Fort Steilacoom Park and Lake Waughop

After spending the last five days walking around the back yard, digging the rain garden, I drove my FJ40 to Lakewood to take a look at Fort Steilacoom Park.

This play area was the only fort I saw.

But there were several old barns in various levels of disrepair. Apparently, Fort Steilacoom was the first U.S. military post in Washington, built in 1849 during the dispute with Britain over sovereignty. These barns are remnants of agriculture and the Western State Hospital, a psychiatric facility. The hospital superintendent from 1880 to 1897 was Dr. John Waughop, who turned the site into a botanical garden for non-native plants as part of his rehabilitation program.

The Coast Redwood isn’t native to the Tacoma area, along with many other ornamental species planted by John Waughop.

Lake Waughop was named after the hospital’s most popular superintendent. It is a kettle lake, created from the melting of a huge block of ice after the last ice age while sediment collected around it.

This invasive species is common to Washington. It is bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare). I also saw several thriving thickets of Himalayan Blackberry along the trail. These plants were not part of John Waughop’s ornamental plant garden.

Another ecosystem within the park is the oak savannah. It is the remnant of a native woodland that has been altered for thousands of years by the indigenous people of the PNW. The trees are Garry oak (Quercus garryana), the only native oak species in Washington. This area would have become a conifer forest if not for controlled burning by the local people.

After a three-mile circumnavigation of Fort Steilacoom Park, I finally made it back to my vehicle; unfortunately, there wouldn’t be AC for the ride home on this warm afternoon.