PORT LUDLOW — A creek with no name could be christened Cooper Creek in honor of a family who homesteaded the area, if the recommendation of the state Committee on Geographic Names is approved.
The state committee recommended the name Friday. The proposal will go before the Board of Natural Resources, acting as the state Board on Geographic Names, for a final decision at one of its regular public meetings, the panel said.
The name of the 3-mile-long waterway that flows into the Hood Canal at Paradise Bay Estates would recognize the Cooper family who homesteaded much of the area around the stream in the 1870s, said Bruce Crittenden, who with his wife, Janice Crittenden, proposed the name to the state.
A little respect
A name, the couple hopes, would get the small waterway a little respect.
“A Fish and Game biologist looked at the creek and said, ‘If you want to enhance the creek and make people respect it, it needs to have a name,’” Bruce Crittenden said.
The Crittendens, who live on Andy Cooper Road, want to rehabilitate the creek into one that can host fish.
They said native plants have been removed and that some have dumped into it.
“This is the first move in a process of getting culverts removed and restoring salmonberry bushes and other native plants along the edge,” Bruce Crittenden said.
“We’re hoping it will host trout or salmon.”
The creek runs year-round from an artesian well, he said.
The Crittendens settled on Cooper as a proposed name for the creek after finding evidence of the old homestead on their property, which they purchased in 1970.
They presented the committee with a petition signed by 13 people in support of the proposed name.
Homesteading family
Mary Jane Cooper, who was born in British Columbia, was the matriarch of the family, Crittenden said.
He wasn’t sure which tribe she belonged to but thinks it was Tsimshian.
She married John Cooper, who was from Scotland, Crittenden said.
The area surrounding the mouth of the stream was platted in the early 1950s and was known as Paradise Bay Estates.
The Crittendens raised five children on their property, Bruce Crittenden said.
Bruce Crittenden, 69, is a retired plumber who worked in Seattle and commuted for 25 years. Janice Crittenden, 66, was a teaching assistant in the special education program at Chimacum School District.
One other Cooper Creek exists in Washington state, the state committee said. It is in Skagit County.
Other recommendations
Two other nameless places are up for appellations.
Vancouver Notch, a V-shaped pass on the southern slope of Mount Rainier in Pierce County, would be named to honor Capt. George Vancouver, who described it in his journals during a voyage in 1792.
In Grays Harbor County, a 10-acre pond along state Highway 8 at McCleary would be dubbed Wildcat Pond, named for the school mascot of nearby McCleary School.
The students at the school proposed the name.
New proposals
The panel reviewed last week three new proposals and will consider them for recommendations in May.
Hix Bay in San Juan County was originally named for Cynthia and Louis Hix, who purchased property surrounding the Shaw Island bay in 1888, the panel said.
The water body’s name has been misspelled on maps as Hicks Bay for many years.
Shaw Bay on Shaw Island in San Juan County would be reborn as Sq’emenen Bay, according to a request before the committee.
The proposed name for the bay would replace the current name with the Lummi Nation name for Shaw Island.
A creek in Thurston County would be named Shaner Creek to commemorate Melvin Shaner, who operated a business near it and worked to clean it up.
Summaries of each proposal are at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-geographicnames.
________
Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.
