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August 01, 2002 Jetty Island: A man-made creation is now a
natural oasis
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Nearby, two boys run screeching along an expanse of squishy
tideland into the warm, waiting water, their feet sinking
delightfully with each step. A grandmother picks up a driftwood
walking stick and begins to meander down a beach-grass-lined trail.
These summer scenes could be almost anywhere but here. After all,
with our cold, rocky beaches on Puget Sound, no parents in their
right mind would let the kids go out without parkas and boots and
rain gear.
Unless, of course, they happen to be at Jetty Island, a 10-minute
ferry ride away from Everett's 10th Street Boat Launch and Marine
Park. The boat runs Wednesdays through Sundays, July 4 through Labor
Day.
"This is like Disneyland right at your doorstep," says
68-year-old Margaret, who normally brings her grandchildren here to
play. "They really enjoy the water, they go out flopping around in
it and just enjoy being free for the day."
On this particular day, Margaret, who asked that her last name
not be used, has come alone to reclaim some film she'd accidentally
left behind on her last trip, and decides to spend the rest of the
morning walking the paths and contemplating a major life decision.
"I like the water and the breeze off the water, it's very quiet
out here," she says.
As it should be. Jetty Island has no phones. No cars. No shops.
Not even a soda machine. You can buy a T-shirt, but that's about it.
And it's just as well, really. The 2-mile-long, 1/2-mile-wide (only
500 feet wide at high tide) getaway is a man-made island that serves
as a sanctuary for 45 species of birds and hundreds of people per
day.
Wildlife includes gulls and killdeer that find refuge in the
beach grass, ospreys who nest atop pilings, and juvenile salmon that
come to the lagoon on the north side for shelter, says Kraig Hansen,
the island's chief naturalist. Predators are few, with an occasional
coyote that walks over during low tide.
Bird populations thrive here. The elderberry, scotch broom,
blackberry and dune rye are hearty enough to take root in the sandy
soil. Jetty Island is protected by a long list of city ordinances
such as no hunting, no pets, campfires in designated areas only and
a pack-in/pack-out policy.
Margaret says the visits give her grandkids "a taste of the real
life, not what they're fed on TV."
It's an organic kind of fun, especially because it's all free,
even the ferry ride over. And while Jetty Island may be one of the
region's best-kept secrets, you wouldn't know it. Between 550 to
1,000 people per day take advantage of this playground, depending on
the weather.
On this day, an extended family with about a dozen kids of all
sizes has pitched a tent and colorful umbrellas right near a fire
pit. They fly kites, set up a seemingly endless picnic and escort
the smallest tribe members to the water's edge.
Seven-year-old Eric Frisk and 9-year-old Nicholas Scheltinga from
Lake Stevens have come with Eric's mother, Peggy. Eric reckons he's
been here 1,000 times, then rethinks that figure and lowers it to
100. Within 10 minutes of getting off the boat and staking out a
spot for their blanket, the boys are soaking wet, covered with sand
and showing off a crab carcass they found.
"We're here for the swimming, there aren't many sandy beaches
around here," Nicholas says. "It's just fun."
And fun comes in a more structured way, too. "People want to hit
the beach and play, but they come away with something more," Hansen
says. It's easy, with educational opportunities at every turn.
The Discovery Hut contains pictures and samples of the island's
flora and fauna, plus an overview of the island's natural history.
Puppet shows, campfire presentations with music and special guests,
sandcastle contests and even a murder mystery whodunit all find
space on the events calendar. And there are at least two nature
hikes every day.
If you can tear yourself away from basking and playing to embark
on one of the 40-minute treks, you'll learn about the zillions of
secrets the island harbors:
Then, of course, there are all the free eats on the nature hike,
which come in particularly handy if you've forgotten your picnic:
beach peas that are a little raw and bitter and would taste better
perhaps roasted with a little olive oil and sea salt, served as a
salad garnish; gumweed, the foul-tasting sticky flower given to cure
sore throats in the old days (think turpentine meets plain oatmeal);
and pickleweed, the salty, springy grass that's found in salt
marshes such as this.
Who knew that a pile of junk could breed all this?
Jetty Island's beginnings a hundred years ago were profit-based.
In order to build business on the Everett waterfront, harbor access
was needed for ships and boats. However, in those days vessels were
made of wood and prone to damage from the shipworm, a small-shell
clam that thrives in saltwater and bores holes in wooden hulls.
The only way to keep watercraft from such damage was to create a
freshwater harbor with water from the Snohomish River. To do that, a
portion of Puget Sound was dredged and the debris from that
eventually became a jetty that aided in keeping the fresh water from
the river in and the salt water from the Sound out.
The debris piled up -- logs, rocks, old boats, pilings and sand.
Sometimes those ancient materials surface. On the southwest beach,
for example, a wood skeleton of something has revealed itself, but
rangers aren't quite sure what it is.
"Every year, new stuff likes to pop up. You never know what,"
says interpretive naturalist Nate Fuchs.
In the late 1920s, investors -- including John D. Rockefeller --
pulled out of the development of Everett and its waterfront for
unclear reasons, but most likely after being discouraged by the
pollutants from sawmills and pulp mills that spewed from
smokestacks, Hansen said. In addition, shipwrights were building
boats with sturdier hulls, making the goal of a freshwater harbor
moot.
Though the island continued to be a dumping ground for
construction projects, birds found it a relatively peaceful home and
began to lay claim to the habitat. By the 1950s, the Kiwanis Club
set up a changing room and bathhouse for a swimming retreat. And 17
years ago, the Everett Parks and Recreation Department began
organizing trips and educational programs to Jetty Island.
For Sherry Mickelsen of Everett, the island has given her family
something beyond entertainment and education. She's been coming here
for the past 14 years. Her initial enthusiasm for the beach -- after
a lifetime in the Midwest -- earned her the nickname Jetty Queen.
Her son, 10-year-old Anthony, is naturally the Jetty Prince and was
led to believe that the island was his.
"As he gets older, he's realizing that's not really true," she
says. Still, he has celebrated every birthday here. "He will always
remember it as uninterrupted time -- there are no phones ringing, no
TV. Everything's about being with family and making your own fun.
... I'm sure just feeling like he's the Jetty Prince has done
wonders for him," she says.
"It's a real gift, I think."
If you go...
Vanessa McGrady is a Seattle-based free-lancer who can be
reached at vmcgrady@mindspring.net. Copyright © 2002 by Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved.
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