A name to span a river’s past and future

Passage — 1. the act of passing, specif. a) movement from one place to another; migration. b) change or progress from one process or condition to another; transition. 2. permission, right, or chance to pass. 3. a journey, esp. by water; voyage.

— Webster’s New World College Dictionary

She was the last of three presenters to speak, but her words seemed to stir them the most.

“This area is where my ancestors lived, we believe, since the world began,” Kalapuya elder Esther Stutzman told members of the Springfield City Council and others packed into a work session last month. She was referring to the stories and legends passed down from her ancestors whose history goes back thousands of years in the Willamette Valley.

The Yoncalla resident spoke of their “beautiful long canoes” that plied what is now the Willamette River, how there were once at least 15,000 Kalapuya Indians living in the valleys from the Umpqua River to the Columbia River, and how there are now believed to be fewer than 500 descendants left.

“And until the community stepped up to honor the (name) Whilamut, there was no geographic area in the state with the Kalapuya name,” Stutzman said, referring to the renaming of east Alton Baker Park as the Whilamut Natural Area in 2002, and the opening of Kalapuya High School, an alternative high school in Bethel, that fall.

“Our people were overjoyed … and recognizing that we are still here and we’re still alive,” Stutzman said.

“I am so much in support of this name,” she said, explaining that the word Whilamut (pronounced “wheel-a-moot”) means “Where the river ripples and runs fast” in the mostly lost Kalapuya language.

The visit to the Springfield City Council was the first of four local pitches by a community advisory group for the Oregon Department of Transportation’s $187 million Interstate 5/Willamette River bridge project. Their mission: to make sure the new bridge — scheduled to be completed in 2013 — is officially named Whilamut Passage. Stutzman is not part of the committee; rather, she represents Kalapuya descendants in the naming effort.

The advisory group has spent months mulling over possible names for the new bridge, and is now seeking formal support from local government entities for its preferred option — Whilamut Passage — before officially proposing the name to ODOT. The very public process contrasts with ODOT’s secrecy in renaming Belt Line Road to Randy Papé Beltline. That process drew anger from many local residents earlier this year who complained they were never given a chance to voice their opinion before ODOT made the name change. The difference in how ODOT is handling the two namings illustrates the wide latitude the state has in how it picks names for its facilities.

Lost with time

The I-5 bridge over the Willamette River already has a long-forgotten name. In the fall of 1961, when it opened, it was deemed the Judkins Point Bridge, according to a Dec. 5, 1961, Register-Guard story. Gov. Mark Hatfield appeared at a ribbon-cutting for the opening of the $2.3 million bridge, named for the promontory high above it near Hendricks Park that was named for Thomas H. Judkins, who settled on a farm east of the area in 1853.

To get the new name approved, the advisory group is seeking the support of the cities of Springfield and Eugene, Lane County and the area’s Metropolitan Planning Committee, a group of public officials.

The approval of the Oregon Transportation Commission is not needed for the naming; ODOT’s Region 2 office — which covers Lane County — in Salem will make the decision, ODOT spokesman Patrick Cooney said. In addition to securing local endorsements, the Whilamut Passage name also needs to be cleared by the Oregon Geographic Names Board. And the name must be acceptable to the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, to which the Kalapuya descendants belong. Stutzman says that will not be a problem.

David Sonnichsen, the advisory group member leading the naming effort and a representative of the citizen planning committee for the Whilamut Natural Area, said he’s had talks with city of Eugene officials about making a presentation to the council, but getting on the agenda is a “slow process.”

Money not the issue

The naming of the bridge would cost virtually nothing, said Dick Upton, ODOT’s project manager for the bridge replacement. Small signs at each end of the bridge would include the names “Willamette River” and “Whilamut Passage Bridge” and cost between $1,000 and $1,500 for both. That cost would be part of the total $187 million bridge price tag, ODOT spokesman Rick Little said.

Proponents of the Whilamut Passage naming say it has nothing to do with money, and everything to do with history and culture.

“The bridge itself was only a small part of a larger project,” said Douglas Beauchamp, executive director of the Lane Arts Council and part of the 12-member bridge advisory group that came up with the Whilamut Passage name. “It’s not just a bridge we’re naming, it’s a place where a lot of histories and concerns converge.”

The bridge area is a point of convergence for cars, trucks, trains, boats, bicycles, pedestrians, even those in wheelchairs or floating on inner tubes, proponents say.

Beauchamp came up with the idea of joining the name Whilamut — from the 237-acre Whilamut Natural Area that stretches from Alton Baker Park west of the bridge project to the Springfield side on the east — with the word “passage” at one of the advisory group’s initial meetings in 2008.

Whilamut Passage originally was a proposed theme for the entire bridge project, meant to guide aesthetic and cultural elements. Since its inception, the project has been deemed much more than a bridge. A design enhancement panel picked teams of artists, architects and landscape artists last year to create landscaping, sound wall designs, median sculptures and an interpretive area that reflects the Whilamut Passage theme and the Kalapuya story.

All of the local agencies will vote on the name proposal after hearing the presentations. Springfield has yet to vote, but after the April 19 work session, a “yes” vote seems more than likely.

“I’m already happy with it,” Councilor Joe Pishioneri said.

“It’s a great tie-in to what’s already down by the river there,” said Councilor Christine Lundberg, referring to the “Talking Stones” with Kalapuya words on them in the Whilamut Natural Area.