SEQUIM — The irony is in the “dead end” sign, posted on the road to one of the North Olympic Peninsula’s livelier spots.

Railroad Bridge Park, with its vintage 1915 trestle, wild Dungeness River and serene stretch of the Olympic Discovery Trail, has long been popular.

But now there’s proof.

A new traffic counter indicates that nearly 19,000 pedestrians have strolled, rolled or run onto the restored bridge during the past seven weeks, according to Bob Boekelheide, director of the adjacent Dungeness River Audubon Center.

That’s more than the population of Port Angeles, pouring into the park that lies snug along the Dungeness at 2151 W. Hendrickson Road.

Technically, the place is at a dead end. The road concludes at the parking lot for the River Center.

But on any given day, Railroad Bridge and the Discovery Trail across it are a vibrant chorus of golden maples, chestnut-backed chickadees, the sound of fast water and runners like Mary Budke of Sequim.

On a clear, chilly Sunday evening, Budke sped under the counter’s infrared beam, and marveled when a reporter told her of the 19,000 figure.

“You’re kidding,” she said. “It never feels crowded here.”

Longtime sponsor

The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, Railroad Bridge Park’s longtime sponsor, had the counter installed Aug. 29. The landowner wanted an accurate measurement of the park’s popularity, said Annette Nesse, Jamestown’s chief operations officer.

Such information could, Nesse said, help gain grants for park ameni¬­ties or for bridge repairs should a major storm damage it.

The restored bridge, the Discovery Trail stretch and the 10-acre park were born of volunteers’ vision and labor.

To start, unpaid workers gave more than 1,000 hours to redecking the now 93-year-old bridge, noted Annette Hanson, a River Center Foundation member who led efforts to establish the park.

She and a team of volunteers also gathered the state grants and private donations that originally funded the project.

The River Center is now filled with displays and books and flanked by bird feeders. The modest building is a magnet for youngsters exploring the natural world, adults start morning bird walks and the thousands who attend the fall Dungeness River Festival.

The center marks its seventh anniversary today.

Railroad Bridge Park preceded it all, opening in October 1992.

Since then, an amphitheater and many educational panels have been added to the park.

People streamed around them during the river festival on Sept. 21 and 22, and made up close to 3,000 of the visitors recorded by the traffic counter, Boekelheide said.

On the ordinary days, about 400 people use the bridge, he added.

Schoolchildren visit

This month, Boekelheide and Powell Jones, the center’s education coordinator, began welcoming hundreds of schoolchildren from Clallam and Jefferson counties, thanks to a $70,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency.

The award funds two years of field trips, on which students learn how the Dungeness River’s health affects human health.

Boekelheide and Jones turn the students into scientists, teaching them to observe wildlife — from eagles to salmon to stone flies — that reveal the state of the ecosystem.

The River Center runs on an annual budget of $215,000, with Boekelheide, Jones and office manager Laura Hall its only paid staffers.

Because the National Audubon Society cut its funding to local bird centers, the three have become employees of the Jamestown tribe. About 60 volunteers serve as docents at the center.

Stephen Rosales of Sequim finished a 9-mile Olympic Discovery Trail walk at Railroad Bridge Park on Sunday. He wondered whether the traffic counter will lead to a toll on people crossing the bridge.

“That never even crossed our minds,” said Boekelheide. “We just want people to visit the River Center.”

Admission is free to the park and center, although donations are accepted. Just as volunteer labor built the place, donations are a major revenue stream today.

“We’re raising all of our money locally,” Boekelheide said.

He paid tribute to Hanson, whom he calls “the founding mother of this park.”

“I was one who was persistent,” said Hanson.

And when she learned of the counter numbers, “it made it all worthwhile.”

________

Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailyews.com