CHIMACUM — Tamanowas Rock, a geological icon that juts up out of the forest east of Anderson Lake State Park, means a lot of things to a lot of people.
To Northwest Native Americans such as the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, the more than 100-foot-tall monolith is a cultural and spiritual symbol — a sacred place of worship.
The tribe, Jefferson Land Trust, Northwest Watershed Institute and others have worked for more than 13 years to protect the rock and the surrounding area from development.
To veteran rock climbers Stewart Matthiesen and Martin Mellish, the rock is also a special place where they have long scaled its gnarled brown-grey walls dimpled with hollows.
The climb ends with a panoramic viewpoint towering over the Chimacum Valley and Hood Canal to the south and well into the Northern Cascades.
“I don’t think anybody wants to knock it down, just preserve it once and for all,” Mellish said after coaching a Peninsula Daily News reporter-photographer up the steep cable climb on the rock’s west side to take in the view.
Mellish and Matthiesen said they know of nontribal individuals and groups that consider the rock a spiritual place.
“I have a friend who comes here and she prays here and makes an offering,” said Mellish, a Port Townsend-area resident, Tai Chi teacher and former Microsoft database design contractor.
He wants to get county youths involved in climbing the rock and helping to keep it pristine, instead of a place to drink beer and party, which sometimes has been the case.
Mellish and Matthiesen, who grew up on Marrowstone Island and has rope-scaled the rock for about 20 years since he was 10, worry that public access could be seriously restricted or closed off under a conservation easement agreement in the works among Washington State Parks, the Blyn-based Jamestown S’Klallam and Port Townsend-based Jefferson Land Trust.
“It would be unfair if it goes from land trust protection to not allowing anybody to access the area, other than for tribal use,” said Matthiesen, who likens his relationship to the rock as “a communion with nature.”
When living on Marrowstone Island, he said he used to climb the rock monthly before moving to work in Seattle three years ago. Now he encounters the rock maybe twice a year.
“My dad took me up there when I was a little kid and we just scrambled up the cable on the back side,” he said. “I thought that was the greatest thing.”
Some 20 years later he has climbed on Mount Rainier and locations around the world.
“I just hope we can work out a solution that maintains access for everyone,” said Matthiesen, who has e-mailed notices to area rock climbers to support access to the rock and share their feelings with those who will decide its fate.
Attempts last week to contact tribal leaders involved in the Tamanowas Rock preservation project for comment were unsuccessful.
‘Bridge’ owner
Jefferson Land Trust is the “bridge” owner of the 63 acres that surround Tamanowas Rock, a trust official said.
The land trust purchased the 63-acre rock property in December 2009 for $600,000, and will remain the owner until the tribe and state parks officials come up with the money to purchase the property and land adjacent to Anderson Lake State Park.
Jefferson County commissioners later this year will consider the request from the tribe and state parks for $200,000 in county Conservation Futures Fund dollars generated through county property taxes.
The eight-member Conservation Futures Citizen Oversight Committee will meet Monday to consider the application sponsored by Jefferson Land Trust, which now owns the property but does not restrict access other than all terrain vehicles.
The committee is expected to make its recommendation for funding to the county commissioners.
Creating a nature sanctuary around the rock is key to its protection, those wishing to preserve the site said.
Sarah Spaeth, Jefferson Land Trust executive director and a member of the Conservation Futures Citizen Oversight Committee, said access is certainly an issue, but that it was too early in the conversation to know where and how much access would be allowed.
“The tribes wants to be able to conduct sacred rituals,” Spaeth said. “They may want to close it off some times.”
She said there have been conservation easements allowed by the county that don’t necessarily allow public access.
“The program wasn’t specifically design to provide access,” she said.
Land purchases
The tribe in 2005 obtained loans to purchase 86 privately owned acres adjacent to the rock, which otherwise might have been developed as home sites.
Jefferson County’s Conservation Fund partially funded purchase of a conservation easement of the tribe’s property just north of the rock, a deal completed in 2008.
In November 2008, Washington State Parks entered into a purchase agreement for 63-acres of the Tamanowas Rock property.
State Parks then transferred that agreement to Jefferson Land Trust, and last December the land trust purchased the property for $600,000 — $480,000 of which came in a two-year loan from The Bullitt Foundation, documents show.
The tribe came up with the funding balance through loans from community members.
May or June
The county commissioners in late May or early June will consider final approval of the key $200,000 Conservation Futures funding to preserve Tamanowas Rock.
“I think they’ll probably have some kind of access plan where they want some privacy for some of their ceremonies,” county Commissioner David Sullivan said.
“That is something that has to be worked out and we’ll continue to work on it. There are ways to rock climb and be respectful and ways to avoid damage.”
Sullivan said that, with an Olympic Discovery Trail route proposed from Four Corners to the head of Discovery Bay, an east-west trail spur needs to be considered. It would connect the Discovery Bay-area to the Port Hadlock-Chimacum area.
“We’d like to see another trail go to Anderson Lake State Park,” he said, and then on to the Tri-Area’s urban growth area.
County Commissioner John Austin said he supports preservation of the Tamanowas Rock site.
“The question that is still unresolved is the question of access and can there be some sort of compromise where people who use the rock to climb can still use it,” Austin said, adding he views rock climbing as another form of tourism, which has economic value as well.
Austin lauded the land trust, calling its leaders “heroic” in their efforts to preserve the rock.
“They assumed a financial liability as a gift to the community,” he said.
“I hope we can achieve some solution in which the Native American interests and the sports interests can respect each other’s rights.”
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
