Port Angeles: Unnamed creek’s naming seen as legacy for tree farm

PORT ANGELES — Toni and Norm Wade’s love for the Chickamin Stick Tree Farm is so strong, they want to name a creek on the farm in its honor.

“I love this place. This is my playground,” says Toni Wade, the daughter of a tree farmer, who grew up in the area and played and worked there as a young girl.

In the 1970s, she married Norm on the 40-acre site east of Cameron Road.

The Wades today manage the tree farm founded by Toni’s parents, Harry and Lucie Brown, in the 1940s.

The farm, certified by West Coast Tree Farms in 1959, is believed to be the oldest small-family tree farm on the North Olympic Peninsula.

Unnamed tributary

An unnamed tributary of Dry Creek originates on the property near where the Wades were married, and they are in the process of naming it Chickamin Creek.

The seasonal creek, which is dry this time of year, flows north under U.S. Highway 101 and state Highway 112 east of Reddick Road and connects with Dry Creek near Critchfield Road.

Chickamin is a Chinook reference, meaning “money wood,” says Toni.

“We would like the people of Clallam County to know that we have sent in an application and testified before the Washington State Board on Geographic Names in Olympia to have it named Chickamin Creek,” she said.

The property was selectively logged in the 1980s and the results are evident today: a healthy stand of towering 80-year-old firs, cedars and hemlocks, all in a natural setting that supports flora and fauna.

More in News

Mike O’Brien of Port Angeles watches as his dog, Nara, left, catches a flying disc and his other dog, Copper, waits for his turn to fetch a ball on Thursday at Erickson Playfield in Port Angeles. O’Brien said catch and fetch are favorite activities for his canine companions. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Got it!

Mike O’Brien of Port Angeles watches as his dog, Nara, left, catches… Continue reading

40-week business program under way

Advisor training part of Recompete program

Port of Port Townsend may ask voters if they should increase term lengths

Commissioners could serve six years if ballot measure is approved

Coast Guard cutter changes its command

Potter takes over ship based in Port Angeles in San Diego ceremony

Maintenance workers, from left, Brian Phillips, Jeff Clark and Noah Mohmand, suspend a banner outside the Port Angeles Public Library to gather interest in the library system’s Summer Reading Program, which runs from Friday through Aug. 23. The program offers free books and prizes for avid readers at the system’s branches in Port Angeles, Sequim, Forks and Clallam Bay. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Summer reading

Maintenance workers, from left, Brian Phillips, Jeff Clark and Noah Mohmand, suspend… Continue reading

Heritage projects awarded funding

Almost $2 million for Jefferson programs

Public comment period opens for cleanup at former Rayonier Mill site

Open house scheduled next month at Field Hall

History center declines Port Angeles’ offer for property

Letter cites inability to move inventory items

Cost-sharing pact approved for western Port Angeles Harbor cleanup

Potentially liable parties each to pay one-sixth of project

Sunrise Meats issues recall for smoked salmon

Sunrise Meats, Inc. of Port Angeles is recalling some… Continue reading

Candidate for Port of Port Angeles ends campaign

Nate Adkisson has announced he is ending his campaign… Continue reading

Port Townsend senior living center has COVID-19 outbreak

Twenty residents at Port Townsend Senior Living have tested… Continue reading