Duvall's lush new park surprises even Duvall

DUVALL

Lynn Caswell of Woodinville and her family were hiking near Duvall when they asked a friendly park ranger to point them to a good place for a picnic.

Try McCormick Park, the ranger said; it's new and pretty neat.

"He said it was a great place for kids to play, so we expected a little swing set or something," Caswell chuckled, scanning the pastoral expanse of the new 5-acre park.

"Instead we find this wonderful place. It was quite a surprise."

The new park just a short walk from downtown Duvall is surprising a lot of other people, too, including the city workers who spent the past year or so hewing the overgrowth of brambles and thorns on the shore of the meandering Snoqualmie River.

Now a calm, inviting expanse with swimming holes, picnic sites and lots of lawn, McCormick Park has been drawing locals by the dozens and attracting out-of-towners who find it a perfect place to end a hiking or biking trip along the converted railbed - the Snoqualmie Valley Trail - that runs all the way to North Bend.

"They hardly use our other parks anymore now that this one's here," boasted Jerry Marlette, a city public-works crew leader who helped shape, mow and landscape the park. "People come up to you and tell you how beautiful it is, and that really makes you feel like you've accomplished something."

As a name on a map, McCormick Park is nothing new. The patch of beach just south of the Snoqualmie River Bridge, then accessible through a small trail through the brambles, was so named years ago to honor William McCormick, a city father, former town constable and water-department supervisor.

But dreams for a bigger, better McCormick Park never went anywhere because, after all, the land is covered by floodwater several times each winter.

But in the spring of 1999, Marlette, City Engineer Kevin Nielsen and others decided to do it. They broke out their sketch pads, fired up their weed-whackers and dump trucks and went to work.

Now, about $100,000 and a lot of hard work later, the park looks and feels like it always has been there.

Visitors can enter along the trail from Railroad Avenue. A few parking spots have been painted along Stella Street just below City Hall.

From a small, shady picnic area, the view of the sparkling teal river winding around a bend invokes the feeling that Huck Finn could at any moment drift past on his trusty raft.

From there, a footbridge leads over a creek bed and into a broad expanse of rolling lawn circled by a gravelly trail.

A tall post marks the level of the historic floods - some more than six feet high - reminding visitors why no one ever built anything there.

But the park builders don't mind the prospect of yearly drenchings. All the benches, tables and bike racks are removable, to be collected as the rainy season looms.

But when the park is dry, it is also meant to be a tribute to the days when loggers and dairymen used the river as a lifeline.

They now have plans to expand the park so it runs the full length of the river within city limits.

"That's what Duvall is all about," engineer Nielsen said. "The river's the main reason why Duvall is here."

The park lacks running water. Portable toilets are the only facilities. And parking is lacking.

Though park builders say they're amazed at the park's popularity, Duvall folks measure crowds a little differently. The builders said they recently marveled that 65 people were using the park at once.

And for visitors like Caswell, that means McCormick Park is a nice quiet place to spend a summer day. She recently spent the afternoon at the park entertaining her relatives from out of town. On the sandy beach, her two young daughters, barefoot and fast becoming joyfully dirty, frolicked in the cold river water.

And Caswell smiled as she said planned to spread the word.

"We're coming back," she vowed. "And I'm bringing a friend next time."

Ian Ith's phone message number is 206-464-2109. His e-mail address is: iith@seattletimes.com

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McCormick Park

Duvall park is the site of the Sandblast arts festival July 29 and 30, featuring professional and amateur sand carving.