#1416 - Tombstone Wiley's , Raymond, WA - 4/17/2011

Tombstone Wiley's is in an old feed store building in the middle of nowhere outside of Raymond, Washington.  But that doesn't mean it doesn't have some wild times.  Carol, the ex-nurse who has owned the place with her ex-postman husband for the last five years, told us she's keeping a journal of what happens every night, and some day she might turn it into a book.  Since we were there on a lazy Sunday afternoon, we asked her what she wrote about the preceding Saturday night, and she responded "Oh that was a doozy."

She went on to tell us about chasing down patrons for skipping on their bill, driving when they said they weren't, and all sorts of infractions, including one woman hanging from the rafters, after trying to attach a dollar bill, with her bra caught on a bolt and her ample bosom displayed to admirers at the bar.  She told us about "the Tombstone Hooker," who is not a prostitute but rather a woman who liked to dance on the bar and hang a dollar bill on a certain hook after each week she'd lost weight in her Weight Watchers program.  Sometimes, when order needs to be restored, Carol pulls out a wooden baseball bat and slams it on the bar.  "They know it's serious when the bat comes out," she says.

The feed store was constructed in 1972, and in 1978 half of it was converted into the "Willapa Bar."  Carol and her husband lived in the Seattle area, and talked about driving around the country and eventually getting a little bar somewhere.  "We only made it as far as Raymond," Carol noted. 

But business has picked up substantially since they got a license to sell liquor in addition to beer and wine. I don't know when I'll ever be able to make it on a Friday or Saturday night -- my trips through Raymond are strictly daytime drives to the Long Beach peninsula and back -- but I sure would like to make it sometime.
8 Camp One Rd, Raymond, WA 98577 - (360) 942-6177