Nemah

Nemah

As I was blasting back from Olympia last night, this sunset image revealed itself just past the old Nemah Cafe. This is a small slough aptly named "Tide Slough" in the middle of the Nemah flats. The evening winter air was cool and a low fog formed over the salt marsh. The North Nemah River is just south of here about 400 yards. There is an old log dump at the North Nemah Bridge that was served by a logging railroad. Some of the piling and bulkheads can still be seen upriver of the bridge. Not to far from here was a WWI Spruce Division US Army logging camp that was setup for solidiers to assist in logging to provide wood for the war effort.

In the 60's and 70's, the Nemah (above the lowlands) was a favorite elk hunting area and the Cafe was operating. Most of the patrons where loggers. Two other cafes on 101 where also operating up until about 1960 or so. The Hunter's Inn was located just west on 101 from Johnson's Landing (US 101 and SR 4 intersection) and the Driftwood Inn at O'Meara Point (south of the USFWS office about 2 miles). These Cafe's are long gone for many reasons but one is that as logging got more effiecient, smaller crews became the norm, thus fewer men worked the woods. The other reason is probably related to better roads and vehicles, thus travelers didn't have to stop so often for whatever reason.