SEQUIM — City leaders are planning an entire year of events — from Old Fashioned May Days and Fourth of July festivities to a street dance and barns tour — when the Sequim Centennial Celebration kicks off Oct. 27.
The event will run through Nov. 2, 2013, marking the 100th anniversary of the 1913 incorporation of the city of Sequim.
Mayor Ken Hays and City Clerk Karen Kuznek-Reese, who is leading the centennial bash planning effort though the Sequim Centennial Committee, presented what is planned so far during the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce luncheon at SunLand Golf & Country Club on Tuesday.
“We continue to come up with new activities and new ideas,” Kuznek-Reese told about 40 in attendance.
Events planned for the centennial celebration include a 2013 golf tournament put on by the Cedars at Dungeness, an August 2013 Museum and Field Day at the Museum and Arts Dewitt Center.
An October 2013 barn tour in the valley and a Nov. 2, 2013, community finale celebration at 7 Cedars Casino also are scheduled.
Other centennial events include Airport Days, a celebration of Sequim Valley Airport’s 30th anniversary and a 20-year anniversary event for the Sequim-Shiso City, Japan, sister city relationship and the publication of a celebration cookbook and police history book.
Already, the city contracted a centennial logo by local artist Melanie Reed, that depicts the now bustling town with images of its grain tower “skyscraper” at West Washington Street and South Fifth Avenue, lavender grown on farms and cedar bows symbolizing the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe.
The bows are burned in purification to drive out negative energy.
Hays said Sequim has a history of such celebrations.
The first May Day celebration in the valley took place in 1895, the precursor to the Sequim Irrigation Festival, and a hot air balloon was launched as part of the event.
The 1895 May Day event took place in Dungeness near the historic schoolhouse.
Hays said it is interesting to note that the first Sequim Balloon Festival is planned this September.
The mayor quipped that pioneer John Donnell held the first donation claims of 320 acres, after leaving Dungeness “because it was too crowded.”
Soon after, pioneer John Bell arrived in the town site in 1854 and took a 160-acre claim.
Sequim’s first structure was Webster’s Post Office.
“Mover and shaker” Joe Keeler, as Hays describes him, brought two of the most important commercial enterprises to Sequim.
“You gotta love this guy,” Hays said.
“The first thing he built was the corner saloon.”
Keeler later built the two-story Sinclair Hotel and owned a local baseball team, Hays said.
The first Sequim Bank was built at the southeast corner of South Sequim Avenue and East Washington Street, in the space where Bank of America park is sited today.
After Keeler came the first gas station, the first horse-drawn street grading crew, the Sequim Creamery and the first auto, a Buick.
With the growing commerce, community leaders decided to pursue incorporation and on July 19, 1913, there were 79 villagers who signed a petition to incorporate.
On Oct. 14, 1913, voters passed the measure 90-66.
The city then filed papers and on Oct. 31, 1913, Sequim was officially incorporated.
The first town council was made up of J.S. Bugge, Frank Babcock, Clinton McCourt, Austin Smith, H.P. Barber and Bert Godfrey, treasurer.
The council wasted no time laying down the law, Hays said, approving a taxing ordinance, an impoundment ordinance and public safety laws.
Some of the first legislative acts included, not long after the coming of the horseless carriage, a speed limit of 15 mph for cars and 8 mph for horses.
The city is calling for entries and proposals to design and construct up to four commemorative art pieces in the form of a “stele” to tell the story of Sequim and its people.
A stele is described as an “upright stone or slab with an inscribed or sculptural surface, used as a monument or a commemorative tablet.
The steles would include the interwoven histories of the native Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, and community pioneers, history of commerce and icons of civic pride.
The steles would be installed in the City Center and/or throughout the city, with the final locations to be determined based on the final stele design.
The deadline for submittals is 4 p.m. Friday, May 4, with completed proposals and samples sent by standard mail to Barbara Hanna, communications and marketing director, City of Sequim, 152 W. Cedar St., Sequim, WA 98382, or by email to bhanna@sequimwa.gov.
Kuznek-Reese can be contacted at City Hall, 360-683-4139.
The Centennial Committee meets the third Wednesday of the months at 1 p.m. in Sequim Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St. and all interested persons are invited.
Visit the centennial webpage on the City’s website, www.sequimwa.gov.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2390, extension 5052 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
