| State Parks
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State
Parks of Northern Puget Sound
(click image for detailed view) |
Peace Arch State
Park
Peace Arch State Park is a 20-acre day-use park offering magnificent
views of Point Roberts, Vancouver Island, and the San Juans Islands.
The park features horticultural exhibitions (more than 20,000
flowers are planted annually on the grounds) and a giant, commemorative,
concrete arch that straddles the border of both the United States
and Canada. The arch is a 67-foot tall concrete structure that
is the inspiration of Sam Hill, a railroad builder and industrialist.
Construction of the arch bean in 1920. The arch commemorates the
signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1814 and the Rush-Bagot Agreement
in 1817. Entered into by the King of Great Britain and President
Monroe, these treaties provided for an unguarded United States/Canadian
border from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the Bay of Fundy. Both
treaties resulted from the War of 1812 with Great Britain.1
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Bay View State
Park2
Bay View State Park is a 25-acre camping park with 1,285 feet
of saltwater shoreline on Padilla Bay. Over 11,000 acres of
Padilla Bay are designated as National Estuarine Sanctuary.
Breazeale Padilla Bay Interpretive Center is located a half
mile north of the park.
The park offers views of the San Juan Islands fronting Padilla
Bay, one of 15 existing national marine estuaries. On clear
days, park users see the Olympic Mountains to the west and Mt.
Rainier to the south.
Bay View State Park was the home of Pat-The-Us, a Noo-Wha-Ah
Indian chief and signer of the Point Elliot Treaty. William
J. Mckenna, who plotted the original townsite in 1884, named
the town. The original portion of the park was donated to the
state in 1925 by the Skagit County Agricultural Association
with the understanding that it would become a state park. Additional
parcels were acquired up until 1968. The park site, formerly
a baseball field and racetrack, derives its name from the community
of Bay View.
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Birch Bay
State Park3
Birch Bay State Park is a 194-acre marine camping park with
8,255 feet of saltwater shoreline and 14,923 feet of freshwater
shoreline on Terrell Creek.
The Terrell Creek Marsh is one of the few remaining saltwater/freshwater
estuaries in northern Puget Sound. The park features nearly
two miles of beach and views of the Canadian Gulf Islands and
the Cascade Mountains. A natural game sanctuary is at the park's
north end.
Birch Bay was named by botanist Archibald Menzies, who was
on the 1792 Vancouver expedition, for its abundance of black
birch trees. Archeological evidence indicates that the bay was
inhabited by Semiahmoo, Lummi, and Nooksack tribes since prehistoric
times. At the turn of the century, the huge fir trees of the
area were logged with oxen and horse teams. Large old-growth
stumps, with spring-board marks, remain as evidence.
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Larrabee
State Park4
Larrabee State Park is a 2,683-acre camping park with 8,100
feet of saltwater shoreline on Samish Bay near Bellingham in
northwest Washington. The park features two freshwater lakes,
coves, and tidelands. A variety of non-motorized, multiple-use
trails wind through the park.
In October 1915, the Larrabee family donated 20 acres of land
to the state to be made into a park. Officially named in honor
of Charles Xavier Larrabee in 1923, the area became Washington's
first state park.
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Moran State Park
Moran State Park is a 5,252-acre camping park with five freshwater
lakes and over 30 miles of hiking trails. The park opened in
1921 when Robert Moran, shipbuilder and former mayor of Seattle,
donated more than 2,700 acres to the state for a park. The Civilian
Conservation Corp (CCC) during the 1930s built most of the trails,
roads, bridges, and buildings in the park. The builders used
native materials on site to construct the many stone and wooden
shelters and buildings. Atop the 2,409-foot-high Mount Constitution,
the highest point on the San Juan Islands, there stands a stone
observation tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corp in
1936. The tower offers panoramic views of the surrounding islands,
the Cascade Mountains, and a variety of Canadian and American
cities.5
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Spencer
Spit State Park6
Spencer Spit State Park is a 138-acre marine and camping park
situated on Lopez Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The
park is named for the lagoon-enclosing sand spit on which it
rests.
This is one of the few state parks in the San Juan Islands
that is accessible by automobile.
Spencer Spit is an example of a sandspit enclosing a saltchuck
lagoon. The spit was formed over a long period of time by the
action of wind and tide. The spit is constantly changing. Eventually,
it could fill with sediment and lose all its water.
As Native American tribes migrated up and down the coast, they
stopped at Spencer Spit to clam, crab, and fish before moving
on. Native American activity continued until 1946.
A family named Troxell homesteaded Spencer Spit in the late
1800s. It was eventually sold to the Spencers who lived on the
property for 50 years. State Parks bought the property in 1967.
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References Cited
1. The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. Peace
Arch.
< http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Peace%20Arch>
2. The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. Bay
View.
< http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Bay%20View>
3. The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. Birch
Bay.
< http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Birch%20Bay>
4. The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. Larrabee.
< http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Larrabee>
5. The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. Moran.
< http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Moran>
6. The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. Spencer
Spit.
< http://www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Spencer%20Spit>
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