Drive down the 47th parallel on this local road that’s ‘more than halfway to the North Pole’
A local historian’s journey to find out if Mount Rainier lies on the 47th parallel led to the discovery that one of Tumwater’s oldest roads runs right down the latitudinal line. He’s hoping that having this fact recognized along with other historic road signage will boost tourism in the city.
David Nicandri, a member of the Tumwater Historic Preservation Commission, has proposed plans to recognize, with a monument and highway Trailblazer signage, all of the historic trails and roads that have led to Tumwater. He said it starts with the Cowlitz Trail, then Pacific Highway, and Public State Highway One, which preceded 99, 101 and I-5.
But Nicandri said Trosper Road is historic in its own way. The majority of it, up until it turns into 54th Avenue Southwest, lies directly on the 47th parallel. That’s just slightly more than halfway to the north pole from the equator.
“I don’t mean like, 46 degrees and 59 minutes, or 47 degrees and one minute,” Nicandri said. “I mean right down the center of Trosper Road, or certainly within the striking of the limits of the road.”
Nicandri listed off a handful of places around the world that intersect with the 47th parallel: the Central Washington University campus in Ellensburg; Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a French archipelago south of Newfoundland; Chișinău, Moldova; and Sakhalin Island, Russia, north of Japan.
No other location appears to have a road parallel to the latitudinal line like Tumwater. Nicandri is proposing putting a monument in one of the new roundabouts at the east end of Trosper Road to signify folks are driving on the 47th parallel. He said the specific inspiration for that idea is twofold.
“So if you’ve ever driven south of here towards Corvallis or Eugene, Oregon, you will inevitably have encountered a sign that’s in modern Salem, Oregon, where it says you are crossing the 45th parallel, halfway between the equator and the North Pole,” he said.
Nicandri said there’s also a 50th parallel marker in Canada’s Campbell River on Vancouver Island that he and his wife visited on a vacation years ago. That’s when it hit him that Trosper Road lies in the middle.
‘Readily accessible history’
His effort to have historic roadways in Tumwater more explicitly recognized has been underway for some time. The Historic Highway 99 signs on either side of the Carlyon Bridge on Capitol Boulevard were a preceding element to Nicandri’s plans.
“So Historic Highway 99 has already been marked,” said Nicandri, who was executive director of the Washington State Historical Society from 1987 to 2011. “This effort I’m on now was to supplement with notations on the other important highways.”
Nicandri said U.S. Highway 101 begins in Los Angeles and ends in Tumwater. The idea is to one day put a sign on the ramp for 101 near the Crosby and Henderson houses that says 1,535 miles to Los Angeles.
“It’s kind of fun, but also educational, what we’re trying to do with Tumwater’s historic roads and highways,” Nicandri said.
Nicandri said he’s hoping the signage and monument will help boost tourism and bring more history enthusiasts to the region. He and his son are among those who enjoy driving around the country to take photos of unique and historic landmarks. He said one of the most photographed spots is at mile zero of U.S. Route 1 in Key West, Florida, which runs 2,370 miles to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border.
“It’s not going to be the biggest driver, but not only could it bring people to town, but people look for these things, it’s also educational,” Nicandri said.
He said the original Pioneer Trail that brought American colonists here in the 1840s actually passes current elementary schools Peter G. Schmidt and Michael T. Simmons, both of which are named after notable figures in Tumwater’s history.
“It’s what I call readily accessible history, signs like these,” Nicandri said. “It doesn’t require any buildings, doesn’t require any staff. It can be supplemented by QR codes and a website in due course.”
What’s next
Nicandri said the Tumwater City Council expressed a lot of interest in having the 47th parallel recognized with a monument, and he’s already begun meeting with sandstone sculptors to come up with a plan.
City Parks & Recreation Director Chuck Denney said he’s setting up a meeting with the Tenino Stone Carvers, who expressed interest in the monument project. He said once he receives some design options from the stone carvers, he’ll get a budget put together and will have a better idea of an overall timeline for the project.
Denney said as an emerging idea, the project isn’t something that was identified in the city’s 2025-2026 budget. Bringing the project to fruition will likely take a combination of city funds and fundraising dollars.
This story was originally published July 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
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