Fall City Historical Society is looking for art works by painter Charlie Hutchens, a Preston artist locally nicknamed “Birdman,” who created many paintings and pastels of birds around the Valley.

One large work hung above teacher Peggy Corliss’s desk at the Fall City school for some years, and is believed to have been lost. “I have the feeling that there are works of his out there in the Valley,” society president Ruth Pickering told the Record. “We would love to find some and be able to photograph them.”

So far, the society has only this memory from Wayne Fredeen, formerly of Preston, now living in Alaska:

“Charlie Hutchens and his family lived in a large house at the entrance to the Preston YMCA camp, right on the river,” Freeden wrote. “He was in charge of the camp for many years—I would guess mid-’40s to mid-’50s—would go to schools and make presentations on birds, could whistle like many of them and would paint rocks with bird images on them and give them to the kids.  Charlie Hutchen’s would do bird presentations are schools and could whistle, mimic most all bird species calls.  He was the YMCA custodian for the YMCA park that is still active in Preston… He would do oil paintings on round rocks we would get out of Raging River and they were priceless.  Would be amazing if one could find any of these creations today. He was a fine gentleman.”

Contact the Fall City Historical Society at PO Box 293, Fall City, WA 98024, or fallcityhistorical@juno.com.