PORT TOWNSEND — Few know exactly what it is, or what it is supposed to do.
Fewer still know the official name of the concrete circle, built with a $200,000 in 1987, that sits behind the Port Townsend Police Station next to Pope Marine Park.
The Jackson Bequest sculpture — which is known by such names as the Tidal Bowl, the Tidal Clock and the less affectionate Tidy Bowl — is a community mystery.
Everyone knows a piece of the story, or has heard a story, or knows some anecdotal story about tourist reaction to the sight and smell of the structure clogged with debris in Tidal Park.
When City Planner Rick Sepler led a town meeting in March to determine what the community considered “special places” that should be funded and preserved, he received responses that included Chetzemoka Park, Fort Worden State Park and Kah Tai Lagoon Park.
Then one person said, “The Tidy Bowl.”
The crowd of hundreds laughed at the suggestion that the bowl — which is officially considered a piece of public art — would be granted the distinction of a “special place.”
But that is exactly what it was supposed to be.
The bowl is the result of a monetary gift to the city from Ruth Seavey Jackson, a member of a Port Townsend family with a seafaring tradition, who wanted to a piece of community art created to celebrate the waterfront.
