PORT TOWNSEND — The state Transportation Commission has an April 30 deadline for proposing a name for the second 64-car ferry on the Port Townsend-Keystone route
Final selection of the name is expected to take place at the commission’s July 13-14 meeting in Olympia, with the exact date and time yet to be determined.
“They set their policy forward last month — the guidelines they want to follow,” Transportation Commission Administrator Reema Griffiths said.
“It was important to them to have a statewide notice.”
Griffith said that, while her office has received “a ton of e-mails” suggesting names, the process now requires going through a public entity that would encourage initial public vetting over a suggested name.
Naming delayed
Naming the second 64-car ferry for the Port Townsend-Keystone route was delayed in February while the state Transportation Commission developed a process for naming future vessels for Washington State Ferries and the state Department of Transportation.
So far two names have been proposed: Squi Qui, sponsored by the Town of Coupeville and the Swinomish Tribe; and Salish, sponsored by San Juan County Council.
Squi Qui, pronounced Sk-why k-why, lived from about 1816 to 1874. He was a Lower Skagit tribal leader and a signer of the Point Elliot Treaty in 1855.
His village, a frequent site for Indian gatherings, was situated on the north shore of Penn Cove, just across from present-day Coupeville and not far from Keystone Landing.
Squi Qui frequently crossed Admiralty Inlet by canoe, the same route the new ferries will travel.
He was buried on Whidbey Island, outside of Coupeville.
Along with the Swinomish tribe, the Coupeville Town Council, Coupeville Chamber of Commerce and the historical society all support naming the second ferry for Squi Qui.
The other name proposed, Salish, refers to the Coast Salish people of Washington state, British Columbia and Oregon, and is also the geographical name of the inland marine sea that includes the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound.
Last year, the Washington State Board on Geographic Names and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names approved the term “Salish Sea” as an official name of the area.
The delay in the second vessel naming dampened hopes on the Coupeville side of the Port Townsend-Keystone route that the second ferry would be named to honor Squi Qui.
First ferry’s name
The first 64-car ferry was named for Chetzemoka, a former S’Klallam chief, with the transportation commission’s approval in October in Olympia, and was supported by Jefferson County Historical Society and others.
The ferry is now under construction at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle and will be launched this summer.
The second 64-car ferry is expected to be launched on the Port Townsend-Keystone route in late 2011.
The two ferries will replace the 50-car Steilacoom II, which the state leased from Pierce County for the Port Townsend-Keystone route.
Students in Scott Lundh’s Blue Heron Middle School fourth-grade class in February floated the winning ferry classification name — the Kwa-di Tabil Class — in a contest that also involved Chimacum and Coupeville students.
For more information about proposing a name, see http://tinyurl.com/yjo6faw.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.