Memories of the area...
Below, you will find reminiscences of the Tokeland / North Cove area. Anyone who feels the urge is invited to submit their memories of the area. Simply email your thoughts and ideas to tokelandwa@yahoo.com
The text below comes from Jeff Ball, of Lexington, Kentucky. The images used to illustrate this article about Sippy Slough were taken in September, 2000.
"My first trip to North River was made in 1961. I was a very impressionable 7 year-old at the time and when I found out that we were going to stay at my cousins' house boat, I thought that it was really a boat. I loved boats, especially big boats and thought that it must be a really huge boat to hold the entire family for a weekend stay. I did not know that it was actually a house on floats.
Surprise #1: I had never seen a house floating on the water before!"
Sippy Slough today.
"The first order of business for me after we arrived for our stay, well, was to take care of business. 'Where's the bathroom?', I asked. My cousin pointed to a little shed outside and said, 'In there.' 'Great,' I thought and went in and closed the door behind me. Inside was a little dark but there was enough light coming in from under the door to illuminate the toilet seat so that I could see where I was going. I did think it was a little odd that the seat was sitting on top of a wooden box.
Surprise #2: I lifted the lid and saw the river water below and little fish swimming around the moss clinging to the float logs. I was a little unnerved by this and made a point to avoid having to do my business sitting down for fear of falling in!"
"The first night of our stay was fun. We fished from the edge of the float and out in the main channel of the river. We went for boat rides up and down the river. We met and played with the kids of other families staying in other houses tied up in the same slough. We had a good time. My cousin tried to get us to jump into the water and play around. I was reluctant and did not want to because I was just learning how to swim. We were wearing life vests so we would be all right to just jump in because we would just "pop" back to the surface. My cousin even offered us a trip to the Dairy Queen in Raymond if we did. I still chickened out but my sister took her offer and jumped in. She got the ice cream!"
"The next morning brought Surprise #3:
The very same water that we had fished from, boated on and swam in the day before was GONE! When I woke up, everything that was afloat in that slough the night before was now sitting on the mud, high and dry. Were did the water go? Did someone pull the plug and let it all out? Did a big hole open up in the ground somewhere? How were we going to get back home? My cousins explained about the tides and that we were experiencing low tide and that the water would all be back just as it was in about twelve hours. That was my first experience with tides."
"One other visit to North River came in July, 1969. During this visit I was given the use of a little jon boat with a small outboard motor. I got in that boat and went exploring from one end of the slough to the other and all up and down the river. It was also my job to take empty jugs and go up river to get fresh water from a waterfall that drained into the river. That water was used to make coffee on a little wood-burning stove inside the float house. I can still smell the aroma of the wood smoke. When the mornings were chilly and foggy or rainy that coffee sure hit the spot. The little transistor radio they had was playing "In The Year 2525" by Zager and Evans and later that week, Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. What a memory that was!"
"I made about three or four trips to North River in all. Each one was memorable and the house boat and North River became one of my most favorite places to go. My family subsequently moved from Washington State and the chance to go back became difficult. My last trip to the house boat to visit my cousins was in 1978. It was Labor Day weekend and we got together with other people on the river for a pig roast. It was great! We also did some fishing and I caught a large salmon and a sturgeon. The salmon was memorable for its size and the sturgeon was memorable for its ugliness but it was still fun to catch.
My cousins have both passed away now. The house boat has been sold out of their family. But I will be forever grateful to them for their gift of sharing their house boat and their life on North River. I wish that I could have had the opportunity to share those experiences with my wife and son.
If you happen to go up North River from the Smith Creek Ranch, I believe their house was located in the second slough on the left of the main channel. There used to be a hand-painted sign on the first piling of the float that read 'Sippy Slough.' The sign had a drawing of a tipsy bird holding a liquor bottle. Once you get to the slough, the house boat was the third float back. It was painted brown with green trim on the windows."
Images on this page are copyright Merrill Photography, all rights reserved.
