By Marianne Lincoln

As an eager student of South Pierce County history, and a lifetime resident, I have travelled the O’Farrell (Fairfax) Bridge many times. We often stopped to take photos. The family visited the Carbon River side of the mountain, walked across the Carbon Rover in the summer over the fallen trees slashed to fashion a haphazard foot bridge. I slid down Chenius Falls and got mud and moss all over my shorts. I have driven the narrow gravel tail to Mowich Lake, my car took a few scratches from the brush along the narrow roadway. I even climbed the trail to the Carbon Glacier with my geology class, posing for a photo with classmate Dave Kappel.

Family picnics to from the Ipsut Creek Campground were a peaceful favorite with our foreign visitors to Washington and exchange students. Along the way, we would point out where Fairfax used to be, the Wilkeson coke ovens, the old school building, the graveyards, the onion dome of the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, historic records of the former coal mining operations, the beautiful stone arch fashioned from the Wilkeson Quarry, and so much more. The Lower Burnett Road had little remnants of history and was a lovely place to dip your feet in the stream on a hot day. At least until there started being to many needles deposited in the creek. Too many humans are very unkind to their environment, and fellow humans. Looking up at the Burnett bridge from Lower Burnett Road was quite a sight as well.

Chatting with my friend Erika about her family legacy in the Greek Orthodox Church and homestead in Burnett, was always a fascinating pastime. I spent an afternoon and evening at the Friends of the Carbon Canyon and wrote a story, in 2013. Link https://pierceprairiepost.com/2013/08/04/friends-of-the-carbon-valley-meet-to-preserve-their-jewel/

With the growth in the eastern Pierce County, the Wilkeson/Carbonado area was at risk of growing beyond its quaint, woodsy charm into a bustling urban community. The Growth Mangement Act has serious flaws when it comes to these places. What is incredibly unfortunate is the reality that WSDOT, using growth management, thinks we can just abandon communities like these that are rural, quaint and slow in growth and capacity. We may not want to turn Wilkeson into another Leavenworth, but we certainly want to be able to get to these beautiful places to recharge our internal batteries. We need to support them and ensure their survival.

There are hidden gems in those mountains, but we cannot find them unless we can get there. Until I have links to a permanent fund, the PiercePrairiePost is willing to start taking donations toward a new bridge. When an official O’Farrell/Fairfax Bridge Trust Fund is created, we will turn that over to the project. To Olympia, this is our heartland. Don’t abandon it.