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Jan
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Shenandoah Float Find
The Week 10 Float will be hidden 4/12 or 4/13. Stay tuned for updates via our Instagram and Facebook pages! See below for float seekers guidelines. Research the history of the Shenandoah for clues/hints. Hiding places will get tougher as the weeks go on. Good luck!
The Harbor History Museum has partnered with Hilltop Artists to create a set of unique Shenandoah glass floats. From now until the end of April, just one Shenandoah float will be hidden each week until the Grand Opening of the Maritime Gallery on April 26.
Here are important Float Seeker’s Guidelines:
Each location is a public spot, so there’s no need to rummage through people’s yards, cross into dangerous territory, or trespass.
Each location has something to do with the Shenandoah’s story. These tidbits will be shared once the float in that location has been found.
If you are lucky enough to find a float, make sure to let us know by posting a picture of the float where you found it on our Facebook page or tagging Harbor History Museum on Instagram. And yes, it is yours to keep or share as you wish.
There are just 12 floats, one for each week leading up to the grand opening of the new Maritime Gallery. If you are lucky enough to find more than one during the float hunt, please consider leaving it for someone else to find since there are so few.
Be kind to other float seekers. Be careful and respectful of other people’s property. Have fun and join the journey of revealing the Shenandoah story. We’ll post more info each week, so everyone can join the fun!
Floats Found so far:
WEEK 1 - Ancich Dock: For many years during the Shenandoah's fishing days, she was moored at Ancich Dock, often alongside Andrew Gilich’s boat St. Mary. From 1967 to 2000, Shenandoah was owned and run by the Tony Janovich family. They primarily fished in the San Juans during the summer and various locations around the Sound in the fall.
WEEK 2 – Location: End of Dorotich Street on Dock: Pasco and Matija Dorotich and their two children, John and Lena, came to Gig Harbor from Port Guchion in British Columbia around 1910. Both had been born in Sumartin, Croatia (then Austria). The family lived in the house at 3400 Harborview until John's death in 1966. Pasco was the first skipper of the Shenandoah, then passed that job on to his son in 1943. Note: Gig Harbor actually had two Dorotich families; the Pasco and Matija (Gilich) family and the Joseph and Caroline (Jerisich) family. Both families had a son named John. Both Johns were boat captains—one of a fishing boat, the other of a ferry. Joseph Dorotich also had roots in Sumartin (St. Martin).
WEEK 3 - County boat ramp: In 2003, Shenandoah was hauled out at the county boat ramp and paraded through town. Even though her mast had been removed, telephone and electrical wires had to be moved in order for her to pass. The boat made her way to the property above Donkey Creek Park then owned by the Historical Society/Museum. It was in this location that Shenandoah was documented for the Historic Architectural and Engineering Record by the National Park Service. Her plans and images can be found online at the Library of Congress.
WEEK 4 - Gig Harbor BoatShop Brick House, with a view of the outside ways: In 1949, Shenandoah had a makeover. She was hauled out on the ways to have her original small cabin rebuilt at the then Glein Boatyard by talented shipwrights Nels Stokke and Hugh Denny. A new deckhouse was a new life, and skipper John Dorotich loved his boat. The deckhouse gave him and his crew a new galley and a place to gather. It gave him a cozy bunk and pilot house with windows that could be opened on warm days and closed against angry weather.
WEEK 5 - Gig Harbor Marina – Formerly Skansie’s Ship Yard: Float #5 was placed overlooking the birthplace of the FV Shenandoah. Constructed here in 1925 under the boat building prowess of Mitchell Skansie and shop foreman Sam Kazulin, the Shenandoah was built for Pasco Dorotich and his son John. Born with fishing in their blood, Pasco skippered the boat until 1943, and John until 1966. Pasco and his wife Matija Gilich Dorotich were originally from the Island of Brac in what is now Croatia.
WEEK 6 - Crescent Creek Park – Among the salmon: Catching and hauling salmon was the Shenandoah’s job. Abundant salmon runs have been central to the success of Gig Harbor’s fishing fleet for generations. This week’s float was hidden amidst the abundant Northwest underwater world of carver Jeff Samudosky’s incredible carving at Crescent Creek Park. It reminds us how important the care of the ocean and management of the fisheries are to the life cycle of the salmon.
Gig Harbor has two salmon creeks; Crescent Creek and the other known as Donkey Creek or North Creek. Shenandoah was built to catch and carry salmon, but every fisherman knows it’s essential for salmon to return to their rivers and creeks to spawn. Without safe and unpolluted spawning grounds, Northwest salmon will disappear forever. The biggest haul Shenandoah ever made in the Janovich years was 8600 Sockeye caught off the shores of San Juan island!
Week 7 - Gilich – Richardson Building: This week’s float was hidden in front of the 1924-25 Gilich-Richardson Building, pride and joy of our little bitty Boom Town! Andria Gilich had a dream to build a hotel, café, and office space, so he partnered with Richardson, and build it they did. The building was bustling with the new Peninsula Hotel, the Peninsula Café where Mrs. Theil served her famous pie, and even baths could be had for a mere 25 cents.
You might be wondering what the Shenandoah connection is. Well, it turns out that Matjia Dorotich’s maiden name was “Gilich” and Andria (Anglified as “Andrew”) Gilich was her half-brother. They both immigrated to Vancouver B.C. in their teens where Andria became a fishing boat skipper at 17. He immigrated to America/Gig Harbor in 1905. Matija married Pasco Dorotich while in Canada, and the couple later followed Andrew to Gig Harbor. Gilich’s fishing boat St. Mary fished with and was often moored next to Shenandoah at the nearby Union Oil dock. Find out more in our new exhibit, “Little Bitty Boom Town: Gig Harbor in the 1920s.”
WEEK 8 – Maritime Pier: In the 1920s, this spot was known as People’s Wharf. Ferries came and went. West Coast Grocery occupied the building we know today as the Tides. The new Washington Egg & Poultry Co-op warehouse was right next door. Here, wives watched for their husbands to return from fishing. Neighbors stopped to chat and shop for groceries. Many families shared a common language, having come from the Dalmatian Coast in what is now Croatia. Pasco and Matija learned early on that they were the second Dorotich Family in Gig Harbor. The first was Joseph and Caroline (Jerisich) Dorotich who had eight children, including a son named John. (Yes, there were TWO John Dorotichs in town, one skippered the Shenandoah, the other was a skipper on the Skansonia ferry). The Shenandoah was moored here, in this general location, in the 1950s-60s (possibly earlier), when it was Union Dock.
These two images give a good sense of what Gig Harbor looked like in the 1920s: West Side Grocery with the steamer FLORENCE moored at the dock; and a wider view of fishing boats moored in Gig Harbor in 1926. There is a fishing boat at the dock right near this location. Could it be Shenandoah? Or was she one of the boats moored beyond the low-tide line? We may never know. A big thanks to the Northwest Room at Tacoma Public Library for preserving these rarely seen views.
WEEK 9 - Janovich house on Rosedale Street: One of the classic historic houses in Gig Harbor, the Janovich House was built in 1927. It was home to the Spiro Janovich Family until 2015. Like Pasco Dorotich, Spiro had immigrated to America from the island of Brac along the Dalmatian Coast. He had served in the Austrian navy and readily took to the local commercial fishing trade. He married Katherine Parcich in 1925 and they settled in Gig Harbor. Spiro and Katherine had two sons, Anthony (Tony) and George. The boys grew up in this house, running down the hill to the dock until they were old enough to go fishing on the first family boat, the Monitor. Tony was just 22 when he took over as skipper on the Monitor.
Tony inherited the house after his parents passed, raising his own family there. When asked about buying the Shenandoah in 1967, he said, “The timing was perfect, and I was very proud to be the owner of a boat that I had known so well since I was just a kid. The Shenandoah and I were both born the same year in the same town.”
Tony Janovich donated the Shenandoah to the Harbor History Museum in 2000. He passed later that year at the age of 74. He’d lived his whole life in this house.