Morton Historical Society & Visitor Center, Historic Train Depot & Museum

Morton Historical Society & Visitor Center, Historic Train Depot & Museum Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Morton Historical Society & Visitor Center, Historic Train Depot & Museum, Tourist Information Center, 194 Main Avenue Po Box 777, Morton, WA.

With the Museum and Historical Depot we want to preserve the varied and rich heritage of our local early pioneers, including memorabilia for homesteading, early logging, mining and our early local railroad industry.

Are you wanting a place to visit that gets you out of the heat? We have you covered. Stop by the museum the ac is on. ...
06/13/2026

Are you wanting a place to visit that gets you out of the heat? We have you covered. Stop by the museum the ac is on. We are open until 3.

Special thanks to Fairlane Armstrong, Miranda Coleman Matthews, and Angie McKenzie for modeling our historic pieces at o...
06/11/2026

Special thanks to Fairlane Armstrong, Miranda Coleman Matthews, and Angie McKenzie for modeling our historic pieces at our meeting last night:

In Honor of the upcoming Fourth of July, 250 years of America's Freedom: We had Ms, Angela McKenzie, new co-owner of Mor...
06/11/2026

In Honor of the upcoming Fourth of July, 250 years of America's Freedom: We had Ms, Angela McKenzie, new co-owner of Morton Town & Country Flowers & Gifts She modeled a very special uniform. This uniform was worn by Lee Weirick. Lee was born in Illinois on July 12 1922. She was an only child. Her father and grandfather were both doctors. At the age of 5 years old, she determined she would be a nurse. She completed her nursing training in 1943 and enlisted in the Army Nurse Corp and was assigned to the 66th Field Hospital on the East Coast. With WWII raging, she was deployed to Europe. Her nursing unit was attached to the 7th Army as it advanced through France and Germany. The mobile hospital unit Lee was in moved forward across the war zone and treated “only the severely wounded needing surgical intervention”. After the combat ended and the internment camps were opened, Lee’s unit the 66th Field Hospital was assigned to a sub-camp of Dachou in Southern Germany. Their assignment was to bring the ill and starving patients from the internment camps to a place of hope and normalcy. A difficult task on many fronts.
Lee continued in the Military for many years and at the outbreak of the Korean war, she volunteered to join the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. She served in MASH UNIT 8055, near Seoul, South Korea. They called themselves the double nickles because of the two 5’s. At the end of the war, Lee returned to the United States and was awarded the Bronze Star for her service in Korea. When pinning the award, Col. Paul Keller stated it best “for her devotion to duty. She worked within the sound of gunfire for long hours, with untiring zeal and consistently carried out her duties in an exemplary manner. She was also cited for outstanding technical skill and compassionate regard for the welfare of her charges”.
In 1972, after 27 years in the Military and many years of travelling the globe., Lee retired at the rank of Lt. Col, an amazing feat for anyone, especially for a lady in the 1940’s. Inside the uniform worn by our model is stamped LT COL LEE WEIRICK.

She settled in Tacoma and went on to become a teacher in the advanced nursing program at Pacific Lutheran University. She continued in this position for 13 years.

During this same tenure she developed a recognized program breeding German shepherds.
She had a life long love of animals and while deployed she was called on several times to treat a military dog wounded in action. Dogs were used in many ways to assist the soldiers
Lee passed at the age of 83 in Olympia, WA. Still caring for “Lucky Duck” and “Samantha”, her 2 adoring cats and her 2 dogs, “Scruffy” and “Clyde”.

We are so fortunate to have the Uniform and Metals of this amazing lady. THIS IS A SHORT VERSION OF A phenomenal LIFE, IF YOU EVER HAVE TIME, YOU SHOULD POP IN AND READ THE ARTICLES WE HAVE ON HER!

Thank you Angie for modeling for us! You are Amazing. And thank you to Morton Town & Country Flowers & Gifts for supplying the beautiful bouquets. Our very best wishes for your continued success.

The second model in our program was Ms. Miranda Coleman Mathews. You will probably recognize her as the manager at The ...
06/11/2026

The second model in our program was Ms. Miranda Coleman Mathews. You will probably recognize her as the manager at The Brew Coffee bar If you have never had a cup of HER coffee, you are missing a treat!

Miranda modeled a wedding dress donated to our museum by Clem and Ruby Reynolds.
We are very excited to have this dress in our collection. This dress was worn by Laura (Runyon) Grubb. Laura was the aunt of Clem Reynolds. Laura was married on August 20, 1932. In the original newspaper wedding announcement of Miss Laura Elise Runyon to Dr. E. Alan Grubb it states, the bride wore a white satin and lace gown. She was veiled in sweeping tulle and carried a bouquet of white roses, orchids and white sweet peas. The style of this magnificent dress is timeless…. It could be worn fashionable today. As you can see, time, 94 years has taken its toll changing the dress to ivory.
Laura was born in Nebraska in 1898, she lived to be 103 years old. She passed away in 2002, and was laid to rest in Bellevue, WA. Think about her life, she was born during the presidency of William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States. As we all know, McKinley was elected in 1897 and assassinated in 1901. Closer to home she was born before Mt Rainier National Park was established. She lived into the 21st century seeing so many changes. Her great great nephew, Ken Reynolds is a member of our Historical Society and has served on the board in the past.

Thank you so much Miranda for taking your time to model for us and for all the effort you put into making your appearance as close to Laura’s as possible. We appreciate you!

We were honored to have Miss Fairlane Armstrong, our reigning Morton Logger's Jubilee Queen, model a wedding dress recen...
06/11/2026

We were honored to have Miss Fairlane Armstrong, our reigning Morton Logger's Jubilee Queen, model a wedding dress recently rescued from the Old Settlers Museum. This dress was worn by Barbara Joan Bingaman, born on April 3rd, 1927 in Morton. She joined her siblings Eugene, Marguerite and Philip. She was the fourth child of Frank and Francis (Crumb) Bingaman. Barbara wed Don Earl Morris on February 10th, 1950. Her Mother Francis (Crumb) Bingaman made this beautiful satin dress for her daughter's wedding. It has Ecru lace trim and satin covered buttons. Barbara and Earl raised their 5 children in Puyallup but retired to Morton in 1975.

An interesting sidenote: Barbara’s grandfather, William Crumb was one of the first pioneers in Morton arriving in 1886. He came from Pennsylvania and homesteaded 1 mile west of Morton. He was also the first Justice of the Peace. Selected in 1895, he served for 20 years. His obituary states “one of the oldest pioneers, he had hundreds of friends”.

One of our Members, is a great grandson of Mr, Crumb, Charlie Russell - Marguerite Bingaman Russell being his mother.

Thank you so much Fairlane for modeling in our presentation program. We wish you the best of luck as you head into your senior year. We are proud to have you as our 2025 Morton Loggers Jubilee Queen. Thank you.

Something special is planned for our June meeting!Join us Wednesday, June 10th at 5:30 PM as we celebrate June as a Wedd...
06/09/2026

Something special is planned for our June meeting!

Join us Wednesday, June 10th at 5:30 PM as we celebrate June as a Wedding Month and commemorate America's 250th. Our curator, Becky, has arranged a unique historical presentation featuring local ladies modeling historical attire, with a few surprises that we're keeping secret for now.

Come enjoy an evening of local history, cupcakes, cookies, and coffee. We hope to see you there!

06/08/2026

‼️Reminder: ☕🍪 Coffee, cookies, & a surprise? Sounds like a good reason to join us for our museum meeting on Wednesday, June 10th at 5:30 PM. Bring a friend and come enjoy a special mystery program we're keeping under wraps for now. 👀

06/07/2026

Question for this Sunday. If you have had family that has lived in the Morton/Mineral area when did they arrive to the area?

I will go first. One side of my family arrived to Chehalis area by train in the 1890's coming from Missouri. They then made their way Harmony then to Bremer and finally Morton proper.

Address

194 Main Avenue Po Box 777
Morton, WA
98356

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 3pm
Tuesday 10am - 3pm
Wednesday 10am - 3pm
Thursday 10am - 3pm
Friday 10am - 3pm
Saturday 10am - 3pm
Sunday 10am - 3pm

Telephone

+13604960070

Website

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