SEQUIM — What goes around comes around, a new plaque proves.
A memorial rock calling attention to the first Irrigation Festival has been placed next to the Olympic Discovery Trail along Hendrickson Road just east of Fifth Avenue.
During a brief gathering there Friday, the present echoed the past.
Douglas McInnes, a member of the Sequim Alumni Association that helped create the memorial, read from an essay written by a girl who was 13 when the first Irrigation Festival took place.
People pedaled across the valley to see Sequim’s new water system, wrote Adelaine Grant, daughter of James W. Grant, one of the original system’s planners.
“A boatload of people from Port Townsend came and I believe it was the bicycle club,” she noted.
“Most of them had bicycles,” and the ladies “all had on very daring short skirts almost to their shoe tops.”
Bicycles cause excitement
“The bicycles alone were enough to excite our wonder,” Adelaine added.
“The folks who came from Port Angeles overland in horse-drawn vehicles must have risen at dawn” to contend with rutted roads and mud.
“But they came anyway and helped to make the day a gala affair.”
As soon as McInnes finished reading, a pair of bicyclists zipped past.
Their use of the Olympic Discovery Trail on a sunny day epitomizes one of Sequim’s modern attractions, outdoor recreation, that may well overtake its agricultural heritage.
David Lotzgesell, president of the Sequim Pioneers Association, gave a short speech on connecting Sequim’s past and future.
“We’re in a community that’s rapidly changing,” he said.
“We have to do all we can to preserve the memories, the heritage in our valley. This is one little thread.
Commercialization fears
“I’m concerned that our Irrigation Festival is becoming so commercialized,” he added, “and that we’re losing the sense of backbone in our community, which is our heritage.”
He urged Sequim residents to get involved in the Museum and Arts Center and to learn the stories of the pioneers.
And go to the Logging Show next Saturday at Carrie Blake Park.
“That’s a huge part of our heritage,” he said.