The front page of yesterday's Sunday Columbian had an interesting article about the Cape Horn Trail and the Columbia Gorge. U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley both spoke, as did Friends of the Gorge director Kevin Gorman, Scenic Area Manager Dan Harkenrider and Nancy Russell's son Aubrey.
I also was at the podium, but when I read the article I was surprised at the words attributed to me, so I decided to post the transcript from my speech here:
My involvement with Cape Horn began one February day in 1996 when a man named Wayne Maxwell called me. Wayne wanted to sell 67 acres near Cape Horn. A few days later he took me on a tour of his land, which extended to the edge of the cliffs a short distance from here. As we neared the cliffs I was amazed by what I saw: a promontory with one of the best views of the Gorge I had ever seen. I listened in disbelief while Wayne explained to me that the Forest Service had acquired the promontory (now known as Pioneer Point) from him without any access. Here was public land, potentially an extraordinary public asset, that could only be reached by crossing private property. That day I became an activist. 18 months later, in the field next to us, then US Senator Slade Gorton held a press conference announcing a large appropriation for acquiring land for the Cape Horn Trail and the Washougal to Stevenson corridor. I thought the work was over. It wasn’t.
While the Forest Service put that and subsequent appropriations to good use acquiring land throughout the Gorge, including the piece we are gathered on today, it would be another dozen years before the Cape Horn Trail would become an official trail. As the years went by more and more hikers became familiar with the bluffs, meadows, viewpoints, and waterfall of the Cape Horn Trail, yet the Forest Service seemed to be making no progress at all. I and other trail advocates were concerned that an official trail here would never become a reality. We could not have been more wrong.
It has been about a year and a half since the Forest Service completed the environmental assessment for the Cape Horn Trail. In that short time the Forest Service has coordinated an extraordinary effort involving staff, Forest Youth Success and partnerships with Washington Trails Association, Cape Horn Conservancy and Friends of the Gorge to transform this crude trail. Where the trail formerly went straight up steep slopes, carefully laid out switchbacks with new vistas now greet hikers. Where hikers have had to dodge speeding cars and trucks, handsome pedestrian underpasses will soon lead them under SR14. And of course here, where a large home once dominated the landscape, hikers gather and admire the farmland and forests below – farmland protected by Forest Service easements and forests owned by the National Forest.
While we can thank the Forest Service for executing an excellent plan, it was Nancy Russell who set the wheels in motion and kept those wheels turning right up to her final days. Unlike large agencies, Nancy could make decisions quickly. Very quickly. For example, in early 2002 a small parcel of land along SR 14 came on the market. The former site of a tavern, it was an ugly gravel strip next to a hole in the ground covered with blackberries. For years people had found it to be a convenient place to toss garbage when no one was looking. It also was a convenient place to park if you wanted to hike up to the top of Cape Horn. I called Nancy and asked her to buy what I felt would make the ideal trailhead for Cape Horn. Nancy didn’t visit the property. She didn’t need any more information. She didn’t have to consult a board of trustees. At once she authorized me to negotiate for its purchase. A few years later the Skamania County Board of Commissioners recognized the site’s potential as a combination trail and transit parking area and bought it from Nancy.
25 years ago the rim of the Gorge between Washougal and Stevenson was unprotected, destined for clear cuts and view home sites. The best views would inevitably become the exclusive domain of those privileged enough to afford the price tag. Thanks to the vision, passion, and generosity of people like Nancy Russell, and massive land acquisition efforts by the Forest Service, that future has been avoided. On this foggy ridge a 14-lot subdivision has been replaced by a popular hiking trail.
But this is only the beginning. We have protected the rim of the Gorge from the chain saw and the bulldozer, but thousands of acres of now public land between Washougal and Stevenson still remain functionally off limits to the public, just as they were 25 years ago. We can change that. Imagine destinations equal to the Cape Horn Trail every few miles along the highway from Washougal to Stevenson. These trailheads would connect to a linear trail following the rim of the Gorge between the two towns. Here, in this terra incognita, cliff top viewpoints, plunging waterfalls, wildflower meadows, and stately forests await discovery by the public. The raw material for such a trail system already belongs to us. All we need to complete the vision is the same cooperative effort, effective partnerships and can-do attitude exhibited by the Forest Service at Cape Horn. I believe it can and will be done and that Skamania County will in turn become a shining example of how land conservation can contribute to healthy, thriving communities.
Dan Huntington
