125 Years Olga Memories & Potlucks Orcas Island WA Local History Cookbook 1996 For Sale

This is a very local Orcas Island history/community cookbook, and it looks more interesting than an ordinary spiral-bound fundraiser cookbook.

125 Years Olga: Memories and Potlucks was compiled by Irene Barfoot O’Neill, whose introduction says she is the granddaughter of both the Culver and Willis homestead families and grew up in Olga before returning 25 years later. The book combines local history, family recollections, maps, photographs and community recipes from Olga, the small settlement on Orcas Island in Washington’s San Juan Islands.

It appears to have been put together as a fundraiser for the Olga Community Club, but O’Neill says the project expanded when people began asking for written information about Olga’s history. So it became part cookbook, part community history. The map shows historic sites around Olga and Doe Bay, including schools, homesteads, the cemetery, ferry landing and other landmarks.

It has enough historical value that it is held in genealogy/local-history collections, and the present-day Olga community uses it as a source for its historical walking tour.