Celebration planned as Vista Park turns 30

Skamokawa Vista Park, one of Wahkiakum County’s treasures, is the result of three local Grangers’ efforts to cash in on federal government development funds. Years after Wahkiakum Port District 2 was formed, the port bought the site that would become Skamokawa Vista Park.

The 75-acre park that now features camping, yurts, RV sites, day use and picnic areas and baseball and tennis courts, along with beaches, a boat ramp and stunning views downriver, began when Carlton Appelo of Rosburg, Robert Larson of Grays River and Ture Oman of Puget Island decided to use the Wahkiakum Pomona Grange to study the feasibility of creating a second public port district. A Pomona Grange is composed of several Granges.

“We went around talking to everyone,” Appelo said.

Port District 1 had been formed in Cathlamet in 1958 to focus on the Elochoman Slough Marina. Larson headed the Grange study that recommended voters approve a port district for the rest of the county. Voters created the Wahkiakum Port District No. 2 in November 1966.

In a recent interview, Appelo recalled early failed business projects such as making alfalfa cubes, bundles of hay or alfalfa that would be easy to ship. “The alfalfa cubes were problematic because of issues with a consistent supply,” he said.

“The port also tried to ship three-inch brush, a secondary product of logging--to China or India--but gave that up when they couldn’t guarantee a consistent supply,” Appelo said.

The port bought land on the Columbia River across the mouth of Skamokawa Creek from Skamokawa, originally occupied by Chinookan-speaking Wahkiakum peoples and which may have been a home to Chief Skamokawa, according to the Washington state encyclopedia. The site held a school from the 1920s to the 1960s.

With state and federal agencies’ assistance, the port spent $600,000 to develop Skamokawa Vista Park.U.S. Representative Julia Butler Hansen gave the keynote address at the opening ceremony on August 29, 1981.

The park exerts a powerful draw on both locals and out of town visitors, like Jeffrey Sievert, a Presbyterian minister from Beaverton, who for the past three years has come to Skamokawa with his wife and another couple.

Sievert said, “we always walk to the far end of the beach.” The couples have kayaked and stayed at local bed and breakfasts. Using Skamokawa as a base, they have kayaked to Grays Bay, studying the remnants of pilings, platforms and old buildings visible from the water.

The descendents of the Hickenbottoms and McGuires, two couples who were close friends and reared their children together, have made annual pilgrimages to the park for 20 of the 54 years the families have been meeting for a holiday each summer “to keep in touch with each other and keep up with the news of growing families,” said Karen Hickenbottom of Granite Falls, Washington.

Now in her 40s, Hickenbottom has memories of her children growing up at Vista Park, seeing them making a fort with friends in the huge rhododendron.

“Ten kids like monkeys would play in the rhododendron before it was cut,” she said.

Hickenbottom’s father was from a family of 11 children. “He was nine before he saw them all together, because of the age difference and the war,” she said.

The gathering usually draws about 150 people from across Washington, Oregon and California; in 2007, the 50th reunion drew 257 people.

Hickenbottom cousins, Charlie and Paul, went to school with Steve McClain, and began the tradition when they visited him in Skamokawa.

Steve McClain was the port manager for 28 years. His dismissal in 2010 created a series of letters of support in local newspapers, describing his good humor and appreciation for his welcoming manner.

Both the new manager Bob Robinson and port commissioners say they will continue to focus on tourism. Robinson has logged alders along the campground.

“The yurts are good moneymakers,” Appelo said.

The park is “initiating a planning process now and some additional priorities surely will be established," Robinson said via email. "It is a consensus among the commissioners and staff that we need to pay more attention to the maintenance of the existing park facilities, get a better handle on our accounting system, and to play a prominent, participative role in Skamokawa's redevelopment.”

The port district also operates Svensen Park on West Sunny Sands on Puget Island.

The 30th anniversary celebration of Skamokawa Vista Park will be held on July 30, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.