Former waterfront fuel depot covers relics
Published 10:33 pm Thursday, April 16, 2009
MUKILTEO — A former fuel depot along the Mukilteo waterfront is an important cultural site that shows evidence of native clamming for the past 1,000 years as well as a former community for Japanese immigrant mill workers in the early 1900s, according to an Air Force study.
The new environmental study suggests that 19 acres of the 20-acre site should be transferred to the Port of Everett, which has a rail-barge facility nearby. One acre would remain a site now used for field research by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The property is also where the state is considering relocating the Mukilteo ferry dock.
The study suggests the area’s cultural artifacts are important enough to warrant protection with special preservation covenants to be inserted in the deed that would prevent future owners from removing or disturbing them.
Considered eligible for listing on the National Register of Historical Places are:
A former site of the Superior Shingle Mill owned by Crown Lumber Co. The mill, built in 1903, was closed in 1930 and destroyed by a fire in 1938. Excavations for construction of a port facility in 2006 showed domestic debris associated with a former Japanese immigrant community employed by Crown in the 1920s and 1930s.
A part of old Mukilteo that shows the remains of the old Crown Lumber Co. store. A trench uncovered structural remains and artifacts from domestic and commercial contexts.
How the cultural finds will affect plans for a new ferry dock were unclear.
Jerry Heller, the port’s deputy director, said the Air Force proposal would place the state’s historic preservation officer, Allyson Brooks, in charge of protecting the area.
“I’m not sure how it would affect how the ferries will use the area,” he said. “There are quite a lot of vagaries to be dealt with.”
Brooks said that at this point, there are more questions than answers.
“More archaeological testing needs to be done,” she said. “At this point, all I know is there’s a lot of history out there. More than a thousand years of history. And a lot of tribes are involved.”
The property is in the vicinity of where area tribes signed the Point Elliott Treaty with the United States, a land settlement that established five reservations, including one for the Tulalip Tribes.
The Air Force said its intention is to ensure that the land transfer doesn’t diminish the tribes’ rights under federal law.
In a letter to Mel Sheldon, chairman of the Tulalip Tribes, Col. Nicholas Desport, a deputy director for installations, noted that the excavations had found no evidence of native villages, burials or human remains.
“The preservation covenant is designed to protect the cultural significance of this site. It will also provide an opportunity for consultation if anyone proposes further studies on the property; provide protections for Native American remains should any be discovered; and require consultation should any proposed undertaking affect historic properties of traditional religious and cultural significance.
“It will also provide federally recognized tribes that were a signatory to the Point Eliott Treaty of 1855 legal standing to enforce the preservation covenant.”
The port has been trying to take over the property, which has been cleaned up and had the old fuel tanks removed, for decades. State and regional agencies and the city of Mukilteo have expressed interest in it for various projects through the years.
Port commissioner Phil Bannan said he wanted to learn more about the proposed protective covenants for the property. “I’m not sure if we would want it if they’re too onerous,” he said.
Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459 or benbow@heraldnet.com.
