Wilkeson businesses have scrambled to find ways to attract tourists to central Pierce County this summer after losing access to sections of Mount Rainier National Park. This is in response to the Fairfax Bridge suddenly closing earlier this year after structural damage was found.
The bridge was permanently shut down in April after the Washington State Department of Transportation discovered a bent support column on the 104-year-old bridge.
Residents living in Wilkeson and the surrounding area were stunned. The bridge spans a canyon and connects to State Route 165 which is the only public route to the Carbon River and Mowich Lake areas of the national park.
Normally during the summer months, thousands of cars pass through the historic coal mining community on their way to popular hiking trails and nature areas. Over the years, Wilkeson developed a small tourist economy since its one of the few pits stops on the road to the northwest section of the park. Now, the bridge closure has caused the town of approximately 500 residents to slow down.
Belinda Kelly co-owns the Simple Goodness Soda Shop which serves coffee, ice cream and other food on the main street of Wilkeson. She said losing access to the park has severely affected the local economy.
“Tourism is essential to Wilkeson,” according to Kelly. “Towns this size and located where they are don't survive without tourism.”
The soda shop has prioritized planning events like concerts and car cruises to attract visitors to the town, but that’s only been somewhat successful. According to Kelly, the months of July and August should be soda shop’s busy season, but instead its sustained "huge losses."
“We are planning a lot of events, which take up a lot of our staff time and energy to try to draw people to the area,” she said. “We can’t keep doing that forever…it’s not long term sustainable.”
Other businesses in the area are also feeling the pinch from the drop in tourism as well. Shelley Wright owns the Carbon Country’s Shady Rest Bed and Breakfast, which sits a few miles outside of Wilkeson. After the bridge closed, she reached out to guests who had upcoming reservations.
“We had people booking all year long, so I immediately drafted an email to let them know and, at that point, we probably refunded 75%,” she said.
Wright and her husband built their bed and breakfast from the ground up. She usually sees a few hundred guests stay at the B&B annually, but is only seeing a fraction of that this year. This has forced Wright to contemplate whether she should stay open.
“This was to be our retirement,” she said. “Now, with the uncertainty, the thought about selling has crossed our minds. Right now, we're taking it one day at a time.”
The Fairfax Bridge originally opened in 1921 and its age contributed to its deterioration. According to WSDOT, state bridges are designed to last for 75 years. However, another factor leading to the Fairfax Bridge being shuttered is it had not been properly maintained. Steel bridges need to be regularly painted to prevent corrosion, but the Fairfax Bridge had not been repainted since 1988.
WSDOT Olympic Region Administrator Steve Roark explained that the state transportation agency has ongoing budget constraints which force it to prioritize certain projects over others.
“We had to make some tough trade off decisions on how to invest our preservation funding across the agency and the [over] 3,400 bridges we have,” he said. “We did defer the painting [of the Fairfax Bridge] in favor of higher priority repairs and rehabilitation of other bridges around the state.”
The transportation agency recently released a report detailing two ways the state could respond to the Fairfax Bridge closure. Officials will choose between building a new Fairfax Bridge for $160 million or tear the old bridge down without replacing it. WSDOT is moving forward with environmental and engineering assessments for both proposals, but it could take over a year for a final decision to be released.
Even if funds are allocated to build a new bridge, it would be years before construction would be completed. Without access to Mount Rainier National Park, Wilkeson Town Council Member Jayme Peloli worries the local economy will see huge losses.
“It’s millions of dollars over the next several years,” she said. “I think really next year is when we’ll be able to see how big of a hit it is, I think were all hopeful change is coming.”
Peloli’s family has lived here for generations and her concerns go beyond economics. She points to public safety issues created by the closure for the dozens of people living south of the bridge. Those Pierce County residents are now forced to use a private logging road to access basic services such as medical care and grocery stores.
She is spearheading a number of strategies to address the drop in tourism and get more resources for the Wilkeson area. This includes a project called “Wilkeson’s Way Forward,” which is a plan to create a nature area to attract visitors to town.
Peloli is raising money for this proposal to purchase an approximately 138 acre parcel of land that she envisions will include “hiking-biking trails…amphitheater opportunities…places to have concerts in the summer.”
Despite her efforts, the Wilkeson-area is still struggling. Earlier this month, the White River Bridge north of the community was struck by a semi-truck and was closed for repairs. Peloli said this led to even less people coming to Wilkeson and caused more problems for residents.
In response, Peloli started a petition calling on Gov. Bob Ferguson to declare an emergency in response to the White River and Fairfax Bridges being closed. Her appeal to state leaders included replacing the Fairfax Bridge as well as making emergency aid available to local residents and businesses. Over 7,000 people signed the petition in less than a week.
Ferguson did declare an emergency in response to the White River Bridge on Aug. 27. However, according to the governor’s office, the Fairfax Bridge does not qualify as a state of emergency. Ferguson personally reached out to Peloli to discuss the current challenges facing Wilkeson and directed staff to look into potential ways to address the situation.
Peloli is adamant that Wilkeson needs “urgent support.” Her fear is local shops and restaurants will start shutting down and eventually the town will be forgotten.
“If there is no reason to come past Wilkeson it will just be a dead end,” she said. “I want people to have a reason to come here and experience the town for many more years to come.”
