Abdullah Alkhalifa

05/22/2016

Tumwater Falls Park

The Historical Essence of a City

Every city has its history of essence, combining the past with the present. In Tumwater, Washington, there lives a 50 year old park that is always open to the community, which was opened in 1962. The Tumwater Falls Park is owned by the Olympia Tumwater Foundation and over the years has received the status of being one of the most popular parks in the region.  The park sits on 15 acres of land and goes smoothly along the lower Deschutes River, one of the popular locations for salmon. Due to the park being so widely popular, it receives at least 200,000 guests every year.

Some may call the Tumwater Park, the urban oasis of the city and it attracts a lot of attention due to its historical authenticity right in the middle of a busy modern city. The park was originally received by the community as a gift from the Olympia Tumwater foundation and is not run on city, state or federal fund, their only source of funding is from private funding. Many people may think that the idea of a park may boring, however Tumwater Park holds massive history and very interesting facts about its existence.

As the park runs along the Deschutes River, the water tends to flow in the direction of north, however at one point in its lifetime, it actually flowed south. Thousands of years ago, the last of the glaciers from Puget Sound started to form and trapped the water in the north, therefore creating the Deschutes River Valley. Due to the activity of the glaciers and flow of water, it had left soft sediment along the river, creating volcanic rock on the walls of the falls.

Another fun fact of the Tumwater Park is that it was one of the very first homes of the earliest railroads in the city. Due to issues that have happened in the city, residents of Tumwater decided to build their own railway road, which was later named the Port Townsend. The railway road runs along the west side of the Deschute River. However, over the years, the railroad got abandoned when another railroad was built that ran down the brewery site.

Another major attraction for the park is the fish ladders and holding pods that will have salmon migration annually. In the 1950’s it was known that it would be very unlikely that salmon would ever swim up the upper side of the river, however when the state took on the project of building the salmon ladders in 1950’s, it brought in the salmon. By the 1980s, there were close to 12 million salmon coming into the river. This results in tons of tourists flocking into the city to catch salmon or to view the flowing of millions of salmon through the river annually. The beauty of nature comes to life when those salmon’s swim through the river, giving people a glimpse to the wildlife that occurs within those waters.

Although there are many historical elements that contribute to the creation of the Tumwater Park, it also has a brewery alongside of the park. The brewery over the years has always managed to attract a lot of attention, both from locals and from tourists. A fun fact about the Olympic Brewery is that it was built in 1906 and has been dubbed as having the best beer in the West Coast. The owner of the brewery Leopold Schmidt admitted to the secret of producing great beer and revealed that he had discovered artesian wells in the area. He also added on that he utilized those wells by taking the water in them and using it to produce the beer at the brewery, giving it its unique taste.

History is definitely brought to life at the Tumwater Park, however the beauty of nature also resides in that park. When visitors would attempt to hike at the park, within one and a half miles of hiking, they would be met by the beautifully cascading waterfalls that go into the reflection of the river surrounded by rocks. The park has massive wealth in waterfalls as they have three beautifully structured waterfalls that can be lined with a bright rainbow on the perfect day. If that view is not breathtaking enough, the park provides facilities to make this adventure family fun packed with picnic facilities, sand-filled areas that give children an enjoyable project to play in and the variety of native trees that surround the entire area from start to finish.

 

 

Work Cited

O’Connell, Emmett. "Tumwater Falls Park Celebrates 50 Years - ThurstonTalk."ThurstonTalk. Thurston Talk, 2012.

Roth, Anna. "Tumwater Falls Park." WTAs Blog. Washington Trails Association. 

"VISIT OLYMPIA - LACEY - TUMWATER." Tumwater Falls Park.