Millersylvania State Park – state parks quest #19

It’s a strange feeling, in these peculiar times, to be writing about our New Year’s Day hike at Millersylvania State Park. My recollection of the day seems glossed with a sort of innocence, far removed from the pandemic that was about to break loose. The memory is all the sweeter for it.

To kick off the new decade, we joined a First Day Hike. State parks in every state offer free, guided hikes as a way to connect with nature and get some fresh air. It’s an initiative started by the National Association of State Park Directors to encourage people to start their year in a healthy and fun way. Getting outdoors is good for physical and mental health, and people who visit state parks are more likely to become invested in the future of parks. It’s a win-win. In 2019, about 55,000 people participated nationwide, collectively tramping more than 133,000 miles of trails. 

First Day Hikes in Washington state parks

Almost a third of Washington state parks offered First Day Hikes, and several offered multiple hike options: ranger-led hikes through forest, desert, or coastal ecosystems, hikes that focused on local history, and hikes to spot birds and wildlife. Park staff tailored programs to their constituents, offering a First Day Kayak, First Day Snowshoe, and First Day Horse Ride, among other options. They built campfires for roasting marshmallows and hot dogs, and offered coffee and cocoa to stave off the chill. There were lots of tempting possibilities, but in the end we decided to stay close to home and join Millersylvania State Park’s program, a walk through the park’s lovely forest, much of it more than a century old.

Millersylvania is the closest state park to our home in Olympia, less than 10 miles away. We can bike there (friends regularly bike-camp there, something that’s on my to-do list) and go at least once a year. I wrote about a wonderful last-day-of-winter hike there in 2018. 

A celebrity hiker

We arrived at the Millersylvania Environmental Learning Center, a handsome, 1950s cedar building with lovely curved supports connecting the roof trusses to the floor. A few dozen folks were gathered inside, sipping hot coffee and munching donuts provided by State Parks staff. 

Standing in line to sign in, I was thrilled to see that man in front of me was Don Hoch, the director of Washington State Parks. To be honest, I was mostly watching Foster, his adorable Australian shepherd, a chocolate-and-white floppy-eared pooch with melting brown eyes. They both wore University of Georgia gear — a baseball hat on him and a logo jacket on the dog. Mr. Adventure sometimes works with Don, and we were soon chatting. I thought it was inspiring that Don had picked Millersylvania for his First Day Hike. I suspect high-up parks administrators don’t get to spend as much time in the parks as they’d like, and here was Don choosing to spend his holiday on the job. 

In addition to coffee and donuts, participants received a park map, a packet about wildlife and plants at the park, and an official “First Day Hikes 2020” zipper pull and button. I am not immune to the lure of swag, and I immediately attached the zipper pull to my jacket and the button to my pack.

Wildlife on the trail

The rangers gave us an overview of our route, and we all trooped outside. About 40 people showed up, from babies in front packs to grandparents with carved walking sticks. The trail caught the edge of a low clearing that sloped to a wetland area where a few old fruit trees still stand, relics of early settlers. Tall evergreen trees form a dark barrier beyond. 

We continued into the forest, where sword ferns dwarfed some of the kids on the hike. Unusually for me — I am a walk-in-front-and-catch-everything-the-ranger-says kind of girl — I was way in the back of the line of hikers. Everyone was friendly, talking about the unexpectedly nice weather, and I got so caught up in conversation that I missed some of the ranger’s remarks. 

I noticed people clumping just ahead, and caught up to find someone had spotted a rough-skinned newt crawling across the trail. By the time I’d gotten my fill of examining the creature, the main group was way ahead. A ranger was bringing up the rear to make sure stragglers didn’t get lost, and I stayed by her as she pointed out ancient stumps with springboard notches, trailing moss, and trees whose roots formed an empty cage where nurse snags had rotted away.

The origins of Millersylvania

Millersylvania means “Miller’s forest land” or “Miller’s woodland.” (Think of Pennsylvania, which similarly means “Penn’s forest land” or “Penn’s woods,” for its English Quaker founder, William Penn.) The area is the traditional homelands of bands of the Southern Lushootseed and Upper Chehalis indigenous peoples. The earliest recorded Euro-American to live here was a man named Squire Lathum or Lathan in 1855. His fate is unknown, but a subsequent owner, Frank Glidden, sold his acreage to John Miller in 1882.

Romantic legends hints that Miller fled Austria after falling into disfavor with Emperor Franz Joseph I, but more prosaic family history contends that Miller and his wife emigrated from Bavaria to Missouri, where they farmed for a time before moving west to Washington Territory with their three children. As nearby settlers moved on, John Miller added other homesteads, eventually amassing 720 acres. Trees from the family orchard, artifacts from the Millers’ tenure here, still grow near today’s Orchard Trail. 

When Miller died, his son, Frederick, inherited the land. Fred’s will stipulated the land be given to the state of Washington for a public park when his last living sibling died. Fred died in 1921 and the land was transferred to the state in 1923, after the death of his surviving sister.

Frederick’s will also specified that any assets remaining in his estate be sold and used for park maintenance and upkeep. Parts of the forest had been logged in the 1880s, and remnants can still be seen in the form of giant stumps in the forest and a trail where the Tacoma Mill Company built a narrow-gauge railroad in 1888. To ensure the land would remain forested, Fred’s will also forbade any timber removal except for dead and downed trees. 

Hence the park’s eponymous name. The park brochure notes the family first called their land Miller’s Glade, later changing to the more mellifluous Millersylvania. One hundred years later, the park’s tall trees are one of its loveliest features.  

Another pioneer connection

As the rangers led us back to the Environmental Learning Center, they offered to take those with energy and time to the Taylor barn. The ELC sits in the middle of the 160-acre Taylor homestead site, and we’d passed a few trees from the family’s orchard during the first part of the hike. Now we were headed to the other end of the site, toward Deep Lake and the barn.

The southeast part of Millersylvania is taken up by 66-acre Deep Lake, a popular fishing, boating, and swimming spot. The Millers homesteaded north of the lake, while the Taylor family settled to the west, running cattle and growing hay in the broad, open area rising gently above the water. Washington State Parks acquired the Taylor farm in the 1940s, including its magnificent milking and hay barn. By the 1970s, the barn was derelict. It collapsed in 1976 and State Parks reconstructed it using original materials wherever possible. The rehabilitated barn features beautiful wood patterning and a dramatic view toward the lake and forest. We gathered at one end for a group photo to commemorate a delightful First Day Hike.

Beyond the barn and closer to the lake, a slowly deteriorating bench is dedicated to Harry and Alma Taylor. It sits just in front of a row of lilacs and a beaver-gnawed, overgrown fruit tree on the site of the Taylors’ house. The ranger pointed out several foundation stones embedded in the earth, which along with the bushes are the only physical evidence of the Taylor home.

Most visitors don’t get to see the Taylor barn and home site, because the Environmental Learning Center and its cabins are reserved for group and event rentals. It was a lovely bonus to get to see a less-used part of the park.

Environmental Learning Center

The ELC is interesting in itself. After State Parks acquired the Taylor homestead, it decided to use the area for a retreat center. In 1953, the homestead became part of Millersylvania State Park. The main building, where we’d gathered in the morning, is a prefab stacked cedar log structure with tongue-and-groove joinery, designed by the Pan-Abode Company and constructed in 1956. Danish cabinetmaker Aage Jenson founded The Pan-Abode Company in 1952, relying of the abundance of Western red-cedar in the Puget Sound region to create prefab homes and buildings. The ELC main building must have been one of the earliest structures to use his designs.

By 1961, State Parks had added several more Pan-Abode buildings and two groups of cabins to the ELC. Today it’s a fine example of mid-century prefab architecture. The Pan-Abode Company is still around, building cedar homes that nowadays lean more luxurious than rustic.

Walking back to the Environmental Learning Center from the Taylor barn, a rainbow arced overhead. On this First Day Hike, in a typically gray and rainy part of the country, it hadn’t rained at all. I can’t think of a better way to spend New Year’s Day than outdoors with a bunch of people who love state parks. A First Day Hike is my new New Year’s Day tradition.

Heading home… but not yet

On the way out, Mr. Adventure and I stopped at the parking lot near the dock to look for the marker commemorating the Miller family. I was taking a photo when Dave spotted State Parks Director Hoch coming down the trail toward us, Foster jauntily leading the way. Don pointed out some of the structures built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, adding that the park came into its own thanks to the CCC.

Because I’d been to Millersylvania numerous times, I had noticed the CCC infrastructure there, but I didn’t know much about it. Shame on me, because it turns out that Millersylvania State Park contains one of the most intact, diverse, and best-preserved collections of CCC construction in the United States. I had to learn more.

Washington state parks before the CCC

Washington’s earliest parks take on special significance in the context of the state parks movement nationwide. In 1921, the same year the state acquired Millersylvania, National Park Service director Stephen Mather convened the National Conference on State Parks in Des Moines, Iowa.

Since its creation by Congress in 1916, the National Park Service had been inundated with hundreds of proposals for new national parks, and Mather recognized that most of them weren’t of national significance. He also foresaw the automobile age was dawning. Affordable and widely available, cars were fast becoming Americans’ favored means of transport and recreation. State parks, Mather reasoned, could provide a rationale for protecting natural and cultural sites of statewide significance. Moreover, state parks were easily reachable by automobile. Mather advocated for “a state park every 100 miles.” Inspired by the potential for recreation and tourism development, many states began developing new state parks as a result of the National Conference on State Parks.

Washington was already ahead of the curve with its five properties, but the state’s Board of Park Commissioners, established seven years earlier, had neither funding nor formal park policies. Perhaps galvanized by the National Conference on State Parks, the Washington legislature in 1921 renamed the board the State Parks Committee and vested it with power to acquire and maintain park land, develop park regulations, and offer concessions and camping in parks. Millersylvania was Washington’s fifth state park.

By decade’s end, the state boasted 11 state parks, although development was uneven due partly to unpredictable funding and vacillating political support. Republican governor Roland Hartley, elected in 1928, effectively closed all the parks by vetoing every state parks budget request during his term. Like the other parks, Millersylvania languished. 

Then the Great Depression hit.

The Depression stopped park development, although Governor Clarence Martin, a Democrat who took office in 1932, recognized that people needed close-to-home outdoor recreation and respite during hard times, and approved funding for state parks.

A jump-start for state parks

What revived state parks in Washington and nationally, and really created the state park system we know today, was the Civilian Conservation Corps. President Franklin Roosevelt established the CCC in 1933 as a way to accomplish desperately needed conservation work on public lands and put young men to work during the Depression, giving them the self-respect that a steady job conveys and teaching what we’d now call transferable skills they could use after the Depression ended. 

The first CCCers signed in on April 17, 1933. Most were single men under 25 years old. They enlisted for a six-month term, renewable for up to two years, and were provided clothing, housing, food, medical care, and education. The CCC boys — as they were known — earned $30 per month, $25 of which was sent home to their families. Assigned to a camp of 200 men, CCCers often worked far from their home states. For example, at Millersylvania, which hosted two camps, some hailed from New York and New Jersey. They’d never seen big trees or mountains.

The CCC Handbook, given to every enlistee, said, “You will have a great experience. You will get a kick out of it, and you will learn much.” History indicates that is precisely what happened, and it’s evident in the infrastructure the CCC boys built: roads, campgrounds, trails, bridges, railings, kitchen shelters, bathhouses, comfort stations, housing, forest fire lookouts, and much more. Most CCC work focused on conservation, including forest restoration and forest fire prevention, but the work that’s arguably gotten the most attention is the built infrastructure.

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Because the National Park Service provided many of the design plans for CCC-built structures, the CCC building style reflected that used in national parks. As one historian notes, the New Deal “firmly established the National Park Service as the arbiter of park design at all levels: national, state, and local.” Those principles stipulated that local supplies and materials be used whenever possible, and that structures be hand-built and blend seamlessly into the landscape. The style became popularly known as “parkitecture.” For many people parkitecture is inseparable from the idea of what a park is. 

Millersylvania and the CCC

Millersylvania is a superb example of a Depression-era CCC park, with a magnificent and diverse collection of 39 mostly intact features built by the CCC from 1934 to 1939. Beginning with a split-rail fence that stands at the main entrance, the CCC boys built 17 buildings, including comfort stations, kitchens, bathhouses, office buildings, storage buildings, caretaker’s cabin, office, blacksmith shop, pump house, and ranger’s house. They built nine stone drinking fountains and five stone fire rings. They built a 12-site campground. They built four miles of roads and five miles of trails. 

Except for an entrance arch and parts of the original fence, it’s all still there, built with local timber and sandstone quarried less than 10 miles away in Tenino.

And it is absolutely stunning. Buildings and features are arranged to optimize enjoyment of the lake and forest. The bathhouses, kitchens, and picnic tables are spaced linearly along the lakeshore to maximize views while mitigating overcrowding. As with the best park development, it doesn’t feel planned at all, but it is intentionally and thoughtfully designed to concentrate visitor use on the north shore of Deep Lake, including picnicking and water-based recreation. Although the campground has been expanded since the CCC worked there, the park looks and feels much as it did in the 1930s. 

Until I started researching Millersylvania, I had no idea of the importance of its CCC history. The National Park Service added Millersylvania to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, acknowledging the largely intact and well preserved CCC infrastructure. The park’s CCC history is documented at the Washington State Archives, where you can explore a large collection of digitized photographs. Millersylvania is an outstanding example of a New Deal state park in Washington.

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A park for people

When some state parks reopened for day use earlier this month, I returned to Millersylvania on a weekday to wander the CCC-developed area along Deep Lake. At the end of a parking loop, behind the stone-and-timber bathhouse/concession stand and surrounded by a low split-rail fence is a large granite marker, built by the CCC in 1935, that commemorates the Millers’ gift of the park to Washington State.

On the other side of the bathhouse, a broad lawn stretches to the lakeshore. On sunny days, it will be crowded with families. Kids will splash in the water, fishers will cast lines from their folding chairs, parents will set out picnics in the sunshine. It will be loud and joyous. Few will know anything about the Millers’ gift or how the CCC boys transformed it into one of Washington’s great state parks. And that, I think, is the point.

Fast facts about Millersylvania State Park

• 842-acre camping park, open year-round
• $10 daily parking pass (buy the annual Discover Pass, a bargain at $30)
• 3,300′ freshwater shoreline
• 100′ dock, boat launch
• boating, swimming, fishing (license required)
• paddleboard, kayak, pedalboat rentals
• lakeside snack bar
• beer garden (seasonal)
• 8.1 miles hiking trails, 7.6 miles biking trails
• interpretative signage
• amphitheater, fire rings, horseshoe pits
• kitchen shelters, bathhouses, picnic areas
• 94 standard campsites, 45 partial hookup sites, group camp, reservable online or call 888-CAMPOUT (closed at time of posting due to COVID-19). Some sites closed in winter. Max length 35′.
• dump station, restrooms, showers
• The Lakeside Cottage rental house and Pampered Wilderness clamping offer more luxurious accommodations.
• park map
• park brochure
• Environmental Learning Center map