OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Should the historic chalet in Enchanted Valley be torn down, provided with a new foundation or left as is?
Or do you have another idea?
Participants in a meeting in Port Angeles on Monday and another July 19 will have a chance to hear and comment on preliminary alternatives Olympic National Park has outlined for the final disposition of the chalet.
Public comment will be taken through Aug. 31 on the possible alternatives for the permanent fate of the remote chalet, which was moved back from a precarious position near the East Fork Quinault River using helicopters and mules in September 2014.
The preliminary alternatives are:
■ Leave the chalet where it is now and keep it closed to the public.
■ Build it a new foundation. It would remain closed to the public.
■ Tear it down and either leave some of the sill logs so the public can see the remains of the building or remove the materials and perhaps reuse them.
The alternatives are only possibilities and could change by the time park officials develop a preferred alternative by this fall.
The public will review a draft environmental assessment by next spring, and a final plan is to be issued next summer, park officials said.
Monday’s public meeting will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the main hall at the Port Angeles Senior & Community Center at 328 E. Seventh St.
Other public meetings are planned in Amanda Park and Aberdeen before the July 19 meeting in Port Angeles.
That one will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Port Angeles Library at 2210 S. Peabody St.
“We are pleased to ask the public to help us develop a plan for the Enchanted Valley chalet,” said Park Superintendent Sarah Creachbaum.
“We have drafted some preliminary alternatives that we’d like the public to reflect and comment on. And of course, we are also interested in additional ideas people may have.”
The Enchanted Valley chalet — which is deep within the Olympic wilderness, located 13 miles from the nearest road — was built by Quinault Valley residents in the early 1930s before the park was established.
For several decades, it was used as a backcountry lodge and then as a wilderness ranger station and emergency shelter. The chalet was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
In January 2014, the river had migrated to within 18 inches of the chalet. Fearing the structure would fall into the river, the Park Service had it moved.
Jeff Monroe, proprietor of Monroe House Moving Inc. in Carlsborg, and a crew of about six volunteers moved the chalet about 100 feet away from the river’s crumbling banks.
Protect river or building?
The point to the park was to protect the river from environmental harm, not to protect the chalet, park spokeswoman Barb Maynes pointed out at the time.
To Monroe, who was presented with a 2015 Washington State Historic Preservation Officer Award for his work, saving the chalet was the point of the effort.
“This isn’t just a building anymore. This is something else. It means a lot to a lot of people,” he said in April 2015.
The 64-ton structure was moved entirely by hand over the course of several days.
Heavy equipment — including steel moving beams, specially made dollies and steel skid shoes used to slide the house — was flown to the remote location over the course of three days via helicopter.
The rest of the equipment, as well as tents, food and other necessities, was hauled to the site by two teams of pack mules — contracted through Sol Duc Valley Packers owners Larry and Sherry Baysinger by Olympic National Park officials — who made daily trips to or from the chalet continuously for two weeks.
To reach the site, four team members rode horses while the rest hiked the 27-mile round trip up Enchanted Valley.
To move the building, Monroe and his crew used two wheel dollies, specifically made for the project, and custom crafted skid shoes to slide the chalet over three steel rails to the new location.
Once the move was completed, the building was lowered onto cribbing towers — a temporary wooden foundation — and secured.
The park said at the time that a process to decide the final fate of the chalet would begin in a few months.
Public comment
The original schedule ended public comment on the preliminary alternatives in July and located only one meeting in Port Angeles.
Last week, the park expanded the public comment period and added workshops to “maximize opportunities for the public to be involved in developing an environmental assessment for the future of the Enchanted Valley chalet,” Maynes said in a news release.
For more information and to comment online, go to http://tinyurl.com/PDN-enchantedvalleychalet. Information also is available by calling the park at 360-565-3004.
Those who cannot use the electronic version can send the hard copy of the form from the website and/or a letter to Superintendent Sarah Creachbaum, Olympic National Park-EVC Scoping, 600 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles, WA 98362.
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Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or at cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
