Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Black Hills Audubon Society members Annete Bristol (left) and Sue Sikora stop on the William Cannon Footpath to watch birds across Mud Bay on their way to the shoreline trail's dedication Wednesday afternoon.

Trail dedication draws crowd

JOHN DODGE, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Thursday, April 4, 2002

THURSTON COUNTY -- An Eld Inlet shoreline trail steeped in history and born of community effort was dedicated Wednesday before an enthusiastic crowd of 200.

School children, senior citizens, American Indians and a U.S. senator were among those who gathered under sunny skies to officially open the William Cannon Footpath at lower Eld Inlet's Mud Bay.

Historic trail

The 4,000-foot-long trail is named after the only American in a 41-member Hudson's Bay Co. expedition that stopped at Mud Bay on its way north from Oregon to the Fraser River Valley. The date was Dec. 6, 1824. Cannon was the first American pioneer to set eyes on Eld Inlet.

From the trail, visitors can peer across the mudflats to an ancient American Indian fishing village site on property now owned by former Secretary of State Ralph Munro.

"The Indians were here for thousands of years and here we are, attracted to the same place," Thurston County senior planner and historian Shanna Stevenson said.

Jim Peters, a Squaxin Island tribal member who grew up on Eld Inlet, said the setting brings back fond memories from his childhood.

"We used to take canoes into these tiny little inlets," Peters said of the watery fingers that make up Mud Bay.

Munro was the master of ceremonies Wednesday and the driving force behind a project that is an extension of trail-building, tree-planting and flower-planting involving the McLane School Forest and Trails Committee.

The committee of parents, school-age children and community volunteers has been working since the mid-1990s on environmental restoration projects in the McLane-Mud Bay area.

"We're very proud of this trail, and we'd like to welcome you all here," McLane Elementary School student Quillian George told the crowd.

The trail is sandwiched between the shoreline and the Bayside Business Park, a complex of offices, warehouses and light industrial businesses between U.S. Highway 101 and the inlet. The public access corridor was a county requirement for obtaining building permits for the project.

"This project shows that industry and the public can coincide and work together," said Ron Thompson of Bayside Investments, developers of the business park.

Duke Energy, which is building a gas-fired power plant at Satsop in Grays Harbor County, donated $30,000 and 1,000 trees to the project.

The trail offers several vantage points for viewing wildlife, including shorebirds, great blue herons, river otters and salmon.

Grant could add land

The Capitol Land Trust will learn next week whether it has secured a $228,000 state grant to help preserve another 2.7 miles of shoreline across the bay from the footpath, land trust Executive Director Eric Erler said.

And U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told the crowd that the trail fits into her vision of a trail all the way around the Olympic Peninsula.

On the Web:

- U.S. Senator Patty Murray

- McLane Elementary School

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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