LONGVIEW — In the mid 1990s, Tim Hills was in a “less-than-fulfilling” job when he hatched an idea to combine his love of history and pubs.
He and his wife frequented Portland pubs owned by the McMenamin brothers. While they loved the atmosphere and the buildings, they lamented the lack of historical information provided about the places. So he wrote a letter to the McMenamins suggesting they hire him to bring historical color and flavor to their properties. Hills’ timing was perfect: The company was embarking on the renovation of the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, so they gave him a shot.
More than 20 years later, Hills remains on a constant quest to find unique stories and characters about the towns where the hotel and restaurant chain develops new properties.
His research has helped McMenamins earn a reputation for bringing history to life through artwork, design, food and events at its 55 pub and hotel locations throughout the Northwest. As McMenamins develops a hotel and restaurant at the Port of Kalama — due to open early in 2018 — Hills and his team of two other historians have already started pouring over old documents and interviewing area families as they attempt to uncover more about Kalama’s history.
“It’s exciting. … The unknown that’s out there. To put together pieces to make a kind of a whole understanding with a project like this, it’s just great,” Hills said.
Typically, Hills starts out reading books to get an idea of an area’s major events and people. Then he interviews local historians or families with roots and then circles back to verify as much as possible through documents.
The Cowlitz County Historical Museum has offered Hills 1,600 old photographs of the Kalama’s history, plus documents such as 1922 campaign materials when the city was attempting, unsuccessfully as it turned out, to persuade the public to keep the county seat in Kalama instead of moving it to Kelso.
A Kalama native, Port Executive Director Mark Wilson has provided McMenamins with names of local families, authors and other historical experts, assistance Hills called “huge.”
“You talk to somebody or you go to a certain history book or some kind of resource and you find six other leads. … That’s the best. And you keep following that web and sometimes it takes you down somewhere that doesn’t lead anywhere, but other times it just uncovers things you never would have gotten to before,” Hills said.
Last week Hills interviewed the Wynkoop family and visited the site of the old Pigeon Springs up Kalama River Road, which was used as a source of mineral water that was bottled and sold in Portland as a health elixir at the turn of the 20th century. Lyman W. Wynkoop built a hotel there for guests to soak in the water, but the structures have seen been torn down.
Prior to this project, Hills said he knew virtually nothing about Kalama. He was surprised to find the town was planned to be a major railroad hub before Northern Pacific Railroad relocated its terminus to Tacoma, leaving the town in an economic lurch. “So the people who stayed and rebuilt and felt loyal to Kalama, they’re pretty important folks that keep the community going,” he said.
Each room in the 40-room hotel will be named after an important figure in Kalama’s history, such as John Kalama, an early settler from Hawaii. The town’s Hawaiian connections were a draw for McMenamins, and the hotel facade itself will be styled after the Pioneer Inn on Maui. The red roof and crossbeams along the porch nod to a 1870s-era former railroad hospital in Kalama.
While Hills’ research is ongoing, the company’s team of artists are already painting wood panels based on his discoveries.
“It’s just phenomenal just to see that (history) honestly come to life and to see it on the walls once we’re done,” Hills said. “I love that part and I think it’s pretty rare for a company to do that.”
