The Books
Sullishak History
Dad wrote his account of building Sullishak, including quite a few things that did not go according to plan. Steve and I carried the story forward with the later projects and family photographs.
The book is called Sullishak History: How vacant land bought during World War II became Sullishak, a relaxing family retreat.
Read the book on this site, chapter by chapter · Read Wes's history here · Read the 2018 booklet (PDF) · Find the book on Amazon
The cover shown is the title page from inside the book until we have the printed cover.
What is in it
Sullishak History is the story of one small Oregon beach cabin and the family that built it. In 1942 Orma Sullivan bought four sandy lots at Lincoln Beach for $675, paid off at twenty dollars a month; five years later her son Wes — home from thirty-five bombing missions over Europe — built a cabin on them out of army-surplus lumber salvaged from Camp Adair, working seventeen straight weekends with his wife Elsie and their two small children. The first part of the book is Wes's own memoir, written around 2002 and told with a newspaperman's eye for his own mistakes: the foundation laid without footings, the ceiling insulation that rained down on his mother's friends, the septic tank that shaped the neighborhood's history. His sons Steve and Dave carry the account forward through the fireplace that came out in 1981, the roof, the wiring, and the long expansion that ran from 2012 to 2015. It closes with photographs of the two families — Sullivan and Diviney — who use the place today.
Chapters
These chapters and page numbers are taken from the December 2024 file of the book, which has its own table of contents. The current book is 112 pages; the 2018 booklet linked above is 97. An earlier arrangement of the same material ran to 99 pages with no table of contents, so a copy in hand may not match.
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Preface by Dave Sullivan, page 5
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Chapter 1: The Beginnings of Sullishak, page 7
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Chapter 2: Building the Dream (1947–1948), page 11
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Chapter 3: Family Life at Sullishak, page 21
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Chapter 4: Salmon Bakes and Social Gatherings, page 29
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Chapter 5: Ownership of the Sullishak Site and Cabin, page 45
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Chapter 6: Renovating the Basic Cabin, page 53
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Chapter 7: Sullishak Today and Tomorrow, page 65
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Chapter 8: The Sullivan and Diviney Families, page 99
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Epilog by Dave Sullivan, pages 111–112
Much of the same ground is covered, with more photographs and fewer pages, in the history pages on this site. Wes's memoir is there in full as Wes's History.
The 2018 booklet linked above is the version the old website offered — the same history as a PDF, before it became a printed book.
Welcome to Sullishak
This is the short illustrated guide to staying at the cabin. I put it together to help people find their way around the house and enjoy their time at the beach.
Some of its practical details have changed. Please use the current house guide on this site for your visit.
Read the current house guide · Find the book on Amazon
