https://www.historicoakharbor.org/home daily 0.75 2016-01-29 https://www.historicoakharbor.org/artists daily 0.75 2012-10-07 https://www.historicoakharbor.org/news daily 0.75 2016-02-23 https://www.historicoakharbor.org/welcome daily 1.0 2013-01-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524348244502-Z0TI4XB66W6NKGMZORP2/whidbey91038_edited.jpg Historic Oak Harbor https://www.historicoakharbor.org/banner daily 0.75 2018-01-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1523135469931-9P1OF6TFX0X1UN3EX544/bridge.png Banner https://www.historicoakharbor.org/contact daily 0.75 2018-04-14 https://www.historicoakharbor.org/masten-variety daily 0.75 2022-02-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526255354396-RB09DEX95PQT1QTYZO25/IMAGE_1412.jpg Masten Variety - Masten Variety Est. 1889 as Hill General Store There was a slight step, and the heavy door with the plate glass window squeaked mightily as it swung open, albeit a bit stiffly, as this door had been greeting guests well before I, or even my mother, had been born. The bells on the door would clatter and announce our presence. Walking into Masten Variety, Five and Dime store was a familiar and welcoming feeling, like being greeted by one’s grandparents. In fact, the store held a bit of magic. Mixed in with a slightly musty smell, and some dust, the wooden floor creaked and groaned as I’d peruse the aisles. I knew the shopkeeper knew exactly what aisle anyone was in, as the floor seemed to emanate even the slightest step. We’d save up and buy marbles, playing for keeps as we shot our aggies, clearies, and cat’s eye’s. Sometimes we’d hope we could afford a “paper” airplane made of flimsy wood, with wings and a tail that fit together by aligning and sliding each piece into a small cut out slot. Everyone came in to buy Tootsie pops, hoping we’d unfold the Tootsie pop wrapper and spy the young Indian (Native American) wearing the head dress, shooting his bow and arrow at the star. We knew that wrapper, if you brought it back in, was worth a free Tootsie pop. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526255400769-KCHJ4J45NCXRZR2Q7QN3/IMG_0768.jpg Masten Variety My earliest recollection of Masten’s was as a five year old child in the early 1970’s, although Five and Dime shops were the rage in the early 1920’s. These stores had many common household goods, as well as candy, clothing, gifts, novelties. Some had soda fountains and ice cream. Everything cost only a nickel or a dime. In the 1970’s Masten’s still graced Oak Harbor, like an old sentinel standing watch. It wasn’t the most popular store in the 1970’s, but being that we didn’t have a lot of money, it was a treat to go into Masten’s and be allowed to pick a small toy. Inflation had done away with the five and dime price point, but to me as a young child what graced those shelves was priceless. Even then, I knew Masten’s was special, and again, that familiar feeling of a grandparent or old friend took hold the moment I’d cross that threshold. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526255450431-C2D1USIMZJJJV2Y7UISV/MastonsVariety.jpg Masten Variety Masten’s was in the day, the go to store. In the 70’s it’s time was waning, and competition won out eventually as larger, newer, and better stocked stores came into Oak Harbor. Lest we never forget Masten’s and how it graced Oak Harbor for many years, before being retired and dying away, just like a lost loved one or grandparent. Memories tug at my heart for this silent sentinel that has watched the very face of our town change and grow as it succumbed a slow death. Our memories live on in familiar recollection for what was once Masten Variety Five and Dime. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524353034341-EK0ASTWO2EOQGZ8G2K3N/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg Masten Variety https://www.historicoakharbor.org/citybeach daily 0.75 2018-05-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526256783342-O2ZRCMA2RRBY73MYTFD0/maxresdefault.jpg City Beach - City Beach Windjammer Park is the City of Oak Harbor's major community park. Windjammer Park (also known as City Beach) is 28.5 acres located at 1600 S. Beeksma Drive, along the harbor in the downtown area. Windjammer Park has many fine qualities to be admired, such as the lagoon, windmill and numerous playgrounds. Many people like to use Windjammer Park for their family gatherings such as reunions, birthday parties, weddings and picnics. The Facilities - kitchens, gazebo and canopy - can be reserved by contacting the City of Oak Harbor Utilities Office at 360-279-4530.   What you'll find at Windjammer Park: 2,100 lineal feet of Oak Harbor Waterfront Trail three Little League baseball fields two tot lot playgrounds shoreline picnic tables and barbecue pits with wind breaks covered picnic facilities/kitchens for large groups a windmill landmark an exercise course seasonal gardens one practice field two basketball courts two volleyball courts (portable) one boat launch a recreational vehicle park with 56 serviced sites and 30 non-serviced sites a swimming lagoon with dock and slide - Please Note: No Lifeguard on duty, swim at own risk. two public restrooms (one with showers) the east side of the park has two kitchens that can be reserved the west side of the park has a large kitchen, gazebo and canopy that can be reserved https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524353034341-EK0ASTWO2EOQGZ8G2K3N/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg City Beach https://www.historicoakharbor.org/blue-fox-drivein daily 0.75 2022-02-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526256980725-S8SIQ6CPFTY7NVM13E67/99443fadcf6e7f129addc14f62ed6e04.jpg Blue Fox Drive-In - Blue Fox Drive-In Established 1959. 280 car capacity. I practically raised my kids here. You helped jump every car I have owned when the battery died from the kids playing with the lights and messing with the controls. I hope everyone has the chance to spend a summer night watching a triple feature with a bucket of popcorn, pajamas, and a blanket. If there was a James Beard award for movie theaters, you'd win hands down. Thanks for the good memories. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524353034341-EK0ASTWO2EOQGZ8G2K3N/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg Blue Fox Drive-In https://www.historicoakharbor.org/kow-korner daily 0.75 2018-05-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526257259683-FQRK07W6IG7HVKO30LWH/25591867_1662137543848747_449669703513950817_n.jpg Kow Korner - Kow Korner 1956 - 2000 I recall it like it was yesterday...... scraping the floor board of my car for change for just shy of a buck, for a sackful of burgers. Burgers that weren’t from anywhere else, because it was a place like nowhere else ......Kow Korner. Oak Harbor’s true first burger joint and drive thru. However, it wasn’t just a burger joint. It’s a memory, an iconic part of Oak Harbor. Something special tied into a mix of nostalgia. Was it how we’d cruise the street back and forth on Friday nights, to see whom of our high school friends were parked outside? How we’d sit on the hood of our cars, watching other people cruise by - as the cigarette we snuck curled tendrils of smoke into the crisp night air? How it was a gathering place after football games, or school events? How families would come to enjoy a night out? Car shows and meet ups? Or was it simply those amazing burgers - the ones that tasted of our joys and sorrows as we grew up, moved away, but knew we could come back and that icon, that landmark ~ would great us on the way into town. Sadly, we moved away, and the icon went away. The memories that persevere are endearing. Much like the historic windmill at City Beach, or Chris’ Bakery downtown, icons that have disappeared leaving a hole in our charming and sleepy little town. Much as Chris’ has come back .....we’d love to see our landmark, and the burgers, of a by gone era, come back as well. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526267332972-KIBXT20VAKBNWT2PMSJ1/9+%282%29.jpg Kow Korner https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526267340196-FKQU9K5PHOQ9Q1M3LB4S/8+%282%29.jpg Kow Korner https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526267353076-TFSS9OQB0EKOUW6X3LIB/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg Kow Korner https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526267368792-3VIW4FX9UGFBIZEOTN44/index_image836.jpg Kow Korner https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524353034341-EK0ASTWO2EOQGZ8G2K3N/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg Kow Korner https://www.historicoakharbor.org/chris-bakery daily 0.75 2018-05-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526257548592-CKZT9WPQRJL62IVAOUID/64653whidbeyChrisbakery1.jpg Chris' Bakery - Chris' Bakery Est. 1948 https://www.historicoakharbor.org/arctic-circle daily 0.75 2018-05-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526258108187-FQ5NLQZJQCM1A891HRR3/ls.jpg Arctic Circle - Arctic Circle Est. 1950 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524353034341-EK0ASTWO2EOQGZ8G2K3N/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg Arctic Circle https://www.historicoakharbor.org/whidbey-cinema daily 0.75 2022-02-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526258430267-K51IIHX5LHKP3S7WSW5V/173px-Oakharbormovies.jpg Whidbey Cinema - Whidbey Cinema 1920 - 1985 The Oak Harbor Theater opened in 1920. Later renamed Old Town Cinema it operated until 1985. Nice Art Deco interior, but it became partly gutted and has since been demolished. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524353034341-EK0ASTWO2EOQGZ8G2K3N/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg Whidbey Cinema https://www.historicoakharbor.org/roller-barn daily 0.75 2022-02-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526259108718-9BLD3VBQU3TNX9ZMT0FC/30fac37f770e18d54d4e1b10e6445add.jpg Roller Barn - Roller Barn Even at 88, Helen Chatfield-Weeks is still known to do a little jig from time to time. It makes her want to dance just knowing that a towering red wooden structure still stands tall in Oak Harbor. The Neil Barn is home to many of her fond memories. “I love to dance,” Chatfield-Weeks said, “and I loved to dance there. It’s really a sign of the olden days, you might say. That’s what people did in town; they had dances on Saturday night. It was what we did on the weekends.” Feet have been pounding the floor boards of the Neil Barn in Oak Harbor for a century. From its beginnings as a dairy farm, to its heydays as a roller rink in the 1950s, 60s and 70s until its current status as a boys and girls club, the Neil Barn has been a center for activity in Oak Harbor for generations. Better known as the Roller Barn, a name it got in 1950, the towering wooden structure is 100 years old this month. A century after Whidbey Islanders came by boat and horse carriage to dance the night away at the barn’s opening bash in June of 1913, a more mild party by comparison is taking place today to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the historic barn. The Boys & Girls Club of Oak Harbor is opening the hatches on the barn for a free public celebration from 1-3 p.m. The party will include a barbecue, roller skating, a bounce house for kids and tour of the barn, which is located at 98 N.E. Barron Drive. Not that Oak Harbor residents can’t spot it. It seems every longtime resident past or present has a memory or story to share about the barn. Sue Karahalios considers it a local icon. “It’s one of the few historic things the city of Oak Harbor has,” said Karahalios, the former state representative and city councilwoman who’s lived in the city since 1963 and was president of the first youth center at the barn. “Hopefully, we won’t ever lose it. It is our history.” Lots of dirt has been stirred up on the grounds since logger and dairy farmer James Andrew Neil ran a dairy farm on the property in the early 1900s and hired Dutch builder Otto VanDyk to construct what was at the time the largest barn on the West Coast. The sight of cattle and horses turned to cars and teenagers after the barn was transformed into a roller rink by Soren Rasmussen and Darrell Ellis in 1950, and the barn has been a popular destination for youth ever since. Karahalios, a 1967 graduate of Oak Harbor High School, remembers the teen dances in the summer the most and how they put her town on the map. “KJR radio used to be the only rock and roll channel anybody would listen to,” she said, “and the Oak Harbor Roller Barn was on KJR. They used to talk about Oak Harbor’s Roller Barn. We had people coming from everywhere. “Those dances were incredible.” Over the years, the Neil Barn has survived the threat of a bulldozer and an arson attempt. As portions of the property were sold off and apartments sprung up around it in the early 1990s, the Neil Barn was almost swallowed by residential development. The way it stands now, the barn is surrounded by apartment complexes, representing a stark contrast from the past and the present. But in 1994, Whidbey developer Bill Massey sold the property to the Partnership with Youth at a generous price with the stipulation that the local landmark remain standing. The building filled a much needed void in the community at the time as a youth center for after-school and summer programs under the direction of staff and volunteers. Partnership with Youth later became the Boys & Girls Club of Oak Harbor, which is a unit of the Boys & Girls Club of Snohomish County. On a recent afternoon, dozens of kids were sprawled out at the center watching the movie, “Oz the Great and Powerful,” while others played basketball, foosball, pool and joined the staff in floor games. Some were fast asleep as the group had recently returned from swimming at the nearby John Vanderzicht Memorial Pool. The boys and girls club recently began its summer camp program with more than 60 kids enrolled. The camp runs from 6:45 a.m. until 6 p.m. through Aug. 30. Nikki Barone, the Oak Harbor unit’s new director, said between 60-100 kids show up in the afternoons during the school year. “It’s busy,” she said, “but it’s fun.” “I like it here,” said Xander Hodges, 7, who attends summer camp with his little sister Eden. “I wouldn’t like it if it was still a barn.” For about 10 days in October, Neil Barn becomes something all together different. Since 2000, the ground floor of the barn has been transformed into “Frightville,” the most wicked haunted house on Whidbey Island. The door to the haunted house’s entrance is visible as you walk into the Boys & Girls Club but remains locked. Inside the massive, musty basement that once housed cattle are haunted house props, including severed plastic body parts. Volunteers come to Neil Barn as early as March to begin preparations for the haunted house. “I have been downstairs working in the haunted house all alone and it can be really spooky,” said Duncan Chalfant, who is on club’s board of directors. “It’s big and it’s dark for the most part. There are times when the hair will stand up on the back of my neck.” Chalfant will be on hand for the anniversary celebration and said the tour will include a walk through the area used for the haunted house. On the ceiling near the back of the basement, one can still see the black stains of smoke that occured during a failed arson attempt in 2011. Once upstairs, Chalfant said he plans to open the ceiling hatch above the skating rink so guests may see a unique view of the rounded barn. He said there’s about 30 feet of empty space between the ceiling and roof above it. "There’s nothing there,” Chalfant said. “The roof holds itself up.” Chalfant said the roof was inspected by a structural engineer about seven or eight years ago and it was deemed to be sound. The engineer told him heavy snow resting on the roof could pose the biggest problem. Chalfant knows there will be a day sometime in the future when the Boys & Girls Club of Oak Harbor will have to look for a new home. The engineer told him costs would exceed $1 million to replace the roof. “We’d like to stay there for as long as we can,” Chalfant said. “It’s the biggest place in town. “It has its drawbacks, too. It’s a barn. It’s kind of cool in the winter time and kind of hot in the summer time. It is a barn. Everybody there really likes the barn. Somewhere in the back of our minds, we realize it’s not going to last forever.” But so far, it’s lasted 100 years and recently landed on the state’s Historic Barn Register. “I am so happy that it is still being used by people,” Chatfield-Weeks said. “It’s the heart, it’s the soul, it’s the spirit of Oak Harbor,” Karahalios said. “That is so important.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524353034341-EK0ASTWO2EOQGZ8G2K3N/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg Roller Barn https://www.historicoakharbor.org/windentide daily 0.75 2022-02-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526259593006-3X86OM25MGIG8G2P11VC/windentide.jpg Windentide - Windentide Wind and Tide's Story Wind and Tide Books (formerly Windentide) has served as Oak Harbor's bookstore since 1967. In 2011, Karen Mueller purchased the shop and began to revamp the shop and its stock. We love having people come in tell us stories about how they remember the shop from when they were children. Karen herself remembers coming into the shop the year it opened and falling in love with the smell of new books. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524353034341-EK0ASTWO2EOQGZ8G2K3N/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg Windentide https://www.historicoakharbor.org/oak-bowl-marios-pizza daily 0.75 2018-05-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526259850237-LJGEXFPAJYIYOXLTMWRY/windentide.jpg Oak Bowl & Mario’s Pizza - Oak Bowl & Mario’s Pizza   Oak Bowl & Mario’s Pizza is your home for family FUN and entertainment in Oak Harbor, WA. Oak Bowl is a great place to have fun times with family and friends. At Oak Bowl you can have a great time at prices that won’t break your family’s budget. We have plenty of bumper bowling lanes just for kids! Bumpers are great to keep the bowling balls out of the gutters and smiles on the faces of your small children. We also have our COOL Cosmic Bowling where you bowl with the lights down, great music turned up and awesome special effects lighting…it looks like a nightclub! When looking for fun with friends and family in Oak Harbor – look no further than Oak Bowl. Oak Bowl is 100% Smoke Free too! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524353034341-EK0ASTWO2EOQGZ8G2K3N/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg Oak Bowl & Mario’s Pizza https://www.historicoakharbor.org/flintstone-freeway daily 0.75 2022-02-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526268145788-TIJYGUCGNY08IE698W8I/z12a0019-oak-harbor-flintstone-car.jpg Flintstone Freeway - Flintstone Freeway Flintstone Park on Oak Harbor's waterfront is home to a concrete replica of the car driven by cartoon character Fred Flintstone. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524353034341-EK0ASTWO2EOQGZ8G2K3N/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg Flintstone Freeway https://www.historicoakharbor.org/ohlcf daily 0.75 2022-02-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524255703396-RZWMEL7ZA9YDG2X8NLUP/original+land+claims.png Oak Harbor Land Claim Founders - OAK HARBOR 1851: A NEW BEGINNING In 1848, gold was discovered in California and adventurers of all nationalities came seeking. Three of the adventurers were Ulrich Freund, a Swiss army officer, Clement Washington Sumner, a New Englander, and Zakarias Martin Taftezon, a Norwegian. The three banded together forging a strong friendship in New Orleans and headed west to seek their fame and fortune in mining. Failing to attain their riches in gold, the three changed course to the north and the Oregon Territory to pursue farming and the promise of land ownership. Reaching the Olympia area, they met another pioneer who advised them to consider Whidbey Island as their destination. Whidbey was a "party/potlatch" center for many native tribes that traveled by canoe throughout the waterways of the Oregon Territory. The area of interest to the three pioneers was the land bordering a shallow bay on the east side of Whidbey Island. The natives called the place Kla-tole-tsche, later to be renamed Oak Harbor for the thriving Garry oak forests bordering the bay. On September 27, 1850, the Donation Land Claim Act was established by the United States Congress. This Act created to populate the newly formed Oregon Territory and allowed Freund, Sumner and Taftezon to claim 320 acres each. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524159852718-45GD72Y6O7LJIYYBL048/Ulrich+Freund+-+1821-1876.jpg Oak Harbor Land Claim Founders - Ulrich Freund In December of 1850, eager to view their potential destination, the band of three enlisted the help of the Tulalip tribe as guides with their canoes for transport to Whidbey Island. Unfortunately, the Skwdap tribe, a subgroup of the Skagit tribe at war with the Tulalips, was occupying the intended landing site, now Oak Harbor. The new destination was the west side of the eastern bay at Crescent Harbor then called the “the Big Spring” for its freshwater. Once landing, it is reported that Taftezon rushed to the bluff separating the east bay from the west bay, climbed to the top and upon seeing what was below proclaimed, “Eureka … we have found our earthly paradise.”   https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524254282468-TV53KLYUL15D7Z475AUQ/Zakarias%2BMartin%2BTaftezon%2B-%2B1821-1901.jpg Oak Harbor Land Claim Founders - Zakarias Martin Taftezon   Taftezon lived most of his life in Oak Harbor; however, distraught over the death of his children from disease, he sold his claim to Sea Captain Ed Barrington. Taftezon left Oak Harbor three times – always to return. He died in Oak Harbor on August 13, 1901. In July 1931, his body was moved to Stanwood, where he was honored as the first Norwegian settler in the state. Sumner also sold his claim to Barrington and was quoted as writing, “When it becomes so crowded you can see the smoke from your neighbor’s cabin, it is time to leave.” Ulrich Freund never married, but his niece and nephew joined him on his claim, and their descendants continue to occupy a portion of the Freund Claim. Their farm is the oldest continuously active Donation Land Claim farm in Washington State. Freund family descendants continue to honor, and make significant positive impacts on the local area. Artist Richard Nash’s contemporary sculpture was designed as a symbol of the three explorers and a tribute to their success to be seen by air, land and sea. The adjacent large rock, having been relocated, holds the original acknowledgement of this event. In total, the installation “highlights the path of Oak Harbor’s beginnings, leading to the possibilities of what is to come.” It is from the historical land claims of Freund, Sumner and Taftezon that today’s Oak Harbor community grew. This project was funded through 90% private donations, services, and volunteer hours as well as 10% from the Oak Harbor City Arts Commission. May, 2018, this was given to the City of Oak Harbor. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524255886843-OVV3JURUVI6KDFXG4J0N/clenent+washington+summer.png Oak Harbor Land Claim Founders - Clenent Washington Summer On January 4, 1851, a new beginning for Oak Harbor was created when Donation Land Claims were officially filed by Ulrich Freund, Clement Washington Sumner, and Zakarias Martin Taftezon. Ownership was legitimized further by the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliot. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524159765873-S2L8VN3SE5HHKPCK6DY1/Ulrich+Freund+-+1821-1876.jpg Oak Harbor Land Claim Founders https://www.historicoakharbor.org/kow-korner-1 daily 0.75 2022-02-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526267332972-KIBXT20VAKBNWT2PMSJ1/9+%282%29.jpg Kow Korner https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526267340196-FKQU9K5PHOQ9Q1M3LB4S/8+%282%29.jpg Kow Korner https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526267353076-TFSS9OQB0EKOUW6X3LIB/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg Kow Korner https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526267368792-3VIW4FX9UGFBIZEOTN44/index_image836.jpg Kow Korner https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1526257259683-FQRK07W6IG7HVKO30LWH/25591867_1662137543848747_449669703513950817_n.jpg Kow Korner - Kow Korner 1956 - 2000 I recall it like it was yesterday...... scraping the floor board of my car for change for just shy of a buck, for a sackful of burgers. Burgers that weren’t from anywhere else, because it was a place like nowhere else ......Kow Korner. Oak Harbor’s true first burger joint and drive thru. However, it wasn’t just a burger joint. It’s a memory, an iconic part of Oak Harbor. Something special tied into a mix of nostalgia. Was it how we’d cruise the street back and forth on Friday nights, to see whom of our high school friends were parked outside? How we’d sit on the hood of our cars, watching other people cruise by - as the cigarette we snuck curled tendrils of smoke into the crisp night air? How it was a gathering place after football games, or school events? How families would come to enjoy a night out? Car shows and meet ups? Or was it simply those amazing burgers - the ones that tasted of our joys and sorrows as we grew up, moved away, but knew we could come back and that icon, that landmark ~ would great us on the way into town. Sadly, we moved away, and the icon went away. The memories that persevere are endearing. Much like the historic windmill at City Beach, or Chris’ Bakery downtown, icons that have disappeared leaving a hole in our charming and sleepy little town. Much as Chris’ has come back .....we’d love to see our landmark, and the burgers, of a by gone era, come back as well. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ac93262372b96638944d945/1524353034341-EK0ASTWO2EOQGZ8G2K3N/1918679_1104603510359_4361988_n.jpg Kow Korner https://www.historicoakharbor.org/menu-aviator daily 0.75 2025-05-09 https://www.historicoakharbor.org/location-aviator daily 0.75 2025-05-09 https://www.historicoakharbor.org/read-me-aviator daily 0.75 2025-05-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/507c1fdb84ae362b5e7be351/1377710645188-W6F7VW5TN6XZ26N626WB/Darren+Bridgett+%2820130828%29.jpg Read Me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/507c1fdb84ae362b5e7be351/1377710441515-L3YD83X83ELBMUJHKA5F/The+Collective+Quarterly+%2820130828%29.jpg Read Me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/507c1fdb84ae362b5e7be351/1377787389525-6YIGWYZ7Y1R2VXYGXYWO/Olasky+%26+Sinsteden+%2820130829%29.jpg Read Me