News-Times Whidbey
INSIDE: Aquajets set records. A9
SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 2012 | Vol. 113, No. 62 | www.whidbeynewstimes.com | 75¢
Honkers close beach to swimmers Geese poop at Cranberry Lake By NATHAN WHALEN Staff reporter
A group of Canada geese caused the closure of a popular swimming hole on North Whidbey Island. Island County Public Health announced this week that the western part of Cranberry Lake, located on the Whidbey Island side of Deception Pass State Park, is closed to swimming until further notice. Health officials closed the popular swim site because of persistently high levels of E. coli bacteria that has been recorded in that part of the lake, according to the Island County Public Health. Red advisory signs and caution tape are posted at the swimming area to discourage swimmers from taking a dip. “We don’t want people to risk even going in there,” said Jack Hartt, manager of Deception Pass State Park. It appears that a high population of Canada geese, commonly referred to as Canada honkers, is the cause of the elevated E. coli levels. Deception Pass Manager Jack Hartt said the population of the honkers has increased in recent years. He estimated that between 50 and 80 geese currently live at Cranberry Lake. The droppings the geese produce has been a problem for park staff since each bird produces between one and three pounds of doo each day. He said staff cleans the manure from the beaches, but they don’t have any way to remove it from the water. Big piles of the poop remained at the edge of the deserted swimming hole Friday morning. The Island County Health See closure, A2
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Justin Burnett / Whidbey News-Times
Rick Castellano, executive director of the Island County Historical Society in Coupeville, looks at Perego Man. The stone carving was found in Perego’s Lagoon 15 years ago and its origins remain unknown.
Perego Man stumps the experts By JUSTIN BURNETT Staff reporter
Is it 20 years old or a thousand? Was it carved by Native Americans or white settlers? Perhaps it was made more recently by a local artisan? These are all good questions but, so far, the origins and history of a stone face found submerged in Perego’s Lagoon on the west side of Whidbey Island 15 years ago has local, state and tribal experts all scratching their heads. In fact, the only positive conclusion reached so far about the curious piece is what to name it. “We call him Perego Man,” said a smiling Rick Castellano, execu-
Coupeville estival
tive director of the Island County Historical Society in Coupeville. The mysterious face, which was carved into what appears to be one of the head-sized granite boulders that litter Whidbey beaches, was found in 1997 by a family visiting from Seattle. The boy, whom Castellano could only identify as Anand, was wading through the lagoon at the foot of Ebey’s Bluff when he stepped on something sharp. Looking down, he discovered the barnacle covered face. “It was looking back at him,” Castellano said. As the story goes, the family took the object home but brought it back soon after experiencing a
string of bad luck. According to Castellano, the boy’s mother was intent on tossing it back in the lagoon but was persuaded otherwise by a friend, former Coupeville resident John Pawley. He remained in stewardship of the face for many years but Pawley decided to donate the piece to the museum this past June before moving to Oregon. Castellano said he’s always happy to increase the historical society’s collection but this piece has been particularly challenging to identify. “We can usually figure out where something came from … but this one is a mystery,” Castellano said. “It’s a very odd, weird and unusual piece,” he said.
AUG 11 & 12
Pictures were sent to experts at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington in the hopes of shedding some light on the carving but they also had few answers, according to Castellano. While they thought the piece was interesting, they could not classify or identify it with any particular culture or time period, he said. See Perego, A4
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