Park's petroglyph moves on

By Keri Brenner | The Olympian • Published April 24, 2008

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The Squaxin Island tribe reclaimed a connection to its roots Wednesday, retrieving a 10-ton granite rock with ancient tribal petroglyphs from its longtime perch at Tumwater Falls Park.

"We're pretty proud to bring it home, finally," tribal Chairman Jim Peters said as contractors loaded the massive boulder on rollers, forklifts and a truck during a delicate, 41/2-hour moving operation Wednesday. The rock had been at Tumwater Falls Park for 44 years.

The rock will be transported by truck today to its permanent home at the Squaxin Island Tribe Veterans Memorial under construction in Shelton.

"It's part of our cultural and spiritual way of life," Peters said. "Our elders will be able to use it to teach young people the history of our people."

About 25 tribal members, state and city historical staff members and others watched the move in front of the Olympia-Tumwater Foundation office.

"It's a beautiful rock," said Gaylord Pearse of Lacey, who said he bicycles to Tumwater Falls Park three times a week during salmon season. "We're going to miss it, but I'm glad it's going to a good home."

The rock, which has carved symbols of a bear, a mountain, the sun and a bow and arrow, originally sat on a beach at Harstine Island, 12 miles north of Olympia.

The Allison family, whose land included the beach area, donated the rock to the state Capitol Museum in 1964, but matriarch Elizabeth McElroy Allison specified that it must be displayed in the Tumwater area, said Peter Allison of Puyallup, her oldest grandson.

"My grandmother was very tied in with the tribe," said Allison, 45. "She wanted the public to see it and remember it, and for the rock to be in a protected location."

The boulder is thought to have been used as a navigational landmark for the ancient Squaxins. The tribe is called the "People of the Water" because members traveled by canoe among their homes in seven South Puget Sound inlets: Budd, Totten, Henderson, Hammersley, Eld, Carr and Case.

In addition, tribal members used it as a "love rock" site for marriage proposals and as a focal point for the tribe's spirit guides, Peters said.

Ann Parker, the wife of veterans memorial committee Chairman Glen Parker, said although there is no written record of the meanings of the carvings, they are thought to be portraits of various elements of native people's lives.

"We can only interpret them from looking at other pictures," she said. "There are petroglyphs all up and down the Sound."

Glen Parker said that the $600,000 veterans memorial project will be dedicated July 1 on land next to the tribal museum off U.S. Highway 101, about a mile from the Little Creek Casino. The memorial, in planning for more than three years, will include seven ponds to represent the bands of tribes at the seven inlets.

Installed in each pond will be 83 bronze canoe paddles, one for each U.S. war veteran of Squaxin lineage out of the 1,000-member tribal population. The oars are meant to evoke the lives of the ancient peoples who lived on the water, Parker said.

The petroglyph will be on a bed of gravel next to the seven ponds, between the memorial and the tribal museum.

"We visited a lot of veterans memorials, and they usually are a large stone wall with names carved in," Parker said. "We wanted to do something a little different."

Keri Brenner covers Tumwater for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5435 or kbrenner@theolympian.com.