EVERETT – It has been home to a brewery throttled by Prohibition, a power plant that went up in flames and homeless rail-riders looking for a secluded camping spot.
Mottled as its history may be, the Forgotten Creek ravine in the Port Gardner neighborhood has never been so remembered.
Thanks to a city grant, a group of residents are now one year and $12,000 into a restoration project for the ravine, which runs northwest near Kromer Avenue and opens up at Bond Street.
Many have never heard of the ravine, or the creek that meanders through it. This is, in a way, how the Forgotten Creek ravine got its name.
About two decades ago, as the story goes, a couple of public works employees were traversing the ravine near the Everett shoreline and found a tiny creek trickling along its floor.
At that time, in the 1980s, the ravine was little more than a dumping spot and a transient hangout. The duo likely would have stepped over decades’ worth of bottles and junked appliances that people had tossed down the ravine’s slope.
Even nature had used the ravine as a dumping ground of sorts – ivy and blackberry bushes had choked out many of the native plants and trees.
When the workers came upon the nameless creek among the cans and tires, they probably looked at each other and then at their map. Both came up blank.
One of them, whether earnestly or ironically, suggested it should be called “Forgotten Creek.” They penciled it in on their map, and before long, other city maps used the name.
Earlier this year, even as the neighborhood effort to restore the ravine gained momentum, the state Board on Geographic Names officially dubbed the trickle “Forgotten Creek.”
Adoption of the ravine started a few years ago when neighbors organized a simple cleanup party, project spokesman Bob Jackson said.
Jackson and a faithful contingent of volunteers removed bowling balls and bathtubs, sleeping bags and shopping carts. Then they started hacking down ivy and planting conifers. Eventually they decided a clean ravine wasn’t enough – they wanted to help it live up to its full potential.
Port Gardner neighbors used a $10,000 city grant to hire Barker Landscape Architects and helped the firm develop an extensive restoration plan, including replanting native foliage, building a walking trail and adding benches and historical markers.
Their goal is not only to restore Forgotten Creek ravine to its native habitat, but to guarantee its longevity by committing to its upkeep and making it a space for recreation and education.
“To me, the really powerful thing is the community around there,” landscape architect Angelique Damitz said. “They’ve really taken this project up and seem to feel that it’s as much as a way to bring the community together and build a sense of neighborhood as it is to restore this ravine.”
With a price tag around $300,000, the length of the restoration project depends on the number of donations and grants neighbors can unearth.
Wendy McClure, director of Everett’s Office of Neighborhoods, said neighbors need to form “a lot of partnerships” to complete the project.
“They need lots of funding sources, a lot of grant writing and a lot of work parties,” she said. “If it’s done in phases, I would think that that will help build other interest and donations and make it more feasible to implement.”
Barker Landscape Architects is completing its final report on the project. Neighbors can use the report to apply for additional funding, Damitz said.
Completion of the restoration plan is one thing. With it comes the start of another phase – where and when to find the money to pay for it. “You stumped me on that one. I’m a complete rookie,” Jackson said.
The lack of money won’t keep neighbors from visiting the ravine to clear out junk, plant trees and kill ivy. And, no doubt, to imagine what could be.
“We don’t have any real grant in mind, we’re just starting now,” Jackson said. “But if anybody wants to donate a couple hundred thousand dollars… .”
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.
Dan Bates / The Herald
Isaac O’Connell (left) 7, anticipates his brother, Sean, 8, sharing a treat with him as the two boys take a break from tree planting Saturday in Everett’s Forgotten Creek ravine.
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