Article by Monica Brown
On Dec. 21, the 62 acres around Tamanowas Rock, including the rock itself, were purchased by the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe for $600,000. Tamanowas Rock, shaped like a pointed egg, stands more than 150 feet from the valley floor to the east of Anderson Lake State Park just south of Port Townsend.
The purchase has been added to the adjacent 22-acre property that has been owned by the tribe since the 1990’s and will be known as the Tamanowas Rock Sanctuary, “will be protected in perpetuity from development and inappropriate uses with respect to a cultural and religious Indian site,” according to the tribe’s official announcement of the purchase.
For over 10,000 years the Tamanowas rock which has been a sacred spot beginning with the Chemakuan people, now extinct. Currently a sacred location for many Salish people and would draw them in from as far north as the Lummi Nation. Tamanowas means “spirit power” in the Klallam language.
The rock was previously owned by George Heidgerkin, a developer who purchased the property in 1993 with plans for as many as 46 homes on the land surrounding the rock but was purchased by Washington State Parks in 2008 and transferred to the Jefferson Land Trust and purchased by the Tribe.
A new management plan has been developed that will allow continued but controlled public access Tribal plans include the addition of information kiosks to teach visitors of the history of the site; its cultural, religious and historic importance; and how to show respect to the land and the rock itself — including no rock climbing.
Images of the Tamanowas rock Sanctuary can be viewed here;
http://www.saveland.org/projects/land/Land_Detail.aspx?processid=59