Traversing Time and Places

By Adam Trimble, with contributions from Historic Preservation Commissioners Joel Rupley and Harvey Williamson, Chairman

In honor of Historic Preservation month this May, local preservation groups, state historical societies, and business and civic organizations across the country celebrate through events that promote historic places and heritage tourism, and that demonstrate the social and economic benefits of historic preservation.

The Cowlitz County Historic Preservation Commission is a homegrown organization, established in 2016, when Cowlitz County Commissioners foresaw an opportunity to foster civic and neighborhood pride in the beauty and accomplishments of the past, and a sense of identity based on Cowlitz County history. They through adopted the Historic Preservation Ordinance.

In 2018, the Commission approved a Cowlitz County Heritage Plan, which sets purpose, goals, and strategies to create ways for all people to actively use, enjoy, and learn about Cowlitz County’s heritage. Engaging in this work, each year preservation commission members attend as many community events as the rain and winter darkness or summer heat allow. The Cowlitz County Fair, sQuatch Fest, and Woodland’s Planters’ Days are just some of the public events where commissioners and volunteers connect with history through people in the County. This year, commissioners plan to expand outreach at the Castle Rock Fair and Ryderwood’s Centennial celebration.

The current focus of the Commission is on the lives and experiences of residents, often uncovering the significance of buildings and places in the County. At outreach events, history begins with a question: What was it like to live at a particular time in history? Commissioners ask people about their lives: What is it like to ride a school bus through our spectacular landscapes?’ What do you remember about your ride and how did the view change?’ Where did you go to school?’ If you or someone you know has stories and memories about Cowlitz County history to share, please reach out to us at longrange@cowlitzwa. gov or 360-577-3042.

Recently, the commission completed the Cowlitz Trail Project, tracing the series of footpaths, waterways, and early wagon roads from Fort Vancouver to Puget Sound. Used since time immemorial, this corridor connects people to food, commerce, population centers, and industry. The Commission documented this corridor of transportation through a grant from the State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. Local museums, historians, tribes, and the Fort Vancouver

The Cowlitz County Historic Preservation Commission invites readers to explore the videos, maps, pictures, graphics and information in Cowlitz Trail project and learn more about the historic trails, ports, and waterways of Cowlitz County.

National Historic Site contributed to the project. The resulting multimedia experience includes a series of videos about how local waterways, ports, and history connect us. Some of the stories share personal, transformative experiences along the Cowlitz, Columbia, and Lewis Rivers, which weave across Cowlitz County.

Trade, exploration, transportation Maps, graphics, videos and research completed for the project reveal Cowlitz County’s position as a key link in a chain of trade, exploration and transportation routes that bind the state together. The route of the Cowlitz Trial, pioneer wagon roads, and Pacific Highway traversed Cowlitz County from Fort Vancouver to South Puget Sound. The Project traces how the Cowlitz trail is derived from the geologic marvel of the Yellowstone Hot Spot that stretches to Haystack Rock, the Ice Age Missoulian Floods, and Glaciation of Mt. Rainer’s longest glacier and river. To tell this multifaceted history, four separate pamphlets were developed for the Cowlitz Trails project: Geology, Mountain Connections, the Settler Era 1840-1873, and Pacific Highway.

An excerpt from the Pacific Highway topic below explains why in Cowlitz County pioneers generally hugged the topography to avoid as many river and swamp crossings as possible: The time from the end of the 1800s to the mid-1900s marks the transition from foot and horse traffic on the Pacific Trail to automobiles. In Cowlitz County, that transition involved improving mud-covered paths, to different pavements and ending in asphalt or concrete. Riverside lowlands often produced very difficult travel conditions. For example, to cross the Kalama River flats by car, a driver had to hire a team of horses to pull through the mud. If the horses were hired before starting through, the fee was $10. If it was hired after the car was stuck, it was $20. And after escaping the mud, drivers had to take the hills such as Carrols Bluff. The paving of the highway, beginning in 1914, was a welcome relief.

The project also provides historical information about important river links that once bound the nation together, such as the trans-continental Northern Pacific Railroad’s railroad ferry SS Tacoma between the Port of Goble, Oregon, and the Port of Kalama, Washington. The City of Longview owes its location to the massive 10-mile delta that the Cowlitz River created, which was drained and leveed to be suitable for development. Each river in Cowlitz County has been changed by nearby communities. From early settlements and agriculture, to the development of the local paper industry, people have always used the water. Fishing and logging continue to play an important part in our local economy and identity.

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COWLITZ TRAIL CORRIDOR website: https://www.co.cowlitz. wa.us/2200/HistoricPreservation-Commission

Short videos on the website: Walk and ride the trail through these videos:

•Lt. Commander Wilkes on the Cowlitz River

•From the Cowlitz Trail to Military Road

•Edward Jay Allen on the Cowlitz Trail

Public Educational Posters and Pamphlets

Check out four large format educational posters. Online, click on each poster to expand it across your screen, or drop by one of our upcoming events* to read it at full size.

•Southwest Washington Geology

•Across the Mountain Connections

* Settler Era

•Pacific Highway

First-person narrations, personal memories

• Saving Salmon on the Lower Columbia

• The Cowlitz at Gearhart Gardens

• The Port of Kalama, History and Future

• Boatbuilding on the Cowlitz

• Diesel Engines on the Water

• Building a Home in 1892

• A Paddle Back in Time

• Columbia River Crisis

*Visit Cowlitz Trail Project at upcoming events, including:

Ryderwood: Celebrating 100 Years of History, July 28–30

Cowlitz County Fair, July 26–29

Castle Rock Fair, July 13–15 sQuatchFest – Jan 27–28

Woodland’s Planters’ Day, June 15–17