PORT ANGELES — What’s now a steel and concrete scar on the waterfront could shift shapes into a center for cultural tourism on the North Olympic Peninsula.
City, civic and tribal officials have envisioned such a museum at 1501 W. Marine Drive almost since ancestral remains were discovered during excavation of the ill-fated Hood Canal Bridge graving yard.
Now the tribe owns the central 11 acres of the 22.5 acre site and soon will hold a no- or low-rent lease on the 200-foot-deep frontage portion.
However, it will be years before the archaeological treasures of Tse-whit-zen will go on public display.
First the Washington State Department of Transportation must remove the mammoth concrete pad and huge steel sheet pilings that would have formed the onshore dry dock.
Then it must regrade the site before the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe can rebury the 337 intact remains and the thousands of skeletal fragments that were unearthed during graving yard excavation and archeological exploration of the site.
The tribe would like to do so within a year.
However, acquiring permits to demolish the graving yard may take longer than getting permits to build it.
Reburial isn’t likely to happen before 2008, according to John H. Miller, executive director of the tribe.