‘National Treasure’ hunt: Harbor Museum wins grant to help restore Shenandoah

The Harbor History museum has won a $130,453 federal “Save Our Treasures” grant that will help restore the deckhouse on the vintage fishing boat Shenandoah, the museum’s prize exhibit.

The grant comes from the National Park Service and the Institute of Library and Museum Services., under a program called “Save America’s Treasures.” It was announced in August.

The money will be used for the conservation and restoration of the deckhouse of the Shenandoah, a 65-foot purse seiner built in Gig Harbor in 1925.

To receive the grant, the Harbor History Museum had to prove their project needed conservation work, show they had a conservation plan for the vessel, prove they are in a situation to get the work completed and prove the Shenandoah has national significance.

“This grant brings a lot of credibility to the project,” said Stephanie Lile, the director of the museum. “We may think it’s just a local fishing boat, but when you look at it at a national context, it brings a lot of significant to our hometown, city, region. It says the history of commercial fishing was worthwhile, and this amazing object can personify that whole tradition.

“This really says something we did in our town and city is of national concern, and has the ability for national recognition,” Lile added.

Only one in state

The Shenandoah is one of 42 conservation and preservation projects representing 26 states and is the only project in Washington state that received the grant.

“It’s quite an honor because it is a federal grant that doesn’t just get handed out,” Lile said.

The restoration of the Shenandoah is a $2 million capital project, which includes enclosing the Maritime Gallery where the Shenandoah will take center stage. The goal is to complete the project by 2025, which marks the Shenandoah’s 100th birthday.

To date, more than $400,000 has been raised by individual donors in the community. The museum still needs to raise $1 million to reach their fundraising goal.

The Harbor History Museum likes to say the Shenandoah had three lives. The first was as a cannery tender in Alaska. After 1930, the boat was rigged for purse seining and fished the salmon banks south of San Juan Island. The boat was donated to the museum in 2000, where its third life began as an educational exhibit.

Once the Shenandoah is finished, visitors to the museum will have the opportunity to step aboard the vessel and get a small glimpse of what it was like to be a fisherman when the Shenandoah was first built.

Along with individual donors, the Harbor History Museum will continue to search and apply to any and every grant they can find, Lile said. With the stamp of “national significance” the Treasure grant gives the project, Lile believes it can tie them to even more large grants.

For more backstory and history on the Gig Harbor vessel visit https://www.thenewstribune.com/article238665788.html.