In 1951, when the Sequim Prairie Garden Club first began to clear the 4-acre plot of what would become Pioneer Memorial Park, the site was choked with weeds and blackberry vines so thick that eventually “they found that an entire cow had become entangled and died,” according to Priscilla Hudson and Laura Singer’s “Sequim Prairie Garden Club and Pioneer Memorial Park, the Early Years.”
It took nine years just to prepare the site, which had been abandoned for 30 years after Sequim’s first cemetery had been relocated.
“A distinct eyesore at the entrance of the city as it now is, the area will be seeded with grass; and trees, shrubs and flowers will be planted,” noted a contemporaneous article in the Sequim Press, as quoted by Hudson and Singer.
“On the southern portion of the tract of land there are several large oak trees, which would help to beautify the spot as a park,” it continued.
Now, more than seven decades of dedicated work later, 189 different tree specimens are alive and thriving at the park, all — or nearly all — hand-planted and cared for by generations of the club, a group that now boasts 72 members. There were 22 in 1949.
“They had the vision to transform it to a place that would be a real asset to the community,” club member Kathy Steichen said.
A Magnolia Grandiflora, located near the front of the Pioneer Memorial Park, is currently budding into fragrant bloom.
In January, Pioneer Memorial Park was officially granted certification as a Level I Arboretum by the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and the Morton Arboretum.
ArbNet brands itself as “the interactive network of arboreta” and is, according to the Sequim Prairie Garden Club’s website, “the only global initiative to officially recognize arboreta at various levels of development, capacity and professionalism.”
An arboretum, says ArbNet’s website, is “a botanical garden specializing in trees or woody plants.”
Sequim’s Pioneer Memorial Park is the only official arboretum on the Olympic Peninsula. Club members hope that it will draw arboreta enthusiasts to view the 48 different species, including “11 species native to our state, such as its 47 mature Oregon White Oak, Quercus garryana,” known locally as the Garry Oak.
As part of the process to becoming a Level I Arboretum, club members have compiled a database of each tree in the park — including its GPS coordinates — and have attached a name tag to the trees for the guidance of visitors.
(Find this information on the club’s website under the “park updates” section at sequimprairiegardenclub.org/ParkUpdates2024.aspx.)
The identification process began in 2017, according to Hudson, and the developed list includes 48 different tree species including “21 species of conifers, 26 species of deciduous and two broadleaf evergreen trees.”
Level II status is not possible now or in the foreseeable future, say members, because it would involve having a paid staff member; currently, the Sequim Prairie Garden Club is an entirely volunteer organization.
Sequim has long been a Tree City, USA, designated by the Arbor Day Society, and at Pioneer Memorial Park “since 1954 a tree has been planted … every year in observance of Arbor Day,” according to Hudson and Singer’s history.
Pioneer Memorial Park has a semi-circle of cherry trees honoring past presidents at its entrance. Members have labeled each tree in the park and entered them into a database accessible from their website.
Each of the other trees in the park has a history as well, some known and some unknown, what Steichen calls “smaller stories built into the garden.” Whenever possible a date has been included in the database for when a tree was planted, but that cannot always be matched to a specific tree, Hudson said.
The earliest trees mentioned that still exist are the pink hawthornes (Crataegus) of 1955, moved from an earlier planting at a roadside park to the east side of the Pioneer Memorial Park.
Other noteworthy trees include the semi-circle of cherry trees honoring past presidents at the entrance of the park, and Park Co-Chair Vina Winters’ favorite tree, the Cryptomeria Japonica, or Japanese Cedar, planted in 2002, that members say is also a crowd favorite because of its beautiful coloring which changes with the season.
“Cryptomeria is known for the bright, light green color of its new spring growth,” Steichen said. “As the needles of the Cryptomeria mature, its cells gain more chlorophyll and the tree becomes a darker green.”
Photos by Emily Matthiessen Hawthorn trees (Crataegus), on the east side of the Pioneer Memorial Park, are the oldest trees dated in the Sequim Prairie Garden Club’s arboretum database. Planted in 1955, they continue to sprout new greenery and blossoms each spring.
Steichen, who took the lead writing the arboretum application with help from other members, plans to host a program on the trees in the park next year.
“Having the database on our website allows Park visitors and even locals to identify any tree including the family name, scientific name, common name, in some cases the cultivar and when it was planted,” said Winters. “The list also reveals if we have a particular tree and exactly where it is. Now when visitors have questions, the answers are just a click away.”
