Ebey's Landing Administrative History

Chapter Eight:
INTERPRETATION AND VISITOR FACILITIES

After a visit in 1986 to Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve, the chief of interpretation for the NPS' Pacific Northwest region, David Pugh, commented that

the concept of a park area intended to preserve a cultural scene is difficult to grasp on site. The concept is understandable, but difficult to 'see,' and unfortunately, I believe most visitors expect to 'see' the park rather than only visit and see its individual pieces.

Consequently, Pugh noted, the greatest visitor need at EBLA was orientation and guidance through exhibits, hand-outs and brochures that would provide structure, direction, and a recommended route for visitors to travel in order to enjoy the resources of the reserve. The specialists who designed the reserve's interpretive program concurred wholeheartedly. A nontraditional area, EBLA would offer nontraditional means to enjoy the resource. Its interpretive materials and signs would be geared toward the self-motivated visitor.[1]

Stimulated by the unique challenge of interpreting a cultural landscape, the designers at the NPS Harpers Ferry Center in West Virginia created a unified system of exhibits and waysides to guide visitors through the reserve. Such panels were consistent with other NPS panels found throughout the national park system. At the beginning of 1993, seven interpretive pullouts or waysides and a total of 21 panels were in place within the reserve, with others scheduled for placement in both state parks and in the rest of the reserve. Still others await land acquisition funding before they can be installed on lands now privately owned. The program has been a cooperative effort among the governmental partners and others, including the Washington State Department of Transportation. The National Park Service is responsible for creating the waysides (although, in fact, the trust board became involved in designing and constructing them), but the EBLA trust board is responsible for maintaining them. The trust board has found additional partners within the community to assist with this program. By the beginning of 1991, all reserve waysides outside of the state parks were being maintained by volunteers from local community service organizations.

This chapter will discuss the interpretive programs that have been developed for the reserve. It provides an overview of EBLA's few visitor facilities and recreational opportunities. Installation of some interpretive waysides, such as those at Cemetery Overlook and the docks of the Washington State ferries, has been completed as specified in the EBLA wayside exhibit plan. Others, such as those at Fort Ebey State Park, eventually will be completed as the exhibit plan envisioned. This report does not discuss in detail those sites that have proceeded or are proceeding as planned, since this would duplicate information available in the wayside exhibit plan. The goal of this discussion is to note what has been accomplished and to explain why certain exhibits have been modified, eliminated, or added to the program.

In August 1981, Larry Tillman, interpretation specialist, and Ray Price, chief of wayside exhibits, both from the NPS interpretive design center at Harpers Ferry, toured the reserve with regional chief of interpretation Rocky Richardson and Reed Jarvis. They were part of a team that would study the area and prepare a prospectus for its interpretation and interpretive facilities. [2]

The team was aware that the method of interpretation in the reserve would not be the traditional means used throughout the national park system. Interpretation would not highlight individual structures and landmarks, but would focus on the cultural landscape as a whole system of interrelated parts. [3] The interpretive prospectus, which they prepared in the fall of 1981, noted that the NPS had no plans for a visitor center, exhibit rooms, amphitheaters, and other traditional interpretive facilities for the reserve. Nor would it acquire any historic structures, or staff the area with the usual NPS park technicians. Visitors would gain an understanding of the reserve primarily through interpretive waysides, which would be organized around themes drawn from the EBLA comprehensive plan. It was envisioned that the reserve would be a self-guided place for the self-motivated visitor. [4]

The interpretive prospectus identified sixteen sites for wayside exhibits, with a total of thirty-two panels. The National Park Service traditionally tried to reach as many incoming visitors as possible. Its immediate goal in the reserve, or Phase I, was to erect waysides in three key areas--Coupeville Wharf; Ebey's Landing; and the U. S. Navy Outlying Field (OLF), which lay near the primary southern entrance to the reserve. All but the Ebey's Landing site, which was privately owned, were on public property, and required only cooperative agreements between the partners in order for the waysides to be installed.

In addition to the panels, the NPS would publish a reserve brochure. The interpretive prospectus recommended that the EBLA brochure be organized around the four historical themes described in the enabling legislation. Phase I also called for a driving/bicycling tour (a walking tour of historic Coupeville was already available through the Island County Historical Society). It also suggested the recording of oral histories, in order to document the experiences of descendants of the early settlers. The tours and oral histories were moved to the back burner as funds and work time proved scarce, and to date have not been completed. [5]

Phase II of the interpretive prospectus recommended thirteen waysides at other key viewing or entrance points, as well as a traditional NPS "park handbook" and a variety of posters, charts, and "theme" publications. The interpretive panels would orient the visitor to the reserve and describe specific aspects of local geography and history. Their locations were to be as follows:

1. Admiralty Inlet Overlook on Hill Road (near Camp Casey Campus)
2. Fort Casey State Park
3. Grasser's Hill and Lagoon
4. Bluff Trail Overlook (at the top of the bluff beyond the state park boundary)
5. Bluff Trailhead (on Ebey's Landing State Beach)
6. Ebey's Prairie pulloff (referred to informally for a time as the "Engle Road Wayside" and now called the "Prairie Wayside")
7. Ebey's Prairie Overlook, across the road from Sunnyside Cemetery (now also referred to as the "Cemetery Overlook")
8. Monroe's Landing
9. Crockett Blockhouse near Crockett Lake
10. Fort Ebey State Park
11. Port Townsend-Keystone ferry
12. Crockett Lake, along Ft. Casey Road south of Wanamaker Road
13. Mukilteo-Clinton ferry

While the Harpers Ferry Center fashioned some preliminary designs for the wayside exhibits, EBLA ranger Kris Ravetz gathered background information for a reserve brochure and launched a campaign of public outreach and education.