CAMANO ISLAND – Cama Beach State Park wasn’t slated to open until the spring of 2006, but already, Melanie Ford has 1,700 people waiting to make reservations.
| Cama Beach waiting list
To get on the reservation waiting list, call Melanie Ford at 360-387-7542 or e-mail her at cama.beach@parks.wa.gov. |
“As soon as we have confirmed dates for openings, I’ll be contacting them,” said Ford, the park’s conference program supervisor.
“Everybody on the island wants that park,” said Carol Triplett, president and co-chairwoman of Friends of Camano Island Parks.
The state planned to open the park next spring, but the Tulalip Tribes have asked the state to stop the project and possibly sell them the park after ancient Indian remains were found there.
Michael O’Leary / The Herald
Ford estimates that Triplett’s group, which includes more than 300 retirees who donate their time and labor at Cama Beach and other state and county parks on Camano Island, has donated at least 3,000 to 4,000 hours in the last two years to the island’s state parks.
They’re just one of many groups that volunteer to get the park ready. In the last year alone, volunteers logged more than 7,700 hours at Camano state parks.
Those groups include the Cama Beach Quilters, which has put in more than 2,040 hours in the last two years sewing more than 70 quilts based on 1930s patterns for beds in the park’s many cabins.
Another group is the Cama Beach Woodworkers, which has built much of the park’s furniture by using original items such as bed frames as templates, or creating new ones from lumber logged and milled at the park.
Other groups include the Washington State University Island County Beach Watchers, WSU Waste Wise, Boy Scouts and divers who provide educational programs for school groups.
“We haven’t been able to go down to Cama since the archaeological dig,” Triplett said. “It’s kind of discouraging because it’s just another delay. We’ve been waiting a long time for this park to be open.”
Karen Hamalainen grew up at Cama Beach and her family sold and donated land to the state for the park. The family has remained active in the planning and progress.
“You don’t move this kind of project without having community involvement,” she said. “There is a tremendous amount of engineering that has been done and extreme efforts to not disturb any more remains than necessary. The native people have an opportunity to tell their story here.”
She hopes the state and the tribes honor their original agreement and “do whatever they can to keep this project on track here.”
“There’s kind of a sympathy between us about what to do here,” she said. “But all of us are wanting to be at the table and really trying to see what can be done here.”
Michael O’Leary / The Herald
The tribes were one part of Cama’s cultural background, but the other aspects also need to be represented by the park, Triplett said.
“There was a logging era, a resort era, other things that reflect the people of the Northwest. This park can reflect all of that and still be open,” she said.
She was interested in preserving Cama Beach and started the group Friends of Cama in 1992. They began gathering petitions urging the state to buy the land.
They performed many tasks such as building trails, cutting grass and removing old shingles as new roofs were added to the cabins.
She’s often asked how the park is coming and when it will open, she said.
“It is a major focus of this island. People want to see it be developed into the plans now on the board. I think the attitude would be very upset if it doesn’t go through.”
Audrey McEwen became interested in the park when she took a tour with Cama Beach area manager Jeff Wheeler. In one cabin, she saw a couple of quilts on the beds and asked if there were enough quilts for all the beds. Wheeler said no.
In 2002, the Cama Beach Quilters began making quilts for the various buildings and have made more than 70 so far, some with as many as 1,700 pieces of cloth.
“It was a good way of contributing to the park and keeping in the style of the old cabins,” McEwen said.
They carried their sewing machines down to the park, brought lunches and sat around a conference table stitching.
They haven’t been able to work there since November because of the archaeological digging.
The quilters hope to use the park for retreats in the future, and possibly conducting quilting classes there.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield contributed to this story.
Reporter Cathy Logg: 425-339-3437 or logg@heraldnet.com.
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