Chehalis tribal dancers and native singers from around Western Washington gave a sense of history Saturday night to one of the oldest — and newest — parks in the city that bears the tribe's name.
A month after the formal rededication of the Robert E. Lintott-Alexander Park, about 65 people paid $50 this weekend for an evening of alder-cooked Chinook salmon in a rebuilt kitchen in the riverside park just west of Chehalis city limits. The goal was to raise money for continued upkeep of the park.
As a brilliant crimson sunset formed in the west, tribal members played drums and chanted under yellowing maple leaves near a rebuilt kitchen in the immaculate park.
"We're singing with honor, honoring this land and what has happened today," said Delbert Miller, a Skokomish Indian and member of the Shabubush ("Storytellers" in the Skokomish language) musical group.
He said the group, which also includes several Chehalis Indians, performed songs about honor and the value of taking care of the land, celebrating, "the heart of the people who make the land feel appreciated."
Later, the Chehalis Tribe Youth Dance Group performed powwow dances. Several of the dancers, in full traditional regalia, played horseshoes in the park and used its swing-set before the dance.
Park supporters hope to bring the tribe out every year to add historical and cultural depth to the park, which is on a peninsula surrounded on three sides by the Chehalis River. The Newaukum River empties into the Chehalis directly across from the park. The Chehalis Indians traditionally had a camp on the prairie near the park, according to tribal member Trudy Marcellay of Oakville.
More than 100 people attended the formal dedication ceremony Aug. 13. A plaque on the park's brick gates lists the park as opening in both 1920 and 2005.
For generations, Alexander Park was a popular swimming hole and picnic spot on the main highway from Chehalis to the Pacific Coast. Eventually the highway was moved south, Alexander Bridge was blocked off, and the park fell into disuse. On a dead-end county road, it became an attractive place for illegal activity, like drug use, park sponsors say.
To discourage that kind of behavior, the park now has a year-round caretaker who lives in a travel trailer near the main entrance. He stays even during the winter when the park is closed to the public.
Chehalis real estate agent Mike Austin, a Chehalis Foundation board member, said he sees the park busy with visitors every time he stops by.
"It's turned out better than we'd envisioned," Austin said.
The nonprofit group has commissioned engineering designs and cost estimates for a pedestrian bridge over the Chehalis River linking the park with the residential area near Exit 77. Boosters envision a walkable triangle of attractions: the Veterans Memorial Museum, the historic steam train, and Lintott-Alexander Park.
"People can ride on the train then come over here and have a picnic," Austin said.
Many of the people at Saturday's fund-raiser remembered using the park in days gone by. Gene Smith, former owner of a Chehalis pharmacy, brought his family to the fund-raiser. His daughter Sandy said her class is holding its reunion in the park next year.
"It's a good community resource," she said.
Al Benny, who ran a flower shop for 57 years across the street from Smith's pharmacy, remembers coming to Alexander Park for his five-year class reunion in 1944 after mustering out of the Army. He remembers cars piled on the banks to keep them from eroding. The swimming hole along the river was a primary attraction, he said.
"That beach had the best sand you ever saw," he said.
The water quality in the river was fine, as long as you stayed upstream of the pipe where the city dumped its then-untreated sewage, he said.
His wife Rea said when her son went to the park with friends, they jumped off the bridge into the river — but didn't tell their parents about it at the time.
"Most of the mothers didn't know," she said.
