Yacolt ready to celebrate

Inspired by Independence Day, Briella Smithline, 10, chalks up her square Friday on West Yacolt Road as part of the town’s Fourth of July festivities. (ZACHARY KAUFMAN/The Columbian)

With Vancouver out of the Fourth of July game, the tiny town of Yacolt has been fielding calls from anxious fireworks aficionados, wondering whether this historic lumber town will be offering a show.

The answer: A gleeful yes.

"With the calls we've been receiving, we think we'll have 200, 300, maybe 400 more people than last year," Mayor Joe Warren said. Warren spent Friday morning mowing city lawns in a John Deere tractor; he wanted his city, to which he moved in 2001, to be spruced up for possible crowds.

"We're geared up for that," Warren said. "The show will communicate the spirit and the patriotism that's here."

Yacolt is a an hour away from Vancouver's city center and prideful of its 101-year history. It's quiet, with a modest downtown that includes a grocery store and Tall Man's Saloon on West Yacolt Street.

Town Hall is a faded, barn-like building that hasn't changed since the founding days, though Town Clerk Lynn Oldham has found new uses for the space. The old fire station garage is now an office, for example, and Jail Cell No. 2 (out of three total, plus a solitary confinement) stored the fireworks, a gift from the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad.

The Chelatchie Prairie train will make three runs Saturday: one at noon, one at 2 p.m. and a twilight expedition at 7 p.m. The final run will end at the ball field for 30 to 45 minutes of pyrotechnics. The ride takes guests from Yacolt to Lucia, with a stop at Moulton Falls Park.

(Tickets cost $15 for adults, $14 for seniors, $10 for ages 5 to 12, $8 for ages 2 to 4 and free under age 2.)

Several Christian bands will play, as will a cover band in the evening.

Yacolt's Christmas tree — "Clark County's tallest living Christmas tree," according to Oldham — is being dressed up for the occasion as well, because this year, everyone in Yacolt is playing a part.

For many in town, that means decorating a few squares of sidewalk with chalk.

Holland Roberts and her friends helped manage the sidewalk chalk booth for the town's first sidewalk chalk festival (motto: "We provide the sidewalk, you bring the chalk").

Azlyn Bielec, 4, and her uncle, Cody Porter, 15, drew side by side — she flowers, sun and a rainbow, he an American flag. Their family moved to Yacolt four years ago from Vancouver.

"We used to live in Fisher's Landing, but it got to be so crowded," said Cindy Porter, Cody's mom and Azlyn's grandma. "So we moved here to our own little piece of heaven."

Isolde Raftery: 360-735-4546 or isolde.raftery@columbian.com.