EDITOR’S NOTE — The schedule for the festival has been corrected.
SEQUIM — Various events will kick-off the 16th annual Dungeness River Festival next Friday, Sept. 25, with the main body of celebrations occurring Saturday, Sept. 26.
The festival will be held at Railroad Bridge Park, 2151 W. Hendrickson Road.
Additionally, the Olympic Driftwood Sculptors 7th Anniversary Art Show will be held Saturday, Sept. 26 and Sunday, Sept. 27 in conjunction with the River Festival at the Dungeness River Audubon Center.
Both events are free to the public.
“The festival itself is very much a community festival,” said Julie Jackson, River Center Board Member.
“The festival is really an opportunity to not only get to know more about the natural resources of our area, but we also hope it will encourage stewardship of those natural and cultural resources.”
The River Festival also will commemorate the centennial of the Dungeness River Railroad Bridge, which currently is closed to through traffic as construction crews replace the western trestle.
The trestle was damaged by a flood during a February storm.
The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad built the bridge in the summer of 1915.
“With all the things with the 100th anniversary, it has been quite a year between the trestle washing out and all the repairs on the bridge, and the fact that there has been a very big salmon run this year,” Jackson said.
“We are hoping there will still be some salmon for people to see.”
The river center and its partners — the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, which owns the park and the bridge, and the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society, a nonprofit organization headquartered at Railroad Bridge Park — sponsor the annual River Festival.
Activities both days include nature activities and exhibits, food concessions including Native American fry bread, model train displays, and live entertainment.
Interactive nature exhibits and activities include demonstrations of energy efficiency, water conservation and clean air.
Attractions on the bridge will include a 25-foot-long assessor’s map showing the Milwaukee Road right of way in 1913.
Fish printing — a process in which a mirror image of a fish is transcribed via ink onto parchment or cloth — also will be offered on paper, white T-shirts or pillow cases provided by attendees.
Participants also will be offered an opportunity to walk through a septic system, learn how worms breathe and hold a giant geoduck clam.
Also, those in attendance will be able to try their skills at Animal Olympics when they mimic a specific animal, such as jumping as a frog or creeping like a crab.
The main event will be the unveiling of a plaque to mark the occasion. That is planned at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The plaque commemorates the placement of the bridge on the National Register of Historic Places and celebrates the latest incarnation of the historic crossing as a vital link of the Olympic Discovery Trail.
“The plaque will actually be unveiled by Clare Manis Hatler,” Jackson said.
“Clare is the person responsible for getting the bridge listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It seems very appropriate to have her be the person who unveils the plaque.”
And at 3 p.m. Saturday, Brian Grad will lead a singalong of the “Railroad Song.”
“It is going to be fun,” Jackson said.
“We have never had a singalong before, so I think the Railroad Song sing-along is going to be kind of a novel thing for people to do.
Commemorative items for sale include “Railroad Bridge Red” table wine, a 2012 vintage made from Yakima Valley grapes and hand-crafted by David Volmut, co-owner of Wind Rose Cellars in Sequim.
Fifteen percent of the proceeds from each bottle, or about $3, will be donated to the river center.
Dungeness Bridge anniversary patches and pins also will be available in the river center gift shop.
For more information about the festival, contact the Dungeness River Audubon Center at 360-681-4076 or visit www.DungenessRiverCenter.org.
For more information about the sculpture show, visit www.olympicdriftwoodsculptors.org.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
