OLYMPIA — A local historian has set out to put Tumwater on the map for national trail lovers and history buffs alike.
David Nicandri, a member of Tumwater’s Historic Preservation Commission, introduced a resolution to the group on April 21 to recommend that the city council get the Cowlitz Trail segment of the Oregon Trail added to the National Historic Trails system.
The recommendation would have to be passed by the city council, which would then pass it on to the Legislature, then make its way to Congress for final approval.
Nicandri said the effort to get the trail recognized has been going on for a couple years now, spearheaded by the Oregon-California Trails Association. He’s now in his last term on the commission, and he thought it was time to move some projects along.
He said the corridor that encompasses the trail has multiple layers of significance that make it worth recognizing.
“It’s kind of a fruition in a long-standing interest in getting proper trail recognition here in the state of Washington,” he said.
Nicandri said there’s always been a battle between Oregon and Washington over the trail system and where the Oregon and Lewis and Clark trails end.
“It’s commonly conceived where the Oregon Trail begins, which was Independence, Mo., and the surrounding towns on the lower Missouri River,” he said. “There’s kind of a consensus on where the trail ends, Oregon City, but we know it branched out from there.”
He said Oregon has always done a better job at advertising and promoting the history of its trail systems, casting a shadow over Washington’s history. People didn’t really pay attention to the north side of the Columbia River until the expansion of the transcontinental railroad system.
But Tumwater was the first place in Washington where Americans settled, after a group of families on the Oregon Trail found the Willamette Valley unwelcoming in 1844. Because members of the Simmons-Bush party were Black, they were discouraged from settling with others in Oregon, moving them to try their luck with the British at Fort Vancouver.
Nicandri said the story of racial justice and transcontinental migration should be plenty of reason for the Cowlitz Trail to be recognized as an alternative route of the Oregon Trail. But if that isn’t enough, its history as a former Native American travel route, a historic highway and railroad should sweeten the deal.
Nicandri said Brewery Park at Tumwater Falls, where the Cowlitz Trail ends and meets the beginning of Tumwater’s history, gets hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. He’s hoping getting the trail segment officially recognized will kick-start other projects, such as adding signage at the park and up and down the Interstate 5 corridor.
He said he’d like to be able to call more attention to the Bush homestead and the falls park.
“If we can get the segment recognized, we can call greater attention to it to the public, build up the interpretive infrastructure here and the homestead,” he said. “We can add to the historic aspects the community already has.”
Nicandri said he’s learned these projects are best tackled step by step, and he hopes the commission’s recommendation will propel things forward.
“I think it’s worth recognition and I’ve made my best argument,” he said. “The main takeaway is to get formal recognition of these things, you have to make some effort. The resolution was just a starting block, there’s more to come.”
