As summer’s end approaches, with fall officially starting on the astronomical equinox on Sept. 22, vendors and artisans are once again preparing to return to East Lewis County for the Packwood Flea Market this weekend.
Originally started in 1973, according to previous reporting by The Chronicle, the flea market has no official host and is loosely organized by the vendors and artisans themselves.
Each year, two iterations of the event — one for Memorial Day weekend and another Labor Day weekend — turn Packwood into one of the largest flea markets in the western United States.
Hundreds of vendors and artisans, along with food trucks and more, will line Packwood’s roads, offering shoppers everything from hand-crafted artwork to one-of-a-kind, second-hand thrift finds and even animal taxidermy — as former Chronicle reporter Emily Fitzgerald, now editor of The Thurston Chronicle, found out in 2022.
Fitzgerald was given $20 by Chronicle Publisher Chad Taylor in the continuation of a tradition of sending a reporter to the flea market in order to try to buy the “weirdest” thing they could find for $20 or less.
While she saw “a hand-painted Betty Boop tote bag, an Encyclopedia of Knots and Fancy Rope Work published in 1943 and a plethora of likely-haunted dolls,” she ended up coming back with a taxidermy frog coinpurse.
If you’re planning to travel through the area this weekend, plan for delays. Vehicles back up on U.S. Highway 12 during the flea market, often for miles.
