Steilacoom Historical Museum Association

The Peter Puget Memorial Project is excited to report The Steilacoom Historical Museum Association (SHMA) revealed its new, beautiful, outdoor historical signages this month. This includes a special new tribute to Lt Peter Puget's Exploration of the South Sound which was part of Captain Vancouver's Voyage of Discovery in May 1792. From its vantage point of the outside deck one has sweeping western views of Carr Inlet, Balch Passage, Fox, McNeil, and Anderson Islands. Steve Mayo, a Bellingham, WA artist, who is famous for his Voyage of Discovery paintings, created this watercolor in 1979 which depicts the HMS Discovery and HMS Chatham anchored off Restoration Point, Bainbridge Island with Puget's small boats exploring. If you have never been to the museum or Steilacoom, make it a must place to see this summer. You'll be happy you did.  www.steilacoomhistorical.org
I'd like to thank Skip Dreps and the Burien NW Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America-NWPVA for their support in managing our fund raising monies. The monies the Puget Project collected were donated to SHMA for their Puget Memorial.

The Highs and Lows of Vancouver Notch

Hello Friends and Supporters of Vancouver Notch,

As you know my Vancouver Notch proposal was officially named by the Washington Board on Geographic Names 1 Dec 2015. The proposal then went to the US Board on Geographic Names for consideration. A special survey was performed by an outside surveying company to examine the coordinates of my original proposal which were determined by the WA Board on Geographic Names.  The surveyor determined that the Vancouver Notch coordinates were actually deeper within the Puyallup River Gap. 

The new coordinates were based on Puyallup Point and an unnamed summit above the South Puyallup River north of Round Pass. The center point between these two geographic peaks create the new coordinates of 46.824 N, -121.917 W. 

Unfortunately, the new coordinates place the feature on the western boundary line of a federally designated wilderness area of Mt. Rainier National Forest. see purple line on map.

Since New Names in Wilderness Areas are not allowed under both WA Board and US Board policies, my proposal was officially denied by both Boards as of January 3, 2017.

I learned so much in my journey to officially name a feature, met many amazing people, traveled deep into the site of the original coordinates at the confluence of the Mowich and Puyallup Rivers and continue to have great respect for Captain George Vancouver for recognizing the importance of the "abrupt division” in the southern foothills of Mt. Rainier. I thank Richard Blumenthal for introducing me to the Naming of Geographic Features and for Caleb Mackey at the WA Committee Geographic Names for assisting me in walking my proposal through the process.

I, along with many others will always refer to the “abrupt division” in our beautiful view of Mt Rainier and her foothills as, Vancouver Notch. Google continues to map it with the old coordinates. At least it is on one map-Google Earth, which is not a bad consolation prize.