OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — A glacier-capped mountain with a river running through a forest and a starfish reminiscent of the coast. Does that sound like home?
It did to Olympic National Park staff members, who created a new logo in celebration of its 75th year as a national park.
Park interpretive rangers Greg Marsh and Judy Lively collaborated on a logo with elements of the park’s best-known features: glacier-capped mountains, primeval forest, rivers and the rugged Pacific Coast.
The logo also sports the words “Your Park, Your Heritage.”
Limited-edition pins featuring the logo are available at Discover Your Northwest bookstores around the park, including the Olympic National Park Visitor Center at 3002 Mount Angeles Road in Port Angeles and the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center south of Forks.
Lively, who works on the West End, designed the logo based on a drawing by Marsh, who is stationed at the visitor center in Port Angeles, said Barb Maynes, park spokeswoman.
Original intention
“The original drawing was intended to be a logo for the interpretive and education team within the park,” Maynes said.
“When we began talking about a logo for the 75th anniversary, there was a discussion about Greg’s drawing. Judy took it and adapted it.”
Neither has received compensation except recognition, Maynes said Friday.
Small anniversary events are planned during the year.
Detailed information will be released as plans are finalized, Maynes added.
“The actual anniversary day is June 29, so we are looking at options for observing the anniversary on that date at various locations in the park,” she said.
New Web pages
This week, the park plans to launch new pages on its website at www.nps.gov/olym/index.htm.
The pages will provide details on the history of the area now protected by the national park, Maynes said.
The park protects 922,651 acres of three distinctly different ecosystems: rugged mountains with glaciers, more than 70 miles of wild Pacific coast and large stands of old-growth forest and temperate rain forest.
The land in the park first received federal protection in 1897, when President Grover Cleveland designated the Olympic Forest Reserve.
This designation protected the area’s forests, but not the native wildlife, and within a few years, the area’s elk population had plummeted because it was overharvested, the park said.
In 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt designated part of the reserve as Mount Olympus National Monument.
On June 29, 1938, after several decades of public discussion and debate, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill establishing Olympic National Park.
In establishing the park, Congress defined the park’s purpose as to:
■ Preserve “the finest sample of primeval forests of Sitka spruce, western hemlock, Douglas fir, and western red cedar in the entire United States.”
■ Provide suitable winter range and permanent protection for the herds of native Roosevelt elk and other wildlife indigenous to the area.
■ “Conserve and render available to the people, for recreational use, this outstanding mountainous country containing numerous glaciers and perpetual snow fields and a portion of the surrounding verdant forest together with a narrow string along the beautiful Washington coast.”
The 75th anniversary of the park “gives us a chance to reflect on the outstanding natural and cultural heritage protected within the park,” said Sarah Creachbaum, park superintendent.
“Our local and regional neighbors are familiar with this heritage, but like all national parks, Olympic is a treasured part of our nation’s heritage.”
