PORT ANGELES — Just beachy-keen.
That was the consensus of people who Saturday thronged to the city’s $2.5 million downtown waterfront park, so new it has yet to receive a name.
Sometimes called West End Park or the esplanade, it got broad smiles and nods of approval from the hundreds of strollers, joggers, dog walkers, bicyclists and children who flocked there for the Jammin’ in the Park celebration on a picture-perfect day.
They listened to live music, dunked local celebrities, competed in pickup volleyball contests, ate hamburgers and hot dogs, heard Native American singers and drummers, and generally basked in owning a priceless piece of real estate that’s now theirs to enjoy.
“It’s opened up the waterfront for everybody,” said Dawn Bergesen of Everett, visiting her mother-in-law, Selma Soyland of Port Angeles.
Marking the trail
They admired the colored-glass markers that mark the Olympic Discovery Trail’s winding route through the park along Railroad Avenue, watched the MV Coho ferry dock and disgorge its cargo of cars and heard a band sing, “Let It Rain.”
It didn’t, but a Boston bull terrier rolled in a yet-unplanted tract of dirt as a great blue heron watched impassively from logs above Valley Creek. Nearby, a radio-controlled car spun doughnuts in another swath of dust.
“I think it’s fabulous,” said another visitor, Kathleen Hagerty of Portland, Ore.
“We have a waterfront park on the Willamette River,” she said, “but this is much nicer.
“You may not notice it but, coming from Portland, it has a nicer, saltier smell.”
Patrick Downie, Port Angeles deputy mayor, called the park “way cool.”
“This continues the transition of this community to be well thought of, not only by visitors but by the people who live here,” he said.
Wendy Sampson and a band of other Lower Elwha Klallam singers had just finished drumming and chanting what she said was a victory song.
“I’m glad that there’s a larger tribal presence here,” she said. “The beach names are wonderful.”
Places to land, walk
The names are in the S’Klallam language. One means “a place to land a canoe,” she said. “The next one [east] means a place to walk the beach.”
The sandy beaches are 80 feet deep. One is 130 feet long; the other, 200 feet.
More historical markers — including a retelling of the S’Klallam creation story and of Tse-whit-zen, the first known human settlement on the harbor — will be labeled in both English and S’Klallam, Sampson said. Other markers will describe how the city was developed.
Koenig Subaru co-sponsored the event and provided tables for the North Olympic Land Trust, Feiro Marine Life Center, Olympic Peninsula Humane Society, Port Angeles Food Bank and other civic organizations.
The partners in the party were the Nor’wester Rotarians, whose event organizer, Steve Zenovic, said: “We’re having a wonderful time. The crowd has been incredible. Everybody I’ve talked to really liked what we’ve done.”
Still to come are grass and other plantings that will be put into place when rainfall is more certain.
But what will it all be called?
“I have no clue,” Zenovic said.
“That’s up to people more important than I.”
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
