Fall Color at the Park

Yesterday we traveled up and back to Portland for the third time in as many weeks – heart doctoring for Nyel.  We do these routine sorts of treks almost by rote, packing a thermos of decaf coffee and a lunch to eat along the way and taking our books for the inevitable wait to see the doctor.

Now that we have our spiffy new Prius, however, Nyel has made a rule that we cannot eat inside the car.  I think all bets will be off when the rains come, but thus far the weather has been smiling at us and we have stopped in Longview to eat by the lake or in Woodland at the roadside rest, depending on the time of day of his appointment.

Yesterday, we varied that routine and went to a park we hadn’t visited in twenty years or more – the Marine Park and Louis Rasmussen Day Use Park in Kalama.  It’s a five acre swath of green, bordered by a pedestrian/bicycle pathway and is situated along a two-mile stretch of the Columbia River.

totem Poles at Kalama

It features playgrounds, covered picnic shelters, sand volleyball courts, horseshoes, tennis and basketball courts and gives access to public beaches which, according to their website, are favorites for swimming, windsurfing, and fishing.  It is also the home of the tallest one-piece totem pole in the Pacific Northwest (one site says “in the world.”)

Even though the park is clearly visible from the freeway – due mostly to the 140 foot totem pole – it is a bit complicated to get there.  There must be an easier way for those in the know, but for us it involved leaving I-5 at the first exit beyond the park, backtracking along a frontage road, crossing numerous railroad tracks and waiting for a 100+ car freight train moving at the rate of ten cars per minute.   Still, it was well worth the trouble.

The fall colors were in all their glory.  The totem pole has been refurbished since our last trip.  There were only a half dozen people within sight – all either with little kids or with dogs.  But it was the totem pole that drew my attention and triggered many pleasant memories.  Actually, make that totem poles, plural.  There are four of them in the group but it’s the tall one that draws your attention.

All of them were carved in the early 1960s by artist Don Smith, and were designed to encompass Native American lore and tradition. Smith began work on them for display at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962, but did not finish in time. Don Smith was not a Northwest Coast Indian but was adopted by the Kwakiutl tribe as an honorary chief in the 1970s. He took the name “Chief Lelooska,”

Chief Lelooska

In 1977, Chief Lelooska and his family established the Lelooska Foundation and each spring they welcome visitors to their Cultural Center in Ariel, Washington.  There they host living history performances in the fire-lit replica of a Kwa’kwaka’wakw ceremonial house.  Visitors are treated to dramatic narration and dance presentations of traditional Northwest Coast Ceremonial Dances.     Though Don Smith died in 1996, the Foundation still carries on its educational mission and the Cultural Center, operated by Chief Lelooska’s family, continues to present living history performances each spring.

During the years I taught third grade at Ocean Park School, going to Arial to visit Chief Lelooska was the big field trip of the year and those fabulous ceremonies are among the best memories of my thirty-nine teaching years.  On the way, the school bus always stopped for a break at the riverside park in Kalama and yesterday I could almost hear the kids oohing and aahing over the totem poles and eagerly anticipating our arrival in Arial.  Thanks for all those memories, Chief Lelooska!