32’ Santa welcomes visitors to Christmastown, WA
Christmas is important to the timber town of Shelton. In 1962, to celebrate the Seattle World Fair, the town hired the Simpson artist, Clarence Beauchamp to build a giant Santa Claus.
Clarence Beauchamp arrived in Shelton in 1947 to begin a job with Simpson as the shop painter. “Beau” as he was known by his friends, often volunteered to ply his brush or chisel to many local projects including a totem pole with interchangeable heads ranking each camp’s safety record and Forest Festival sets and floats. Most recognizable for Shelton residents is Beauchamp’s log monument on Hwy 3. The 10’ log end was dedicated in 1953, as Mason County celebrated its 100th anniversary of logging.
At the age of 66, Beauchamp designed and built the 32’ Santa Claus to commemorate Shelton’s Christmastown, U.S.A during the 1962 Century 21 Seattle’s World Fair. The giant structure required the help of multiple crews and boom trucks to erect on the corner of Railroad and First in downtown Shelton.
The plan, according to a 1962 Mason County Journal article, was to give a “vivid message,” to tourists passing though that
'Shelton is ‘Christmastown, USA’ when this eye-popping plywood Santa Claus rivets their attention.”
In the late 1960’s, citing delapitation, the Santa was disassembled and stored until 1970 when the Shelton Chamber led efforts to restore him. Santa was revived so that he could greet visitors as they arrived in the area from Highway 101.
In 1983 Santa was once again placed in Post Office Park where he remained over 15 years when, paint peeling and plywood chipping, he was destined for the County dump. The Hunter family rallied friends to help transport Santa’s pieces to their barn for safe keeping. To this day the original Beauchamp’s Santa leans his weight against Hunter’s barn near Union, WA – standing tall after nearly six decades of wind, rain and sun – to greet the thousands of families that visit the farm for pumpkins in the fall and greenery and trees during the holidays.
The Current REproduction
In November 2018 volunteers came together to build a replica of the Beauchamp's Santa . Over the decades the design had been unsympathetically edited. Considering the weathering of the wood, it was feared that more damage would be done if it was moved from present attachments. Instead, using Beauchamp’s original design from photos, artist Wayne Wenstob created a scale replica of the original Santa Claus.
The completed 32’ Santa was placed at Toziers Brothers Ace Hardware on Mill Street where families could purchase trees as well as take pictures. People who remember placing their own faces in the doll were able to use their smartphones to recreate the image of their children and grandchildren.
In 2019, with support from the City of Shelton Tourism fund, he was relocated to a seasonally permanent location in Overlook Park near the log monument. He could once again greet visitors from the south during the holiday season.
Clarence Beauchamp died in 1989 at the age of 92. This project honors his memory as well as Christmastown USA – a magical legacy that runs deep with many families in the Shelton area.