Been a while. Thought I’d throw you some trivia.
How’s your spelling? Depends on your history & perspective. How do you spell Why?-new-chee Lake or River?
Joe Malinowski, a Wishkah logger, Splash Dam manager & City of Aberdeen Master Mechanic for many years swore there were two “ee’s” and fought hard to move folks that way.
Quotation from “On The Harbor “ by John Hughes
“ The Daily World, following the preference of knowledgeable mapmakers & others spelled it with one “e” to the great irritation of Malinowski. He spent many years lobbying the paper, Grays Harbor County, the state and the federal government to support his spelling.
To an extent he succeeded, which is the reason you can still see highway signs with two different spellings just yards away from each other. …
However when Malinowski died on April 1, 1975 at the age of 85…the paper spelled “Wynoochee” with two “e’s in his obituary – in honor of his lifelong fight.”
What about Oyehut?
As the story goes, Oyehut has always been Oyehut, but years back a State sign worker made an error & the state road sign read Oyhut. Residents screamed. Finally the state repainted the sign, so it now directs you correctly to the little community. But as fate would have it, during that time, a developer got started with Oyhut Bay Resort. Oops. Well both spellings will be represented for eternity it seems.
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