Tumwater historic commission asks council to mark College Trail, Old Highway 99 and 47th Parallel

Tumwater — The Tumwater Historic Preservation Commission on May 27 urged the City Council to approve a program of signs and monuments to make local historic routes and places more visible, including markers for the College Trail segment of the Oregon Trail, historic Highway 99 (State Road 1/Pacific Highway), and a monument denoting the 47th Parallel.

The commission’s proposal, presented by longtime commission member and former councilor Dave McCandry, asks the city to place directional icons and “Historic Route 1” plaques at gateway points, along Bonniewood Drive and Second Avenue, near the airport oak tree and at Tumwater Falls Park, and to consider a 47th Parallel monument on a Trosper Road traffic circle. Parks and Recreation Director Chuck Denny told the council the commission “was unanimously supportive and very excited about this presentation and the projects that it outlines and voted to send it to the city council for further review and hopefully, in the end, support to move these projects forward.”

The proposal includes three linked elements: interpretive signage marking the College Trail (a local segment linked in McCandry’s research to the Cowlitz Trail), an overlay of historic…