PENINSULA DAILY NEWS EXCLUSIVE

OLYMPIA — After sinking millions of dollars into the Hood Canal Bridge graving yard, the state may now simply pack up — and walk away.

New pontoons and anchors for the aging bridge’s eastern half will probably have to be built somewhere other than Port Angeles, a majority of state transportation commissioners said Wednesday.

After hearing a 90-minute crash course on the graving yard and the major archaeological find there — the centuries-old Klallam village of Tse-whit-zen — four of seven commissioners told Peninsula Daily News that they would not contest the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe’s wishes that work on the 22.5-acre graving yard — and the archeological excavations — be halted permanently.

Commissioners said they still hold out hope of reaching a compromise with the tribe.

Department of Transportation officials say they’ll hold a conference call with tribal council members Friday.

However, that hope seemed slim Wednesday in light of Tribal Chairwoman Frances Charles’ letter last Friday that she wants all excavation to stop.

The tribe’s demand follows the state’s reluctance to continue to halt construction work on the graving yard while more archaeological work is done.

Concern about bridge

There is concern that the east half of the Hood Canal Bridge is in bad shape and won’t last much longer.

The issue on the state’s side is also economic — about $283.5 million for the bridge replacement project itself (about $100 million more than was forecast before work was halted), $4.6 million spent on archaeological recovery — and potential millions in economic losses to Clallam and Jefferson counties if the bridge is disabled or lost.

Transportation officials thought the site contained only a couple of dozen ancient graves, but they’ve already found 10 times that many — at least 256 Klallam forebears, almost 800 isolated skeletal parts — plus more than 5,000 tools and other artifacts.

Both the tribe and state archaeologists say Tse-whit-zen is the largest discovery of its type in the Northwest. The village was torn down about 1920 to build a lumber mill.