Lummi DNR Photos

Certified DNR Volunteers: Submit a report!

If you are a trained volunteer for the DNR Lummi site, please download the Site Report Form here. Your notes on the state of the site are helpful in knowing what maintenance or repairs might be needed! Please send completed reports to:

Lisa Wallis
ullrwallis (at) gmail (dot) com
238 S. Forest Street
Bellingham, WA 98225

And

Christ Thomsen
christ.thomsen (at) wadnr (dot) gov
919 N Township St
Sedro Woolley, WA 98284

The Status of our island DNR sites

As is usual this time of year, the island DNR sites are on a possible chopping block due to budget shortfalls, or I could say that we are allocation-ly challenged' in that the money the state does have is being allocated elsewhere. These sites include the one on Lummi Island, and the three on Cypress Island including Cypress Head, Pelican Beach and Strawberry Island.

There are three possible scenarios that could possibly fallout of the March 11 legislative session. Number one, we could receive the full "carry over" equivalent to last years budget. This sub-adequate amount of money does not allow for progressive care but does provide for the current status quo. Number two, we get no money. This would be the worst case scenario as the sites would be closed and from a legal angle our very friendly and supportive DNR staff would not be allowed to talk to us. The third scenario could be partial funding. This is very sub-optimal. Faced with this third option, the DNR staff would have to make some hard choices about what could still be accomplished.

One bright bit of news for the club, is that if the third scenario of partial funding occurs, we have been reassured that we will have priority in staying open as we have an established stewardship of the site. I would again like to remind the club that the sites maintenance is fully in our hands.

The very bad news is that the three Cypress' sites have no established steward programs, and thus could be on the chopping block! What a disaster! What a tragedy!

That said, I believe that there is interest in providing stewardship for the Cypress sites. The Washington Kayak club as well as Hole in the Wall club have expressed interest in site maintenance.  WWTA is very up to speed on these issues. My concern for Pelican Beach is that the boat traffic is so heavy that it would be difficult for any one club to manage it. I have suggested to the DNR staff that a new coalition be born that consists of all kayakers in the Puget Sound region as well as some yachting groups. If anybody has suggestions, step up to the plate!

What to do right now.

Call and write your representatives. Tell them how important the island sites are to you.

Ask them what their stand on the issue is and pin them down on how they plan to vote. Remind them maritime travel is an important part of the northwest's culture and heritage. Remind them we draw tourists from all around the world to are area to boat around the islands. Tell them how pleased we are with the local DNR staff's efforts to network and 'think out side the box' to keep our sites going - mention Tom Murley, Kathy Gunther and Christ Thomsen by name - they deserve a huge pat on the back! Tell them we actually need increased funding as many of the sites have not been upgraded for over a decade. And tell them about our site on Lummi and the work that we have done. These stories go along way.

Find your representative on-line at http://www.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx .

Please be active - now is the time to act!

History

History of WAKE’s Involvement with the Lummi Department of Natural Resources:WAKE has had a relationship with the Lummi DNR for quite some time. WAKE has long cooperated with the Washington Water Trails Association [WWTA] and has offered a site steward for our local little gem for several years. Dave Peebles, a very active club member and mentor, was active in this early on. The Lummi DNR site is part of the Cascadia Marine Trail. The very important WWTA Cascadia Marine Trail system was created to "honor and preserve 5,000 years of marine travel”. Founded in the 1980s, early paddlers were concerned about the diminishing number of pullouts for kayakers and recognized the need to preserve space for their little flotilla of kayaks. The goal was to have a pullout within human powered reach. Like hiking and backpacking, rest areas and camping sites were needed for kayakers. More so, nature and spirits were desired. These early paddlers set the stage for our current and ongoing drive to preserve a water trail for non-motorized craft.

Current Status:

The Lummi Island DNR site is just a few miles from Bellingham. It is a darling little private site that has the feel of a rustic campground in the mountains. Facing Bellingham Bay, scenic Mt. Baker is often a beautiful sight. Porpoises, seals, waterfoul galore, eagles, deer, and fatally attractive landscapes surround the island and the journey. The site is also noted as a Natural Resource Conservation Area.“ This 661-acre conservation area in northern Puget Sound includes forested shorelines with steep, rocky headlands. An uneven-aged mixed forest dominated by old growth Douglas-fir provides a combination of habitat features that makes it very appealing to birds of prey. A small marine park is available for boaters”, as noted from the DNR website.Our government went into a tailspin of cutbacks a few years ago. As a result, many of our favorite sites were either closed or threatened with closure. The state cut DNR recreation funding from $1.2 million in the biennium that started in July 1991 to $859,100 in the biennium starting in 2001. State officials then cut another $217,300 last year. Accounting for inflation, the cuts halved the recreation budget. The DNR eliminated over 160 positions in a very short time, making it hard for the agency to supervise recreation sites.

The Lummi Island DNR site was slated for closure, but was kept open due to the innovation of our local DNR staff, including Tom Murley, Christ Thompson, and Kathy Gunther. I live next door to Tom Murley, a Northwest Region Natural Areas Manager for the DNR. Tom and I live in an old neighborhood where folks tend to stand outside and shoot the breeze. Tom was aware that I was on the board for WAKE, and thus the relationship between WAKE and the DNR was born. Tom basically recruited us to help maintain the site.After some basic training in site maintenance and blood borne pathogen training, we were a go. The rest is history. We have successfully kept our little island area accessable, clean, safe and very happy. We clean the outhouses, pick up trash, scout the area for trouble [like an occasional rogue campsite, fire pit, or impromptu shelter], restore the trails and staircases after storm damage, dig out fire pits, and most importantly maintain a presence at the site. The general visitor must know that this is a monitored and maintained site.

A few early heroes in our quest to keep this site open should be identified. Red Galvin, Dave Harris, Les Rounds, Merve Davies, and Andy Wallis have really been instrumental. No talk, just action. These guys have rebuilt trails, varnished tables, painted outhouses, built a storage shed, rebuilt stairs, handcrafted a new sign-in box, removed major beach timber, and just generally provided a sense of ‘we can do it” for the site. Without their muscle and brains, our endevour may not have survived. As for the numerous other volunteers, a heartfelt thank you! Your efforts are truly appreciated!!

Local Ecology

So far at the Lummi DNR site, we have had little noticeable impact on the local critters as far as promoting camp robbers. Mind you, there are a couple of socialized mice that may scurry under your feet at night. But no raccoons, cheery geese, sea gulls, fox, raven or other aggressive critters. This is actually amazing in the San Juans. Every where else I've camped out there has been aggressively guarded and invaded by habitualized darling little critters.

Here is what past campers and day visitors have done right at our DNR site that prevented unwanted animal behavior.

1. 1. Kept a clean camp.
2. Put away food stuff after eating.
3. Hung edibles at night. Not high, just up enough to evade the critters. No bear worries. [Another safe-so-for option is to put food in the hatches of the kayaks when not needed.]
4. Opted not to feed the cute little wildlife.
5. Washed dishes with biodegradable soap on the beach. Optimally, strained out major food stuffs and paddled these out.

[You should do the same!]

Thankfully, our kayaking and boating friends have surprisingly kept the Lummi DNR site clean, pristine, and free of camp critters that can become annoying, but more importantly threatened by sloppy camp behavior.

For more information go to the Leave No Trace website at www.lnt.org

Happy Paddling!

A Very Brief History of Lummi Island and the Islanders

Originally calling this island "Skallaham," the Lummi Indians are thought to have had two longhouses near Village Point which they used when they came to harvest berries and clams, fish or hunt deer. Villages were not established here because the location was too open to attack from northern Indians. The island was charted for the first time in 1792, by Spanish explorers Galiano and Valdez as "Isla de Pacheco." Later it was known as McLaughlin's Island. The name it bears now was bestowed officially by the U.S. Geodetic Survey in 1853.  It is thought that the name referred to "luminara", or great bonfires seen by the Spaniards as they arrived, a name the Lummi tribe later took as their own. The first permanent settler was whaler and California goldminer Captain Christian Tuttle who arrived by canoe in 1871. His original land holdings, 320 acres, stretched from near Village Point south to Tuttle Lane. He and his wife Clara had seven children including the father of longtime Island residents Floyd, Marion and Echo (Griffiths). Next Frederick Lane arrived in 1881. Lane Spit bears his name. With his Indian wife and twelve children, he tended the kerosene-burning navigation light off the tip of the Spit. Having such a large family it's not surprising that he helped establish a separate school district, No. 32, on the Island and was the first superintendent of the Lummi Island schools. Frederick was also postmaster from 1887 to 1890. By 1893 he was carrying the mail in a small sailboat from Fairhaven to the Island, a sometimes hazardous journey. Our post office was officially opened on July 24, 1882, as Beach, Washington, named after the first postmaster, Wade H. Beach. The name was changed to Lummi Island in 1946. Melzer Granger came alone in March of 1888, followed in the fall of that year by his wife, Lucy, their six sons and one daughter. One son, C.R. "Chan" Granger built and, with his wife, operated Loganita Lodge, a popular resort for many years near Point Migley. Another son, Art, also married, had eleven children and remained on the Island, as did some of his children, Mac, Frank, Irene (McFarland) and Earl. The Grangers living on Lummi Island today are Art's descendants.Frank Taft "discovered" Lummi Island about 1902 and convinced his wife, Ruby, with baby Maurine, and parents-in-law, Sallie and Leonidas "Lon" Blizard to come. Frank and Ruby, who were affectionately known by Islanders as "Pop" and "Mom", started taking in boarders. This enterprise became Taft's The Willows resort, run by all the family including the Taft daughters, Maurine and Dorothy, and their husbands Jack Melcher and Leo House, respectively, and their children Jackie and John Melcher, and Victoria and Greg House.  Most of the original Taft property is now Isle Aire Subdivision.Transportation to and from Lummi Island was first by canoes, rowboats and sailboats, then by cannery tenders or steamboats such as the Brick, a midget forty-foot wood-burning stern wheeler. The first car ferry was a scow towed to Gooseberry Point by the steamer, Imp. According to Islander Cathy Scott (now deceased) who lived near our present post office, a flag waved from Gooseberry Point alerted the ferry crew, who often played cards on the porch of her cabin, that they should bring over the ferry. By 1926, Lummi Shore Road from Bellingham was completed and a ferry, the Central owned by Whatcom County and large enough to hold six small Model-T Fords, was making scheduled runs between Lummi Island and Gooseberry Point. The slightly larger Chief Kwina replaced it in 1929. In 1962, the Whatcom Chief began service. Logging and timber sales were the most common livelihoods on the Island in the early days. In 1896 a salmon cannery was built at Village Point by the Lummi Island Packing Company, which became the Carlisle Packing Company. From 1895 to 1910, a shingle mill operated on Lane Spit, then was rebuilt as a salmon cannery by Beach Packing Company, later known as Lummi Bay Packing Company. By 1906, at Smugglers Cove, Puget Sound Fertilizer Company was operating an odorous rendering plant, turning fish offal into fertilizer. In 1908, the launch Sehome was providing daily mail service. By 1919, the Nooksack Packing Company also had a cannery on the Island at Sunrise Cove. Later Island livelihoods included chicken and dairy farming, growing cherries and raspberries for commercial canning, and operating summer resorts. One man unsuccessfully tried mining coal, another thought he had discovered platinum on the Island, an impossibility because of the type of rocks here.By the 1960s, with an aging population, the Island was becoming a retirement community. Low school enrollments created serious concerns about keeping the school open. That has now changed and the Island has a lively growing population of all ages.Compiled by Beth Hudson from her research notes, with additional research by Nancy Simmerman. Thanks to Marion Tuttle, Irene Granger McFarland, Earl Granger, Jackie Melcher Gaines-Aschenbrenner, Kay Niedhamer, Clark Blake and the Lummi Island Newsletter for additional information and to Paul Davis for access to the Island archives.

Another source for genealogical & historical information is the Lummi Is. Cemetery's burial listing.

© 1993, 1998 by Friends of Island Library (FOIL)

CONTACTS

Christ Thomsen
Public Use and Natural Areas Manager
Northwest Region
Washington Department of Natural Resources
919 N Township St
Sedro Woolley, WA 98284
(360)-856-3500
Email: christ.thomsen (at) wadnr (dot) gov

Tom Murley
Northwest Region Natural Areas Manager
(360) 856-3500
om.murley (at) wadnr (dot) gov

Kathy Gunther
Northwest Region Environmental Specialist
kgunther (at) hotmail (dot) com