ABOMINABLE SELFIES ARE BACK

The Abominable has returned to Anacortes! After a year in lockdown, the iconic Burl Ives characters are open to the public and ready to make more happy holiday memories with you and yours! Make your way down to the Island of Misfit Toys (the Anacortes Museum Carnegie Library), and take some holiday selfies with all your favorite characters!

Each year since 2017, the Anacortes Museum has celebrated the bumbles and misfit toys with a December tribute to Rudolph and friends.

Most of the 18 large Christmas cutout murals featuring Rudolph, Sam the Snowman, Santa and other characters from the 1964 animated Christmas TV special "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer," which featured Burl Ives as the narrator and voice of Sam the Snowman. These Christmas decorations were placed out each year in Anacortes on Burl and Dorothy Ives' street frontage at 2804 Oakes Ave., to the community's great delight. The Ives' moved to Anacortes in 1989. He died here in 1995 and she died in 2016. The murals are painted on wood and range from about 2 feet to 7.5 feet in height by Eddie Strivens of Anacortes.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a 1964 Christmas stop-motion animated television special produced by Videocraft International, Ltd. (later known as Rankin/Bass Productions) and currently distributed by Universal Television. It first aired Sunday, December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the United States, and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour. The special was based on the Johnny Marks song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which was itself based on the poem of the same name written in 1939 by Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May. --Wikipedia

In 1990, Ives and Dorothy moved to Anacortes, Washington, where they lived at 2804 Oakes Avenue. He indulged his hobbies and became involved in his community, helping to raise funds for a pediatric facility and cultural center. But soon Ives' health began to suffer. On April 14, 1995, Ives died with Dorothy and his three stepchildren at his side

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives, born June 14, 1909, in Hunt City Township, Ill., grew up in a large, musical family. His father, Frank, was a migrant farmer. As they kept house and tended the family, Burl's mother, Cordella, and grandmother, Kate White, taught Burl and his six brothers and sisters how to sing Irish, Scottish and English folk songs.

He narrated the still-popular animated television movie "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

Veterans Day History

_{Eric Johnson Plays the Bagpipes}

The annual observance of Armistice Day was enacted by Congress in 1926, and it was promoted to a federal holiday in 1938. In 1954, at the order of President Dwight Eisenhower, the name of the holiday was changed to Veterans Day.

Armistice Day marked the end of World War I – which ceased at the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month of 1918.

The first anniversary of Armistice Day did not go unnoticed in Anacortes. “Armistice Day was not so generally observed in Anacortes as in other communities in the state, some of the business houses only being closed, and the schools remaining in session that day” the Anacortes American reported. “But it was in the schools, however, that the only public observance was given the day, the students at the Columbian in assembly listening to a patriotic address by Senator W. V. Wells.

Washington’s first Armistice Day anniversary in 1919 was marred when a group of World War I veterans decided to shut down the International Workers of the World office in Centralia. The “Wobblies” resisted, a gun battle ensued, and four veterans died. The following year, 1920, Gov. Hart proclaimed Nov. 11 as a holiday to celebrate Armistice Day and Washington’s Admission Day, “not forgetting to stop their activities and exercises for a moment to breathe a silent prayer of sympathy for those bereft by the acts of dastardly criminals at Centralia.” In Anacortes, Causland Post 13 of the American Legion threw a “delightful dancing party” at the New Eagles' Home.

In 1921, the recently renamed (and still unfinished) Causland Memorial Park served as a focal point of the city’s patriotic and memorial events – a role it has played ever since. Acting Mayor Trafton declared the day a holiday. Planned events, weather permitting, included patriotic songs, speeches, and sermons.

A major event took place just before Armistice Day in 1946, when War Memorial Field was dedicated at Anacortes High School. The Nov. 8 dedication was followed immediately by a football game between the Mount Vernon Bulldogs vs. Anacortes Seahawks.

On Nov. 11, 1988, a memorial with plaques listing those who died in World War II, Korea and Vietnam was dedicated at Causland Memorial Park. Eleven years later, on Nov. 11, 1999, veterans broke ground on a memorial at Grand View Cemetery to those killed in Vietnam.

_{Veterans At Causland Park}

In October of 2016 a new Veterans Memorial Plaza was dedicated at Anacortes High School after the football field was relocated to make way for construction of the new school. Designed by local architect Brooks Middleton, it describes the major conflicts the United States has been involved in, and some key local figures, such as Medal of Honor recipients James Okubo and Gerald Young.

The plaza will be open to the public on Veterans Day, 2020, with social distancing and masking requirements in place.

We're Open!!

We are happy to begin Phase 2 reopening of the Anacortes Museum's Carnegie Gallery for individuals and one "bubble" at-a-time groups beginning on September 18, 2020. Open hours will be Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM and Sunday from 1 to 4 PM. A reservation for your free visit is recommended. 

If you would like to reserve a visitation slot at the Anacortes Museum during our Phase 2 limited reopening, please phone 360-293-1915 during our open hours to arrange your visit with staff. Drop-in visits will be allowed if no visitors are present or scheduled. Visits will be limited to 25 minutes if other visitors are waiting or scheduled. 

More information on our Phase 2 reopening, current exhibits, and remote access of museum resources may be found on the museum website.

OPENING SOON

We are happy to begin Phase 2 reopening of the Anacortes Museum's Carnegie Gallery for individuals and one "bubble" at-a-time groups beginning on September 18, 2020. Open hours will be Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM and Sunday from 1 to 4 PM. A reservation for your free visit is recommended. 

If you would like to reserve a visitation slot at the Anacortes Museum during our Phase 2 limited reopening, please phone 360-293-1915 during our open hours to arrange your visit with staff. Drop-in visits will be allowed if no visitors are present or scheduled. Visits will be limited to 25 minutes if other visitors are waiting or scheduled. 

More information on our Phase 2 reopening, current exhibits, and remote access of museum resources may be found on the museum website.