(The Center Square) – After hand-delivering over 100 letters to Washington, D.C., Pierce County Councilmember Dave Morell says emergency grants could save a historic mining town that the state left out to dry.
Washington State Route 165 leads hundreds of thousands of tourists to Mount Rainier National Park every year. The highway stretches through Wilkeson to one of the few entrances, but not before crossing a 103-year-old bridge the state closed last month, cutting off access to the park.
The Fairfax Bridge is rapidly deteriorating after the Legislature put off years of maintenance. Morell said a few coats of paint every three decades could have avoided this, but the state is out of options. Years could pass before it can afford to rebuild, upending Wilkeson’s economy.
“Whenever we do in-district meetings at the county, whether it be in District 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7, I remind them,” Morell told The Center Square, “that it was the towns of Wilkeson and Carbonado that built Tacoma, and without them, Tacoma would not be where it is today.”
Morell met with the state’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., last week and returned home on Friday. While he planned the trip before the state closed the bridge, it allowed him to lobby for federal support. A solution may still be years away, but he said Wilkeson could survive.
Businesses, residents and even outdoor enthusiasts from Tacoma and Auburn sent more than 100 letters with Morell. Someone wrote one on the back of a napkin. Morell said U.S. Rep. Kim Schier, D-Wash., smiled as she opened it, reflecting on the rural community amid the chaos of Congress.
A group of roughly 30 people who live on the other side of the bridge collected the letters before Morell left. The Friends of the Carbon Canyon help maintain the area and told The Center Square that the local access route they now have to take adds almost an hour to their trip into town.
“It’s over an hour if we call 911,” Jill Cartwright said, “Carbonado and Wilkeson are volunteer fire departments, and they’re going to be the first ones that would be coming through, but we wouldn’t expect any help for over an hour — if that.”
Bridge maintenance typically falls on the state, but Morell said Wilkeson could declare an emergency to open the door to U.S. Department of Commerce grants. The funding wouldn’t rebuild the bridge but could save the city and local economy until the state has enough money.
Morell said the county talked to Wilkeson Mayor Jeff Sellers about a declaration and plans to explore all possible avenues. The Washington State Department of Transportation will host a meeting after Memorial Day so residents can weigh in on potentially rerouting the bridge later.
In the meantime, Morell said the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and the state have an opportunity to repair campsites, trails and other infrastructure on the other side of the bridge.
“Things are happening behind the scenes. We’re not sitting around, saying, ‘Woe is me,’” he told The Center Square.
Wilkeson is the first stop for gas on the way down from the park, but it takes another 20 minutes to get to grocery stores in Bonney Lake. Some residents who live across the bridge are disabled and feel trapped on the other side without a quick way to town.
Cartwright wants to prevent Wilkeson from becoming a ghost town like the other mining communities that once thrived there. One lies beneath the Fairfax Bridge, serving as a reminder of what the loss of tourism could mean for Wilkeson, much like the decline of the coal industry in the area.
“They do depend on the tourist traffic,” Cartwright said. “People come from all over the world in those three months.”
