Elkhorn Trading Company

05/22/2026

Here's to our youthful bad habits..
All contained in the vintage tins pictured on this photo... those things that young Canadians were advised against using, but then we found like Hamlet...
"For to that next abstinence... the next more easy. For use can almost change the stamp of nature... and either master the devil or throw him out. Hamlet Act 2 SC 4.
Tea, Sugar syrup, and To***co

05/15/2026

1920's Mid Century Modern, Exotic contrasting Marbles and Onyx Art Deco central French Clock and Side Garnitures set. Recently cleaned... works well and is an accurate timekeeper. No breaks or cracks in this spectacular set. $980.00... Elkhorn Trading Company... For a good time call us.

05/15/2026

Life imitates art... Ted Jeremenko American Folk Artist born 1938 His "House in the Dunes" #230/500 signed print in the 1st state has launched thousands summer houses in this distinctive American style.

05/14/2026

Moving more towards offering more locally sourced secondary market Artwork within the New Coupeville Creative District. We know there are many artists on Whidbey Island... but just as important there is a healthy economy here that supports the arts and artistic personalities attached to them. Here are some new offerings, both in vintage Canadian / American and current (within the last 20 years) works, now on sale at Elkhorn Trading Company. Starting with the oldest 1833 Treaty Tree Philadelphia by John Sertz. Then a selection of hand tinted photographs by Butting Davidson, Murray and rare Canadian artists such as Edison Graham's Maritime tinted photos. Then two walnut oval framed portraits, Alaska worked, a pretty great Barbara Kline group of 3 of her most well known.works. Two Jeffery Murray signed photographs of his most iconic works. Then finally a 1970s vintage hippy leather artist bag with a few pastel and conte crayon marks, a little worn from a life of use, but it exuding massive credibility. More to come from inside of the Coupeville Creative District 12 Front St Coupeville on Whidbey Island
Washington.

05/11/2026

The SS Humboldt at the Juneau Alaska dock from whence in Jan 1901, one million dollars in gold was famously shipped aboard to Seattle... after John Clum ex mayor of Tombstone and friend of Wyatt Erp, travelled with his assistant Confucius Whalen, 8000 miles to establish the US Postal Depository receipt system in Alaska. The photo by Juneau photographers Winter and Bond shows the 218 passengers at the rails, and ship ready to depart. The Captain, Eligiah Baughman was never master of any ship except the HUMBOLDT. He was her pilot at the time of her first voyage to Alaska in 1897 and was appointed the master in 1900, remaining in charge throughout his entire career. In 1919 the steamer was withdrawn from Alaska service and operated on California coastal routes She was laid up at San Diego there Capt. Baughman retired. The HUMBOLDT lay quietly rotting away in the boneyard for more than two years... until the night of 8th August. That was the night Capt. Baughman slipped his cable, as the sailors say--and ironically it was the night the HUMBOLDT slipped hers too and set sail again for the last time. At dusk a Coast Guard cutter hailed an unlighted ship moving silently through the harbor toward the open sea. The Guardsmen boarded her and found her warped decks and dusty cabins deserted; no living hand on her wheel. Her eerie sailing on the night of her old master's death was no doubt a mere coincidence, but strong are the bonds between a sailor and his ship.
This story documented in more detail in HW McCurdy's 1966 Marine History of the Pacific NW.

The Back of their studio card... Is almost as interesting as the Front.

05/07/2026

Penn Cove Water Festival Association. Presented Water Festival no 4 in 1934... So I though you'd like to see the pullers and canoes in the bright water. So Ive Included the link to this great 1934 Newsreel here.

50 likes, 6 comments. "11 man dugout war canoe race Coupville 1934"

05/07/2026

Penn Cove Water Festival Association. Presented Water Festival no 4 in 1934... So I though you'd like to see the pullers and canoes in the bright water. Included as a special added bonus, the souvenir edition of Whidby Islands Centennial in 1948, by the islands own Farm Bureau News. A hundred years of progress with, articles by. Carl T Engle ( the son of a Mercer Girl sic) as told to Jim powers including the 1883 photo (1888 sic) of the Elkhorn Saloon sitting in Alexander's apple orchard, the only building in the block of NW Front Street between Alexander st and Grace St. Before Glenwood was platter. Nice spread on Langley by Jacob Nourse. A spread on Daughters of the pioneers. The history of the Forth Estate... The story of the Island Newspapers by Harvey T Hill and as a double feature the History of Oak Harbor (from pioneers to planes) HH Hill estate was the source of this booklet and so much more hidden island history. But I've said too much come by the old Elkhorn Trading Company this Saturday during the Penn Cove Water Festival May 9th watch the races...
Enjoy this historical Throwback Thursday... and find the real meaning of

05/07/2026

4 years ago today... Filming... Midday Black Midnight Blue (2022) in the Water Tower at Salmagundi Farms really an film in a true form, directed by Samantha Soule and Daniel Talbott. I enjoyed the directors cut at Seattle International Film Festival, then in the recut form it finally appeared in, online... it was skillfully edited again in its final cut. We have in that time collected almost enough feature film exteriors to view the town of Coupeville's development history from 1982 to date... from the projects filmed over the last 45 years.

05/06/2026

What a polite and helpful film crew... They even took time to tell some customers of mine what they they were doing... although the signs made it clear.
I opened Elkhorn Trading Company. early this morning because of the difficulty of moving vintage heavy pieces several blocks. Sidewalks open except for short closures and nary a security guard in sight.
Some old tech today, 1960s 6D battery or 9 VDC reel to reel excellent condition.
An Optimus 1954 model 930 chrome kerosene lamp, never used and new in the box... You'll never see another nicer.
An Ideal No. 1 stencil cutter 1/2 letters and numbers, works as well as the day Uncle Sugar purchased it to label service members foot lockers in WW2.
OPEN TODAY as long as filming continues, or until someone calls with some great old technology for sale, and I have to go look at it.

04/25/2026

1913 was a seminal year in the history of west coast filmmaking, it was the year that,Cecil B Famille, Jesse Lasky, and Samuel Goldwyn converted a barn near the Corner of Sunset and Vine to film "The Squaw Man" (sic) and just as quick as you could say "Action" Hollywood farmland was bought up and converted to studio lots, and feature films rather than shorts became the new standard in the industry. Most importantly many producers moved west to avoid the Edison Motion Picture Patents and take advantage of the natural light, and new creative landscape as it was rolled out.
This iconic 1st edition published in 1913, the book deemed a classic covers the film business in its infancy, with a nod to Flagstaff where Cecil B Famille had intended to film "Squaw Man" only to be deterred at a train stop, by the weather, and a backdrop that did not look to him to be a stand in for Wyoming. The rest as we say is history... and this 1913 fiction covers in 25 Chapters every imagined pitfall that could possibly befall a pioneer production crew on the west coast. Book in excellent condition 212 tightly bound pages with clean Book cloth cover.
$100.00