoure and family became the home’s first occupants a few days earlier, followed, two months later, by a housewarming hosted by Lynden residents Gerrit Veleke and Ray Myers.
“The structure, beautifully designed by Carver L. Baker, state parks architect, is an outstanding model of modern architecture, a type new to this locality,” reported the Blaine Journal, January 17, 1952. “Its charm, individuality and splendid achievement in construction drew comments of praise from the state visitors, also from others, who have had the opportunity of viewing the new residence.”
Expressing their satisfaction after inspecting the new home January 14 were State Parks Director John R. Vanderzicht, accompanied by Baker and several delegates.
The Canadian park director does not have a home in the park.
The Gyro International Monument
East of the Peace Arch and the northbound highway, standing on the borderline is a monument carved from a large granite stone. It bears the following inscription:
GYRO
INTERNATIONAL
A Fraternity of Friendship
Founded in 1912 and dedicated to the friendship of man.
Placed here as a testimonial to Gyro members on both
sides of the territorial border of Canada and the United States
and is dedicated to their friendship.
May our two great countries and the Gyro Fraternity
prosper forever with sincere respect for the sensitivities
of our fellow man.
DEDICATED 1979
Gyro International founder Paul Schwan of Ohio lived to enjoy the birth of this club at Cleveland, June 24, 1912, with fellow charter members Paul Schwan, Clarence Handerson and Ed Kagy. Schwan joined the United States Army April 1, 1918, and died seventeen days later, a victim of influenza.
Three principles guide the Gyros. They are (1) power—the power of friendship in human relationships, (2) poise—steadiness of timeless friendship, and (3) purpose—keeping the balance of friendship active in daily living.
Unveiling flags in celebration of a monument placed near the Peace Arch in the late summer of 1979, were former Gyro governors Bill Hudson, Jack Merrill, Howard Eves, and Colin Rutherford.
A Replicated Boundary Marker
Dennis M. DeMeyer, resident of Lynden, Washington, and chairman of the Historical Committee of the Northwest Chapter of the Surveyors’ Association of Washington, knew forty-two cast-iron markers had been placed along the 49th parallel west of the Rockies’ summit and east of the Gulf of Georgia during the international survey of 1857-1861.
When he learned that a small part of monument no. 42 on the east side of Vedder Mountain had been found, he armed himself with a metal detector and hiked to the site to look for the rest of it. He found an old post nearby; his detector reported metal had been planted around it.
“The metal detector indicated that more pieces were in the post hole, so I removed the post, dug with my hands and found almost all the pieces with the original lettering,” said DeMeyer according to the Westside Record-Journal. “I was able to reconstruct not only the wording, but the dimensions of the original monument from the pieces. It was like a jigsaw puzzle. It was remarkable how the pieces all fit together.
“The top of the pillar was intact, pyramidal and four inches square. ‘Treaty of Washington’ and ‘June 15th 1846’ had been inscribed on two sides of the monument. The monuments had stood about four feet above ground level.”
His dream of replicating the original monument and placing it on the border immediately west of the southbound roadway at the Peace Arch came true, thanks to funding provided by the Land Surveyors’ Association of Washington and the Corporation of British Columbia Land Surveyors.
The ceremony was recorded in the October 1, 1986 edition of the Westside Record-Journal as follows:
A replica of an original cast-iron monument used to mark the international boundary during the 1857-1861 survey was unveiled Wednesday morning. Conducting the ceremony, immediately west of the Peace Arch, was Dr. Alec McEwen, commissioner of the Canadian section of the International Boundary Commission, Ottawa.
The ceremony commemorated the 125th anniversary of the international boundary survey that stretched from the Gulf of Georgia to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.
Before he unveiled the 600-pound marker, McEwen read the inscription that appears on a granite-mounted brass plaque:
“This monument commemorates the 125th anniversary of the 1857-1861 survey of the 49th parallel from the Gulf of Georgia to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.
“This parallel was declared the boundary between the United States and Canada by the 1846 Treaty of Washington and surveyed by the joint British and American Boundary Commission.
“This pillar is an exact replica of the original cast-iron monuments used to mark this portion of the border between Point Roberts and the foothills of the Cascade Mountains during the 1857-61 survey.
“Dedicated to the surveyors and astronomers of the original boundary survey by the Land Surveyors’ Association of Washington and the Corporation of Land Surveyors of the Province of British Columbia in 1986.”
Several speeches, delivered at the Peace Arch, were heard before the unveiling.
Bruce D. Ayers of Ayers-Harrison Surveyors, Bellingham, acted as moderator. “The historical side of this ceremony is very important,” he said. “It gives me great pleasure to recognize this very commemorable achievement in remembering the 125th anniversary of the boundary survey.”
Offering short speeches of congratulation were State Senate candidates Ann Anderson and Judith Wiseman, State Rep. Pete Kremen and State Rep. challenger Ira Uhrig.
McEwen, the man who unveiled the monument, was the featured speaker.
He said the survey took place 125 years ago, but noted during the United States’ 1976 bicentennial year, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau presented a volume of early boundary photographs to U.S. President Gerald Ford.
“Later in 1976, at the Peace Arch, we gave a copy of that collection to the U.S. Boundary Commission,” he said.
McEwen said that maintenance of the 5,500-mile boundary is expensive. He said the commission should be kept informed of any damage to monuments. “By protecting the boundary, you are protecting your own property,” he concluded.
Praising the work of international surveyors, Case Wagner, vice president of the British Columbia Corporation of Land Surveyors said, “No matter how sophisticated we make instruments, it is still up to the surveyors to blow the dust off the documents and determine the marking of the boundary. A boundary is such only if it can be retraced.”
John Abernoth, president of the Land Surveyors’ Association of Washington, said it was praiseworthy that two nations could jointly celebrate an occasion such as this after 125 years of peaceful relations. Later, he said surveying technology has greatly improved within the past twenty years. He said that within the next twenty years, satellites would contribute to further improvement. DeMeyer, who introduced McEwen to the 101-member audience, later presented a historical slideshow to 70 guests who attended the no-host luncheon at Jodi’s Restaurant, Blaine.
Scenes of Joy, Goodness and Rites of Passage
The Nativity Scenes
When Martin Nelson, an employee of the Puget Sound Light and Power Company, erected a nativity scene immediately north of the Peace Arch in mid-December 1947, visitors from both sides of the border stepped into the park to see it. Floodlights illuminated Mary, Joseph and the Christ child, three wise men and their camels, the shepherds and their sheep. A blue star and an angel hovered over the stable. The sounds of Christmas carols were delivered by a sound system.
So popular was the display, that Nelson, assisted by Park Superintendent Peter J. Barbeau the Blaine Lions Club, brought the display back to the park in the winter of 1948. “The park affords a most unique setting for the scene located just below the brow of the international border,” reported the December 30, 1948 edition of the Blaine Journal. “Here American and Canadian tourists pause or leave their cars for a closer communion with the life-size subjects. Realistic wise men and their camels, the shepherds and their sheep are seen in the foreground as you approach the thatched stable where the Christ child lies in the manger guarded by Joseph and Mary. Hovering over the stable is an angel and higher on the hill to your right is the city of Bethlehem and the Star of the East.”
The nativity scene displayed in December 1949 was enhanced by the appearance of carolers, organized by the Blaine Lions Club. The performers even made a wire recording of their carols.
Growing in popularity, the nativity scene of 1950 became the setting for a an outdoor concert presented by the Blaine High School glee club and the Free Church Unitarian choir. This musically enhanced version of the nativity scene caught the attention of Bellingham Radio KIRO. Recordings and interviews followed; these became the subject of “Meet the Editor,” aired Christmas evening. Park Superintendent Arnold Montoure said attendance was the largest since the nativity scene was first erected in 1947. Said to have been erected “for the fourth consecutive year,” with Martin Nelson, Ferndale, undertaking the art work, the Blaine Journal of January 11, 1951 commented, “The illuminated Christmas nativity scene, sponsored annually by the Blaine Lions Club is the park’s spiritual and beautiful winter attraction. Supt. Arnold Montoure has estimated a conservative number of 8,000 visitors viewing the scene this Yuletide.”
The city of Blaine owned the nativity scene by the time it was displayed in 1951. The community Lions Club and merchants supplied the cash, and club member John Newton announced plans to enlarge it “and make the scene an attraction which will bring more visitors from the entire northwest,” as noted by the Blaine Journal.
No press coverage of the nativity scene could be found for Christmas seasons 1952 through 1954, but “the Blaine Lions decided to sponsor the nativity scene again this holiday season,” noted the December 8, 1955 Journal, adding, “This display was in operation for several years and attracted much favorable comment up and down the coast. It was written up in several magazines and many parties motored to Blaine from Vancouver and other points just to witness it.” If three years of viewing had been omitted because of deterioration since 1947, the mounted figures were repaired and painted that year, and a record player with “a supply of new records” enhanced the scene.
“An attractive addition at the Peace Arch Park is the beautiful nativity scene, an annual holiday display,” noted the Blaine Journal, December 24, 1959. “It is lighted each evening from 4:30 p.m. to 10:00 and carols will be heard nightly at 7:00 p.m. through Sunday, December 27.”
The nativity scene was displayed from December 17 through the 25th in 1960. “The scene has been displayed yearly in the park since 1947, except for one year when there was a power shortage,” Noted the Journal. “The scene is very attractive, and will give a great deal of pleasure to those driving past the hillside to see it and to listen to the carols.”
“With the powerful white star looming over the stable in which stand the figures of Joseph and Mary with the newborn babe in the manger, the wise men with their camels to the right and the shepherds with their flocks to the left, the scene is illuminated by a system of floodlights in the foreground and a galaxy of colored Christmas lights strung promiscuously in the trees to the right and rear,” reported the Journal issued December 21, 1961. “A huge blue star and floodlights illuminate the city of Jerusalem in the rear of the scene.”
As a rule, the nativity scene was erected near the Peace Arch. But the Lion’s Club volunteers apparently placed it “on the hillside across from the Peace Arch on Highway 99 just as you reach the border where it can be enjoyed by both Canadians and Americans” during the Christmas season of 1962. Short newspaper accounts of the nativity scene appeared in the 1964 and 1965 editions of the Blaine Journal.
Pictures became more important than words. A 1970 photograph of the Peace Arch nativity scene became the approach to publicity for several years to come. “The scene is there through the cooperative efforts of the Blaine and White Rock Lions Clubs, which annually erect the scene,” stated the photo caption of the December 18, 1974 Westside Record-Journal. “President Richard Freeman of the Blaine club and President Al Lewis of the White Rock club, believe this is one of the only cooperative efforts internationally, in which Lion’s club members work together to honor the Christmas season in this way.” A similar photo and caption appeared in the December issue of 1975.
Weddings
“Earl Keelly, one of the clerks in the Great Northern depot at Vancouver, B.C., and Miss Julia Wood, also of that city, both Americans, were united in marriage here Monday afternoon under the Peace Arch,” reported the Blaine Journal-Press, August 27, 1925. “The ceremony was performed by Rev. F.M. Bushong of the M.E. church here. The young couple will make their home in Vancouver.”
“The Peace Arch Park was the scene of a very informal wedding Sunday, when Police Judge Andrew Danielson performed the ceremonial rites that united Miss Patricia I. Kells of Vancouver, B.C., and Kenneth Lee of Blaine in marriage,” reported the Blaine Journal, June 30, 1949. “The nuptial vows were exchanged at the base of the Peace Arch on the south side of the border.” Danielson, who left his native Iceland at the age of nine, and eventually became a former Washington state representative who played a number of significant roles for the Peace Arch and Samuel Hill Memorial Park, died in Blaine September 13, 1954 at age 74. These are but two examples of many weddings that regularly occur in the park.
A Christening in the Peace Portal
Moments of joy have frequented the Peace Arch. Consider this one, headlined, “Christening Performed Under the Peace Arch,” in the July 31, 1941 edition of the Blaine Journal: “Through arrangements made by Mr. And Mrs. J.J. Straumfjord, of Drayton Heights, the first christening of its kind ever to be performed in history, occurred under the portals of the towering Peace Arch Sunday at 11:00 A.M., when the Rev. A.E. Kristjansson received the little daughter of Mr. And Mrs. D. Straumfjord of Vancouver into the church and gave her the name of Joan Claire.”
The Peace Arch Serves as a Focal Point for Health and Charity Drives
The Peace Arch is a multifaceted object of interest that includes personal health maintenance and promotion of numerous charities. Upon reviewing its history, this may be one of the monument’s most important roles.
Charitable organizations have been named in honor of the Peace Arch. When Blaine residents decided to organize a branch of the Children’s Home Society in their community during the fall of 1961, they named it the Peace Arch Chapter of the Children’s Home Society. The organization’s roles included placing children in adoptive homes, locating potential foster parents, and serving the needs of unwed mothers.
Certainly, charitable causes emanated from both sides of the border. “Two Canadian organizations aiding Vietnamese civilians received $400 each from a collection taken Sunday [August 4, 1968] at a rally in International Peace Arch Park,” reported the Vancouver Sun. “They are the children’s committee of Canadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians and the Quakers’ Canadian Friends Service Committee, which distributes medical supplies to Vietnam.”
Quite frequently, charitable and health organizations assemble at the Peace Arch for fellowship, food, exercise and recreation. The Northwest Council of the American Red Cross, its members drawn from state and province, met at the park for those reasons in the summers of 1956 and 1959.
Body conditioning as an aspect of health has been popular. Consider, for example, the annual International Phil Claymore “49er Fun Run” initiated August 1979. Beginning at the Peace Arch, the run followed a circuitous route that terminated at the starting point. Claymore, longtime coach and teacher with the Blaine School District, skilled in woodcarving, created the winning plaques himself. The annual Peace Arch 49er was going strong in 1983 when Ferndale distance runners took most of the top awards. The Claymore 49er was recorded as recently as 1986. Diagnosed with cancer in 1987, he died in 1990.
The elderly have also been aware of health maintenance as exemplified by the Peace Arch bocci games. The Bellingham team received first place after defeating the Blaine senior citizens in July 1987. But it was exercise, health and fun for all.
Health and medals were often inseparable as in the case of Blaine High School senior Hosea Phillips, who participated in the 1987 Peace Arch Games held in Bellingham. He won four medals of silver and bronze, cast in the image of the Peace Arch, after competing in four races and a relay. The games became annual two-week events. At the Peace Arch, they were three races of a half-marathon, ten and five kilometers.
On other occasions, charitable fund-raising goals are uppermost.
Robby McDaniel, an 18-year-old athlete from San Ysidro, California, hiked from the northern border of Mexico accompanied by Lobo, his German shepherd, and after sixty-three days, he touched the Peace Arch August 9, 1973. Enlisting contributions for the New Mexico Heart Fund was his mission.
A twelve and one-half-mile March of Dimes Super Walk began and ended at the Peace Arch May 10, 1980. Hundreds of helium balloons celebrated the occasion while a film crew went into action “for promotional purposes across the nation, enabling the Peace Arch to become “a symbol of positive community effort to help those in need.”
Bike-A-Thons organized by the Peace Arch Junior Women’s Club for cystic fibrosis were Peace Arch events in 1982 and 1983. Another Bike-A-Thon, held September 15, 1982, supported the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Wheels for Life in Memphis—a non-sectarian hospital founded by Danny Thomas. Coordinated by Rev. Don Walter, Blaine, the event was annualized.
Dick Goodman, a 65-year-old American athlete completed a 130-mile “challenge run” from Seattle’s Kingdome to the Peace Arch, May 7-8, 1985. It was a fundraiser in aid of remodeling Blaine’s Stafholt nursing home in order to create a separate wing for Alzheimer patients. The public helped him raise money by contributing up to one dollar for every mile he covered.
Rick Hansen, Canada’s “Wheelchair Man in Motion,” paused at the Peace Arch in March, 1985 as he began his 25,000-mile journey around the world to create awareness of the disabled, and to collect funds for acute spinal cord rehabilitation and prevention research.
Similarly, Canadian wheelchair athlete Mike Nemesvary circled the globe, covering 30,000 kilometers and homing in on the Peace Arch September 4, 2001 after covering eighteen countries to raise funds for spinal chord injury research.
Health maintenance is also associated with the Peace Arch. Several hundred hikers descended upon the Peace Arch on a sunny Saturday morning, June 23, 2001. Members of the Evergreen Volkssport Association hiked through Blaine, following routes covering distances of 3.1 and 6.8 miles. A tour, fellowship and exercise were a wholesome combination, designed to enhance the health of each hiker, young or old.
Health and charity causes may originate in faraway lands like, for example, the United Kingdom. Neil Smith, a 35-year-old Suffolk police dog handler, and Tony Spry, a police constable with Suffolk Constabulary—each known as “a bobby on a bike”—left the Peace Arch the morning of April 15, 2002, bicycling their way to the Mexican border to raise funds in aid of prostate cancer, asthma and lung charities. Norman Wilcock, their guide, accompanied them, driving a donated van. They made it, but it wasn’t easy.
Chapter Seven
Samuel Hill’s Golf Course, Tourist Center and Semiahmoo Villa
This high-type recreational resort will be conducted in the highest-class manner and will become the outstanding feature along the entire Pacific Highway.—F.W. Graham
Samuel Hill, aware that the Pacific Highway would soon be paved from Bellingham to the Peace Arch, was eyeing the possibilities for enlarging and improving the park on both sides of the border. The fall of 1925 saw him investing in Canadian lots abutting the Peace Arch, while the Canadian government announced it would build a $15,000 customs and immigration building near the monument. Hill, it was rumored, had invested $30,000 in his acquisitions. He was laying plans for his Peace Portal Golf Course and a summer home, which, by the summer of 1926, would be named “Semiahmoo Villa,” and hosting guests from New York. This was no small undertaking.
An Aside: Tourism Raises its Auspicious Head
The August 4, 1927 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press described Hill’s project with a front-page feature article:
Samuel Hill’s Resort Just North of Blaine
The following write-up of Samuel Hill’s operations just across the international boundary line from Blaine is from the pen of F.W. Graham, assistant general agricultural development agent of the Great Northern Railway Co. It gives the most complete description of Mr. Hill’s plans and work yet seen in print:
Mr. Hill has purchased 125 acres of land just north of the Peace Arch and along the proposed new short line of the Pacific Highway. This highway will reduce the distance from the border to Vancouver by six miles and the new bridge is to be built at Ladner. This highway will be a 200 foot paved boulevard. The Canadian customs house will be moved to a point across the boulevard from Mr. Hill’s place. Expense of $150,000 has already been incurred by Mr. Hill in construction work, and when his plans are fully carried out, his total investment will be not less than a quarter million dollars. Mr. Hill’s idea is to provide facilities to attract and accommodate the vast number of tourists who will cross the border in increasing numbers as the years roll by.
The Semiahmoo club is the official name for this new resort, and the name of the company which is developing the property is the Old English Restaurants Company, Ltd. Douglas, B.C. has been the name of the post office at this point, but it will be changed to Semiahmoo after Semiahmoo Bay, which it overlooks. Semiahmoo is an Indian name and the reservation of that name has only thirty-six Indians remaining on it, and they are very old ones.
Beautiful View
At Semiahmoo, Mr. Hill is building a resort of the highest type for the accommodation of everybody who wishes to stop there and obtain food and enjoy the surroundings and the beautiful view overlooking Semiahmoo Bay in the shadow of the Peace Arch. Then they can proceed on their way through the fertile, level and beautiful Ladner flats country, to the Fraser River. After crossing on the new bridge they will have four main arteries into Vancouver, B.C.
There are four main entrances to the Semiahmoo club, totaling sixty-six feet in width. On either side of these entrances there are two imposing gate portals of concrete and brick facing the 200-foot boulevard. A building housing the information booth faces the boulevard where information will be given and souvenirs sold. There will be a twenty-four-hour customs service maintained for the convenience of tourists. At present, the customs office at the border closes at 1 a.m. Parking space will be provided for 4,000 cars. Two solid concrete comfort stations are under construction that will be provided with shower baths and toilets. A large tact will provide all of the fresh fruits and vegetables in season. An 18-hole golf course will be provided as an attraction for devotees of that popular pastime. The land is perfectly level and will be paved inside the enclosure.
Mr. Hill has for years been picking up Indian baskets and curious of all kinds which will be on exhibit in the information and curio booth and will be perhaps the finest collection ever gotten together.
Nothing Overlooked
In the rear of the commodious information and curio building there are two rooms with bath for the living quarters of the girls who will preside over the booths. The main building is of stucco construction and Spanish type, 80X120 feet. A commodious office is on the roof of this building that overlooks the entire property. The main building or service building as it is called, includes the following: cold storage room where ice is made electrically, beef is aged, and butter, eggs, and perishables are kept; the bakery room, where everything in the bakery line can be bought on the cash and carry style. It can be taken to the open space in the auto camp park if tourists desire to prepare their own meals in the open. Prices will be very modest and no one will be deprived of the privilege of taking advantage of all the facilities afforded. There is a grocery room, 20X30, containing a stock of grocery supplies for tourists; a dish-washing room, 20X30, with all the latest equipment for quickly handling dishes and receptacles are provided; a vegetable room forty feet square, where all kinds of vegetables will be kept cool is another feature. The rotisserie, or roasting room, is another feature, where meats are turned and barbecued. The safe deposit vaults for storage of valuables is in the center of a large room which resembles the safety deposit vaults in the city bank. Tickets will be issued to applicants at the information booth and keys given them where their valuables can be deposited. In crossing the border on short trips, tourists find it convenient to leave their valuables on their side of the line so as to avoid any inconvenience of the customs.
Two Dining Rooms
There are two dining rooms, each 200 feet long and thirty feet wide, which will seat 1,000 diners at one time. These long dining rooms are made into a series of private dining rooms, each 8X10 in size. Each room has a table that will seat eight. The partitions between the rooms are moveable so that space can be provided for as large parties as necessary. These rooms are the entire length of the building on both sides. In the center between the two rows of rooms there is a space twelve feet wide by 300 feet long in each of the large dining rooms. This space will be available for dancing for which music will be provided. Tourists coming in can obtain tickets at the information booth, which will be printed in white, red, blue and green colors. Each color represents one of the entire sides of the two long dining rooms. The tourist can go to the side that the colored ticket indicates and step into one of the private dining rooms. There they will be served with food by waiters who bring it in on perambulators.
Small Hotel
There is a small two-story hotel, strictly modern, with twelve bedrooms, six of which have baths. This is a standard hotel with a large lounging room and an attractive fireplace. The hotel has furnace heat, electric lights and running water in every room.
Mr. Hill’s private residence is also on the grounds and there is where he and his nephew, Edgar Hill, reside when they are there.
This high-type recreational resort will be conducted in the highest-class manner and will become the outstanding feature along the entire Pacific Highway from Vancouver, B.C. to the Mexican line. It is a few minutes walk from the city of Blaine.
Graham may be forgiven for any hint of hyperbole, but Edgar was most likely Samuel Hill’s cousin—not his nephew. Today, little remains of Hill’s utopian resort; the buildings have long since been dismantled. But Peace Portal Golf Course remains operative to the present day.
The Peace Portal Golf Club celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary in year 2003. The chartered members registered with the club March 16, 1928, noted Ed Moul, president, Peace Portal Properties Limited, who wrote the introduction for a celebratory publication, Seventy-five Years: Peace Portal Golf Club, 1928-2003. He cited two additional milestones: Nine holes were ready for public play on September 6, 1929, the eighth anniversary of the Peace Arch dedication. But Hill died before the 18-hole course was opened July 2, 1932.
“Sam Hill’s vision for Peace Portal was for it to become a golf course that would draw golfers from around the Pacific Northwest and Canada,” added Wendyl Arnold, general manager, Peace Portal Golf Club. “While his untimely death in 1931 prevented him from seeing his dream fulfilled, the vision was realized and today Peace Portal is enjoyed by golfers from all over the world.”
Chapter Eight
Activism at the Arch
I, for one, will oppose in every way I know how, any designs to fence off the Blaine Peace Arch.—Washington State Representative Jack Westland
With postwar endeavors of the Soviet Union vis-à-vis the United States, the birth of the Cold War, and the Korean War, activism reared its political head, only to be exacerbated by the Vietnam War and those late 1960s “flower children” so involved with “the greening of America.” In ways sometimes dramatic, this succession of historical events also impacted the Peace Arch.
A Controversial “Left-Wing” Rally
Controversy and contradictions dominated the Canadian press when a peace rally, judged to be pro-Communist according to some, was held at the Peace Arch Sunday, June 4, 1950. As for the United States, the press appeared silent.
Even attendance was disputed at a demonstration sponsored by the LPP (the Vancouver Sun didn’t unravel the initials). The Sun encountered opposition after setting a headline: “Less than 1,000 at Peace Arch Rally.” In came angry letters to the editor. “I attended the peace meeting at the Peace Arch at which there were 2,000 to 3,000 people, only to read in the Sun that there were only a scant 1,000. But I suppose that was as high as you could count. Yours for a free press that will tell the truth, JEFFREY J. POWER.” Dick Allen, chairman of the Vancouver Committee for Peace Arch Rally, submitted the most convincing evidence. “The rally was attended by over 1,500 people of whom 1,200 signed the pledge under which the rally was called,” he wrote.
Attendance accuracy aside, it was the Sun that came closest to describing the demonstration. Prior to the rally, a May 31 story stated, “Vancouver United Church Young People’s organization will attempt to salvage the international peace movement from Communist domination.” Frank J. Patterson, youth councilor for Vancouver Presbytery, who wanted readers to know University of British Columbia’s Student Christian Movement neither organized nor backed the rally, supported the United Church Young People’s strategy. “We are going into this with our eyes wide open to Communist backing of the rally,” he reportedly said. Dick Allen, continuing his letter to the editor, objected. He said Quakers took a stand for peace. Even Patterson himself was privileged to present “a distinctively Christian contribution.” A young PTA worker who was a mother from Renton, Washington “took an independent stand” according to Allen. Communist participation didn’t preclude contrastive positions.
Canadian sponsors, according to the Sun report, were “Peace Council representatives, trade union officials and churchmen. They were topped off by Dr. James G. Endicott, probably Canada’s most outspoken ‘make peace with Russia’ exponent.” Regarding the United States, “the American cavalcade which trouped to the Peace Arch was sponsored by the U.S. Communist Party.” George Starkovitch, Seattle, “led the U.S. contingent.”
Refusing to sponsor or approve the rally was the United Nations Association in Canada, Vancouver Branch. “Because we believe you cannot achieve a lasting condition of peace except under law, we regard peace movements unrelated to law as designed to distract public attention from real issues,” wrote Prof. Geoffrey Andrew, association president, on behalf of the executive committee.
So far as speeches and substance were concerned, the press shed little light.
Paul Robeson’s “Fight for Peace”
May 1952 was a musical month. Western Washington University’s new music auditorium was dedicated. The concert choir, led by Prof. Bernard Regier, sang “Der’s no Hidin’ Place Down Der.” An audience of parents, relatives and friends listened happily, perhaps proudly.
Meanwhile, nobody knew the trouble vocalist Paul Robeson had seen May 18, 1952. As he sang “Ol’ Man River” at Peace Arch State Park, his audience was laced with FBI agents, state patrolmen, border patrolmen, Blaine policemen and other authorities, according to a somewhat guarded report published by the Bellingham Herald the next day. There was no place for Robeson to hide.
Meanwhile, United Nations forces were being shoved out of their strongholds north of the 38th parallel as the Korean War raged on. Whittaker Chambers’ Witness was in the bookstores, Alger Hiss was in jail, and the Rosenbergs, convicted of spying for the Communists, were awaiting execution
It was an unlucky time to be black or red. Paul Robeson was both. He was an African-American, or, in that day, a Negro. Too, he was a communist sympathizer, if not a “pure communist,” and so deeply dedicated to world peace that he had been awarded a Stalin peace prize that year. However, he couldn’t enter Russia to receive it because the feds had cancelled his passport two years earlier.
January 1952 had been even worse than the musical month of May in Robeson’s life.
The Canadian Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers had invited him to address their Vancouver convention. Because no passport was required for American citizens to enter Canada, he accepted the invitation.
Stopped at the Peace Arch border crossing that winter, he was threatened with a five-year jail sentence and a $10,000 fine. The border patrol had been instructed to stop him “by any means necessary.”
Undaunted, Robeson addressed the convention anyhow—over the telephone.
Thus, it was in defiance of federal authorities that he returned to the park the next spring and, standing on a flatbed truck parked at the border’s edge, sang Negro spirituals.
Thousands were present, mostly Canadians. “I shall always remember that concert, when 30,000 Canadians came from many miles away to hear me, to demonstrate their friendship and protest against all barriers to cultural exchange,” wrote Robeson in Here I Stand, his autobiography. His Peace Arch concerts continued yearly, until 1955.
Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey, April 9, 1898. His father fled slavery in Virginia at age 15, thanks to the 1860 underground railroad. The third black to enter Rutgers University, he became their star athlete, lettering in baseball, basketball, football, and track. He was Rutgers’ first all-American football player. Later he earned a law degree in Columbia, but his deep baritone voice led him to music, destined to become a Broadway star playing lead roles in productions like Othello and The Emperor Jones.
“Paul Robeson’s advocacy of world peace, which he believed could come only with total democracy and racial equality, coupled with his resonant voice and friendly demeanor, made him the perfect ambassador of peace throughout the world,” wrote Blaine high school junior Isaac Gilman in the spring of 1998. “He used his music as a tool to unite nations for a common cause—his cause—and though denied proper recognition in his own country because of ignorance and fear, became a link between ‘his people’ and the rest of the world.”
Government Galvanizes Peace Arch Association to Oppose Freeway Fence
Samuel Hill would have liked Dwight D. Eisenhower; the president promoted highways. “Together, the united forces of our communication and transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bear—United States. Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts,” said the president, upon proposing a $101 billion highway construction program to Congress on George Washington’s birthday, 1955. Congress was overwhelmingly in favor. Eisenhower, confined to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center with an intestinal malady, signed the bill June 26, 1956.
Enamored of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks, trumpeting the nation’s first-year allocation of $1.1 billion, pronounced it “the greatest public works program in the history of the world.”
Five years later, the state of Washington would reap the benefits—or perhaps the consequences—of the program. It didn’t come without governmental regulations.
Among the federal guidelines, one ruling required congested areas to be fenced against the burgeoning freeways. Nellie Browne Duff, Bellingham, was elected president of the International Peace Arch Program Association at the February 9, 1961 business meeting held in Cloverdale, B.C. She and Canadian Secretary Roger N. Chester had earlier attended a meeting in Blaine, relevant to “the new Peace Arch freeway.”
The minutes signaled an alarm: “Under the regulations of the Federal Government a freeway through a congested area must be fenced, and they stated that the freeway will be fenced to the boundary line in the Peace Arch Park. The Association feels that no fencing should be undertaken in the park, as this is a park and is meant to be free for the co-mingling of people from both sides of the border.”
The governmental proposition included construction of an overhead walkway to enable pedestrians to pass over the freeway. This didn’t set well with the association, either.
President Browne Duff was directed to send a letter to the Minister of Highways, the Lower Mainland Advisory Committee, and the Minister of Parks and Recreation. Her opening paragraph clarified the point: “The International Peace Arch Association protests the installation of fences, over-highway pedestrian pass, and any restriction of movement of tourists and other visitors to Peace Arch Park, either Peace Arch State Park on the American side of the U.S.-Canadian Border or British Columbia Provincial Park on the Canadian side, at Blaine, Wash., and Douglas, B.C.
Vernon McDonald, then the American secretary and in his 24th year as superintendent of the Blaine School District, organized a petition signed by children as well as adults. This caught the attention of State Representative Jack Westland, who in turn caught the attention of the House of Representatives February 23, 1961—one day after the 229th anniversary of George Washington’s birth. His lengthy speech was recorded in the Congressional Record, 87th session.
“Mr. Speaker,” he began, “more and more restrictions are being placed on the basic freedoms of the American people by the very Federal Government which, according to our Constitution, is dedicated to preserve these freedoms.
“The reason for this encroachment on the freedom of our people to conduct their own affairs, I believe, is bureaucracy, which is nothing more than Government by bureau administrators.”
He closed his argument by saying, “I, for one, will oppose in every way I know how, any designs to fence off the Blaine Peace Arch.” The weight of his argument had grown when the March 13, 1961 edition of the Congressional Record reported his final plea before the House of Representatives:
Mr. WESTLAND. Mr. Speaker, the International Peace Arch at Blaine, Wash., has existed since its dedication in 1921 without fences and without guards, both in the area administered by the State of Washington and the Province of British Columbia. Now, the Bureau of Public Roads is requiring that fences be constructed along the proposed interstate highway that will terminate at the United States-Canadian border in the middle of the park.
Hundreds of my constituents, including more than 500 schoolchildren, have written to me or have signed petitions protesting these fences. Among thee letters are about 100 from grade school pupils at Blaine. Their arguments, it appears to me, are better than the arguments presented by bureaucrats in the Federal Government.
A number of letters pointed out that more than 660,000 persons visited the park last year. Other letters document the fact that there has never been an automobile accident nor a person injured in the park during its 40-year existence.
The fifth and sixth graders who wrote me also pointed out that in 1929 the children in the Blaine Elementary School contributed pennies and nickels toward making the park what it is today. They say the park belongs to the children of America and Canada as much as anyone else. Therefore, they should have as much say about building a fence as the Bureau of Public Roads or others.
Mr. Speaker, I agree that these children should be heard and further agree with their statements that it is silly to fence off the highway on the American side when there will be no fences on the Canadian side. It appears that the children of Blaine have more sense than the Bureau of Public Roads.
The freeway fence feud began early February, but simmered toward a resolution by the end of March 1961. Westland, having received word from Washington State Representative Albert Rosellini “that the State Highway Department is planning to cooperate with the Bureau of Roads in the formulation of new plans to eliminate the extension of the fences into the park,” sent a propitious telegram to the Blaine Journal March 27: “Bureau of Public Roads informs me it will notify its regional office that under circumstances fencing not required along interstate highways. This clears the way for elimination of proposed fencing along interstate highway in Peace Arch Park. Also have been informed W.A. Bugge, State Highway Director, has been in touch with Secretary of Commerce, and Highway Department is developing a plan to avoid fencing at park. This plan is being fashioned in close cooperation with local officials of Bureau of Public Roads.”
Westland, it seems, convinced the Bureau of Public Roads to abandon a plan that would have negatively impacted the portal and its treasured gates, open to Canada and the United States, and wished internationally ever to remain so. Neither the fence nor the elevated walkway was constructed as planned.
Like the aftershocks of an earthquake, additional controversies were spawned in the wake of the fence dispute. Washington State Governor Albert Rosellini appeared in Blaine October 29, 1963, where his first stop was at the Peace Arch. Observed as “Governor Rosellini’s Day in Blaine,” he had come to discuss “a controversy between the State Park Commission and Highway Department in which local folks were giving their support to the commission.”
“There have been continuous questions and criticism of the plans of the engineers of that short section of highway through Peace Arch Park from the U.S. Customs House to the International Boundary, much of it the result of misinformation and unconfirmed plans,” explained the October 24th edition of the Blaine Journal. “Criticism originated upon disclosure of the first primary plans and rose to a boiling point, only to die out and become dormant for more than a year; and then began to boil again when some distant clubs began to be aware that changes would be necessary at the park entrance.”
With Rosellini’s appearance as deus ex machina for park and city, the dispute melted and evaporated. By January 1964, Paul McKay, State Highway Department director, told advised editor of the Blaine Journal “that the proposed overhead passage and border fences in Peace Arch Park had finally been deleted.”
Protesting the Aleutian Nuclear Tests
The handwriting had been on the wall for sometime. The legendary University of Washington lecturer Giovanni Costigan visited the Peace Arch August 6, 1966, where he addressed more than 2,000 enthusiasts who had come anywhere from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C., to attend his peace rally.
Then, during the noon hour of October 20, 1968, Park Ranger Bob Weatherly was surprised to realize the United States and Canadian flags, complete with their ropes, had been stolen. “It takes three men to replace the flags and ropes,” he said. Whether or not such vandalism was relevant to the zeitgeist of the late sixties is a moot point.
About one week later, “civil defense personnel along with governmental officials met last week at the Peace Arch to sign a letter of understanding [between Washington state and British Columbia province] for mutual help during emergencies or disasters to either country.” Included was “preservation of law and order” as well as “other emergency services as required.”
The rally of 1966 was but a prelude toward one twice as large, held October 1, 1969, when over 4,000 students from Canada protested an atomic blast scheduled the following day at the Aleutian Islands. After ten speakers had taken their turns, “the group moved en masse from the lawn onto the roadway and blocked the entire street from the international border to the Canadian side of the park,” reported the Blaine Journal. “The pull-away drew no more than a few dozen sympathizers and met with the disapproval of the main group, which displayed their intentions that the demonstration be orderly and within the bounds that it was originally organized. As a precautionary measure the State Parks Department reinforced its staff of rangers, the Washington State Patrol dispatched three cars to the park, and the Blaine Police Department called in their off-duty officers for the afternoon shift. Apparently none of these extra measures were needed.”
“The Blaine Incident”
If the Peace Arch is a setting for dignitaries, peaceful and joyous events, there was one occasion when it became the scene of destructive, frightening and lawless behavior. During the Vietnam War, shortly after President Richard Nixon ordered the invasion of Cambodia, the Peace Arch was invaded by a group of Canadian young people. They marched across the border, smeared black paint on the monument, engaged in other acts of destruction, and were finally routed by law enforcement officials. Blaine residents were shocked.
“U.S. & CANADIAN GOVERNMENTS ABANDON BORDER!” screamed the heavy black headline that overshadowed the nameplate of the May 14, 1970 edition of the Blaine Journal. “Saturday, May 9, 1970, may live in the minds and hearts of this Nation as a day of indignity,” stated the opening paragraph. “For what was perpetrated on the United States-Canadian border is one of the saddest and most degrading incidents suffered by the people of this country since the Alamo.” The invaders were described as “500 Yaa Hoos [sic], whose radical communist leanings are well known.”
According to Vancouver Sun columnist Bob Hunter, “There were among them—as I saw—members of the American Nazi movement, spoiling for a fight and handing out leaflets preaching hatred and racism.”
Patricia Young, then president of The Canada-USA Friendship Association, composed a letter to the editor. “A new Yippie newspaper called Yellow Journal may have inspired the young activists,” she wrote. She profusely apologized for their behavior. “The average Canadian citizen could not be blamed for the invasion,” admitted the Blaine Journal. “Groups of civic-minded Canadian citizens have taken it upon themselves to come down in person to extend their apologies for the actions of such a relatively few people involved in the Blaine Incident.”
Nevertheless, complaints burgeoned. Labeled as THE BLAINE INCIDENT, and repeatedly capitalized as such, the Blaine Journal harshly criticized the Bellingham Herald for comparing the event to “a boating festival in Bellingham Bay.” Blaine residents deserved more than a “blurb” of that sort, complained the editor. “It was a conglomeration of immature, adolescent hogwash,” he thundered. Then there were the federal border officials. “Where were these people of higher authority; what was their thinking behind the orders not to act?” fumed the Journal.
Anticipating its vulnerable position, the U.S. Border Patrol had sent a letter of explanation to the editor:
Dear Sir:
This is an open letter to the people of Blaine. It is written on behalf of the Border Patrol officers here whom I represent.
We like Blaine. We feel fortunate in being stationed here. We enjoy a relationship with the community and with the youth that would be the envy of most other law enforcement agencies. We rely upon you, the public and the other various law enforcement groups to aid us in controlling increasing illegal border traffic. The prevention of illegal entry is the sole responsibility of the Border Patrol and it is not delegated to any other agency. Our task would be ineffective without your cooperation. We have never been reluctant in asking your help and we have been gratified at your response.
We wish to apologize for our inaction on May 9. You deserve and are entitled to an explanation. This is no attempt at justification. We expect you to be the judge.
Reliable intelligence information was received by us in ample time to prepare countermeasures against the unlawful invasion. The Immigration Commissioner’s office in Washington, D.C. was properly and promptly notified. Chief Hysette made recommendations and requested that a hundred Border Patrol be moved in by Border Patrol aircraft to cope with the emergency. His request was denied. We officers were given orders to absolutely refrain from forcefully repelling the invasion. Most of us feel, that had we had permission to enforce the law, with the help of two agencies who have jurisdiction in keeping the peace at Ports of Entry (Blaine Police and Sheriff’s officers) our handful of men could have most likely contained the issue.
We feel that the order we received to violate our oath of office was wrongful. Why did we obey it to the letter? We guess that we have become automatons brought on from continual application of agency policy to enforcement procedures, instead of following the statute as passed by the Congress. Fear of disciplinary action, loss of pay or job is a powerful deterrent.
In order to immunize ourselves from reprisal for disobeying what we believe are wrongful orders, our Union will attempt to negotiate an agreement with the Immigration Service which would require the management to put into writing any further orders to us to violate our oath of office. In the absence of such orders, we could then without fear, enforce the laws we have sworn to uphold.
As officers, we consider it the blackest day and the most damaging to the prestige of our Border Patrol. To allow a monstrous affront to the dignity of the people of Blaine, in allowing desecration of our flag and memorial monuments, and damage to private and public property by a communist led invading force is impossible for us to attempt to justify.
As to that last paragraph, for the benefit of the non-believers, inspectors at the Port of Entry reported that they observed alien communist party members in the mob. For these same people when recognized, are denied admission into the United States as member of an excludable class and their faces become familiar to our inspectors.
Sincerely,
“Kelly” Schneider,
Regional Representative,
National Border Patrol Council
American Federation of Government Employees
Reckoned as the height of destruction that Saturday was the ruthless crushing of the new Peace Arch floodlights that had been installed with the arch’s golden anniversary in mind. Five months earlier, the lights had been ceremonially dedicated after a lengthy fundraising project initiated by Carl Liebert and the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce had led to the occasion.
Summarizing the “Blaine Incident,” the Journal praised the gallant men of Blaine who confronted the invaders:
For one hundred men, of a community whose total population only numbers 1,850, to rise up and act, is something that only parallels the patriots of Hungary, who, faced with the same type of situation, rose up in arms and fought the invaders with sheer courage. When will the rest of the world realize that if a small town like Blaine can rally to a common cause that they too can accomplish the same thing by uniting and standing up to any force which tends to intimidate them or our Flag?
Nowhere in our country has there been a show of spirit as was seen in Blaine, Washington that weekend in May. Men fought with fists to regain our Flag, wrested from flagpoles and standards, by these foulmouthed anarchists. While there were some injuries suffered by our Blaine men, the biggest and most irreparable injury was to their dignity.
During the Sunday that immediately followed, several Blaine men, armed with lead pipes and other weapons, gathered at the border, but the activists never returned.
Two days later, Washington State Representative Fred Veroske made himself unpopular for his criticisms at a Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce meeting. “Rep. Veroske said he was appalled at seeing children in the crowd Sunday, further stating that children shouldn’t see their parents act in an aggressive manner, even in defense of flag and country,” reported the Journal. “When asked if he was trying to ‘soft pedal’ the entire incident, Mr. Veroske said that sound logic should be the determining factor. It was obvious that Mr. Veroske, who operates a business in Blaine, didn’t catch the feeling of the meeting, when he bounced out of his chair while he was directed a question by Ted Donovan, WWSC security officer.”
Six days later, a Vancouver Sun story, “Canadians say ‘sorry’ with flags,” noted: “American flags from British Columbians are arriving in Blaine, Wash., to replace those burned last Saturday when a mob of 500 Canadian youths demonstrated against U.S. involvement in Cambodia.”
Six months later, Canadian ringleader David Dwight Wayne Osborne, 20, was arrested at the Blaine border crossing while attempting to enter the United States with false identification, alleged the U.S. Border Patrol. Also charged with deserting the U.S. Marines, he was turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Osborne is well remembered to the citizens of Blaine during the now famous ‘Border Incident’ using the megaphone shouting obscene profanity, and anti-American slogans,” reported the November 5, 1970 edition of the Blaine Journal.
Most of the 1970s were marked by demonstrations against war and nuclear bomb testing. But environmental demonstrations were also surfacing, like, for example the dead seagull that was found lying on the west gate railing during late February, 1971. The legend, “MAY THESE GATES NEVER BE CLOSED,” was smeared with ketchup to symbolize the bird’s blood.
The Amchitka Protests
Amchitka is an Aleutian island, and quite a small one. Two major demonstrations in opposition to United States nuclear bomb testing there occurred before and after the “Blaine Incident.” The first occurred Wednesday, October 1, 1969. It was highlighted by the Vancouver Sun with the following excerpts:
They knew they weren’t going to stop that bomb.
But 10,000 of them blocked the B.C.-U.S. border anyway.
They knew other bomb tests are planned after today’s Amchitka Island blast and they hoped that next time their good neighbors to the south will take a second look.
And decide to call it off.
They felt, as some of their leaders put it, that their protest was “a decision for the future of mankind.”
So 6,000 of them went from Vancouver to the Douglas-Blaine border crossing, where they sealed off northbound traffic for an hour, and halted traffic through the truck crossing a mile east for half an hour.
A second Peace Arch demonstration occurred September 24, 1971—less than five months after the “Blaine Incident.” Coverage of the event was published in the September 30 edition of the Blaine Journal. Excerpts follow:
Tension was high in Blaine Friday, September 24, as approximately 1,000 Canadian demonstrators carried out their symbolic severing of relations with the United Sates over the coming nuclear test on Amchitka Island. The flow of traffic was prevented at the Blaine Peace Arch, Blaine truck crossing, Lynden and Sumas border crossings. Memories of a demonstration in May of 1970 when demonstrations caused property damage to Blaine itself were running high, and citizens were more concerned with the possibility of another “invasion” than with the issues of the demonstration.
Led by students from the University of British Columbia, the demonstration moved at 2 p.m. to close off the northbound lane at the Peace Arch crossing, using bales of hay, twine, barbed wire, and human bodies to block the road. Soon after, the southbound lane, and adjacent Burlington Northern Railway tracks were similarly sealed. The crossing at Lynden was closed at 4:15 p.m., and the Sumas crossing was periodically open and closed with Royal Canadian Mounted Police lifting protesters bodily from the roadway.
In a flyer handed out at the demonstration, the information began: “We are sorry that you have been stopped by our concern. The blame rests with both the Canadian and American governments, in particular, it rests with Nixon.” The page went on to enumerate their concerns, which are “leakage of radiation, possible earthquakes, a possible tidal wave, and nuclear weapons.”
The Amchitka issue concerns the underground testing of a 5-megaton blast scheduled for “sometime in October” on Amchitka Island, by the U.S. Government. Amchitka Island is part of the Aleutian Chain in Alaska, located approximately 1,250 miles west of Kodiak, 2,090 miles west of Prince Rupert and the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia; approximately 430 miles east of the United States-USSR international boundary in the North Pacific Ocean, and approximately 2,600 miles due west of Blaine.
The demonstration was orderly, with a minimum of incidents. Trouble appeared to be forming when demonstrators at the Blaine truck crossing were informed that they had crossed into American territory and must move back to Canada. Most moved back immediately, but a few had to be convinced with the threat of arrest. Demonstrators were bused from Vancouver by arrangement of the organizing committee, and promptly boarded their buses again at 6 p.m., the scheduled end of the demonstration. No incidents occurred when reopening the borders.
Commenting on the first demonstration, that would have applied to the second as well, was Sun columnist Bob Hunter, who wrote, “The end was nothing less ambitious than a change of attitudes—political, public, organizational and individual—which tolerate the kind of obscenities which the Amchitka Island bomb test represented.”
Good Friday Vietnam Demonstration
Nguyen Thai-Binh, a University of Washington student from Vietnam, addressed a Peace Arch audience “largely of elderly and middle-aged persons,” March 31, 1972. Law enforcement agencies had thought as many as 6,000 would be present, but an estimated 150 actually attended the rainy-day antiwar demonstration sponsored by Clergy and Laity Concerned, and moderated by Dick Carbray of Seattle.
Thai-Binh “spoke out against the inhumane actions of Americans in Vietnam and called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from his country.” Most cited by the Blaine Journal was speaker Joel Conally, whose role and residence were undisclosed:
He spoke out vehemently against the Vietnamese war and “US imperialism.” He stated, “We have allowed the Vietnam fiasco to continue unopposed” in his call for involvement of people on both sides of the border to bring a halt to US military action. Conally also likened the Vietnamese war to Hitler’s actions in Europe during the 1940s. He endorsed the draft resisters who had gone to Canada and Sweden, and supported the actions of Angela Davis, Daniel Ellsburg and the Berrigan brothers. He claimed they were “all fighting for their country and resisting the establishment.” In his opinion, Conally felt Angela Davis was “a promising academician who had decided to fight for freedom.”
In his closing statements, Conally called for the United States to admit it has been wrong in prolonging the Vietnam war and to “let the Vietnamese people and all people of the world choose their own life.”
“A Hospital for Vietnam” was printed on yellow buttons displayed throughout the audience. The event closed with a collection gathered for the World Federation of Democratic Youth whose cause it was to build a children’s hospital in Hanoi.
Supertanker Protest
About 300 protesters, “mostly Canadians, met Sunday [September 30, 1973] at the Peace Arch to protest proposed supertankers from traveling through Puget Sound,” stated the Westside Record-Journal. “Protesters heard several ecology-oriented group and governmental speakers during the two hour meeting. The protest came less than one week after two ships collided in Canadian waters, dumping 50,000 gallons of fuel into the ocean.”
Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden Call for Amnesty
When movie actress Jane Fonda and her husband Tom Hayden visited the Peace Arch November 16, 1974, freelancer Ric Roff reported his impressions to the Westside Record-Journal. His story follows:
Jane Fonda was standing next to me.
She silently watched and listened to her husband Tom Hayden as he spoke anti-war things to a crowd of no more than 150 Saturday at Peace Arch Park in Blaine, Wash.
She never looked right or left—only up and down.
The crowd, made up of Canadian and American newsmen, photographers, autograph hounds, draft deserters, curiosity seekers, veterans and protesters, swarmed around her snapping pictures and asking questions.
Army green uniforms with “U.S. Army” printed boldly across the breast pocket were numerous. So was long hair, short hair, rings, bracelets and beer.
It was like a small-scale celebration—or war—as everyone tried in vain to reach Jane Fonda, to look into her face or to smile and say hello.
“I’m sorry,” she finally spoke. “But I want to listen to what’s going on.”
She moved in toward her husband who was standing on a small square box in front of a decaying Peace Arch that bore holes and chips in its faded white rock.
I followed her.
Ms. Fonda, Hayden and David Harris, former husband of singer Joan Baez, were in Bellingham to participate in a Saturday program, courtesy of Western Washington State College. The program consisted of a question and answer session and premiere of a movie that was filed in Vietnam by Ms. Fonda and Hayden.
The movie, originally confiscated by U.S. Customs, was titled “Introduction to the Enemy.”
Jane Fonda’s attention diverted to the speaker again as her husband stepped down off the small box. The crowd clapped and cheered their approval.
Hayden had just explained the consciousness of many American people today as “a tremendous gain of the Vietnam anti-war conflict. That consciousness, Hayden said, “will eventually be translated into structural changes.”
“The right of center is in a state of shock about things that left of center knew all along,” he said. “Notions of the left as an enemy are nearly dissolved.”
A small child ran up to Ms. Fonda and asked for her autograph.
Fonda bent down and with a pretty smile from one of her movies, whispered something in the little girl’s ear. The girl giggled and ran off.
Then actress and activist Jane Fonda took the step on the small box to say something.
She said she wished to be concrete, to sum up everything that had already been said.
“We are not a protest movement,” she shouted to her fans, followers and supporters, “but a movement to end the war.”
Amnesty should be granted, Fonda continued, to the people of Vietnam, draft evaders in this country and exiles of other countries.
That was a point repeated over and over by the trio.
Jane Fonda returned to the sidelines as the game continued on that small stage.
“Don’t you like to give autographs?” I asked, quietly protruding into her silence and thinking of her refusal to the little girl.
She turned to her right and answered no.
“Why?”
“Because,” she said, “I just don’t do that sort of thing anymore.”
The group was to have returned to Santa Monica, California by Monday morning. Family and friends awaited them there, as did their headquarters of the Indochina Peace Campaign.
Prayer Vigil for Peace through Nuclear Disarmament
Soviet-American talks on the reduction of European-based missiles lay but a few weeks ahead when Dale Thompson, a seminary student from Blaine, organized a prayer vigil for peace through nuclear disarmament September 13, 1981, at the Peace Arch.
The four-hour vigil was accompanied by clergy and parishioners from Blaine, Ferndale, Custer and Lynden. Eight parishes participated.
The Peace Rally that Fooled Law Enforcement Agents
An upcoming peace rally that made law enforcement agents nervous was scheduled for Saturday, June 12, 1982 at the Peace Arch—seventeen days before the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) between the United States and The Soviet Union commenced in Geneva. Complicating matters was the fact it had been scheduled one day prior to the annual Peace Arch celebration.
The Canadian applicants received permission to use the park. But because the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission believed up to 100,000 people would attend while the United States applicants estimated only 5,000, permission to use the park was denied. Taimi Halonen, chairing the Seattle Committee of the Peace Arch Rally Project, encouraged United States residents to attend anyhow; after all, the Canadians had no problem. The June 2 Westside Record-Journal told the rest of the story:
When the permit was denied, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Peace Arch Rally Project and other groups on the basis that it was a violation of First Amendment guarantees of rights of free speech and free assembly.
The ACLU is seeking an injunction to stop the denial of the permit and a judgment that the park commission acted illegally, Washington ACLU executive director Kathleen Taylor said.
A hearing is set for Thursday at 2 p.m. in Federal District Court in Seattle before Judge Barbara Rothstein.
The ACLU also contends that U.S. Naval intelligence at the Bangor nuclear submarine base told the park commission that many more people show up at this type of peace rally than 5,000. The military was involved in an illegal investigation by gathering information on a peaceful assembly, Taylor said.
“They said our estimate was low,” Halonen said. “We felt 5,000 was a realistic figure.”
Halonen said the park commission, aided by military intelligence, made their estimates on the basis of the 40,000 who turned up for a peace rally in Vancouver on April 24 and some 20,000 who turned up for an Armistice Day event in Seattle.
“You don’t have to get a permit. It is just a courtesy to register if you have a large crowd,” Halonen said. “But we are assuming we will get the permit and go with their permission.”
Halonen said the U.S. group had been invited to be guests of the Canadians.
The U.S. rally includes speeches by Dr. Christine Cassel, vice president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Bishop Talbot of the United Methodist Church. The Peace Arch rally project is prepared to provide pickup crews, monitors for crowd control and first aid people.
Organizers contend that the park commission is allowing a Boy Scout group numbering 10,000 to meet in the park the following day and that a crowd of 30,000 once gathered in the park for a Paul Robeson concert.
Park officials claim the park cannot be adequately prepared for the June 13 [annual Peace Arch celebration] event after thousands of people had been at the park the day before for the disarmament rally.
Law enforcement agents prepared for the worst. Harry Louch, the U.S. park ranger, staked off the flowerbeds for their protection. Blaine Police Chief James “Butch” Hinchey promised his department would be out “in full force.” The freeway would be closed from truck route exit 275 to the Peace Arch for Saturday’s nuclear arms freeze rally and Sunday’s annual Peace Arch celebration. If need be, Saturday attendees would park on a portion of the freeway itself.
Tension grew as a cloudless Saturday dawned. The six Blaine policemen, dressed in their blue uniforms, went to the park. The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office sent a motorcycle unit there. Fourteen U.S. Border Patrol agents were there on duty, as were a number of plainclothesmen. Twenty-two Royal Canadian Mounted Police appeared at the Canadian side of the park. U.S Customs and Immigration officials stood on the roof of their new building, sweeping the crowd with binoculars.
Alas, it was needless stress.
“An estimated 8,000 men, women and children, mostly Canadians, came to the rally at Peace Arch Park Saturday to support the United Nations disarmament conference in New York City,” stated the Westside Record-Journal, June 16 edition. “They also picnicked, sunbathed and promoted other causes under a hot June sun.”
Port Director Edward Rosmarin thought “the prediction that 100,000 might turn up at the rally kept people away.”
There was no evidence of disorder, alcohol or drug consumption, or unruly pets. By 5:30 P.M. visitors from both sides of the border had removed any signs of garbage. RCMP Corporal Alex Johnston of Surrey, B.C. gave the rally “a four-star rating.”
Westside Record-Journal editor Sonja Nelson gained another impression. “In spite of the serious subject, the nuclear freeze rally at times had a carnival atmosphere,” she declared.
“Don’t Dump on Us”
The following story appeared in the March 13, 1985 edition of the Westside Record-Journal.
At 10 a.m. Saturday, [March 9] a helicopter flew low over Peace Arch Park, circled a couple of times, and disappeared to the southeast. In the park, a picket against a Canadian dump plan was underway. Later, Blaine resident Joni Pine drove her taxi up to the park with two KING-TV reporters aboard. The interview began promptly.
At least thirty sign-carrying Blaine or Blaine area residents were at the park. Most of them were standing along the southbound I-5 between the international boundary and the U.S. Customs and Immigration station. They were protesting the British Columbia Lower Mainland Refuse Project proposal that considers the border gavel site a viable location for a 700,000-ton-per-year garbage dump.
Euphemistically called a landfill, the Canadian dump, if approved, will be within a mile of Blaine’s watershed. Blaine area residents fear potential pollution of their drinking water.
Television crews, radio and newspaper personnel from both sides of the border mingled with the protesters, asking questions and recording responses.
When Blaine area resident Lorraine Harder, who spearheaded the picket, was asked to comment, she simply replied, “So far, we’ve got some coverage.”
Over hear was Jan Burton, the mayor’s wife, carrying a sign bearing the words: “Don’t dump on us.” “We just have to keep up the pressure,” she said.
Over there was Don Russell, a local free-lance writer, displaying a sign that said, “Dump le vous NON, eh?” He carried a wide smile beneath a ten-gallon hat that has a bullet-sized hole in the brim.
“We are in the same boat,” commented a White Rock lady. “White Rock doesn’t want it either.
Then up drove Bob Irvin, Langley, president of Surrey-Langley Against Garbage (SLAG). “I think this demonstration is excellent,” he said. “Anything we can do to get our deaf politicians to listen should be done. All they have to do is look at other examples of poisoned water.”
The British Columbia Lower Mainland Refuse Project proposal that would have placed a landfill less than one mile from Blaine’s artesian wells was eventually withdrawn.
A Fishermen’s Protest Rally
Unpopular among fishermen of all ethnicities was Washington State Initiative 456, passed November 1984. Native Americans, declaring it unconstitutional, argued for the initiative’s defeat. State Senator Jack Metcalf asked Caucasian fishermen to break the initiative’s rules, his argument being that it gave them fewer privileges than those received by Native American fishermen.
Editor Rex Allison wrote the following account for the Westside Record-Journal published August 14, 1985.
State Sen. Jack Metcalf, speaking at a fishermen’s protest rally in Blaine Friday, said State Fisheries Director Bill Wilkerson should be fired, and he urged fishermen to break the rules, forcing a court case to test Initiative 456.
“[Gov. Booth] Gardner knows Wilkerson could not be endorsed by the Washington State Senate, yet he keeps him,” Metcalf told fishermen from the United States and Canada who met at the Peace Arch to protest alleged U.S. treaty violations.
Metcalf said Initiative 456, passed by the voters of Washington state last November, states that no citizen can be denied equal access to the resources of the state. He said non-Indian fishermen should fish when the state closes fishing to all but the Indians. This way, they will be arrested and the case can then be tested in court.
Both U.S. and Canadian fishermen spoke at the rally, which drew about 165 people to the Peace Arch, and much of the protest was against the U.S. government.
Steve Arbaugh, Everett, a gill-netter who led the rally, said a fishing treaty between the U.S. and Canada was only a few months old when the Canadian fishermen stopped fishing the early Stuart River salmon runs as a conservation measure. But the U.S. Interior Deprtment let the Indians fish those runs in Puget Sound, he said. He indicated that 900,000 fish were caught by the Indians and only 300,000 by non-Indians.
“This is a management scheme that can’t work, will not work,” said Arbaugh, vice president of the Puget Sound Gillnetters Association.
Jack Nichol, Vancouver, B.C., president of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union, blamed government for causing the problem.
“It’s not the fault of the Indians,” he said. “It’s the fault of bureaucrats.”
Nichol said he believed there is enough fish “for everyone to make a living. We need to let the people make the decisions.”
“If it’s the right case, I think we have a good chance to win,” said Metcalf, referring to the staging of an “illegal” fish-in. “The case has to be based right and written right,” he added.
Fairalee Markusen, Blaine, who organized the protest rally, said after the rally that it was reported the Indians caught 8,000 fish from June 30 to July 2 after the Stuart run had been closed.
She said the treaty was made so U.S. and Canadian fishermen would get an equal chance at catching the salmon that go into Puget Sound from Canadian rivers. However, she said it isn’t being managed correctly with too many governmental departments getting involved. Now, she said, the Indians are taking way over fifty percent of the catch.
Reagan Administration Proposed a Border Toll for Canadians
With Canada preparing to celebrate Expo 1986, President Ronald Reagan’s administration, acting in 1985, proposed a one-dollar border toll to be collected by U.S. Customs and Immigration officials for every Canadian entering the United States. Although it never passed, the plan disturbed residents on both sides of the border. “Don’t do it Ron,” warned an editorial in the September 14, 1985 issue of Peace Arch News. “If you wish to keep the gates open, you must do so unconditionally. Otherwise, you may have a fight on your hands that could get ugly.”
Expo ’86 did, however, stimulate an increase of traffic crossing the border. The problem kept rising year by year. A 1991 Congressional hearing was heard in Blaine. By June the U.S. Peace Arch Crossing Express (PACE) lane was opened for applicants. Within the next year eighteen new Customs inspectors had been hired to expedite inspections at Whatcom County’s five crossings.
Whatcom County was caught by surprise when, early in 1995, the Clinton administration proposed border-crossing fees of $3.00 per vehicle and $1.50 per pedestrian. Then, midway through 1995, Republican Senator Alan Simpson, Wyoming, chair of the Immigration Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposed a border fee of one dollar per person. These proposals failed to materialize.
Traffic congestion was alleviated until September 11, 2001, when the PACE lane was immediately closed after the terrorist attack in New York City. This led to development of the NEXUS system, available to motorists in 2002.
Bridges for Peace
To what extent the second annual “Bridges for Peace” event could be called a protest rally is debatable. There appeared to be no focal point of international, national or social injustice under fire by the 200-plus visitors who met at the Peace Arch the Sunday afternoon of May 25, 1986.
Sponsored by Peacemakers of the United States and Canada, speeches were laced with music provided by the Total Experience Choir from Prince of Peace Baptist Church, Seattle. The event closed as the guests from both sides of the border, holding hands, formed a large human circle around the Peace Arch. Inside was a smaller circle composed of the choir, singing “Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand.”
Peace March for Nuclear Awareness
Inspired by the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament that crossed the United States two years earlier, a summer march across Washington state—a distance estimated at 947 miles—commenced June 11, 1988 at Spokane. From there it was a peace march to the Peace Arch.
Described as Washington’s “first-ever peace march,” the participants walked between ten and fifteen miles per day, stopping to address civic groups and churches, there to promote interest in nuclear disarmament.
Scheduled to terminate at the Peace Arch during Labor Day, September 5, the participants arrived on schedule. Attendance is unknown.
The author had been invited to speak at the rally. But the rally master, upon hearing the speech would address the need for nurturing inner peace of the individual in lieu of customary attacks on the United States government, was uncomfortable with such a controversial approach.
The speech never materialized.
AIDS Dispute at the Border
Demonstrators appeared at the Peace Arch December 1, 1989 not only to commemorate World Aids Day, but “to protest border harassment because they’re not allowing people whom they suspect of being HIV-positive to cross the border either way, and that’s a severe restriction upon freedoms and liberties.”
The demonstration, sponsored by ACT UP, Seattle, and the PWA Coalition, Vancouver, B.C., failed to draw a confession from the border officials who denied any such discrimination targeting HIV-positive victims.
Rev. Jesse Jackson Attacks NAFTA
Fortunately, Westside Record-Journal reporter Calvin Bratt recorded his impressions of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s appearance at the Peace Arch October 18, 1992.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson fired up a rally at Peace Arch State Park Sunday with criticism of free trade as good only for “the corporate greedy.”
“It’s almost all about profits and almost nothing about people,” Jackson told a cheering crowd of about 1,500.
The civil rights leader and two-time Democratic presidential aspirant climaxed an hour of speeches, then led a march around the Peace Arch and signed a protest statement against the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Union groups from British Columbia and Washington organized the “Hands Across the Border” rally.
Other speakers included Jorge Calderon, leader of the PRD Party of Mexico, and Audrey McLaughlin of Canada’s New Democratic Party.
The United States and Canada have been gradually implementing a free trade pact that was approved in 1989. Mexico’s inclusion in NAFTA was announced three weeks ago, but terms must still be approved by the three nations’ legislatures.
The Bush Administration defends free trade, which eradicates protective tariffs and restrictive licenses, as a boon to the economies of all three nations.
But Jackson denounced free trade as presently structured, saying it is driving working people’s wages down while boosting corporate profits. It has unleashed “a spiral of readjustment to the bottom line.”
He said governments should work to raise the living standard in poorer regions rather than let businesses take advantage of lower wages and lax environmental and health care standards.
Canadian health care has been a model for the Western world, but it is being “dismantled” by the leveling effects of free trade, Jackson said.
“More jobs is not enough, if there is not a decent standard of living, no health care and no respect for human beings,” he said.
Jackson voiced support for Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton, saying his election would be “a step in the right direction.” Clinton has said he supports the free trade concept, but has added a number of “if” conditions.
In a press conference after the rally, Jackson said Clinton could be “moved” further along as president to see workers’ concerns about free trade.
“The proposed deal will not stand. It must not stand. It’s not right,” Jackson said.
Annual Demonstrations for Leonard Peltier
FBI Special Agents Ronald A. Williams and Jack R. Coler, seeking the arrest of “Jimmy” Eagle on a robbery charge at the Pine Ridge Indian reservation, South Dakota, died in a hail of bullets June 26, 1975. Killed by .223 type bullets, Leonard Peltier was identified as the only person owning an AR-15, the only firearm that would fire .223 bullets.
American native associations on both sides of the international border have pleaded Peltier’s case, judging him innocent. The first annual International Indigenous People’s Day and First Nations March to protest the imprisonment of Peltier was held at the Peace Arch on Columbus Day, October 9, 1995.
Published in the October 9, 1997 issue of Worker’s World, author Jim McMahan wrote, “While commemorated by the U.S. government as ‘Columbus Day,’ perpetuating the myth that Europeans ‘discovered’ North America, this date has become known as Indigenous Peoples Day to millions in this hemisphere.”
The Assembly of First Nations planned a four-day “fire and camp” at the Peace Arch, January 16-20, 2001. No further news of the event could be found. Although supported by the Canadian Aboriginal, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs was unsuccessful in its 2001 attempt to gain executive clemency on behalf of President Bill Clinton.
The protest for Peltier’s innocence has been held yearly since 1995.
“Why should we rip up our heritage for a bunch of blacktop?”
The new millennium opened with a bang at the border—a loud protest from both sides—having to do with expansion of customs and immigration facilities planned for both countries. Canadians were particularly active. Whimpers of concern, early as August 1999, set them preparing a message for the feds. “Why should we rip up our heritage for a bunch of blacktop?” complained Surrey resident Michael Askin to Now reporter Marisa Babic that summer.
“A 1,041-signature petition opposing expansion of Douglas border crossing customs house is on its way to Ottawa,” wrote Ted Colley for the January 26, 2000 issue of the Peace Arch News. “The signatures were collected by Friends of Peace Arch Park, a local citizen group trying to block plans that could eat up a significant portion of their beloved park.” Surrey residents Debra Paulin and Dell Sutton, who organized the petition and collected signatures, were convinced the plan, with construction slated to begin in May 2004, would shortchange the park.
Free Trade Agreement and Disagreement at the Arch
More United States and Canadian law enforcement agents than ever recorded in the history of the Peace Arch were present at and around the park Saturday, April 21, 2001, where they prepared for a potential uproar at a Free Trade Area of the Americas rally. Although more than 2,000 opponents were thought to be present, the Northern Light called it “a quiet riot,” noting that “most who attended the rally chose to oppose free trade with song, theater, slogans and speeches, or by merely adding their numbers to protestors in Quebec and across the continent.”
Chapter Nine
Stamp Acts Leave the Arch Licked
Blaine would be the busiest town and most crowded. . . . —Blaine Journal
Blaine residents Reg and Vivian Campin, announcing their plan in 1994, initiated a vigorous drive, holding hope for a Peace Arch postage stamp to be issued in 1996. It would mark the 150th anniversary of the 1846 agreement between the United States and Britain delineating the international boundary, as well as the 75th year since the dedication of the Peace Arch. It culminated with one among many disappointments.
The Peace Arch has, on numerous occasions, moved its admirers to the point of requesting commemorative postage stamps, as recognized by many examples.
Early Requests and the Seely Armistice Day Covers of 1937
Efforts to convince the United States Postal Service to produce stamps featuring the Peace Arch are traceable to the middle 1930s when Blaine stamp collectors petitioned Postmaster James A. Farley, congressmen and secretary of President Roosevelt, to act on their behalf. The December 2, 1937 Blaine Journal recorded the episode:
Pictures of the Arch and a short write-up of its history were sent to each representative. The letter from the Post Office Department stated that while the design we offered would no doubt make a suitable stamp, their stamp program for last year was completely filled, but they would keep our suggestion on file. Our representatives Homer T. Bone, Mon C. Wallgren and Lewis R. Schwellenbach, took up the idea and wrote to the Postmaster General about it, and promised their help at all times.
This year, as everyone knows, an International Armistice Day Peace Program was held at the Peace Arch; and on that day a special postal cover was prepared by Mrs. A.Y. Seely, aided by [Blaine] Postmaster Walter V. Cowderoy, with a design of the Peace Arch, and an inscription on the envelope stating the object of the celebration. A small pamphlet was enclosed depicting a good photo of the Arch, this pamphlet being furnished by the Blaine Chamber of Commerce.
These covers were then stamped as of Nov. 11th, and one each was mailed to our President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Postmaster General Farley, and our two representatives in the Senate, this being done through the courtesy of Mr. Cowderoy.
In this way we are again bringing our Peace Arch to the attention of these men, and if the people of Blaine will take enough interest in securing recognition of such a structure, they are requested to write to any one of our representatives at Washington, D.C., urging them to keep on trying to get out this special stamp. We must all work together to attain this end, and must continually keep bringing the matter before the attention of those in authority.
All stamp collectors know what a “First Day” issue means to the town issuing the stamp. Thousands of collectors and dealers come to get their covers, and thousands more send in orders by mail. Blaine would be the busiest town and most crowded on the Sound for a few days before and after such an issue. All business would profit by it, directly and indirectly. Won’t you all help to keep the idea alive?
Although this pioneering stamp project never took off, an airmail flight out of Blaine occurred May 19, 1938. Honoring National Airmail Week, pilot Lloyd Lampman ascended from Dierks’ field with bagged airmail letters that Postmaster W.V. Cowderoy had begged every town citizen to send. A picture postcard depicting the Peace Arch and a cancelled six-cent airmail stamp was available for collectors. In the upper left hand corner was the statement: “The Peace Arch, Blaine, Washington, monument to 120 years of peaceful relations between Canada and the United States.” Below it appeared a picture of the Peace Arch. To the right was a boxed identity: Blaine Journal · Blaine, Wash. Beneath the picture was the sentence, “A United States postage stamp featuring the Peace Arch would be a fitting recognition of this emblem of peace.”
Stamp Sought to Celebrate the Columbia River Treaty
After President Lyndon Johnson and Prime Minister Lester Pearson signed the Columbia River Treaty at the Peace Arch September 16, 1964, the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce organized a stamp committee, and on January 19, 1965, Blaine Postmaster Ted Holtzheimer requested the postmaster general at Washington, D.C., to issue a Peace Arch commemorative postage stamp in honor of the occasion.
“The citizens of Blaine were so impressed by the fact that President Johnson and Premier Lester Pearson saw fit to sign the Columbia River Treaty under the Peace Arch that they felt the Arch itself should be publicized,” Holtzheimer wrote. Enclosed with his letter were the signatures of 131 petitioners. State Representatives Jack Hood and Dick Kink presented a memorial to establish a commemorative Peace Arch stamp before the House January 28:
Whereas many years ago a Peace Arch was erected on this unguarded borderline as a memento of the good will of these nations, and, whereas, the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada, in recognition of the international friendship and mutual respect which the Peace Arch so magnificently symbolizes, chose this place for signing the Columbia River Treaty, the message of peace, good will and international cooperation embodied by the Peace Arch might best be further expressed and widely disseminated by the printing of a commemorative United States postage stamp.
“It asked the Congress and the executive department to design and print the stamp and that copies of the memorial be sent to President Johnson, the president of the senate, the speaker of the House, the Postmaster General and each senator and representative in Congress from this state,” reported the Blaine Journal. “The memorial is the result of the campaign being directed by Blaine interests to have a memorial postage stamp issued featuring the peace arch.” The Washington State Labor Council added its support for the stamp by July.
Although Congressman Lloyd Meeds and U.S. Senators Henry M. Jackson and Warren G. Magnuson backed the proposal, Ira Kapenstein, special assistant to the postmaster general, replied, “We are unable to include a Peace Arch stamp in our 1965 program as it is virtually completed.” Their combined efforts came to naught. The Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee turned down an additional request for a 1966 issue.
Refusing to give up on the stamp project, the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce, in session during early February 1967, appointed a stamp committee co-chaired by Chamber Secretary Vernon McDonald and Holtzheimer. A commemorative stamp bill sponsored by Representatives Dick Kink, Fred Veroske and Cass Farr made it to the Senate Rules Committee before it died February 1970. McDonald communicated with the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee during February 1971, casting his plea for a commemorative stamp honoring the 50th anniversary of the Peace Arch that was dedicated September 6, 1921. Congressmen Meeds and Jackson added their support. Once again, their combined efforts came to naught.
Craving a Stamp to Commemorate Expo 1986
Once more the United States Postal Service was approached, this time by the Bellingham Stamp Club, with the hope of celebrating Canada’s centennial by means of a commemorative stamp. As early as October 1982, the club submitted its request for “a [multicolored] commemorative stamp or postcard focusing special attention on Expo-86 in Vancouver, B.C., and the historic Peace Arch.”
The club held high hope that Canada would simultaneously issue a stamp, the only difference—apart from unmatched postal rates—being that the United States stamp would bear the identity, “Peace Arch · Blaine, Washington,” while the Canadian stamp would say “Peace Arch · Douglas, British Columbia.” Called the Douglas crossing, Canada’s customs and immigration service was named in honor of New Westminster surveyor Ben Douglas, prominent in the construction of a roadbed through Surrey, B.C., in 1890.
The club failed to realize, in the first place, that commemorative stamps are designed under strict rules, one being that names of communities may not be displayed. Although some 13 million tourists were expected to travel north or southward at the Peace Arch crossing, the stamp never materialized for either country.
Ferndale Post Office, south of Blaine, created a Peace Arch postmark that was displayed by the Bellingham Stamp and Coin Club during an early February weekend in 1986.
Remembering Three-quarters of a Century
The Surrey Historical Society believed Canada should recognize the 75th anniversary of the Peace Arch—September 6, 1996—as expressed by the following story printed in the June 26, 1996 issue of the Peace Arch News:
Stamp sought for Peace Arch’s 75th Anniversary
Canada Post is being asked to commission a stamp commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Peace Arch next year.
The Surrey Historical Society, backed by Surrey council and local MP Val Meredith, want the stamp to commemorate the arch and annual International Peace Arch ceremony, which is the largest and oldest peace celebration in North America and possibly the world.
The first annual peace celebration was held on the border of Surrey and Blaine in May 1922, after the arch was dedicated Sept. 6, 1921. The first official International Peace Arch Celebration took place in 1927 and has continued annually since then, featuring children exchanging flags. [Note: The author could find no record of a celebration in May 1922.]
The Canadian stamp, like the many previously requested on both sides of the border, never materialized.
The Peace Arch District Philatelic Association, created in the fall of 1963, was named in honor of the international portal, but saw no appearance of a Peace Arch postage stamp on either side of the border.
Certainly, the United States Post Office Department has created two border-related peace stamps. The first, issued August 4, 1977, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Peace Bridge connecting Buffalo, New York and Fort Erie, Ontario. Another, issued June 30, 1982, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the International Peace Garden at Dunseith, North Dakota and Boissevain, Manitoba.
Perhaps postal authorities, on one side of the border or the other, will see fit to issue a commemorative stamp in the year 2021, which will mark the Peace Arch centennial. But since 1963, when Martin Luther King authored his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, and Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, Peace Arch inscriptions such as “Children of a Common Mother” may fall beneath charges of Caucasian racism and a hint of female sexism due to the exclusion of “and a Common Father,” while “Brethren Dwelling Together in Harmony” may be hit with male sexism.
Even if postal powers on either side of the boundary realize the Peace Arch is merely an artifact of history, any hint of racism or sexism may nevertheless eliminate hope for a future Peace Arch postage stamp.
But the timeless bottom line is a cause immune to cancellation. Racist implications of “a Common Mother” and sexist implications of “Brethren Dwelling Together” are commentaries emblazoned upon portal friezes. And commentaries are subject to future criticism that could lead to correctives. Commentaries, however, do not negate the principle. And the principle is the cause. It is peace.
Peace on Earth awaits the stamp of universal approval, thus answering the encyclical letter of Pope John XXIII bearing the address, Pacem in Terris, delivered worldwide in 1963, and well certified by Pope Paul VI’s 1965 speech to the United Nations General Assembly at New York City, where he cried, “No more war! Never again war! If you wish to be brothers, drop your weapons.”
Chapter Ten
Assessment, Crisis and Anticipation
“Is it peace or war?” said those men in Ghent, who gathered, each with his spirit bent by the burden of care for his nation’s fate.—Harriet Rogers Owen
Assessment: Summarizing the Peace Portal’s Past
Connections. That, it seems, is the word best associated with Peace Arch achievement since 1921. Connections assume a variety of shapes and a multiplicity of forms.
Calendars bearing colored photos of the Peace Arch, complete with maps showing the way to Blaine, were created in Chicago for a California car dealer in 1959. Amtrak produced a 1996 calendar featuring a company train moving past the Peace Arch, painted by J. Craig Thorpe. The Peace Arch has been connected with time according to days, weeks and months.
Some connections are serious.
Serious is the connection with traffic across the border and through the international park. Benno Friesen, Surrey-White Rock member of parliament, “tried to get the federal government to increase the number of crossing points at the Douglas border ‘to all gates’ on weekends, but Ottawa cited its ‘austerity program’ for not doing so,” reported the Peace Arch News, April 12, 1976. “Just as bothersome and more dangerous is the Pacific Highway crossing which backs up to Campbell River,” said Friesen. “Cars try to pass, and it is just a matter of time before there is an accident.”
Serious is the connection with an international border that plays its role in the Peace Arch parklands. Customs and immigration expansion have occurred at various times in the park’s history. The spring of 1950 saw plans “being rushed for new $200,000 immigration and customs facilities at Douglas,” reported the Vancouver Daily Province. Complete with “a parking area for 300 cars in connection with the Peace Arch,” Canada’s federal government posted tenders for construction in July. The spring of 1978 saw significant construction and expansion of United States customs facilities, ostensibly “to provide better and quicker service to thousands of daily travelers entering the United States through the Peace Arch station at Blaine,” noted the Westside Record-Journal.
As the 1990s closed, there was increasing fear the park would lose ground to border-related governmental expansionism and highway alteration. When the U.S. General Services Administration visited Blaine to present its proposal August 11, 1999, “there weren’t any punches thrown,” noted the Northern Light, “but a room packed with people made it crystal clear to the federal government that they want Peace Arch Park left alone.” The administration held another public session during the spring of 2001. With the approach of fall, public opposition against parkland incursions persuaded the General Services Administration to review its proposal. At this writing it is not known what effect the New York City tragedy of September 11, 2001 may have with regard to the possibility of future governmental intrusions upon the park.
Serious is the ethnic connection, the aim frequently being to emphasize a social concern. Consider, for example, a First Nations vigil held at the Peace Arch September 15, 1995, to seek a serene solution for the Gustafson Lake and Ipperwash standoff. Consider the Native American runners who left Alaska May 15, 1996, and reached the Peace Arch one month later. “Peace and Dignity ’96” was an athletic project designed to promote international harmony. “If we could all meet at a place of understanding, what a great world this would be,” remarked one participant as the group prepared to leave, scheduled to reach Mexico’s sacred pyramids by October 15.
While some connections are serious, other connections celebrate the joy of walking, running and biking. Occasionally, they are light-hearted scherzos, novel and entertaining.
James L. “Citizen” Reed, a Tennessee philosopher who said, “I can walk faster than the two prominent presidential candidates can run,” decided to peregrinate on foot from the Peace Arch to the White House in the summer of 1960. Whether or not he made it is unknown.
Joseph Grant of Santa Barbara, California, reached the Peace Arch September 14, 1967 after spending 218 days walking from the Mexican border. Completing a 1,404-mile trip that lasted 21 hours and 32 minutes, Don Spaulding of San Francisco, rode his Honda “Silver Wasp” motorcycle from the Mexican border to the Peace Arch, completing his “certified record” the evening of July 11, 1971.
Following a 69-day run from the Mexican border, Jim Dunn, a 16-year-old high school junior from Del Mar, California, reached the Peace Arch September 7, 1973, “appearing to be in great shape and wearing flag patches of Mexico, the United States and Canada on his track shirt.” Jim ran. Jogging, he believed, was for those aged 50 or more.
John and Cindi Simmons, Blaine school teachers and both in their twenties, left the Peace Arch July 25, 1978, aiming to pedal their ten-speed Centurion bicycles to the Mexican border. How they fared is not known.
Ben Linder, 21, a University of Washington student from Seattle, left the Peace Arch the morning of August 12, 1980, casually riding his unicycle to San Francisco. “He passed through Ferndale midday,” reported the Westside Record-Journal. “He travels about eight miles an hour and goes about thirty miles a day. Linder is hardly the first out-of-town cycler to the Westside this summer. An Australian recently passed through on his way to Guatemala. Most cycling visitors get a good reception, but two British Columbia riders had their bikes stolen.”
Connections exist between the Peace Arch, its park, its programs and celebrations. Connections there must be between the monument and the two nations it represents, between the portal and its immediate province and state, between the monument and its nearest communities, between its open gates and its many visitors.
Many connections identified with the Peace Arch are of an associational nature; these are formal organizations. Most obvious are connections with Boy Scouts, Cubs, Girl Guides, and Brownies. Examples prevail: Songs were sung and poems were read as the Girl Scouts of Troop 44 held their February 19, 1964 meeting at the Peace Arch. “A beautiful sunset and the beauty of Peace Arch Park created an impressive background for this special event,” noted the Blaine Journal. Other organizations are not so well known. Take the Peace Arch chapter of the DeMolays as an example. It was organized at the Blaine middle school cafetorium (as it was called) in 1961. Sometime later, that organization—one of several—vanished.
Other connections exist between the monument and institutions.
Family ranks as a vital institution. Family picnics prevail. Important is the Peace Arch connection with children, be they “children of a common mother” or children of a mother uncommon. In the monument’s early history, these were largely Caucasian families. Presently, Asian families, cameras in hand, often visit the Peace Arch grounds. But as history unfolds, one may wonder how many families from the Middle East will be there.
Religion is another institution with frequent Peace Arch connections. These have included nativity scenes, sunrise Easter services, and Knights of Columbus picnics. Exemplifying large attendances, Vancouver’s Alliance Tabernacle Church held a picnic for more than 500 participants in the spring of 1957. Some such connections have been annualized, while others were terminated.
The Columbia River Treaty epitomizes the Peace Arch connection with government, while thirsty brown lawns and parking fees are indicators of a connection with that institution known as the economy.
Choices. That’s an appropriate word associated with anticipation during the second millennium. Connections are either strengthened or impaired by the choices influencing them. Consider, for example, choices made by various associations that decided to bear the name of the Peace Arch, or peace portal, or simply peace. A review of year 2001 editions of Vancouver-White Rock-Surrey and Whatcom County telephone directories reveals a contrastive list.
Canada
Peace Arch Appliance Service, Surrey
Peace Arch Bakery, Surrey
Peace Arch Community Medical Clinic, Ltd., White Rock
Peace Arch Community Service Society, Surrey
Peace Arch Curling Club, Surrey
Peace Arch Electric, Surrey
Peace Arch Elementary School, White Rock
Peace Arch Entertainment Group, Inc., Vancouver
Peace Arch Family Health Clinic, White Rock
Peace Arch Fellowship MB, Surrey
Peace Arch Florists, Surrey
Peace Arch Golf Center, Surrey
Peace Arch Homeopathic Center, White Rock
Peace Arch Hospital, White Rock
Peace Arch Imports, Inc., Surrey
Peace Arch Janitorial Service, Ltd., Surrey
Peace Arch Manor, White Rock
Peace Arch Medical Supplies, Ltd., White Rock
Peace Arch Millwork, Inc., Surrey
Peace Arch News, Surrey
Peace Arch Post, Vancouver
Peace Arch Professional Building, Ltd., Surrey
Peace Arch RV Park, Surrey
Peace Arch Security Systems, Surrey
Peace Arch Senior Citizens Housing Society, White Rock
Peace Arch Soccer Club, White Rock
Peace Arch Studios, Vancouver
Peace Arch Toyota, Surrey,
Peace Park Management, Surrey
Peace Portal Lodge, Surrey
Peace Portal Par 3 Golf Course, Surrey
Peaceful Restaurant, Vancouver
Peace Bridge Brokerage, Ltd., Vancouver
The United States
American Legion Peace Arch Post 86, Blaine, Washington
Peace Arch Assembly of God Church, Blaine, Washington
Peace Arch Equestrian Center, Whatcom County
Peace Arch Factory Outlets, Whatcom County
United States Canada Peace Anniversary Association, Whatcom County
Upon reviewing the above list, an obvious discontinuity between the two nations appears: thirty-three Canadian entries against the United States’ five. It may be tempting to suggest more people live in the Vancouver-White Rock-Surrey region than those living in Whatcom County. Yet population must be balanced against propinquity; Blaine city limits reach Peace Arch Park while White Rock is a greater distance, even afoot or afloat, as opposed to driving there. It is not quite the border town that Blaine happens to be.
Indicatively, those north of the border practice a greater awareness of the Peace Arch than those south of it. More puzzling than the practice are the consequential questions: Why this disparity? Why should one nation, so adept at initiating a 1921 peace portal project with a bang, retreat in time, leaving it up to the other nation to keep such initial enthusiasm from ending with a whimper? Apart from simplistic answers based on guesswork, exactly what factors form the choices and connections that explain such an imbalance?
One is obligated ultimately to add the crowning question of world peace to those listed above. Devotion to historicism with its foundational theories, at this time, appears to accomplish little more than to lay bare the questions. Covering them with absolute answers is quite another matter. Marching into that awesome arena of the past, historians can hardly scrutinize it, let alone deal it a knockout blow. Historians are notorious shadow boxers. Objectivity, pure and simple, is impossible. Nor are these intended to be pejorative remarks. For no historian, however impressive his or her credentials, can fully comprehend the spirit of the times—the zeitgeist—of former eras, be they ancient as the Grecian empire, or recent as the anti-war youth movement and its counterculture of the late 1960s, not to mention unfolding interpretations that will define and redefine the far-reaching tragedy identified by “Nine-Eleven” (September 11, 2001) while history, like a meandering river—sometimes raging and occasionally calm—flows through time.
Shadow boxing aside, history is analogous to a wrestling match. If a master of socio-historical inquiry could step into the ring, wrestle each question to the point of pinning it beyond a doubt, appreciation would bubble from the hearts of many peace lovers. Given this impossibility, the greater the distance of historical events, the broader must be the brush that paints them.
Prior to World War I, peace was either accepted or rejected and sometimes sealed with a treaty. It was a matter of negotiation. Following the trauma of World War I, there was born a trend toward preemptively strategizing for peace, as shown by the League of Nations. Then, after World War II, the art of strategy was embellished with a growing activism accrued upon creating the United Nations, with the United States playing a role sometimes thought to be excessive. Since the 1980s, negotiation, strategy, and activism have been loosely lumped together and termed “the peace process”—a nebulous label that defies systematic analysis, hence a clear definition, by historians and sociologists alike. In consideration of the terrorist trauma inflicted upon New York City during September 11, 2001, neither expert nor amateur analysts can predict the consequences that lay ahead for “the peace process.” Future historians may discover peace is not amenably processed. Like an auto’s ignition, it’s either “on” or “off.” Courage is key.
Beyond the symptomatic list discussed, an assessment of Peace Arch history suggests devotion to its noble cause ebbs and flows like the saltwater tides immediately west of the famed monument—a stalwart symbol of peace that is ostensibly, if not sincerely, venerated. At times, the portal is more likely to function as a good-luck charm rather than any symbol of an apparent “fight for peace,” as the late activist Paul Robeson expressed it during his mid-twentieth century portal visits. Or, remembering an elementary schoolchild who described the arch as “a ghost in the night,” there are times when the portal appears hauntingly dead and forgotten by the many who equate hope of world peace with superstition. At other times—too infrequent, one might add—the Peace Arch has been a monumental mover with tangible results, exemplified by the energy of a founding Quaker, a visionary radio broadcaster, a committed politician, a devoted public school superintendent, an ambitious park ranger, a lady determined to express peace through the arts—energetic people of forthright action.
Yet the Peace Arch is a potentially powerful symbol that remains essentially undiscovered by the community nearest it. The city of Blaine is most associated with the Peace Arch for the simple reason that its city limits subsume Peace Arch State Park. No other city is within such intimate range. It is Blaine, therefore, that should be creatively associated with the Peace Arch by means of a dynamic theme of peace promotion—a program extending far beyond portal images on city stationery or shoulder patches of local police officers.
As though it had been foreordained, the infrastructure for the promotion of peace is in readiness at Blaine. A beautiful destination hotel, resort and conference center called the Inn at Semiahmoo awaits future peace conferences—even those of an international and high-level kind. Located in West Blaine, it could be easily guarded if necessary; only one road atop a narrow spit leads to the center. If only one president of the United States or one premier of Canada, or one leader of another nation were to discover the tranquil, yet inspiring, atmosphere of this remarkably suited facility, return visits for additional peace conferences would be virtually guaranteed. Unwittingly, it seems, the entire complex was designed for the enhancement of peace by means of conferences. A shame it is that such a dynamically suited gem remains undiscovered to honor the ever-pressing purpose for which it might well have been unconsciously, albeit ingeniously, created.
One is hard-pressed to imagine what would have become of Blaine, had the mayor of New Westminster’s vision of an international university materialized. Imagine the likes of Blaine, Washington, inundated with thousands of students from many countries, enrolled in an international university, specializing in peace studies, and located in the town’s backyard. And yet, since the early 1980s, the Semiahmoo development carries untold opportunities, potentially as powerful for a universal cause and a worldwide need, as would have been the case, given an international university.
In retrospect, one may well grieve the absence of a Mayor Mott and Rogan Jones-promoted university. In reality, however, it is equally tragic that an excellent institution, devoted to tourism, remains blind toward a cause visibly symbolized by a white monument across the bay.
“Where there is no vision . . .”
Most readers doubtless know the rest of that truism, and the few who don’t, probably perish the thought. If the retrospective look reveals an unfulfilled dream, the prospective look reveals a dysfunctional myopia if a community fails to comprehend and mobilize its calling. But the introspective look is a necessary prerequisite toward development of a healthy prospective look accompanied by resultant action for the cause of world peace.
September 11, 2001: The Impact of Intervening Crises
After its International Trade Center twin towers collapsed beneath the explosive impact of terrorist-piloted jetliners, unspeakable trauma struck New York City Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. As gathering tears blurred the vision of American eyes, the Peace Arch was locally brought into focus, at least temporarily.
The PACE lane that had been of such convenience to motorists traveling through the park was closed that very day. Birth certificates or passports became border-crossing requirements, and every vehicle trunk was initially opened and inspected. Border patrolmen south of the border, and Mounties north of it, were on high alert.
Responding to the horror-stricken vacuum of the September 11, 2001 terror crisis, the United States Canada Peace Anniversary Association held a Saturday evening vigil and candle-lighting ceremony at the Peace Arch, where hundreds of Americans and Canadians met to share their grief four days after thousands died in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. A second vigil, featuring Christina Alexander’s “Peace Arch Anthem,” dignitaries and musicians from both sides of the border, was held September 11, 2002.
Originating from British Columbia, a Police and Peace Officers’ Memorial Service was conducted at the Peace Arch September 30, 2001 on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Remembered were some 600 Canadian police and peace officers that died in the course of their duties since confederation. Hosted by Barbara Fulton, assistant commissioner with the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Pacific Region, the colorful but somber ceremony reflected deep concern for the American tragedy of September 11, 2001.
“Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” asked Army counsel Joseph N. Welch, June 9, 1954, addressing Senator Joseph R. McCarthy during the course of communist-hunting hearings involving Frederick G. Fisher, a member of Welsh’s law firm. Forty-eight years later, U.S. governmental officials were hunting for terrorists, even in Peace Arch State Park. Three months after New York City’s twin towers crumbled, an Orwellian “Big Brother” atmosphere fell upon Peace Arch State Park and its tangent city of Blaine. A governmental camera surveillance system began sprouting atop 50-foot metal poles at, and beyond, the park. By mid-April, 2002, thirty-eight cameras, lining the border from coast to Cascades, were relaying images to wall-mounted monitors in a Blaine sector control center of the U.S. Border Patrol. Supplementing the $5 million system was a new helicopter, additional to a fixed-wing surveillance aircraft.
Klaus and Linda Klix, Deming, left Peace Arch State Park at 10:30 A.M., June 20, 2002, driving to Portland, Oregon in their 1967 Corvette. Exemplifying one of many acts of compassion, the trip initiated their auto club’s decision to express patriotism by raising money for the purchase and training of search-and-rescue canines. “Stars and Stripes Across America” entailed relaying flags, previously flown over the White House and Peace Arch, as fifty-five additional Corvettes took turns in the race, ending at New York City’s site of the World Trade Center, July 4.
Reflections of the New York City tragedy were brought to mind when Rick Cluff, White Rock host, and a crew of CBC Radio One technicians appeared at the Peace Arch September 6, 2002 to present a Friday “Morning Edition” that entailed several interviews at 6:00 A.M., and continuing three hours while the White Rock Lions breakfasted visitors with free hot cakes, sausages and coffee.
Although the consequential bombing of Afghanistan brought little reaction at the Peace Arch, the Bush Administration’s decision to launch a war against Iraq, March 19, 2003, galvanized several coalitions to demonstrate initially on the provincial park grounds. “No One is Illegal,” saw about forty-five demonstrators, mostly from Canada, assemble there April 5, where objection was voiced against the United States Patriot Act with its deportation and racial profiling policies.
Anticipation: In Consideration of the Future
The Peace Arch has withstood many crises since 1921. But the greatest danger lies from within the borders of the two nations for which the great portal stands. International indifference is the real enemy. It includes indifference toward the energizing power of friendly international relationships. If apathy defeats anticipation, the hope of peace dies.
Consider the need for unlocking portal gates toward healthy international relationships. Creativity is key, as this rare example shows: Students from British Columbia and Whatcom County held a leadership conference “for the first time ever” at Blaine High School March 11, 1981, “to exchange ideas about education—compare curriculum, extracurricular activities and attitudes toward school.” It was an invigorating experiment that ought to be replicated many times over.
Consider again the cause for which the Peace Arch Stands. Acting upon the author’s proposal, the Blaine City Council adopted a proclamation, October 9, 1995, and lightly revised February 9, 1998, announcing an official city theme entitled, “Promoting Peace.” Based upon that theme, a model devoted to the promotion of peace for the city of Blaine and any community that wishes to utilize it, is hereby proposed.
Six subtopics are suggested, each of which is designed to last two months, thus covering an entire year. The format consists of the following:
A Model for Promoting Peace
January-February
Promoting Peace with Oneself
“Promoting Peace” encourages individuals to examine themselves by means of careful introspection in order to build inner peace. Violence begins in the mind, and it is there that it should be discovered and arrested.
March-April
Promoting Peace in the Family
“Promoting Peace” presents an invitation for every family to encourage tranquility while dismissing abusive behavior before it becomes domestic violence.
May-June
Promoting Peace in the Neighborhood
“Promoting Peace” encourages neighbors to live in harmony with one another. Harmonious relationships in the neighborhood are social settings wherein much goodness may be generated.
July-August
Promoting Peace in the Community
“Promoting Peace” fosters harmonious community relationships. A healthy community relies upon peaceful cooperation between its many institutions and organizations.
September-October
Promoting Peace in the Nation
“Promoting Peace” at the national level equips our country to work for the elimination of hatred, prejudice and violence that erode society as a whole. Too often, the United States and Canada have been recognized for violent tendencies. Change is in order.
November-December
Promoting Peace on Earth
“Promoting Peace” between nations, and throughout the world, may best be exemplified by reviewing the peaceful relationship continually enjoyed between Canada and the United States. Here we see two nations, whose relationship ought to be witnessed as a persuasive model for nations abroad to emulate.
Peace Arch Park visitors are heartily welcome to seek and discover ways to participate in the cause for which the International Peace Arch stands. They are encouraged to carry that cause—local and universal—back to their homes and communities, where they may continue to promote that harmony and tranquility known as peace.
Additional to idealistic concerns are those more mundane. “The weeds of suspicion” were planted from 1998 to 2000 when Peace Arch State Park, among others, was threatened with closure, thus, generating considerable worry for the park’s future. Of course, those placed in charge of the deficient state budget have future concerns of their own, leading to an announcement issued by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission that, as of January 1, 2003, state park visitors will pay a five-dollar parking fee. Future consequences of that rule remain to be seen.
The International Peace Arch: “A Symbol and a Challenge”
Samuel Hill dedicated the Peace Arch September 6, 1921. Eighty years later, crews of firemen were frantically searching for signs of life in the rubble of New York City’s World Trade Center—twin towers destroyed by terrorists who overtook scheduled airliners and piloted them directly into the skyscrapers the morning of September 11, 2001. The United States and Canada endured considerable shock followed by mutual support; few people realized terrorism could assume such tragic dimensions. The towers fell. But that unforgettable day stands in history, having become an indelible symbol and a challenge for the reckoning of all nations dedicated to liberty, freedom and peace.
Consequences were tragic. Under attack by United States, Canadian, and other United Nations participants, some 22,000 bombs reportedly fell on Afghanistan. Then, as if to suggest a spreading stimulus for death, violence between the Israelis and Palestinians escalated until the former, angered over suicide bombings in their homeland, invaded the latter. All this occurred before the children of Iraq lay dying, before mothers common to the soil of which all mortals are created, wept beneath United States and British weaponry, while families that had dwelt together in unity were destroyed by the reign of destruction and death under the ironic banner of “liberation.”
Prophetically, when the fortieth anniversary of the Peace Arch was celebrated September 17, 1961, and the programs, printed on shiny white paper, were distributed among the celebrants, a dictum appeared in red letters below a Peace Arch sketched in blue. Those five words, “A Symbol and a Challenge,” suggested by Bellingham resident Nellie Browne Duff, who was elected the Peace Arch Association’s president at a February 1961 meeting, have been printed upon every annual program distributed thereafter. A broad interpretation surfaced September 14. The Mobil Oil refinery in Ferndale, Washington, promoted the Peace Arch as “a symbol of friendship between two great nations, and a challenge for people everywhere to live in peace.”
New York’s twin towers have fallen; the Peace Arch stands. The former remains a symbol of vulnerability, violence, victimization and a challenge for peace. The latter remains a symbol of peace and a challenge for universal fulfillment, or for that restful dawning when—as Samuel hill expressed it—“perfect peace alone satisfies.” The challenge, then, is to empower the symbol with substance.
Finally, a reflection: What might have happened at every societal level, had Blaine, the Peace Arch City, seriously accepted the “symbol and a challenge” some forty years before Duff verbalized it? Of the many proposals that failed, consider three: (1) The Macpherson Peace Arch short-wave broadcasting station proposed in 1924, spreading worldwide peace messages in thirty-one languages, could have been modernized through the passing years to become quite a fine facility by now. Peace supporters from every nation would have donated toward the cause. (2) The Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce’s 1925 bid to empower the Peace Arch theme would have supported creative proposals that otherwise failed to materialize. (3) What might have unfolded if New Westminster mayor William M. Mott and KVOS radio owner-broadcaster Rogan Jones had succeeded in founding a peace college (or university as Mott identified it) in the wake of World War II? Peace Arch Park would have spawned a campus during the 1940s. How many students from around the world would have been there by the turn of the century? Five thousand? Ten thousand? What impacts from Blaine to Berlin—or from George W. Bush to Osama bin Laden—would have been felt?
Of course, if Canada and the United States ever decided to dissolve customs and immigration offices at the border, the vacated buildings could be remodeled to become a beautiful Peace Arch University, with students passing through the portal as they strolled over the verdant lawn from one classroom in Canada to another in the United States while working toward graduation and an international bachelor or master’s degree in peace studies. That most likely will never happen. But, à la Hemingway, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”
The struggle for peace, discouraging as it may be for now, isn’t over. The sky hasn’t fallen and the clock hasn’t stopped. Before us remains a rendezvous with destiny. Remember the lyrics of poetess Harriet Rogers Owen: “Is it peace or war?”
Thankfully, hope also rises with the sun.
Appendix A
An Unidentified Speech by Samuel Hill
The following speech, mistakenly entitled “Sam Hill’s Address at the Opening of the Peace Arch, September 6, 1921,” is filed in White Rock Museum & Archives. Based upon its spelling, subject and contents, it was probably delivered somewhere in Canada in 1929, perhaps two years prior to Hill’s death. Handwritten, the recorder left no signature, and it is unknown how or exactly when it arrived at the museum. The following copy has been lightly edited.
Friends and neighbours—for such I feel I may call you both when in the United States and Canada:
I did not wish to be here today because I did not wish to speak. I thought the time had not come to deliver the message I felt called on to give. Not for the reason that I was not in sympathy with your movement as exemplified here today; no one more heartily endorses peace than I. But the peace I would have, reaches far and wide. To the whole world I would hold out the branch of peace, but first of all, there must be peace at home, at the fireside, and in the household.
In the United States today peace does not exist. The majority is trying to enforce slavery on a minority. But in the day of enlightenment, a majority sometimes changes and becomes a minority. (You will pardon an old man if he speaks of himself and of his personal experience: I am a Quaker, born in North Carolina on a farm practically adjoining that of President Hoover’s father, if my information be correct as to where he was born.)
At one time there was freedom of conscience only in two states of what afterward became two states of our union: in Baltimore, Maryland, founded by Lord Calvert, and in North Carolina, dominated by Quakers. George Fox, founder of our society, and his sister, Anne Fox, came to North Carolina, but never from England to Pennsylvania. There was a time when the spirit of illiteracy was rife and on Boston Common, a Quakeress, Mary Dyer, was executed. Atonement was made later, when, by acclamation I was nominated and elected to the governing board of Harvard University. And only last week did I return from celebrating the 50th anniversary of my graduation from that institution that recognizes neither eastern nor western borders, nor breed nor birth.
And the same spirit was shown when the United States responded from the North, South, East and West by an overwhelming vote to the Quaker, President Hoover. Let not your thoughts turn to confounding a Quaker with a pacifist. I was on all the fronts in the Great War. I met and saw President Hoover serving in the war work.
I tried to go to a Friends’ meeting in London, but found the buildings where I had sat in the pew with John Bright closed, and when I asked why, the sexton told me they had all gone to the war, having volunteered both men and women for Red Cross work in the field, and without guns under the guns.
Nations, like individuals, go insane. What else would account for the Salem witchcraft conspiracy, and the piercing of tongues with red-hot needles of old and friendless women—the tortures inflicted on defenseless men and women?
Today, in the United States, some preachers and politicians have joined with the prohibitionists, and the bootleggers vent their intolerance on more liberal-minded of their fellow countrymen to compel them to see through their coloured glasses. Now remember, friends, I am not advocating law breaking. I believe in living up to the law while it is the law. I believe in obeying a law, although I do not approve of it or respect it.
My father did not approve of slavery, and gave up all except his life, that the Negroes might be free. I do not believe in that which makes a crime worthy of death of that which a few years ago was not a crime. I do not find in the recorded pages of history any instance where an enlightened nation was by force compelled to change its food and drink. Cardinal Gibbons said to me, “Mr. Hill, as long as a grain of corn or rye is grown, whiskey will be made and drunk.” It can be modified and regulated, but not suppressed. When as a student at the Quaker College of Haverford, Friend Hannah Kitt offered me as medicine an alcoholic drink and I refused it, she said, “Samuel Hill, don’t thee be intemperately intemperate; drink that instantly!”
Wise old Mother England, when the Civil War started in the United States, fearing the loss of cotton if the South lost its slaves, hesitated until the cotton workers in Manchester and Birmingham offered to aid the course of freedom. So one of England’s younger daughters, Canada, having put her house in order, looks on with interest to see if her big and burly neighbour can put over by force an experiment which she long ago learned could only be reached by education.
Temperance is not tyranny. Prohibition savours of slavery. I would not have the United States and Canada bound by other ties than friendship. Let each work out its own form of government. Let each learn from the other, but let not any right or fancied right be settled except by peaceful arbitration, and may the dawn of the next 100 years find each nation seeking its neighbour’s good as well as its own.
Appendix B
Poetry Inspired by the Peace Arch
There can be little doubt that the International Peace Arch has inspired its admirers to write poems, of which the following are examples discovered in newspapers, letters, archives and elsewhere. The author has taken the liberty lightly to edit some of the poems, especially with regard to punctuation.
One Hundred Years of Peace
By Edmund S. Meany
The poet was an author and history professor at the University of Washington. Composed for the July 4, 1915 Treaty of Ghent centennial celebrated in the vicinity of the portal six years before it was built, Meany’s poem was read anew November 7, 1965, by Mary Ellen Mustapa, senior girl’s representative to the Bellingham High School student body, at a Peace Arch plaque rededication ceremony, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the treaty.
Ah, twice in the reign of an English king
Our swords in anger clashed,
And twice in a flaming battle ring
Were ancient friendships crashed.
A glory came on a Christmas night,
To men a star was lent
On Earth to glow, a beacon light—
The precious Peace of Ghent!
In cycles of years, in sun or snow,
Some ships were sorely tossed;
But O for the gleam, the constant glow—
Our star no luster lost!
In poem or book, in clanging steel,
Our hearts, our hearts are free;
Above in the throb of flying wheel,
Below in traversed sea.
And far, though a whirl in wide-flung lands,
We sing of war’s surcease;
Beneath the two flags, O outstretched hands—
One hundred years of peace!
Portal of Peace
By Edmund S. Meany
“Written for the dedication of the Peace Portal at the International boundary between the United States and Canada, near Blaine, Washington, 6 September, 1921,” stated the Bellingham Herald. It was designated the “official” dedicatory poem composed by the University of Washington professor.
I
Hold wide thy doors, Oh Portal,
Where heaves this northern tide!
Let power and faith abide
And every hatred hide
While sons of brave men live!
We know a human ocean vast
Will surge round thy strong walls.
We know that we may hear the calls
By day or distant night
When our allotted hours are passed,
And so to thy strong arms we give,
That children yet to be
May here receive from thee
A century’s quenchless light
To make the glow of peace immortal.
II
From river gulf, from harbor rock,
Men seized the fringe of land;
The edge of new world peopled,
Each village crowned and steepled,
They faced the hill and plain.
No fear of savage shock
Nor thrust of hostile hand
Could swerve their onward way.
Blue skies of hope were arching
While Britannia’s sons were marching
From sea to beck’ning sea.
Ah yes, those sons were free,
But, Oh, the mother heart could pray
And bless them all again.
We crave that blessing now
And lift this filial vow:
To bid all harmful babbling cease,
Our sons for other centuries of peace.
III
How glad our miles of willing soil
When stirred by warm, strong hands of toil!
How clang our myriad wheels and yet above
Their noise how clear each joyous song,
Song of home, of native land, of mother-lands!
Out patriot hearts their warmth prolong
To greet true men from other lands
And ask them only that there be
Respect for laws that make us free.
We know how Lincoln calmed a world
When angry passion-daggers hurled
Their challenge bold of blood and death,
Then Oh, the neighbor bond we cherish,
The brother bond where clamors perish,
When hero to hero, a heart blossomed wreath,
For Columbia’s Lincoln, great Laurier’s love!
IV
Shall we now pluck a roadside flower?
Shall we only bask in lowland, friendly sun?
Our purpose here, shall it be held so light?
No! No! We’ll scale the utmost crags!
From sea to sea we’ll twine beloved flags
And pledge anew this sacred, hallowed hour—
A steadfast faith in all the treaties white.
In honor given, in honor held with hope and power,
That faith we pledge, two nations bound as one,
And dedicate, not graceful pile of steel and stone,
But lives, human lives each soul and heart
In purpose firm till guns and swords depart.
While rivers to the seven oceans run,
While dawns illumine caverned night,
We’ll lift this faith to God’s Eternal Throne!
May These Doors Never Be Closed
By Adelene Paul
Adelene Paul’s poem appeared in the September 6, 1921 edition of the Bellingham Herald. The poem, which bore the same date, was another selection designed for the Peace Arch dedication.
Canadian brother meets Yankee today,
Where Canada’s soil meets ours,
They’ve built a gateway to brotherly love,
There’s music and crowds and flowers.
One hundred years have the doors of peace
Stood open ‘twixt your land and mine.
“May these doors never be closed,”
Down through eons of time.
In view of the calm Pacific
Whose very waters mean peace,
Where the lap, lap of the faithful tides
Never, never cease,
Where the sunset’s opal splendors
Defy man to reproduce,
As she flaunts her golden streamers
Folding earth in raptured muse—
Can there be a spot more fitting
For an open door to stand?
Where brother greets a brother
With good will and welcome hand.
Ghent and the Arch of Peace
1814-1921
By Harriet Rogers Owen
This poem, frequently read at Peace Arch celebrations, was written by a music teacher who moved to Blaine in 1900. She was active in her community, serving as secretary of the school board, and raising a family whose descendants continue to support their community. It was the first of four poems to appear in the souvenir programs distributed during the 1921 dedication of the Peace Arch.
“Is it peace or war?” said those men in Ghent
Who gathered, each with his spirit bent
By the burden of care for his nation’s fate,
In a council whose judgment to small or great
Meant home and happiness, freedom to live,
Or the curse of war and lives to give.
But God touched the strings of the Harp of Peace;
Then its song pealed forth, “This war must cease,”
And down through more than a hundred years
Has its melody thrilled in the listening ears,
And hearts of these nations who, through good and ill,
Have with honor striven its command to fulfill.
On the boundary line ‘twixt these nations great
Now frown no signs of strife and hate,
But, stretching onward from mile to mile,
Winds a silent and peaceful iron file
Of posts, mute guardians of public right
In a land where brothers no longer fight.
And before us this great Arch stands,
A miracle wrought by human hands!
A monument showing where people meet
As comrades, each one anxious to greet
With a hearty handclasp—friendship’s sign—
His kinsman who comes from across the line.
All honor be to those men in Ghent
For their right decision, heaven sent;
And this Arch is a sign to the world beyond
That the faith of two nations has welded a bond
In which holds friendship strong and war’s surcease
In a great Brotherhood of Peace.
Pax Nobiscum
1814—1921—1620
By Justin Wilson
Written for the dedication of the Peace Arch, the author, whose home was in New Westminster, B.C., wrote this poem in August, 1921. It bears a subtitle: “And the peace of God which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts.”
True to its kind, the seeds the farmer sows
Breaks through the soil, and to the harvest grows,
Then shall mankind from bitter thoughts reap peace?
The thoughts of men make hell below,
And warlike thoughts must find for their increase
The roar of battle, or assassin’s blow.
In friendship through the passing of the years,
Guiltless of blood, and of the widow’s tears,
Have dwelt in peace, men whose great aim hath been
To live as brethren, and those laws maintain,
Gifted to man by God, the great Unseen,
As surely as the sunshine and the rain.
Three crosses mark the flag the British fly,
While from the good God’s own fair starlit sky
America bedecks the line on line;
Though different, yet the flags are surely still
The emblems of a cause that is divine,
And certain tributes to a common will.
To do his will three hundred years ago,
Risking the peril of a savage foe,
Men on the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth town
To make a race that should the world subdue,
Yet using not harsh terms nor angry frown,
To win men’s hearts, the conquest held in view.
Still blood was spilt—shame it were ever so,
The God-created sinking down so low;
But then repenting for their swords they took
That which hath made them strong to conquer all,
A holier weapon—just a reaping hook;
The might of God is in such things so small.
And so men raise a monument to peace,
Praying the while that war shall surely cease,
But what is stone—doth not our God require
Mankind to seek His lasting peace above?
Torch then the cold stone into living fire,
And kindle in all hearts a brother’s love.
White Rock
By a Little Pebble
This poem, actually composed by Florence Griffin, was third to appear in the souvenir programs that celebrated the dedication of the Peace Arch September 6, 1921. From the Peace Arch, White Rock is but a two-mile leisurely walk along the sandy beach. The large white rock is still there.
“I want to go sailing,” said White Rock,
“Sailing over the sea.”
“Rocks can’t sail,” said his mother,
“You had better stay with me.”
“I’ve seen rocks sailing,” said White Rock,
“I watch them every day.”
“Those are but Whitecaps dancing
Merrily out in the bay.”
“Stay on the mountain,” said his mother,
“This is the proper place.
Rocks that lie by the seaside
Are rocks that have fallen from grace.”
“But I will go sailing,” said White Rock,
And he rolled away from her door.
Alas! Alack! Poor White Rock,
Stuck fast in the sand on the shore.
He cannot go back to the mountains;
He cannot sail out on the sea
Now this is the tale of White Rock,
As Old Kulshan told it to me.
The Border Town
By Goldie Wreston Brown
This, the last poem to appear in the souvenir program of the 1921 Peace Arch dedication, remembers the border town and its setting viewed from four directions. The city limits of Blaine, Washington, are tangent to Peace Arch State Park.
By the Bay of Semiahmoo,
On a site of past renown,
By the tossing Georgian waters
Stands the northern Border Town.
To the southward and the eastward,
Regal Baker, looking down,
Towers, a sentinel, guarding
That northern Boundary Town.
To the northward and the westward,
On the Dominion of the Crown,
Stands a house of Indian worship
Near that northern Border Town.
To the westward at eventide,
As the sun sinks, lowering down,
It reflects a radiant beauty
On that northern Boundary Town.
Wild breakers roar, white crested,
Yet none heed old Neptune’s frown,
For homes and happiness abound
In that northern Border Town.
The Portal
By Cyril Henry Green
Below this poem, published posthumously, and printed inside a decorative border on sleek, white cardboard, there appeared a remembrance. It was probably composed for the 1921 Peace Arch dedication. Green died a year later.
Most noble portal, stately, grand,
A silent sentinel you stand,
Guarding the nations’ sacred peace,
A sign that wars someday shall cease;
Long may the dove rest on thy height,
And ne’er have cause for fear or fright.
Both graciously and wisely planned,
This gateway to a neighboring land,
If either way you pass there’ll be
A welcome that is full and free;
‘Tis happiness thus to abide,
Nations in friendship side by side.
‘Tis not this edifice alone;
Nor aught that man could build of stone;
You look beyond this thing of Earth
To fully realize its worth;
You’ve seen the strife in other lands,
Then know ye why this Portal stands.
Blest children of a Common Mother,
In unity with one another;
An added tie should firmly bind,
With bonds of fellowship, mankind;
All empires great and nations small;
The Eternal Father looks on all.
In Memory of
Cyril Henry Green, age 52
Who departed this life on the
17th of August 1922
R.I.P.
A Prayer
By Carolyn Bayfield
Written in honor of the Peace Arch dedication, Bayfield’s poem was published September 6, 1921 in The Daily Colonist, Victoria, British Columbia.
The Mayflower and the Beaver,
In unity are set.
And free and trusting nations
In Peace and love are met.
And may we hold the standards,
That grace the lofty Arch,
With lasting goodwill enter
And upward, onward march.
The Peace Arch Festival
Anonymous
The November 19, 1925 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press published this poem relevant to the Blaine Chamber of Commerce’s unsuccessful attempt to schedule a “mass meeting” to establish the Peace Arch as the city theme.
Bellingham has its Tulip Show,
Lynden has its Fair.
Sumas has its Rodeo,
And we all go there.
To the Rose Carnival at Portland
They come from far and near,
While Vancouver has a Horse Show Grand –
What’s our attraction here?
The Old-Timers at Ferndale meet
And spend a jolly day,
So Blaine’s not going to be beat –
We’ll have “OUR DAY” in May,
We’re going to have a Festival,
And ‘round our Peace Arch crowd;
We’re going to make it “Best of All” –
So shout its praises loud.
Come to our meeting Friday night!
We would like your views to hear,
So we can start “OUR DAY” out right
And improve it year by year.
Inspector’s Lament
By Paul Boland
The Peace Arch milieu is for some poets a borderline experience. This poem was found in the June 23, 1932 edition of the Blaine Journal-Press. It originally appeared in the Custom’s News Service. It has been slightly edited for this book.
An inspector of customs, I stand like a sentry,
Watching the people go by.
And amusing it is, as I question each entry,
Observing the antics they try.
A few will be drunk, and more will be sober,
But all will be brimming with cheer,
Blithely remarking, while patting full stomachs,
“Buddy, you see, it’s in here.”
I inquire of them all for the things they bring in,
And am always prepared there to see,
As they answer my questions, a withering grin:
“What I’m bringing is inside of me.”
It’s truly impressive the number of wits
Cheering the world far and wide.
But inspectors of customs are awfully tired
Of the answer, “It’s all here inside.”
There’s always the hag with a hangover jag,
With a bleary, quite repulsive leer,
Who tries to be funny and pats a full tummy,
Saying, “Honey, it’s all stored in here.”
Perhaps he’s a grouch, just a chronic old kicker;
Who hates, when he questions some gump,
To have him reply with a sickening snicker,
“Apply to my stomach your pump.”
If customs inspectors should fall in life’s chores
And cross o’er the Styx, oh so wide,
They’ll hear imps in hell who’ll eternally yell,
“Hey buddy, I say it’s inside.”
Wooden Money
Author Unknown
The following poem, composed during the Great Depression and the short-lived Peace Arch wooden money era in Blaine, was published in the January 12, 1933 issue of the Indianapolis Star. It was copied and published in the February 16, 1933 Blaine Journal-Press. It has been lightly edited.
When I explore my reticule to see
What coin I’ve got,
I sometimes find a dollar there,
But frequently do not—
But I am proud that I can say
There rarely is a time
I do not find a quarter there,
Or—anyway—a dime.
I listen to their pleasant clink,
For long ago I found
In all the wide, wide world there is
No more delightful sound.
I like to hear them clinking there,
Although they are not many
(And when it comes right down to that,
I do not corn a penny.)
But, oh! I do not think that I
Would feel so very good
If all the coins that I possessed
Were fashioned out of wood!
For when I go so blithely out
My monthly duns to settle,
I much prefer to pay in bills,
Or little coins of metal.
But in some places wooden coins
Are now in circulation.
They rattle in a dreary way—
An awful situation.
And where they make those wooden coins,
I haven’t got a hint.
I guess they make them on a lathe
And not inside a mint.
It used to be a pet remark of those
Who would be funny:
“We’ll, see you later, kid, and
Don’t take wooden money!”
But that was in the good ol’ days,
And oh! How we regret ‘em.
Folks now are paid in wooden coins,
What’s more, they’re glad to get ‘em.
Three Thousand Miles of Border Line
By Guy W. Bilsland
Composed for the Armistice Day celebration of November 11, 1937, Bilsland’s poem appeared annually in every Peace Arch program prior to World War II. After the war, Nellie O. Larson of Portland, Oregon, sent a letter to the editor of the Blaine Journal, informing him that she had found a poem, written on the back of an old calendar during World War I. Missing was the poet’s name. It was Bilsland. Unaware that the poem was “Three Thousand Miles of Border Line,” Larson entitled it “A Century of Peace,” because she believed a painting bearing the same title by artist Fletcher C. Ransom had inspired Bilsland. Of special interest is the fact the poem Larson discovered contained three more stanzas than the version appearing in the 1937-1940 programs distributed at the annual Peace Arch Armistice Day celebrations. Those verses will appear in italics.
Three Thousand miles of border line!
One hundred years of peace!
In all the page of history, what parallel to this?
In times when warring nations’ thoughts are crazed with Hate’s hot wine,
How God must look with pleasure down upon that border line!
From Maine it runs through lake and stream to Manitoba’s plain,
From Winnipeg to Kootenay, on, on and on again,
Through farm and ranch and forest range,
O’er mountain Craig and steep,
To far Vancouver’s garden home by broad Pacific’s sweep.
Three thousand miles of border line—two nations side by side;
Each strong in common motherhood and Anglo-Saxon pride;
Yet each the haven and the home for all of foreign birth,
And each their final fusion point—the melting pot of earth!
Three thousand miles of border line—nor fort nor armed host,
On all this frontier neighbor-ground, from east to western coast;
A spectacle to conjure with—a thought to stir the blood!
A living proof to all the world of faith in brotherhood!
Three thousand miles of border line—nor has a century
Seen aught along this common course but peace and harmony.
O, nations bound in brotherhood! O, faith in fellowman!
What better way on earth to dwell, than this God-given plan?
Three Thousand miles of border line!
One hundred years of peace!
In all the page of history what parallel to this?
Godspeed that surely dawning day, that coming hour divine,
When all the nations of the earth shall boast such border line.
The White Arch of Peace
By Peter Barbeau
Although his poem bears no date, the tinted photo of the Peace Arch that accompanies it, bears the 1936 plaque dedicated to the remembrance of Samuel Hill while, above the roof, the Union Jack flies beside the Stars and Stripes. Peter Barbeau served as state park superintendent. Ambitious and popular, he served a stint as Blaine’s mayor in 1948.
In a quiet and Peaceful Corner
Of our quiet and Peaceful Land;
Two Nations dwell in peace and walk
With one another hand in hand.
As neighbors and as brethren too
They live together side by side.
The boundary line is but a mark
And every gate is open wide.
The great Pacific Ocean here
Laps quietly on this peaceful shore,
Where flags of Peace and Liberty
Have proudly waved since days of yore;
And in that peaceful corner, too
Deep in the midst of flowers and trees
There stands the great white arch of peace
‘Mong friendly comrades such as these.
There’s something in this quiet above
That seems to us to be Divine.
The flowers and trees and living things—
They all commune with thoughts of mine;
And on the breeze from o’er the sea
There comes a peaceful whispered song
Of peace on earth, good will to men,
For which we hope and pray and long.
Time for Peace
By Howard E.T. Cooke
Dr. Cooke composed “Time for Peace” in Blaine, Washington, bearing the date October 10, 1938. His poetry bears signs of activism, tracing the roots of war to human greed and the lust for power. Although his poem appeared in the Blaine Journal about one month before Armistice Day, he submitted another (see below) specifically for that occasion.
No peace, no peace, while lawless men
Pursue their course of selfish sway!
Our human strife will come again
Till worldly greed is put away.
The love for swag and pelf and power
Conceals its arms with mild pretense,
Until arrives the fateful hour
When passion rules instead of sense.
Prepare for peace today!
Let wicked war give way!
Old idol Mammon with his prey
Must cease his awful sway.
The time has come for brotherhood,
With panoplies of war outgrown:
The time to seek another’s good,
And seeking that, to find our own.
Old War avaunt! Go, get thee hence!
Make way for peace, for worldwide peace!
Let Love bring in her recompense,
When flaming hell of war shall cease!
Prepare for peace today!
The good time on the way—
When greed-made war has had its day,
And peace shall have its sway.
Armistice Day at the Peace Arch
November 11, 1938
By Howard E.T. Cooke
In an editorial called “Neighborly Peace,” the November 3, 1938 edition of the Blaine Journal stated: “At the request of the Journal, Dr. Cooke has written this poem dedicated to the Armistice Day Celebration at the widely known Peace Arch here at Blaine, Washington, located on the boundary line with Canada, erected to commemorate and symbolize the peace treaty relations existing for over 100 years between these two countries, during which time, there has not been and shall not be ever a single show of arms or armament of any kind on either side of the more than 3,000 miles of boundary, giving an example to the world of nations how to live as peaceable neighbors.”
Armistice! Armistice! The harbinger of Peace
To bless this war-rent world!
Longed for Day, halcyon Day! For wicked war to cease
With flag of truce unfurled!
As we mark Armistice of twenty years ago,
Lo! Selfishness and hate
Flame across Old World plains a swarth of death and woe!
What irony of fate!
Arch of Peace! Arch of Peace! Uplift your noble brow
To show the world apace
Way of Love out of War and into Peace right now
For all the human race.
Held aloft, side by side, on equal, even height,
The flags of nations two,
Waving free in harmony, by their mutual right,
Proclaim a friendship true.
Here, astride bound’ry line, erected firm to stay,
Eternal granite stone,
With a door never closed, and open either way
To famed ones and unknown.
Victory Arch? Triumphant Arch? Yea, that indeed and more.
Without a sword, without a gun—
Bloodless Arch of Victory, and never smeared with gore,
Where kindly hearts have won.
Arch of Peace, now lead us on, this Day of Armistice,
Where deadly arms none can see:
Sheathed swords, silent guns, can never be amiss
With Peace—Prosperity.
The Border Line
By William Charles Arthurs
Glendora, California
Submitted during Christmas season, this poem appeared in the December 15, 1938 edition of the Blaine Journal. Upon realizing the Treaty of Ghent was signed on the Christmas Eve of 1914, and knowing the Peace Arch symbolizes “peace on earth, goodwill among men,” the monument is appropriately a Yuletide symbol.
Symbol of Faith, and perfect Trust, for all the world a Radiant Shrine,
Raised, to the Brotherhood of Man—a Long Imaginary Line,
Which, through dividing, tightly binds, clearly defined and yet unseen,
Its simple dignity—its strength, proves to the world what might have been.
If, in the place of hate and greed, suspicion, envy, malice, lust,
They, a foundation there had laid, safe and secure, on Faith and Trust,
A Border, where no Border is with feet apart, enthralled you stand,
One foot upon Canadian soil, and one, upon your Native Land.
There, let your gaze in fancy roam; there, let your thoughts in fancy run,
Along those many, countless miles, with never a Fort, and never a Gun,
Two countries—vast, yet seeming one, where two great nations, side by side,
Apart, yet one, in Faith and Trust—in Peace and Brotherhood abide.
Symbol of Faith and Perfect Trust, to all the world a Radiant Shrine
Raised to the Brotherhood of Man, Symbol of Brotherhood Divine.
The Peace Arch
By Blanche E. Holt Murison
This poem, lightly edited, was presented at a Peace Arch State Park rally entitled, “After the War, What?” Sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the rally was held Sunday afternoon, June 2, 1940.
There is an Arch of Peace that proudly stands
With flowers as fortress and a road that wends
To fields and gardens and the homes of friends.
There is an Arch of Peace that proudly stands,
An open gate between two kindly lands.
Founded on a century’s accord
And neighborly goodwill and intercourse,
Loving the same traditions at their source.
Founded on a century’s accord,
With friendship as the only overlord.
There is an Arch of Peace where songs are sung,
Where children’s happy voices rise like birds
In melodies that need no special words.
There is an Arch of Peace where songs are sung
To the same tune in the same mother tongue.
The undefended frontier through which streams
The common ground that friendly people know;
Three thousand miles where travelers’ joy may grow.
The undefended frontier through which streams
A shining cavalcade of splendid dreams.
God bless our Arch of Peace where brethren dwell
In bonds of common good and common zeal,
Acknowledging the law of common weal.
God bless our Arch of Peace where brethren dwell
With friendship as the only sentinel.
The Road Less Traveled
By Charles Hanson Towne
In a purple and gold brochure celebrating the official opening of the King George VI Highway, held Wednesday, October 16, 1940 at Peace Arch Park’s international boundary, was an untitled poem. Edited, it was cast into verse form and given the title, “The Road Less Traveled.”
I like a road that wanders straight;
The King’s Highway is fair.
And lovely are the sheltered lanes
That take you here and there.
But best of all I love a road
That leads to God knows where.
Where the Peace Arch Stands
Lyrics by John Booth
Music by D.L. Heywood
“The writer of the words of the song ‘Where the Peace Arch Stands,’ which will be sung for the first time at the Annual Celebration in 1951, designed and landscaped the Canadian portion of the Peace Arch in 1938,” states the closing paragraph on the back page of his published sheet music.
There’s a restful little corner,
In this our peaceful land.
Where men and nature are at peace
And brothers understand.
Good neighbours, yes,
And brethren true,
They live here side by side.
No guards nor guns
Obstruct the way,
All gates are open wide.
Chorus
Here’s where the great white Peace Arch stands,
Astride the bound’ry line.
A token of good will to all,
A heritage divine.
A symbol of unselfish love
For all the world to see.
So men and nations all may learn,
Like brethren to agree.
The blue Pacific ebbs and flows,
And laps this peaceful shore.
Two nations! Banners here have waved
A hundred years or more.
The Rockies and the Cascade range
Stand guard behind the scene.
Grand old Mount Baker’s snow clad head
With glistening face is seen.
At even, when the sun goes down
In glory in the west,
There’s music in the sighing wind,
Proclaiming peace and rest
To this great land of brotherhood,
Two nations side by side,
America and Canada,
A land spread far and wide.
Eternal Peace and Goodwill
By Anthony Bedell
Dated June 8, 1956, from Everett, Washington, the author sent this poem to the International Peace Arch Program Association. “Dear friends of Peace,” he wrote. “Herein I submit a poem, dedicated to the International Peace Arch and its peace movement between our two countries. May it never die, but continue to grow through time eternal.”
Hence, the silver bells of peace
Will ring
In true melodious appeal
To bring.
Instill to hearts the zeal
To sing
Of peace, never to cease,
To bring.
Think
By Helen Vining
Composed shortly after “The Blaine Incident” of May 9, 1970, an invasion of the city of Blaine by Canadian students who had protested President Richard Nixon’s order for the invasion of Cambodia, Vining’s poem, lightly edited, was published in the May 21, 1970 edition of the Blaine Journal.
We judge Canada not by the few who march,
To splash red paint there on the arch.
They are the minority and not the crowd,
I guess that’s the reason for hollering so loud.
What useful purpose are those words obscene,
Or tearing the flag and being so mean?
Why destroy flowers, shrubs and the grass?
What was gained by breaking the glass?
What satisfaction found destroying lights,
You fools claiming you’re fighting for rights?
This demonstration is said to be for Vietnam peace;
It’s only an excuse for their fighting release.
Like sheep that follow along with the herd,
They follow a leader, not questioning a word.
Is this plan communistic inspired?
Is it part of a plan they have desired?
Look back carefully and calmly review;
Are these thoughts also occurring to you?
So you see we still offer in friendship our hands;
May this Peace Arch ever symbolize our lands.
The Anniversary of Peace
By Helen Vining
Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Peace Arch, Vining’s second poem, edited for publication, was found in the September 9, 1971 edition of the Blaine Journal. Beyond the location of her home on Peace Portal Way, little is known of the author.
The United States and Canada are brother lands;
An Arch of Peace between these nations stands,
A symbol of friendship we’ve had so long,
Proof two countries in peace can get along.
Built of concrete reinforced by steel,
‘Tis a monument to friendship we proudly feel.
It stands beside the shore of Semiahmoo Bay
In our international park—a beautiful display.
Yearly these nations’ children from all around
Come to celebrate peace on dedicated ground.
Singing national anthems, they exchange their flags,
These little people of whom each nation brags.
We love to hear the music of bands and pipes;
It’s the Maple Leaf Forever, the Stars and Stripes.
Flying symbols above the Arch of Peace,
May goodwill for our brethren never cease!
In Peace Arch Park, we’ve now gathered here,
Anniversary golden to remember this year.
‘Tis a family reunion that larger has grown;
Dwelling in Unity the world we have shown.
Children reared of a Common Mother,
We deeply respect and love one another.
Memorial park, spread near the sea,
‘Twas given for joy—for you and for me.
Blaine, the Peace Arch City
By Fourth Grade Students of Blaine Elementary School
Composed by the students in 1979, this poem was published in a 1984 Blaine centennial calendar.
Take a walk with me
And talk with me about Blaine,
The City by the Bay,
Where the sky is blue and people true
And mountains are just a look away.
Refrain
Blaine, the Peace Arch City.
Blaine, the City by the Bay.
Blaine, the place to live and play.
Blaine, Washington, is our home.
It was long ago when the Semiahmoo
Lived at the site of Blaine.
Then the shout of gold brought
Miners young and old.
Then boats brought the folks to Blaine.
Refrain
Now the Arch does show that Blaine, you know,
Is where two great nations fare,
Spelling love and good to all peoplehood
And peace that we all can share.
Refrain
Thanks to Brothers
By Helen Vining
Vining’s third poem, published in the Westside Record-Journal, February 6, 1980, delays direct reference to the Peace Arch until the foundational final stanza grounds the message. The first stanza celebrates Canadian heroism: With Canada’s assistance, six U.S. embassy aides escaped Khomeini’s Iran January 29, 1980. Earlier, Iranian revolutionaries, upon seizing the American embassy in Teheran November 4, 1979, held fifty-two American diplomats and secretaries as hostages. They remained imprisoned until January 20, 1981—the first day of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. The poem, unedited as follows, was composed prior to President Carter’s failed attempt to rescue the hostages April 1980 and long before “Irangate,” the scandalous Iran-Contra affair.
The United States and Canada are friendly allied,
We are peaceful nations living side by side,
In rescuing our people from a foreign land,
It was an act so kind and brave,
Great was the risk of life you gave,
Our praise is long and loud,
Dear Neighbor, in you we’re proud.
Now comes the threat from out Iran,
They’ll get revenge if they can,
God’s with the one who is right,
So this should give us no fright,
It was that nation that aggressed,
And was keeping humans oppressed,
Now let them try and they will see,
How closer our nations will grow to be.
Canada and United States long are known as brothers,
Our concern is for each other,
If there should ever be a doubt,
This act should prove what it’s about,
We stand together and are strong,
In a fight against these things that’s wrong.
On a symbolized arch both flags wave,
We stand together and are brave.
Blaine
By Jim Bakarich
This poem was found in The Old Fir Tree, a book edited by Marie Arbuckle, Lillian Barnes-Hinds, Carol Ann Post and Marjorie Reichhardt, and published in 1984, Blaine’s centennial year.
The name might seem a little plain,
As good names often are;
But people like to come to Blaine
From places that are far.
In Blaine they find a special place
Where sea and sky are blue—
A place apart from frantic race,
In land that still seems new.
The sunsets weave a magic spell;
White mountains nudge the sky,
While islands where the eagle dwells
Attract the tranquil eye.
On Blaine’s north line the Peace Arch lies,
An open gate to friends.
A hundred years of common ties
To honor neighbors’ bonds.
We’ve shores and streams a-teem with fish,
And gentle rains so clean,
In forests deep and fields afresh
Our lives come home to Blaine.
Standing Tall
Peace Arch Anthem
By Christina Alexander
Composed by the founder of the United States Canada Peace Anniversary Association, “Standing Tall,” copyrighted in 1999, is presented by permission of the composer. Her song, first of its kind to be recorded on compact disks, is the most recent addition in the Peace Arch poetry collection.
Standing Tall
There For All
A Symbol Of Freedom Peace & Harmony
Our Fathers Eyes
Saw Troubled Times
So They Built A Reminder
For All The World To See
Chorus:
Children Of A Common Mother
We Are Sisters We Are Brothers
Children Of A Common Mother
Sisters Brothers It’s All About You And Me
A Sign of Hope
From Sea To Sea
It Binds Together Two Countries That Are Free
Lets Not Forget
Our Precious Debt
For The Gift Of Knowing What It Means To Be
Chorus:
Children Of A Common Mother
We Are Sisters We Are Brothers
Children Of A Common Mother
Sisters Brothers It’s All About You And Me
Bridge:
Canadian’s & American’s Are Free / To Show the World Our Strong Diversity
Dwelling In Unity Canadian’s & American’s Are Free
Chorus:
Children Of A Common Mother
We Are Sisters We Are Brothers
Children Of A Common Mother
We Are Sisters We Are Brothers
Children of a Common Mother
Sisters Brothers It’s All About You
Sisters Brothers It’s All About You
Sisters Brothers It’s All About You And Me
Appendix C
Presidents of the International Peace Arch Association and its Forerunners
The International Peace Arch Association did not originate without its precursors. R. Rowe Holland, a prominent Vancouver lawyer, was elected president of the International Peace Memorial Association of British Columbia at a meeting of representatives from British Columbia’s municipal councils held at Hotel Vancouver July 13, 1921.
“In recent years a new organization has come into being known as the International Flag Day Association,” reported the April 9, 1930 edition of the Vancouver Sun. Adolph Miller, a Bellingham Insurance salesman, was founder and president of the Flag Day Association organized in 1927. The International Peace Memorial Association harmonized its aims with the Flag Day Association, especially in park development.
The International Peace Arch Program Association, founded in 1937, eclipsed and eventually subsumed the International Peace Memorial and Flag Day associations.
“Someday soon a small group of men will gather in a downtown office, pass a motion donating approximately six dollars to some other organization and then accept the resignation of their chairman,” disclosed the Vancouver Daily Province, Friday, November 3, 1950. R. Rowe Holland, the chairman, was reported to have said, “All there’s left for us to do now is to give away our six dollars. Then the job will be finished and I can resign.”
Although the roots of the International Peace Memorial Association of British Columbia are traceable to 1921, the Daily Province reported:
The organization was formed in 1923 to help the famous American road builder Sam Hill with his plan for a monument at the Blaine border crossing to symbolize the years of peace between the two neighbor nations. A lengthy campaign to acquire the property followed. Money was raised by selling membership certificates to the school children, certificates which Mr. Holland reports finding in many city homes today. . . . With construction of the park on both sides of the border, the association’s work is done. Handling of the traditional school children and veterans’ celebrations there was turned over to International Peace Arch Program Association in 1937.
Holland, who had turned eighty, was declared honorary lifetime chairman of the International Peace Arch Association in 1969.
1937 Rogan Jones, Bellingham [called International Peace Arch Program Association]
1938 Rogan Jones
1939 Rogan Jones
1940 Dr. Theodore Rasmussen, Bellingham
1941 No activity: WWII
1942 No activity: WWII
1943 No activity: WWII
1944 No activity: WWII
1945 No activity: WWII
1946 Rogan Jones [Oregon Treaty Centennial Celebration, Pres. Andrew Danielson]
1947 Rogan Jones [Peace Arch Celebration cancelled due to polio epidemic.]
1948 Mayor William M. Mott, New Westminster
1949 Art Loft, Bellingham
1950 Mayor Louis Sangster, New Westminster
1951 Norman Dews, Lynden
1952 Mayor F.H. Jackson, New Westminster
1953 Charles E. Moore, Bellingham
1954 Gladys Ellis, Newton
1955 Nellie Browne Duff, Bellingham
1956 Reeve Robert M. Nesbitt, Surrey
1957 Nellie Browne Duff, Bellingham
1958 Reeve Robert M. Nesbitt, Surrey
1959 Nellie Browne Duff, Bellingham
1960 Art Wallace, Cloverdale
1961 Nellie Browne Duff, Bellingham
1962 Art Wallace, White Rock
1963 Nellie Browne Duff, Bellingham
1964 Leslie Eggleton, Cloverdale
1965 Vernon C. McDonald, Blaine
1966 Leslie Eggleton, Cloverdale
1967 Robert Bainter, Blaine
1968 Douglas Jacobs, Vancouver
1969 Sig Hjaltalin, Bellingham
1970 Anne Woods, Ocean Park
1971 Donald Snow, Custer
1972 Anne Woods, Surrey
1973 Ted King, Deming
1974 Eve Puppyn, Burnaby
1975 Ted King, Deming
1976 Ted King, Deming
1977 Douglas Jacobs, Vancouver
1978 George E. Fisher, Oak Harbor
1979 Douglas Jacobs, Vancouver
1980 Thomas M. Marshall, Tukwila, Seattle
1981 Grant Ward, Langley
1982 Ted King, Deming
1983 Grant Ward, Langley
1984 Ted King, Deming
1985 Muriel Arnason, Langley
1986 Ted King, Deming
1987 Pat Webb, Surrey
1988 Ted King, Deming
1989 Pat Webb, Surrey
1990 Ted King, Deming
1991 Dolly Greensides, Surrey
1992 Vi Lieb, Oak Harbor
1993 Dolly Greensides, Surrey
1994 Vi Lieb, Oak Harbor
1995 Dolly Greensides, Surrey
1996 Jim Lieb, Oak Harbor
1997 Ian Dingwall, Langley
1998 Donald E. Snow, Custer
1999 Grant Ward, Langley
2000 Mary Holtz, Surrey
2001 Stan Lieb, Edmunds
2002 Sue Head, Abbotsford
2003 George Lapold, Lynden
Appendix D
PROCLAMATION
WHEREAS, the world is about to enter the twenty-first century without eradicating violence, whether it be near or far away; whether it be within domestic households or between warring nations; and
WHEREAS, the International Peace Arch, situated on the 49th parallel at Blaine, Washington, is appropriately suited to symbolize humanitarian concern for the security, tranquility and well-being of all people; and
WHEREAS, the United States and Canada, as two nations between whose borders the International Peace Arch stands, continuously bear witness to the fact that international relations—be they agreeable or not—may be endured without resorting to war; and
WHEREAS, the testimony of international peace deserves recognition and celebration as an unsurpassable benefit at home, and a persuasive model for nations to emulate abroad; and
WHEREAS, the city of Blaine, whose corporate limits touch the International Peace Arch, thereby relating that community to every humanitarian concern for which the International Peace Arch stands; and
WHEREAS, the International Peace Arch—ever a testimony for the creation, maintenance and promotion of peace—has become the object of attention, devotion and celebration ever since it was dedicated September 6, 1921,
NOW, THEREFORE, let it be resolved in solemn proclamation that the city of Blaine shall henceforth bear an official community theme entitled
PROMOTING PEACE
in remembrance of that city’s famed monument and its founder, Samuel Hill; in the celebration of international peace; and in the promotion of peace with oneself, peace within the family, peace between neighbors, peace in the community, the nation, and the world.
ADOPTED by unanimous vote of the Blaine City Council on February 9, 1998.
John Hobberlin
Mayor, City of Blaine
February 9, 1998
Attest:
Shirley R. Thorsteinson
City Clerk
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
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Cars to Remember: Thirty-seven Great Automobiles in Retrospect, by Bill Neely and John Lamm (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1975).
Four Days: The Historical Record of the Death of President Kennedy, compiled by United Press International and American Heritage Magazine (American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., 1964).
History of Whatcom County, by Lottie Roeder Roth, two volumes (Seattle: Pioneer Publishing Company, 1926).
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Pioneers of Peace, by Edith Wolten and others (Bellingham, Washington: Union Printing, 1959).
Representative American Speeches, 1944-1945, by A. Craig Baird (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1948).
Sam Hill: The Prince of Castle Nowhere, by John B. Tuhy (Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, 1983).
Samuel Hill from Samuel Hill, by Elisabeth Ehrens Wade (Prescott, Arizona: Classic Press, 1987).
Seventy-five Years: Peace Portal Golf Club, 1928-2003, by Elaine Morrison (Fraser Printers Ltd., Cloverdale, B.C., 2003).
Ship that Saved the West, The, by Derek Pethick (Vancouver: Mitchell Press Ltd., 1970).
Sons of the Profits, by William C. Speidel (Seattle: Nettle Creek Pub. Company, 1967).
Washington: A Guide to the Evergreen State, by the Work Project Administration: Workers of the Writers’ Program (Portland: Binfords and Mort, 1941)
Documents
“An Act to Authorize the Pacific Highway Association to Erect a Peace Memorial,” April 17, 1920, Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Victoria: William H. Cullen, Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. Chap. 67:359, City of White Rock Museum and Archives, British Columbia.
“Deed,” September 8, 1946, by William Tizley Whitehead, grantor. Washington State Archives, Olympia.
“International Peace Arch Program Association,” 1947 by Rogan Jones. Pamphlet, 5 pp. Rogan Jones Collection, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
International Peace Arch Program Association printed programs of annual celebrations cited for years 1938-1940, 1953, 1955-1958, 1961-1962. Vernon C. McDonald Peace Arch file, Blaine, Washington.
International Peace Arch Association printed programs of annual celebrations cited for years 1964-1969, 1971-1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1983-2003. International Peace Arch Association files, Blaine, Washington.
“Lasting Peace,” 1930, by N.D. Showalter. Circular distributed to Washington state schools. Vernon C. McDonald Peace Arch file, Blaine, Washington.
“Souvenir: International Peace Portal,” September 6, 1921, dedication document on file with the Blaine Public Library, Blaine, Washington.
“The Peace Arch Rises”, 1996, video by TCI Cablevision of Washington: Bellingham, Washington.
United States Senate, 1922. Senate Resolution No. 263. Archives: Maryhill Museum of Art.
“View Ridge—Thumbnail History,” July 24, 2001, by David Wilma, HistoryLink Database Output, Seattle.
“Wedgwood—Thumbnail History,” July 27, 2001, by David Wilma, HistoryLink Database Output, Seattle.
Periodicals
“Accommodations and Community Kitchen are Need of Public,” December 21, 1939, Blaine Journal.
“Activities at Peace Arch Park Numerous and Varied this Spring,” April 20, 1950, Blaine Journal.
“Adolph Miller Weds Miss Tress Curtin,” June 25, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“After War, What?—Theme at Border Rally,” June 3, 1940, Vancouver Sun.
“Albert Balch Named as Defendant,” August 10, 1933, Blaine Journal-Press.
“All-County Republican Picnic Slated at Peace Arch Park Tuesday Evening,” July 14, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Americans and Canadians Held Memorial Service at Peace Arch,” November 28, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“American Volkssport Association Blaine Walk,” June/July 2001, Pathfinder, Puyallup, Washington.
“Anglo-Saxons Clasp Hands at Border,” September 6, 1921, by Paul Gooding, Bellingham Herald.
“Annual Easter Egg Hunt Scheduled for April 10 at Peace Arch Park,” April 4, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Annual Easter Sunrise Service at Peace Arch Park this Sunday,” March 22, 1951, Blaine Journal.
“Annual Icelandic Day Draws Large Crowd at Peace Arch Park Sunday,” August 2, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Annual Icelandic Picnic Set for Sunday, July 22,” July 18, 1984, by Allie Johnson, Westside Record-Journal.
“Annual Islendinga Midsumarmot to be Held,” July 24, 1941, Blaine Journal.
“Annual Peace Arch Celebration is Sunday,” June 8, 1977, by Wes Janke, Westside Record-Journal.
“Annual Peace Arch Program Attended by Five Thousand,” August 6, 1959, Blaine Journal.
“Annual Peace Arch Program Ready,” May 14, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Arch Christmas Planners Hope for Good Weather,” December 4, 1985, Westside Record-Journal.
“Arch May be Placed Upon Boundary Line, The,” November 18, 1913, Oregon Journal.
“Arch Relics Seen after Sixty-four Years,” September 18, 1985, by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“Area Churches Plan Special Easter Services,” March 30, 1988, Westside Record-Journal.
“Armistice Day Program to be Broadcast Over the Mutual and Canadian Systems,” October 26, 1939, Blaine Journal.
“Armistice Day Newsreel at the AM-BC,” December 8, 1938, Blaine Journal.
“Armistice Day Peace Program was Broadcast over Continent,” November 18, 1937, Blaine Journal.
“Army of 10,000 Attend Peace Arch Ceremonies,” September 26, 1940, Vancouver Sun.
“Arnold Montoure Appointed Park Superintendent,” July 28, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Arrange Program for Queen’s Visit,” October 28, 1926, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Attendance at Annual Peace Arch Program Estimated at 10,000,” September 28, 1950, Blaine Journal.
“Attendance at Peace Arch Program Estimated 10,000,” November 16, 1939, Blaine Journal.
“August Fourth is Blaine’s Opportunity to Shine,” June 27, 1957, Blaine Journal.
“Back Peace Arch College,” March 30, 1944, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Big Attendance at Peace Arch Park,” August 14, 1947, Blaine Journal.
“Big Ceremony Planned for Peace Arch,” August 18, 1949, Vancouver Sun.
“Big Crowd Expected at Peace Arch,” June 9, 1982, Westside Record-Journal.
“Bike-A-Thon Set for May 14,” April 20, 1983, Westside Record-Journal.
“Billy Graham Would Attract a Large Audience at Park,” February 18, 1965, Blaine Journal
“Black and White?” Editorial, March 14, 1973, Westside Record-Journal.
“Black and White Paint Job Urged,” March 14, 1973, Westside Record-Journal.
“Black and White Theme Acceptable to Blaine,” February 28, 1973, Westside Record-Journal.
“Blaine Accepts Plan,” December 6, 1972, Westside Record-Journal.
“Blaine Chamber Seeks Assistance on Citywide Cleanup Campaign,” March 9, 1967, Blaine Journal.
“Blaine Businessmen Inspect New Park. Senator A.E. Edwards was Guest of Party on Inspection of Landscape Work in Peace Arch Park,” March 7, 1940, Blaine Journal.
“Blaine Earns Praise,” September 6, 1921, Bellingham Herald.
“Blaine Exposition Float had Favored Spot in Vancouver PNE Parade,” August 23, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Blaine has Done Part for Peace Arch Surroundings,” Jan. 24, 1924, Blaine Journal.
“Blaine High Senior to Speak at Arch,” May 7, 1975, Westside Record-Journal.
“Blaine Hosts Canadian-American Student Leadership Conference,” March 18, 1981, Westside Record-Journal.
“Blaine Lions to Stage Nativity Scene at Park,” December 8, 1955, Blaine Journal.
“Blaine Looks for Big Crowds at Flag Day Celebration Saturday,” June 30, 1927, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Blaine Man Recognized for Discovery,” April 17, 1991, Westside Record-Journal.
“Blaine’s Park Artist Visiting Other Parks,” October 12, 1944, Blaine Journal.
“Blaine Receives Publicity from the Peace Arch,” April 2, 1959, Blaine Journal.
“Blaine Revives Wooden Nickels,” June 4, 1975, by Scott Anderson, Westside Record-Journal.
“Blaine Superwalk to be Shown to Nation,” April 23, 1980, Westside Record-Journal.
“Blaine Thronged with Visitors During Peace Arch Celebration,” September 9, 1921, Blaine Journal.
“Blaine, White Rock Chamber to Meet with GN Officials,” July 15, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Blaine Wooden Money Gains Wide Attention,” February 22, 1951, Blaine Journal.
“Bob Bainter Elected President of IPAPA,” November 24, 1966, Blaine Journal.
Bob Hunter Column, October 3, 1969, Vancouver Sun.
Bob Hunter Column, May 21, 1970, Vancouver Sun.
“Bob Weatherly Elected as Vice Pres. International Peace Arch Association,” October 26, 1967, Blaine Journal.
“Bob Weatherly New Ranger at Peace Arch Park,” December 26, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Border Ceremony Highlights Search for Missing Kids,” June 1, 2000, Northern Light, Blaine
“Border Cities Plan Event,” October 30, 1985, Westside Record-Journal.
“Border Congestion, Crime Concern Benno Friesen,” April 12, 1976, Peace Arch News, White Rock.
“Border Crossing Fee Proposed,” February 8, 1995, by Calvin Bratt, Record-Journal.
“Border Fee Refuses to Go Away,” June 30, 1995, by Glennys Christie, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Border Memorial as Enduring as Century of Peace,” September 6, 1921, Bellingham Herald.
“Border Park Plan Revived,” April 9, 1930, Vancouver Sun.
“Border Renegade Arrested,” November 5, 1970, Blaine Journal.
“Border Station Start Forecast,” July 4, 1950, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Border to Border: Forty Days,” July 26, 1978, Westside Record-Journal.
“Border to Border Hiker Ends 218 Day Trek at Peace Arch on Friday, Sept. 15,” September 21, 1967, Blaine Journal.
“Border Toll Stinks,” September 14, 1985, Peace Arch News, White Rock.
“Boundary College Sought for Peace Arch,” February 4, 1944, Vancouver Sun.
“Boundary Marker Unveiled to Honor Land Surveyors,” October 1, 1986, by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“BPW Hosts ‘Hands Across the Border,’” September 17, 1975, Westside Record-Journal.
“Break in the Cold War: Peace Arch Crowd Told of Change in Red Imperialism,” May 24, 1955, Vancouver Sun.
“Bright Future is in Prospect for Blaine,” May 3, 1945, Blaine Journal.
“British Columbia Establishes Peace Arch Park,” November 9, 1939, Vancouver Daily Province.
“British Columbia Recalls Unveiling of Peace Arch,” April 4, 1946, Blaine Journal.
“British Columbian People Complete Peace Arch Park,” April 21, 1922, Blaine Journal.
“Bronze Tablet Honors Late Samuel B. Hill,” September 10, 1936, Blaine Journal.
“Builder of Peace Portal Golf Course is Dead,” January 17, 1946, Blaine Journal.
“Busy on Many Fronts,” May 17, 1979, Westside Record-Journal.
“California or Bust,” photo caption, August 13, 1980, Westside Record-Journal.
“Camp Fire Girls Give Tulips to Peace Arch Park,” November 14, 1968, Blaine Journal.
“Canada, U.S. Exchanges ‘Must Go On,’” June 25, 1962, Vancouver Sun.
“Canada-U.S. Peace ‘Due to Education,’” May 6, 1968, Vancouver Sun.
“Canadian Building Dedicated at Park,” May 26, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Canadians Advised Against Neutrality in Cold War,” May 16, 1960, Vancouver Sun.
“Canadians Coming in Increasing Numbers,” May 31, 1945, Blaine Journal.
“Canadians Deeply Moved by Blaine Incident,” May 21, 1970, Blaine Journal.
“Canadians say ‘Sorry’ with Flags,” May 15, 1970, Vancouver Sun.
“Canadian Holiday Exceeded all Past Records at Blaine Port of Entry,” July 7, 1960, Blaine Journal.
“Canadian Judge Donates Blaine Land for Soldiers,” February 28, 1919, Blaine Journal.
“Canadian Park Building Near Completion,” December 30, 1948, Blaine Journal.
“Canadian Peace Arch Park Kitchen Okayed,” July 1, 1948, Blaine Journal.
“Canadians Present Book,” October 13, 1976, by Frances K. Sorensen, Westside Record-Journal.
“Canadian Side of the Border Only an Eyesore, Says M.P.,” December 18, 1935, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Canadians Win in Chess Play,” August 21, 1947, Blaine Journal.
“Capsule’s Time Up,” November 8, 1985, by Olivia Scott, Vancouver Sun.
“Carols Enjoyed at Peace Arch Park,” January 13, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Celebrate in Blaine. Dominion Day, International Flag Day, Navy Day and Independence Day,” June 27, 1935, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Celebration Backed,” June 10, 1970, Vancouver Sun.
“Celebration Flag Day was Success,” July 5, 1928, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Celebration to be Held at Peace Arch,” April 28, 1938, Blaine Journal.
“Century of Peace, A,” June 13, 1946, Blaine Journal.
“Ceremony Off at Peace Arch,” September 19, 1947, Vancouver Sun.
“Ceremony Will Signify Amity of Two Nations,” September 24, 1940, Vancouver Sun.
“Chamber Directors Impatient Over New Freeway Problems,” August 13, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Chamber of Commerce Discussed Peace Arch Program,” July 17, 1969, Blaine Journal.
“Chamber Reports the Peace Arch Receiving National Publicity,” February 10, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Charles H. Davis Invited Here. Founder of World Peace Movement Tentatively Promises to Give Address on International Flag Day,” March 9, 1939, Blaine Journal.
“Charles V. Wilder Dies at 82,” January 21, 1976, Westside Record-Journal.
“Children Dominate Peace Arch Scene,” November 13, 1939, Vancouver Sun.
“Children Gave Pennies to Help Build Border Park,” November 27, 1985, by Richard Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“Children Have Sense,” March 13, 1961, by Washington State Representative Jack Westland, Congressional Record. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
“Children of a Common Mother,” September 1, 1951, by Ed Meade, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Children to Lead Peace Arch Parade,” April 16, 1968, Vancouver Sun.
“Children, Veterans to March Through Peace Arch Sunday,” June 4, 1986, Westside Record-Journal.
“Choose Your Color,” Editorial, August 10, 1983, Westside Record-Journal.
“Chorus will Broadcast,” April 11, 1929, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Christmas Nativity Scene is Being Prepared at Peace Arch Park,” December 14, 1950, Blaine Journal.
“Christening Performed Under the Peace Arch,” July 31, 1941, Blaine Journal.
“Churches set Easter Sunrise Service at Peace Arch Park,” April 6, 1977, Westside Record-Journal.
“City’s Finances are in Fine Condition,” December 4, 1924, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Citywide Holy Week Services to be Held,” April 7, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Civil Defense Directors Sign Agreement,” October 31, 1968, Blaine Journal.
“Clergymen Meet in Blaine,” April 16, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Club Celebrates,” December 13, 1978, Westside Record-Journal.
“Club Requests Peace Arch Stamp,” October 13, 1982, Westside Record-Journal.
“Coin Show Features Blaine,” February 23, 1977, Westside Record-Journal.
“Colonial Kitchen and Peace Portal Room will have Grand Opening Friday,” May 3, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Colorful Ceremony Planned at Peace Arch Centennial,” May 29, 1946, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Come to Church Easter,” April 2, 1942, Blaine Journal.
“Commemorates Century of Peace,” September 3, 1921, Daily Colonist, Victoria.
“Committees Named,” February 9, 1967, Blaine Journal.
“Communication,” June 6, 1929, by Mary A. Kelly, Blaine-Journal Press.
“Community Kitchen is Being Enlarged,” November 13, 1952, Blaine Journal.
“Concert to benefit Portal of Peace,” March 14, 1996, Northern Light, Blaine.
“County Opposes Return of Davis Highway Marker,” June 5, 2002, by Aubrey Cohen, Bellingham Herald.
“County to Pave Thirty-four Miles of Road,” May 4, 1917, Blaine Journal.
“Couple Married at Peace Arch Park,” June 30, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Covered Peace Arch Greets Crowd of 18,000,” June 16, 1993, by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“Crowd at Peace Arch Program was Generally Estimated at 20,000,” September 25, 1941, Blaine Journal.
“Crowd Expected at Peace Arch,” September 1, 1921, Daily Colonist, Victoria.
“Crowd Peaceful at Peace Rally,” June 16, 1982, by Sonja Nelson, Westside Record-Journal.
“Customs Construction Begins at Peace Arch,” May 10, 1978, Westside Record-Journal.
“Customs Facility Open,” April 23, 1986, Peace Arch News, White Rock.
“Customs Office at Boundary Open,” October 16, 1924, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Death Takes Peace Arch Designer,” August 10, 1948, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Dedicate Plaques on Boundary,” November 13, 1947, Blaine Journal.
“Dedication Ceremony at Peace Arch on Tuesday, Host Three from Japan,” May 25, 1967, Blaine Journal.
“Dedication of Jefferson Davis Highway Marker at Blaine, Washington,” May 25, 1941, by Mary Avery Wilkins, The Bulletin: United Daughters of the Confederacy, Petersburg, Virginia.
“Dedication of Peace Plaque is Held at Border,” April 30, 1936, Blaine Journal.
“Denis Durnan to Speak for American Youth at International Peace Event,” June 25, 1953, Blaine Journal.
“Describes Sunrise Service at Peace Arch Park,” April 7, 1955, by Ella Wells, Blaine Journal.
“Details Completed for Peace Arch Program in June,” April 19, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Development of Christian Unity Stressed at Peace Arch,” May 17, 1954, by Jack Delong, Vancouver Sun.
“Dick Goodman Arrives Today at Peace Arch,” May 8, 1985, by Jim Pearson, Westside Record-Journal.
“Dignitaries Inspect Peace Arch Park Home,” January 17, 1952, Blaine Journal.
“Dr. F. Henry Johnson of U. of B.C. Speaker at IPAPA Program,” May 29, 1958, Blaine Journal.
“Don Snow Elected President Peace Arch Association,” October 22, 1970, Blaine Journal.
“Downtown Study Proposes Revitalization,” August 24, 1972, Blaine Journal.
“Easter Egg Hunt at Peace Arch,” April 8, 1971, Blaine Journal.
“Easter Egg Hunts Set for Peace Arch Park,” March 23, 1961, Blaine Journal.
“Easter Egg Hunt Sunday,” April 17, 1982, Westside Record-Journal
“Easter Service a Big Success,” April 9, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Easter Service at Peace Arch,” April 13, 1933, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Easter Service at the Peace Portal,” March 31, 1932, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Easter Services at the Churches and International Peace Arch,” April 10, 1941, Blaine Journal.
“Easter Sunrise Service at Peace Arch Park Sunday,” April 9, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Easter Sunrise Service Attended by 300 People,” April 1, 1948, Blaine Journal.
“Easter Sunrise Service Scheduled at Park,” March 27, 1947, Blaine Journal.
“Easter Sunrise Service to be Held at Peace Arch,” April 19, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Easter Sunrise Service was Worthwhile Event,” April 25, 1946, Blaine Journal.
“Efforts are Being Renewed for Peace Arch Stamp Issue,” December 2, 1937, Blaine Journal.
“Eight Hundred Attend Islendingadagurinn,” August 2, 1945, Blaine Journal.
“Eight Thousand from Two Nations Pledge Selves to Hold Torch Aloft,” November 11, 1938, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Emphasis on Youth in Annual Peace Arch International Celebration,” May 2, 1968, Blaine Journal.
“Engineer Views Arch Site,” October 30, 1924, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Enthusiasm Prevailed at Peace Arch World Garden Foundation Meeting,” June 26, 1858, Blaine Journal.
“Everything Ready for Peace Arch Program,” September 2, 1921, Blaine Journal.
“Excursion Train of 1,100 from Seattle will Attend Peace Arch Program,” April 30, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Extends Peace Portal Drive,” November 8, 1928, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Extensive Plans Underway for Future Enlargement of Park,” October 5, 1950, Blaine Journal.
“Extensive Welcome Planned for Lady Baden-Powell at Blaine,” October 20, 1955, Blaine Journal.
“Fails to Locate Pacific Highway,” March 6, 1914, Blaine Journal.
“Farm Organization Groups to Meet at Peace Arch Park,” June 16, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Federal Interference at Blaine,” February 23, 1961, by Washington State Representative Jack Westland, Congressional Record. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
“Fellowship for Peace to Picnic at Park,” June 18, 1959, Blaine Journal.
“Fifteen Hundred Children Sing for Peace,” September 15, 1948, by Simma Milner, Vancouver Sun.
“Fiftieth Anniversary Commemorative Stamp,” August 26, 1971, Blaine Journal.
“Fiftieth Anniversary of Peace Arch Celebrated,” September 16, 1971, Blaine Journal.
“Fifty-second Peace Arch Anniversary Sunday,” June 6, 1973, Westside Record-Journal.
“Final Plans Laid for Annual Peace Arch Parade at Tuesday Meeting,” April 18, 1968, Blaine Journal.
“Final Plans Set for Peace Arch Celebration June 5,” May 19, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Final Preparations Made Friday for Annual Peace Arch Celebration,” September 18, 1947, Blaine Journal.
“Fitting Memorial, A,” February 4, 1944, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Five Thousand Canadian, U.S. Students Attend Peace Arch Ceremony,” September 23, 1950, Vancouver Sun.
“Flag Ceremony Held at Blaine,” July 3, 1930, Vancouver Sun.
“Flag Day Association Elects Officers, Will Incorporate,” June 5, 1930, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Flag Day Association Files Articles of Incorporation,” July 3, 1930, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Flag Day Celebration at Blaine Peace Arch July 2 Now Certain,” June 2, 1927, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Flag Day Celebration at Peace Portal,” July 4, 1935, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Flag Day Celebration Draws Big Crowd,” July 6, 1933, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Flag Day Celebration Postponed this Year,” June 23, 1932, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Flag Day Committee Hard at Work,” June 4, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Flags Exchanged at Border Ceremonies,” June 29, 1953, Vancouver Sun.
“Flags, Trees Exchanged at Peace Arch,” June 21, 1943, Vancouver Sun.
“Floodlights are Again on the Peace Arch,” February 13, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Fonda Visits Blaine,” November 20, 1974, by Ric Roff, Westside Record-Journal.
“Ford Footing Expenses of Queen Marie’s U.S. Tour,” November 11, 1926, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Form Flag Day Organization,” March 21, 1929, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Former Blaine Man Guest Speaker at Icelandic Picnic on Sunday,” August 1, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Former Icelandic Consul Decorated at Celebration,” August 1, 1957, Blaine Journal.
“Former Representative Passed Away Monday,” September 16, 1954, Blaine, Journal.
“Former Residents Enjoy Icelandic Picnic in Blaine,” July 28, 1982, by Allie Johnson, Westside Record-Journal.
“Forty-ninth Parallel, The,” November 1965, by Otto Klotz, mimeographed for the International Peace Arch Program Association.
“Founder of World Peace Movement will Meet with Flag Day Officials,” February 23, 1939, Blaine Journal.
“Four Thousand Attend Peace Celebration at Blaine,” July 5, 1915, by Paul Gooding, Bellingham Herald.
“Free Carnation for Mothers Peace Arch Park Sunday,” May 11, 1950, Blaine Journal.
“Freeway Land Added to Peace Arch Park,” March 28, 1968, Blaine Journal.
“Freeway through Blaine Completion Date Oct. 15,” July 22, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Friendship of Two Nations Stressed,” November 12, 1939, Bellingham Herald.
“Friendship Pledged by Throngs at Peace Arch,” November 12, 1938, Vancouver Sun.
“From Alaska and Argentina: Peace & Dignity 96,” June 27, 1996, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Further Improvement of Hill Memorial Park,” April 14, 1932, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Garden Plan for Blaine Peace Arch,” February 7, 1939, Vancouver Sun.
“General Services Administration to Unveil Plans for Park-friendly Border Facility,” March 8, 2001:1, By Meg Olson, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Girl Scouts Held Ceremony at Peace Arch Park,” March 12, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Gold Medal Awards Friday Night,” May 26, 1932, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Gold Medal Declamatory Contest,” May 28, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Good Roads Association Annual Convention to be Held in Aberdeen, Sept. 18-19-20,” August 29, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Good Work Done at Peace Arch,” June 9, 1927, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Government Offers $10,000 for Park,” February 15, 1939, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Governor, Premier at Peace Arch July 10,” July 6, 1972, Blaine Journal.
“Governor Signs Boundary Park Bill,” March 26, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Governor Will be Shown Blaine and Birch Bay Area,” October 24, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Gratified that Arch is Erected,” September 23, 1921, Daily Colonist, Victoria.
Ground Work Being Completed for New Picnic Area at Peace Arch Park,” August 12, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Guest Commentary,” August 10, 1983, by Stuart Andrews, M.D., Blaine, Westside Record-Journal.
“Hands Across Border Toastmistress’ Theme,” February 27, 1974, Westside Record-Journal.
“Harold W. Hunter, Noted Logger, Dies in South,” February 28, 1950, Vancouver Sun.
“Head for the Hills,” October 3, 1997, Vancouver Sun.
“Headed for Portland,” photo caption, June 21, 2002, Bellingham Herald.
“Heart Association Hiker Reaches Arch,” August 15, 1973, Westside Record-Journal.
“Highway and Park Department to Cooperate on Park Entrance,” October 1, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Highway Department Calling Bids for Landscaping and Irrigation System,” December 16, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Highway Department to Let Bids for Park Entrance Work,” August 5, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Highway 99 Dedicated as Blue Star Route in Memoriam of War Dead,” June 22, 1950,
Blaine Journal.
“Historic Treaty Completed: Two International Leaders Met at Peace Arch Wednesday,” September 17, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Historical Society Elects Officers,” February 6, 1985, Westside Record-Journal.
“Historical Society to Meet Sunday,” May 22, 1974, Westside Record-Journal.
“Historical Society to Reorganize Soon,” January 30, 1985, by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“Homecoming and Dedication at Peace Arch Assembly Church,” September 21, 1977, by Frances K. Sorensen, Westside Record-Journal.
“Home Demonstration Flower Show was Attractively Displayed,” August 6, 1959, Blaine Journal.
“Honor ‘Cradle of Democracy,’” July 28, 1941, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Hon. John Davis Lodge Gave Ringing Address at Peace Arch Program,” September 26, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Houses at Park Offered for Lumber,” March 24, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Housewarming Held for Arnold Montoures,” March 6, 1952, Blaine Journal.
“Hundreds Gather to Grieve and Remember,” September 20, 2001, by Jack Kintner, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Hundreds Visit Scene at Peace Arch Park,” December 29, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Icelanders Picnic at Peace Arch,” July 30, 1980, Westside Record-Journal.
“Icelandic Celebration Planned for Sunday, July 30 at Peace Arch Park,” July 20, 1961, Blaine, Washington.
“Icelandic Committee Plans for Celebration,” June 17, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Icelandic Day Celebration Held at Peace Arch Park,” July 30, 1953, Blaine Journal.
“Icelandic Day Picnic Planned,” July 10, 1974, Westside Record-Journal.
“Icelandic Day to be Held July 27,” July 17, 1969, Blaine Journal.
“Icelandic Day to Mark 25th at Peace Arch Park Sunday, July 30th,” July 20, 1967, Blaine Journal.
“Icelandic Minister was well Received,” July 30, 1942, Blaine Journal.
“Icelandic Picnic Then and Now,” July 26, 1978, Westside Record-Journal.
“Icelandic Picnic to be Held Sunday, July 30,” July 27, 1944, Blaine Journal.
“Icelandic Program Set for Sunday in Peace Park,” July 23, 1959, Blaine Journal.
“Icelandic Tourists Visit Peace Arch,” July 23, 1975, Westside Record-Journal.
“Impressed with Services at Peace Arch on Easter,” April 15, 1937, Blaine Journal.
“Impressive Ceremony Before 10,000 Children Gathered at Peace Arch,” November 11, 1939, Vancouver Sun.
“Impressive Ceremony Held Sunday Celebrating 150 Years of Peace,” November 11, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Improvements Made at Peace Arch Park,” June 11, 1953, Blaine Journal.
“Interagency Committee Endorses Blaine ‘Model Block’ Plan,” August 22, 1973, Westside Record-Journal.
“International Characters May Attend on Flag Day,” April 9, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“International Chess Match,” July 3, 1947, Blaine Journal.
“International Chess Match Held at Peace Arch Park,” July 30, 1959, Blaine Journal.
“International Easter Egg Hunt a Great Success,” April 13, 1950, Blaine Journal.
“International Easter Sunrise Service Set,” April 10, 1974, by Rev. Donald E. Walter, Westside Record-Journal.
“International Flag Day is Again Fittingly Observed. Fourth Annual Observance at Peace Portal Here Filled with Impressiveness,” July 3, 1930, Blaine Journal-Press.
“International Flag Day Program. Crowd Estimated at 3,000 to 5,000 Gather at the Peace Arch,” July 9, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Internationally Known Man to be Peace Speaker,” June 25, 1953, Blaine Journal.
“International Line Road as a Peace Monument,” December 24, 1915, Blaine Journal.
“International Memorial Service Held at Park for Sir Winston Churchill,” February 4, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“International Peace Arch Association to be Headed by Blaine Man,” January 28, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“International Peace Arch Program Association Celebration Calendared for May 24,” February 13, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“International Peace Arch Program Attended by Over 5,000 People,” July 3, 1952, Blaine Journal.
“International Peace Arch Program Promises to be One of the Best,” May 5, 1960, Blaine Journal.
“International Peace Arch Program Seen by Approximate Audience of Seven Thousand,” May 11, 1967, Blaine Journal.
“International Peace Arch Program Set for May 15,” April 7, 1960, Blaine Journal.
“International Peace Arch Program was Usual Impressive and Colorful Event,” September 21, 1961, Blaine Journal.
“International Peace Arch Program was Well Received by 6000,” June 5, 1958, Blaine Journal.
“International Peace Program Speech,” June 25, 1953, by Denis Durnan, Blaine Journal.
“International Picnic at Peace Arch Park,” July 10, 1991, Westside Record-Journal.
“International Program for Peace Outstanding Success for Peace Arch,” September 30, 1948, Blaine Journal.
“International Promotion for Sunrise Service,” March 11, 1948, Blaine Journal.
“International Road May be Built,” July 19, 1915, Bellingham Herald.
“International Road Wanted in County,” June 22, 1915, Bellingham Herald.
“Invitation extended to Join Peace Arch Philatelic Association,” November 14, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“IPAPA and Chamber Discuss Festival Date,” January 16, 1958, Blaine Journal.
“IPAPA is Powerful Publicity for Blaine,” September 21, 1961, Blaine Journal.
“IPAPA Program to be Televised,” September 21, 1961, Blaine Journal.
“Islendingadagurinn Attended by 1,000 People,” July 29, 1943, Blaine Journal.
“Islendingadagurinn in Blaine Park Sunday,” July 24, 1952, Blaine Journal.
“It was a Quiet Riot,” April 26, 2001, by Meg Olson and Soren Velice, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Jackson: Free Trade for ‘Corporate Greedy,’” October 21, 1992, by Calvin Bratt, Westside Record-Journal.
“James Dunn Explained Work to be Done at Peace Arch Park,” June 24, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Japanese Delegation to Disarmament Meet will Sail October 14,” September 6, 1921, Bellingham Herald.
“Jefferson Davis Highway here? Legislator outraged,” January 27, 2002, by Susanna Ray, Herald of Everett.
“Jefferson Davis Monument Unveiled Saturday,” May 29, 1941, Blaine Journal.
“Jefferson Davis Roadblock Pushed,” March 13, 2002, Seattle Times.
“Jiu-Jitsu for Women,” August 2000, by Richard Bowen with annotations by Joseph R. Svinth (ed.), InYo: Journal of Alternative Perspectives.
“John Davis Lodge Featured Speaker at Annual Peace Arch Program,” September 19, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“John Davis Lodge to be Featured Speaker at Peace Arch Program,” September 5, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Keeping the Gates Open,” June 15, 1977, Peace Arch News, White Rock.
“Kiwanis Clubs to Dedicate Plaque at Peace Arch,” November 25, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Kiwanis Club will hold Charter Night October 25th,” October 19, 1967, Blaine Journal.
“Knights of Columbus Picnic at Peace Arch Park,” August 12, 1954, Blaine Journal.
“Lady Baden-Powell Receives Colorful United States Welcome,” October 27, 1955, Blaine Journal.
“Land Acquired for Peace Arch Park,” July 14, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Large Crowd Attends Easter Services,” April 25, 1935, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Large Crowd Attends Easter Sunrise Services,” March 29, 1951, Blaine Journal.
“Large Crowd Expected to Attend Icelandic Celebration at Peace Arch,” July 26, 1956, Blaine Journal.
“Large Crowds View Magnificent ChristmasDisplay at Peace Arch Park,” December 25, 1947, Blaine Journal.
“Leather Jackets Invade Peace Arch Park and Blaine,” March 19, 1970, Blaine Journal.
“Legion Presents Arch Park Plans,” August 28, 1924, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Leslie Eggleton Elected President Peace Arch Association,” December 16, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Leslie Eggleton New President of Peace Arch Association,” February 6, 1964, Blaine
Journal.
“Less than 1,000 at Peace Arch Rally,” June 5, 1950, Vancouver Sun.
“Letter to the Editor,” May 14, 1970, Blaine Journal.
“Lions Club to Erect Nativity Scene at Park,” December 17, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Local News,” March 17, 1922, Blaine Journal.
“Look About Town at the Beginning of 1951, A,” January 11, 1951, Blaine Journal.
“Make Move for Peace Arch Park,” November 21, 1929, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Many Colorful Scenes at Canadian-American Peace Arch Celebration,” September 29, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Many Thousands View Nativity Park Display,” December 30, 1948, Blaine Journal.
“Marker at Blaine Will Make Highway 99 State Blue Star,” June 4, 1950, Bellingham Herald.
“Marshal Joffre and Party to be Welcomed Here,” March 24, 1922, Blaine Journal.
“Marshal Joffre gets Big Reception here Yesterday,” March 31, 1922, Blaine Journal.
“Mary Waterstreet Visits Peace Arch. Drove from Seattle to Blaine for Single Purpose of Viewing this Edifice of Peace,” February 15, 1950, Blaine Journal.
“Mass Meeting Tomorrow Night,” November 19, 1925, Blaine Journal-Press.
“May Eternal Peace be Commemorated,” August 23, 1921, Daily Colonist, Victoria.
“May 25 Set as Date for IPAPA Program,” April 24, 1958, Blaine Journal.
“May Use Reserve as Tourist Ground,” May 31, 1940, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Mayflower Relic. Gift for American Peace Portal. Presentation in Barn,” undated clipping may have been printed in the Birmingham Guide. Goldendale, Washington: Maryhill Museum of Art.
“Members of State Parks Committee Guests of Chamber of Commerce,” April 20, 1944, Blaine Journal.
“Memorial Day at Peace Arch,” June 6, 1948, Bellingham Progress.
“Memorial Day Service at Peace Arch Park,” June 3, 1948, Blaine Journal.
“Memorial Park Grows Around Peace Arch,” September 9, 1971, Blaine Journal.
“Memorial Services Held Monday Afternoon,” June 30, 1932, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Ministers Arrange for Easter Sunrise Services,” March 8, 1934, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Ministerial Association Planning for Easter,” February 14, 1952 by Peter H. Stroem, Blaine Journal.
“Minutes of History,” September 16, 1964, published jointly by the Burnaby Courier, Marysville Globe, and Blaine Journal in celebration of the Columbia River Treaty.
“Miss Margo Waid of Blaine High Speaker for American Youth,” May 13, 1954, Blaine Journal.
“Missing Canadian Flag Causes Peace Arch Flap,” May 25, 1964, Vancouver Sun.
“Missouri Tourists Visit Peace Arch Park,” August 1, 1957, Blaine Journal.
“More Land and Improvements Requested at Park,” June 17, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Mother’s Day Service at Peace Arch Park,” May 6, 1954, Blaine Journal.
“Mott Official of Peace Arch,” March 13, 1947, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Movement is Well Underway in Development of an International Garden,” March 6, 1958, Blaine Journal.
“Nations Meet at Peace Arch,” November 11, 1937, Vancouver Sun.
“Nations Unite in Ceremony at Peace Arch,” April 10, 1939, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Nativity Scene at Peace Arch Seen by Many Travelers,” December 21, 1961, Blaine Journal.
“Nativity Scene at Peace Arch to be Setting for Christmas Programs,” December 22, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Nativity Scene Displayed at Peace Arch Park,” December 23, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Nativity Scene Erected Again at Peace Arch,” December 22, 1960, Blaine Journal.
“Nativity Scene Lights at Peace Arch Park,” December 24, 1959, Blaine Journal.
“Nativity Scene Now Owned by Blaine Community,” December 20, 1951, Blaine Journal.
“Neighbor communities toast the future together,” By Mikael Kenoyer, January 6, 2000, Northern Light, Blaine.
“New Assistant Ranger at Peace Arch Park,” March 23, 1967, Blaine Journal.
“New Blaine Freeway Dedicated Tuesday,” November 25, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“New Border Building ‘Ready by Summer,” April 8, 1950, Vancouver Daily Province.
“New Color Theme,” Letter to the Editor, August 10, 1983, Westside Record-Journal.
“New Community Kitchen Dedicated at Park,” May 19, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“New Highway will not Damage Peace Arch Park,” December 19, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“New Lights on Peace Arch,” December 4, 1969, Blaine Journal.
“New Members of Park Commission Visit Here,” May 3, 1945, Blaine Journal.
“New Park Ranger Appointed,” June 6, 1996, Northern Light, Blaine.
“No Border Fences and no Overpasses,” March 19, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“No Man’s Land,” August 13, 1949, by Eric Cable, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Not Involved” (letter to the editor), May 29, 1950, by F.G. Patterson, Vancouver Sun.
Obituary: Albert S. Balch, September 29, 1976, Westside Record-Journal.
“Objection to Fence Through Peace Arch Park Continues to Increase,” February 23, 1961, Blaine Journal.
“Observance of First International Flag Day Passes Off Auspiciously,” July 7, 1927, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Officials Hope to Keep PACE with Traffic,” July 17, 1991, Westside Record-Journal.
“Oil Spills Pact Signed,” July 13, 1972, Blaine Journal.
“Old Landmark Destroyed,” May 12, 1932, Blaine Journal-Press.
“One Thousand Children Going to Arch,” October 26, 1938, Vancouver Sun.
“Over 500 People Picnic at Peace Arch Park,” May 25, 1967, Blaine Journal.
“Pacific Highway has been Renamed,” May 1, 1941, Blaine Journal.
“Park Commission was here Sunday,” July 2, 1942, Blaine Journal.
“Park has New Manager,” March 6, 1985 by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“Park Headman,” April 9, 1980, Westside Record-Journal.
“Park Improvement Work has Started,” January 29, 1942, Blaine Journal.
“Park Land Deal Nears Completion,” June 17, 1943, Vancouver Sun.
“Park Petition Posted to Feds,” January 26, 2000, by Ted Colley, Peace Arch News, White Rock.
“Park Project Supported,” May 7, 1930, Vancouver Sun.
“Park Supported by State Legislature,” May 7, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Park Supporters Turn to Petition,” January 26, 2000, by Marisa Babic, Now, White Rock.
“Part of Park Annexed by City,” June 30, 1995, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Paul Robeson—An Unsung Hero for Peace,” June 18, 1998, by Isaac Gilman, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Paul Robeson Speaks at Border,” May 19, 1952, Bellingham Herald.
“Pave Highway to Boundary,” July 31, 1914, Blaine Journal.
“Pay Tribute to Sam Hill,” September 5, 1936, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Peace Arch,” June 6, 1984, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch, The,” September 3, 1921, Daily Colonist, Victoria.
“Peace Arch Activity Waking Up Canadians,” Jan. 22, 1925, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Peace Arch and Boundary Treaty Centennial Accentuated as Example of World Peace,” June 20, 1946, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Annexation,” June 16, 1995, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Peace Arch Anniversary Celebration Planned,” March 14, 1996, by Harold Munro, Vancouver Sun.
“Peace Arch Anniversary will be Celebrated,” June 10, 1987, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Annual Program Well Attended,” May 20, 1954, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Appearance would be Improved by Removal of Monuments,” October 8, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Armistice Day Program Gave Foundation and Color to this Great International Demonstration,” November 17, 1938, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Assembly,” August 26, 1921, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Association Elects Officers,” November 28, 1979, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Association Holds Sixty-first Dedication,” June 16, 1982, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Association to Meet on Jan. 31,” January 25, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Builder Passes Away at 74,” January 4, 1951, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Built by Many Hands,” September 9, 1971, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration Draws Large Crowd,” June 12, 1974, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration Draws Large Crowd,” June 12, 1985, by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration Draws Small Crowd,” June 18, 1970, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration Extended Four Days,” August 5, 1921, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration Halted Due to Polio,” September 25, 1947, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration is June 13,” June 9, 1976, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration on Friday,” September 21, 1948, Vancouver Sun.
“Peace Arch Celebration Plans Take Final Form,” September 9, 1971, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration Report Given at Chamber Luncheon Tuesday,” June 9, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration Revives Memory of Sam Hill, June 14, 1946, by Alice Buchanan of Seattle, in the Wenatchee World, Bellingham Herald.
“Peace Arch Celebration Scheduled for June 13,” March 11, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration Scheduled for Sunday,” June 6, 1979, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration Sunday,” June 5, 1969, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration Sunday,” June 10, 1981, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration Takes Place Sunday, June 11, 1970,” Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration ‘Testimony of Openness,’” June 14, 1978, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration to be held on Sunday,” June 8, 1983, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration to Include Four Bands,” May 7, 1975, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Celebration to Start with Family Picnic on June 29,” June 26, 1952, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Ceremony and Plebiscite Clash,” may have been clipped from a British Columbia newspaper, possibly Sept. 11, 1921. Goldendale, Washington: Maryhill Museum of Art.
“Peace Arch Chapter of the Children’s Home Society Held Bake Sale,” November 23, 1961, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Chapter of the Children’s Home Society Presented its Charter,” March 22, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Chorus Makes First Appearance in Public Tonight,” February 16, 1928, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Peace Arch Concerts: Paul Robeson,” February 25, 1998, by Steve Douglas, People.
“Peace Arch Dahlias Received Publicity,” August 8, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch DeMolay Institution and Installation will be Open Ceremony,” February 9, 1961, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Drive New Road Name,” January 5, 1928, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Peace Arch Eagles Honor Several Hundred Mothers,” May 18, 1950, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Easter Service,” April 2, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Peace Arch Easter Service,” April 21, 1938, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Event Washed Out This Year,” September 29, 1951, Vancouver Sun.
“Peace Arch Events Sunday,” June 5, 1974, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Exhibit,” June 8, 1983, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Festival,” November 19, 1925, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Peace Arch Garden Club,” December 29, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Garden Club Meets May 5,” April 30, 1970, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Garden Club Members Tour Gardens,” August 4, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Garden Club Place Exhibit at Show,” May 25, 1950, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Gets Facelift for Big Day,” April 28, 1993, by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Gets New Coat of Paint,” May 28, 1959, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Given New Coat of Paint,” August 8, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Here to be Dedicated September 6,” June 10, 1921, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Highway to Border,” January 14, 1931, Vancouver Sun.
“Peace Arch is Suggested as Site for Radio Station,” May 1, 1924, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Peace Arch is World Symbol says Kim Staheli,” June 17, 1987, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Jobs,” January 17, 1934, Vancouver Sun.
“Peace Arch Lives up to its Name,” June 15, 1970, Vancouver Sun.
“Peace Arch Memories,” June 6, 1996, Peace Arch News, White Rock.
“Peace Arch Nativity Scene Viewed by Many,” December 20, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Officially in City Limits,” June 28, 1995, by Calvin Bratt, Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Officials Feted at Luncheon Before Program Sunday,” June 9, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Parade a Blaze of Color and Marching Units Sunday,” June 9, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park Building Going Forward,” February 19, 1953, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park Building to be Opened by Orchard,” May 18, 1949, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Peace Arch Park Given Story in Texas Newspaper,” August 29, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park has Many Varied Flowers and Shrubs,” May 29, 1958, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park has New Ranger,” August 28, 1969, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park Kitchen Popular,” December 1, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park Kitchen Popular,” November 22, 1951, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park Must be Expanded; Now is the Time,” January 4, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park Needs Larger Appropriations,” March 12, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park Ranger Promoted to State Office,” July 3, 1969, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park Ranger to Retire at End of Year,” September 5, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park Ready,” November 10, 1939, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Peace Arch Park Seems to be Overlooked by Park Authorities,” March 11, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park to be a Dream this Year,” March 21, 1946, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park to be Developed,” March 2, 1935, Vancouver Sun.
“Peace Arch Park to Get Shrubbery in May,” March 24, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Speaker Urges Positive Work,” June 20, 1939, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Peace Arch to Philadelphia: Pat Doran’s Bicentennial Feat,” July 28, 1976, by Ann Carlson, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Park Visited by 80,000,” August 19, 1948, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Park Written Up in Skagit,” October 9, 1952, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Party,” August 11, 1995, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Peace Arch Plan Gets Backing,” September 25, 1924, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Peace Arch Plan Gets Chamber O.K.,” August 21, 1924, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Peace Arch Plan Stirs Enthusiasm,” February 28, 1944, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Peace Arch Program Committee Presented Plaque by Coin Club,” April 16, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Program Committee Reports. Thirty Committeemen and School Men and Women Met at Peace Portal Wednesday,” May 15, 1941, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Program is Postponed for Present,” September 13, 1945, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Program Postponed to June 1,” May 15, 1958, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Program Sunday, June 28, 1953,” June 18, 1953, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Program Time, Secretary Change,” April 24, 1952, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Program to be Televised by KVOS,” May 17, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Program Well Received by Large Crowd,” May 28, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Publicity Certain to Reflect Future Development,” September 17, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Publicized by Washington Farmer,” October 31, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Rally Set for Sunday,” April 3, 2003, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Peace Arch Rally Stays on Schedule,” June 2, 1982, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Relics Nearly Destroyed,” Oct. 18, 1989, by Bill Hastings, Peace Arch News, White Rock.
“Peace Arch Republicans Meet Monday,” April 16, 1975, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Road Opened for Traffic,” October 26, 1939, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Road Run to get Underway July 2,” June 22, 1988, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Stamp Sought,” October 19, 1994, by Calvin Bratt, Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Stamp to go to Senate,” February 5, 1970, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch State Park Offers Guided Tours,” August 7, 1985, by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch Story Carried Over Radio by Balch,” August 4, 1932, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Peace Arch Sunrise Service Planned,” April 18, 1973, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Arch to be Beautified,” February 7, 1939, Vancouver Province.
“Peace Arch to be Dedicated September 6,” June 10, 1921, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch to be Painted and Repaired,” December 9, 1937, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch to get New Coat of White Paint,” April 14, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Undergoing Repairs and Painting,” June 28, 1956, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Visited by Thirteen Percent More People This Year,” July 28, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Arch Wooden Money Popular Here,” January 12, 1933, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Peace at the Arch,” Editorial, June 13, 1973, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Centenary is Celebrated,” July 9, 1915, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Committee Gives Approval,” February 23, 1977, Peace Arch News, White Rock.
“Peace Demonstrators Miss Peace Arch Celebrations,” May 8, 1967, Vancouver Sun.
“Peace Gathering Set for Sunday,” May 21, 1986, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace March to Raise Nuclear Awareness,” May 25, 1988 Westside Record-Journal.
“Peace Meeting at Peace Arch. Women from Seattle and Vancouver Held International Meeting in Support of World Peace Movement Saturday,” June 16, 1938, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Meeting Came Near Eruption Stage,” June 6, 1940, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Memorial Group Through,” November 3, 1950, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Peace Must be Won by Boldness, Says Ike’s Aide,” August 5, 1957, by Carol Shaw, Vancouver Sun.
“Peace Park at Peace Arch,” April 9, 1930, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Peace Plaque Re-erected at Border,” November 8, 1965, Vancouver Province.
“Peace Portal Conveys Lesson,” July 16, 1921, Daily Colonist, Victoria.
“Peace Portal First Erected to Peace,” June 12, 1921, Daily Colonist, Victoria.
“Peace Portal—Some History,” July 9, 1920, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Portal Speeches Made,” August 12, 1921, Daily Colonist, Victoria.
“Peace Rally Proves ‘Peaceful,’” August 11, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Peace Rally Report” (letter to the editor), June 17, 1950, by Dick Allen, Vancouver Sun.
“Peace Symbols,” March-June 1937, by Zonia Baber, Chicago Schools Journal.
“Peace Theme of Border Ceremony,” June 16, 1946, by Don Gooding, Bellingham Herald.
“Peace University Plan Gains Favor,” March 25, 1944, Vancouver Sun.
“Peace Vigil Planned for Sunday,” September 9, 1981, Westside Record-Journal.
“Peaceful Demonstration Held at Peace Arch,” April 6, 1972, Blaine Journal.
“Peltier Supporters Demand Government Action,” October 9, 1997, by Jim McMahan, Workers World, Workers World News Service, New York.
“Pioneer Park in Peril,” August 28, 1999, by Marisa Babic, Now, White Rock.
“Plan Dedication of Peace Arch,” July 14, 1921, Daily Colonist, Victoria.
“Plan Easter Sunrise Service Sunday: Peace Arch Ministerial Association,” April 10, 1952, Blaine Journal.
“Plane to Take Off at Dierk’s Field,” May 12, 1938, Blaine Journal.
“Plans Forming for Annual Peace Arch Days,” May 15, 1969, Blaine Journal.
“Plans Underway for Staging of the International Peace Arch Program,” September 1, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Plaque of Peace Restored to Honor,” November 8, 1965, Vancouver Sun.
“Pledge Selves at Peace Arch,” November 12, 1938, by Allan Jessup, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Portals to Peace,” June 30, 1950, by Freda Fennell, Vancouver Sun.
“Prepare for Peace Arch Dedication,” July 29, 1921, Blaine Journal.
“President Eisenhower’s Personal House Staff was IPAPA Speaker,” May 26, 1955, Blaine Journal.
“President Johnson visits, 1964,” from “Millennium Milestones” series, August 27, 1999, Bellingham Herald.
“President of IPAPA has Interview with President,” May 16, 1957, Blaine Journal.
“Proclamation of Peace, A,” September 5, 1996, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Program Announced for Easter at Peace Portal,” April 18, 1935, Blaine Journal Journal-Press.
“Proposed Peace Arch College, The,” by William H. Fisher, New York City, School and Society, September 22, 1945, Lancaster, Penn.: The Science Press, pp. 187-188.
“Proposed Peace Hall,” July 19, 1923, Blaine Journal.
“Prospect Slight for Park Improvement,” March 18, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Public Opposition to Fencing Freeway Routes into Park Meeting Results,” March 30, 1961, Blaine Journal.
“Pyle, Administrative Assistant to Eisenhower to be IPAPA Speaker,” June 27, 1957, Blaine Journal.
“Queen Marie Entertained Here Two Hours Saturday,” November 11, 1926, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Queen Marie to Visit our City,” October 21, 1926, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Radio Introduction by Manager of Station KVOS,” May 25, 1941, by Rogan Jones, The Bulletin: United Daughters of the Confederacy, Petersburg, Virginia.
“Radio Quiz on Peace Arch Park Stirs Interest,” January 31, 1952, Blaine Journal.
“Reaction from Park Luncheon Meeting has been Immediate,” March 25, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Ready for Graveling Big Highway,” July 31, 1914, Blaine Journal.
“Red Cross NW Council Met at Peace Arch Park,” August 20, 1959.
“Reeves was Present [at Peace Arch State Park] Sunday,” June 24, 1943, Blaine Journal.
“Relief Association Unable to Supply Demand for Nickels,” February 9, 1933, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Repairs Won’t Close Park,” March 31, 1976, Westside Record-Journal.
“Replica of Washington’s Flag Used Sunday,” July 6, 1933, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Rep. Veroske Takes Issue with Blaine over Border Abandonment,” May 21, 1970, Blaine Journal.
“Representatives from Twenty-five Countries at Peace Arch,” July 7, 1940, Blaine Journal.
“Representatives of Three Countries Spoke at Icelandic Picnic,” August 3, 1944, Blaine Journal.
“Residents Condemn Plans to Chop at Peace Arch Park,” by Christine W. Ross, August 19, 1999, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Residents Protest B.C. Dump,” March 13, 1985 by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“Restroom in Blaine Assured,” September 27, 1923, Blaine Journal.
“Restroom Plan Revived by Mayor,” July 24, 1924, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Rogan Jones KVOS Head Speaks on Peace Arch Park,” May 26, 1949, Blaine Journal.
“Rogan Jones Speaks at Blaine Chamber Meeting,” December 20, 1951, Blaine Journal.
Ron Rau Photo Caption, June 27, 1968, Blaine Journal.
“Spring Activities Begin at Peace Arch Park,” April 12, 1951, Blaine Journal.
“St. Leonard has Closed,” January 16, 1914, Blaine Journal.
“St. Leonard is to Stay Closed,” March 13, 1914, Blaine Journal.
“Sam Hill, Builder: A Railroad, a Castle, a Dream,” September 28, 1969, by Jeanne M. Charlton, Sunday Ledger Magazine of the Tacoma News Tribune.
“Sam Hill Entertains at his Home ‘Semiahmoo Villa,’” July 8, 1926, Blaine Journal- Press.
“Sam Hill has Plans for Beautifying Pacific Highway,” December 1, 1927, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Sam Hill: Northwest Visionary or Paranoid Eccentric?” September 1980, by Cyrus Noe, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Search Communications, Seattle.
“Sam Hill’s Symbol Spans Border, September 4, 1988, by Valerie Green, Times Colonist, Victoria.
“Samuel and Edgar A. [sic] Hill History,” September 12, 1946, Blaine Journal.
“Samuel Hill Lets Contract for Watering Golf Course,” July 4, 1929, Blaine Journal–Press.
“Samuel Hill Memorial Park Created under Danielson Bill,” July 9, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Samuel Hill’s Resort Just North of Blaine,” August 4, 1927, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Samuel Hill Resumes Work at his Semiahmoo Villa,” February 23, 1928, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Samuel Hill Sends Cablegrams to Notables of Foreign Nations and Copies are Placed in Peace Arch,” September 6, 1921, Bellingham Herald.
“Sealed with a Toast: Time Capsule Buried Today for 100 Years,” December 31, 1999, Peace Arch News, White Rock.
“Search Continues for Persons who Attended First 100-Year Event,” September 23, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Second Annual Sunrise Easter Service,” March 24, 1932, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Second Peace Arch Dedicated,” April 21, 1976, Westside Record-Journal.
“Seek Indian Land for Border Park,” June 18, 1943, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Senator Urges Fisherman to Test Courts,” August 14, 1985, by Rex Allison, Westside Record-Journal.
“Sets new Mexico-Canada Record,” July 15, 1971, Blaine Journal.
“Seven Thousand Attend Celebration at Peace Arch,” August 8, 1957, Blaine Journal.
“Sheriff Offers Traffic Help During Peace Arch Event,” April 20, 1967, Blaine Journal.
“Significance of the Peace Portal, The,” September 4, 1921, by Nan de Bertand Lugrin, Daily Colonist, Victoria.
“Site for Peace Arch at Blaine Selected,” December 5, 1919, Blaine Journal.
“Sixteen Thousand Annuals Set Out at Peace Arch Park,” May 31, 1956, Blaine Journal.
“Sketch of Swimming Pool at State Park,” February 28, 1946, Blaine Journal.
“Solemn Service Carried Out at Peace Portal,” April 13, 1936, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Speak Fine Thoughts: British Columbians Speak Eloquently at Arch Dedication,” September 6, 1921, Bellingham Herald.
“Speaker Failed at Mass Meeting,” November 26, 1925, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Speaker for IPAPA Program to Bring Special Message,” September 12, 1963, Blaine Journal.
“Stamp-Coin Show to Feature Arch Postmark,” February 19, 1986, Westside Record-Journal.
“Start Grading on Pacific Highway,” January 16, 1914, Blaine Journal.
“Start Move on Peace Arch Plan,” October 8, 1924, Blaine Journal-Press.
“State Highway Department Reports on Freeway Progress in Blaine Area,” October 1, 1964, Blaine Journal
“State House votes to strike down Jeff Davis highway,” February 16, 2002, Bellingham Herald.
“State Legion OK’s Arch Park Plans,” September 4, 1924, Blaine Journal-Press.
“State Legislature Acted on Peace Arch Memorial Stamp,” January 28, 1965, Blaine Journal
“State May Take Over Park at Peace Arch,” March 29, 1923, Blaine Journal.
“State Parks and Highway Department Plan Development of Peace Arch Park,” August 27, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“State Park Commission will have Appraisal of Prendergast Land,” February 1, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“State Parks Director Invited to Peace Arch Program on May 24,” May 7, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“State Parks Director to be Guest Speaker at Chamber of Commerce,” December 10, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“State Parks has Acquired Additional Land at Peace Arch,” March 15, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“State Park in the Making for Blaine,” February 19, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“State School Head Backs Peace Portal Park Plans,” April 17, 1930, Blaine Journal-Press.
“State Should Stop Yearly Park-closing Scare,” February 21, 2001, by Jeff Hanson, Record-Journal.
“State Spends $15,000 to Improve Park,” August 4, 1932, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Stauffer Steps Up, Poplawski Down in Blaine City Council Shuffle,” March 14, 1996, Northern Light, Blaine.
“Students Demonstrate Here: 4,000-5,000 Gather at Peace Arch,” October 2, 1969, Blaine Journal.
“Summer Attendance at Peace Arch Park Totals Over 110,000,” September 4, 1958, Blaine Journal.
“Sunday’s Program at Peace Arch Well Attended,” May 19, 1960, Blaine Journal.
“Sunny Skies Greeted those Attending Annual Icelandic Picnic on Sunday,” August 4, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Sunrise Easter Service at Peace Arch Park,” April 11, 1946, Blaine Journal.
“Sunrise Easter Service to be Held at Peace Arch Park,” April 6, 1950, Blaine Journal.
“Sunrise Services at the Peace Portal,” April 20, 1933, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Sunrise Service to be Held at Peace Arch Park,” March 26, 1959, Blaine Journal.
“Supt. Odegaard Sends Compliments to Blaine and Association,” June 24, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Surrey Council Turns Down Park Condemnation,” April 30, 1920, Blaine Journal.
Surrey Leader, date unknown. Clipping contributed by Margaret Lang Hastings describes provincial and municipal action for purchase of land for a provincial park at the International Peace Arch. City of White Rock Museum and Archives, British Columbia.
“Surveyors Commemorate Boundary Survey,” August 20, 1986, by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal
“Symbol of Peace,” Editorial, September 9, 1971, Blaine Journal.
“Symbol of World Amity. Rededication of Arch at Blaine Planned—Prince of Wales to Lay Cornerstone,” September 24, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Take Gutless Draft Dodgers, Peace Arch Ceremony Told,” June 9, 1969, Vancouver Sun.
“Teenager Runs from Border to Border,” September 12, 1973, Westside Record-Journal.
“Ten Thousand Attend Peace Arch Fete,” May 22, 1959, Vancouver Sun.
“Ten Thousand B.C. Bomb Protesters Block Border Crossings,” October 2, 1969, by Paul Knox and Mike Graham, Vancouver Sun.
“Ten Thousand Students at Peace Arch Service,” September 25, 1941, Vancouver Sun.
“Tension Engulfs Area During Amchitka Protest,” September 30, 1971, Blaine Journal.
“Thanks to Brothers,” February 6, 1980, Westside Record-Journal.
“There’s Always Something to be Overlooked, but Not the Peace Arch,” April 26, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Think,” May 21, 1970, by Mrs. Ralph Vining, Blaine Journal.
“Third International Flag Day is Observed with Impressive Ceremony,” July 4, 1929, Blaine Journal-Press.
“This Season Will See Increased Attendance at Peace Arch Park,” June 11, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Thousands Expected for Peace Arch Day,” June 4, 1980, Westside Record-Journal.
“Thousands of Autos Pass Through Blaine During Year of 1928,” January 10, 1929, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Thousands of Spectators at Peace Arch Celebration,” May 25, 1956, Blaine Journal.
“Three Thousand Seattle Children Had Merry Time. Four Special Trains Brought the Largest Excursion in History of Great Northern to Blaine,” May 25, 1939, Blaine Journal.
“To Hold Picnic at Peace Arch Park,” June 23, 1955, Blaine Journal.
“To Issue Bonds for Road Cost,” December 8, 1927, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Topic Chosen for High School Speakers at Peace Arch Program,” March 15, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Tour of Peace Arch Park Delighted Club Members,” July 12, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Tourists to have Rest Room Here,” September 20, 1923, Blaine Journal.
“Train will Carry Children to Peace Arch Celebration,” May 31, 1978, Westside Record-Journal.
“‘Trees Across the Border’ Ceremony,” June 19, 1943, Vancouver Sun.
“Trees Traded by Junior Wardens,” June 24, 1943, Blaine Journal.
“Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Peace Arch Program Attended by Estimated 7,000,” June 28, 1962, Blaine Journal.
“Twenty-five Thousand Dollars for Improvement of Peace Arch Park,” April 10, 1952,
Blaine Journal.
“Two-nation Friendship Balloons at Party,” July 8, 1987, by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“Two Thousand Attend Peace Arch Services,” April 13, 1939, Blaine Journal.
“Two Trains in ‘Peace’ Trip,” September 8, 1947, Vancouver Sun.
“Union Oil Company Officials Dedicate Memorial Honoring Peace Arch Sunday,” June 9, 1966, Blaine Journal.
“Unique Service Held at Blaine Yesterday Noon,” September 7, 1921, Daily Colonist, Victoria.
“University Plan Boosted at Blaine,” May 29, 1944, Vancouver Sun.
“University Plan Held Peace Aid,” March 30, 1944, Vancouver Sun.
“U.S. and Canadian Governments Abandon Border!” May 14, 1970, Blaine Journal.
“U.S., Canadian Friendship Pact Renewed at Peace Arch,” September 25, 1941, Vancouver Daily Province.
“U.S. Diplomat will Speak at Peace Arch Program,” July 23, 1959, Blaine Journal.
“Vancouver Couple is Married at Peace Arch,” Aug. 27, 1925, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Vancouver Interests Present Desirable Lots to Peace Arch Park. Acres on which Woodward Sign is Located to be Made Main Entrance to the Park,” November 8, 1945, Blaine Journal.
“Vancouver’s Children Will Not Forget,” November 12, 1938, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Vandal Hits Peace Arch,” May 5, 1993, by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“Vandals Hit Peace Arch,” October 24, 1968, Blaine Journal.
“Veterans of Foreign Wars Gave New Flag to Peace Arch Park,” June 22, 1961, Blaine Journal.
“Viet Civilians Aided by Peace Park Rally,” August 8, 1968, Vancouver Sun.
“Victoria Women’s Group Plan Rally at Peace Arch Park,” August 5, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Visitor Proclaims Peace Arch Park the Best,” September 4, 1947, Blaine Journal.
“Wading Pool Sponsored by Blaine Active Club,” July 25, 1946, Blaine Journal.
“Wagons Roll Despite Cold,” June 11, 1975, Westside Record-Journal.
“Want Blaine to Sumas Paving,” December 22, 1916, Blaine Journal.
“‘We Too Have Duty’: Gen. Clark,” November 11, 1938, Vancouver Daily Province.
“Weather Perfect on Sunday for Icelandic Celebration,” July 30, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Welfare Workers to Work on Park Jobs,” October 1, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“White Rock IPAPA Held Meeting Friday,” December 10, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“White Rock Woman Helped Build the Arch,” June 16, 1993, by Richard E. Clark, Westside Record-Journal.
“Whose Count?” (letter to the editor), June 17, 1950, by Jeffrey Power, Vancouver Sun.
“Why United Nations Association Can’t Sponsor Peace Arch Meet,” June 2, 1950, by Geoffrey Andrew, Vancouver Sun.
“Will Start Work on Highway Soon,” January 2, 1914, Blaine Journal.
“Wooden Arch Thirty Years Before,” September 9, 1971, Blaine Journal.
“Wooden Coin Received Here,” February 23, 1933, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Wooden Coins to be Displayed,” February 20, 1974, Westside Record-Journal.
“Wooden Money,” May 10, 1934, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Wooden Money Popularity Grows,” March 30, 1933, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Wooden Nickels Issued by Blaine Still Hold Interest,” April 30, 1964, Blaine Journal.
“Work Begins on Park Development,” December 10, 1931, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Work Nears Completion on Park,” June 30, 1932, Blaine Journal-Press.
“Work on Erection of Peace Portal Starts,” July 16, 1920, Blaine Journal.
“World Meets at Peace Arch,” July 20, 1937, Vancouver Sun.
“Youth Group to Develop Area at Peace Arch Park,” June 17, 1965, Blaine Journal.
“Youth Says Hope of Peace Lies Solely with Youth,” June 6, 1966, by Phil Holcroft, Vancouver Sun.
Unpublished Materials
“A Ten Year Program for IPAPA,” June 19, 1946, by Rogan Jones. Rogan Jones Collection, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
Address by Samuel Hill shortly after the 50th anniversary of his 1879 graduation at Harvard University. Occasion and location unknown. Incorrectly identified as “Sam Hill’s Address at the Opening of the Peace Arch, September 6, 1921.” City of White Rock Museum and Archives, British Columbia.
Canadian Broadcasting Company, Vancouver: Mimeographed instruction sheet for participants in the Nov. 11, 1939 Armistice Day celebration at the Peace Arch. Vernon C. McDonald private collection.
Cardinal Archbishop Mercier’s confirmation of blessing of Mayflower relic, February 18. 1921, handwritten by Samuel Hill. Goldendale, Washington: Maryhill Museum of Art.
Correspondence According to Date:
1940, January 9: W. Morton, secretary of the New Westminster and District Council to Rogan Jones. Rogan Jones collection. Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
1940, January 11: Rogan Jones to W. Morton. Rogan Jones collection, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
1947, August 19: William J. Herbert to Rogan Jones. Rogan Jones collection, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
1947, September 17: Rogan Jones to Art Garton, director of Department of Conservation and Development at Olympia, Washington. Rogan Jones collection, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
1947, September 17: W.R. Gelt to G.W. Gannon, secretary Bellingham Chamber of Commerce. Rogan Jones collection, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
1948, September 28: Fred Elsethagen to John Wallin, Puget Sound Power & Light, Co. Rogan Jones collection, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
1957, September 27: Rogan Jones to United States Department of State, Washington, D.C. Rogan Jones collection, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
1957, October 17: John S. Hoghland II to Rogan Jones. Rogan Jones collection, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
1965 (month and date unknown): Ted Holtzheimer, Blaine Postmaster, to the U.S. postmaster general, Washington State Representative Lloyd Meeds, Senators Henry M. Jackson and Warren G. Magnusson. Author’s collection.
1965, April 16: Harriet Seely, Seattle, to Vernon C. McDonald. Author’s collection.
1975, August 15: Rogan Jones to Senator Henry M. Jackson. Rogan Jones collection, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington.
1985, March 11: Elizabeth Trimmer, member of Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc., to Peace Arch State Park Ranger Tom Poplawski.
1995, April 28: Louise Fox, National Historic Sites Directorate, Parks Canada, to Grant Ward, vice president of the International Peace Arch Association. IPAA file.
2002, March 12: Mary Bess Johnson to Richard E. Clark. Author’s collection.
Minutes of the International Peace Arch Program Association According to Date:
1953, March 26: Surrey Municipal Hall, Cloverdale, B.C. Vernon C. McDonald, Secretary.
1957, June 28: Peace Arch State Park kitchen, Vernon C. McDonald, Secretary.
“Peace Arch,” (date unknown) by William Hastings, filed at City of White Rock Museum and Archives, British Columbia.
Peace Arch International Celebration radio script, September 25, 1940, by Rogan Jones, KVOS Broadcasting, Bellingham.
Peace Arch International Celebration radio script, September 24, 1948, by Roger Patrick, American Broadcasting Company through the facilities of KVOS, Bellingham.
“Peace Arch Park,” December 4, 1968, by Joyce Barker McDonald, North Vancouver, British Columbia, from the private collection of Vernon C. McDonald.
Enjoy Birch Bay 