Park Releases Long-awaited Plan to Remove Enchanted Valley Chalet
Updated Sept. 17, 2020
Olympic National Park released a plan to finally dispose of the derelict Enchanted Valley Chalet. After more than a decade of futile effort and extraordinary expense to save the old hotel, the Park has wisely decided to pull the plug. Public comments on the plan were overwhelming. Park planners received more than 2,100 comments. Analysis of all comments is underway. A final decision can come as early as January 2021.
On July 2, 2020, the Park released an Environmental Assessment (EA) for the disposition of the Enchanted Valley Chalet. The preferred alternative is to dismantle the structure, fly out the steel I-beams and other junk from the last move, and restore the splendid wilderness of Enchanted Valley.
Back in 2014, with the E. Fork Quinault River poised to sweep the old chalet away, the Park spent more than $300,000 (including planning and coordination) to move the structure 100 feet away from the river. To no one’s surprise, the river has come roaring back to within 10 feet of the structure.
The EA analyzes three options: no action; dismantle and remove the chalet; or once more attempt to relocate it elsewhere on the ever-eroding floodplain. The National and Washington Trusts for Historic Preservation, the State Historic Preservation Office, the Olympians of Aberdeen and other preservation devotees are pressing for the latter—at an estimated cost of $1.25 million.
To review the plan, go to the ONP planning website.
To read OPA’s comment letter, click here. Tim McNulty’s op-ed on the chalet in the March 26, 2014, Peninsula Daily News can be seen here.
Last Call for the Enchanted Valley Chalet?
by Tim McNulty
Two years after soliciting comments on the future of Enchanted Valley Chalet, Olympic National Park seems unable to release its final plan for the disposition of the three-story log hotel. At this point, any effort to rescue the chalet from the natural processes of the wild Quinault River is doomed to fail. OPA has asked the park to remove the chalet and put an end to years of futile and costly efforts.
Fueled by winter storms and rapidly melting glaciers, the East Fork Quinault River has carved away at the floodplain terrace of Enchanted Valley relentlessly. Along with the loss of numerous campsites in this stunningly scenic valley, the chalet was undermined and at risk of being washed away. In 2014, the park acquiesced in an ill-advised effort to move the chalet away from the river. The action involved numerous helicopter trips up and down the valley and the use of gas-powered machinery—at an estimated cost of 300–400 thousand dollars. The effort proved futile. Within two years, the river was once more poised to sweep the chalet away.
It seemed that, at last, the park is preparing to pull the plug. Draft alternatives released in 2016 offered a range of options for the chalet, including removing it—and once more moving it away from the river. OPA strongly opposes this option. Only one solution remains for the chalet: Take it down and let scarce park funds be invested in more pressing needs and visitor services.
But the National and Washington Trusts for Historic Preservation, the State Historic Preservation Office, the Olympians of Aberdeen and other preservation devotees are doggedly pressing for another move. This one would be more than four times longer than the first, to a lovely undisturbed camping area among a grove of trees. They claim this would save the building “indefinitely.” That’s an unlikely prospect. A geological study completed by the park service found the remaining river terrace will be washed away by the river in 10 to 20 years.
OPA is convinced that another attempt to move the chalet is an imprudent, costly and destructive proposal. It would require motorized use, tree-cutting, grading, and disruption of one the Enchanted Valley’s most scenic camping areas. All are unacceptable in wilderness. The National Historic Preservation Act requires only that agencies document historic structures before removing them.
It’s high time to let Enchanted Valley return to its untrammeled wilderness condition. But while the park service remains in paralysis, the East Fork Quinault River continues its work moving mountains to the sea. As Dave Foreman likes to say, “Nature bats last.”
To read OPA’s scoping comments, click here. To read OPA’s letter on the 2014 chalet move, click here.
To track park service action (or lack thereof) on the issue, click here, and check this OPA site for links and updates.
Olympic National Park Moves Enchanted Valley Chalet
to (Not Much) Higher Ground
The East Fork Quinault was spared the fate of a teetering log structure collapsing into its waters—for now. In September 2014, contractor Jeff Monroe and crew moved the Enchanted Valley Chalet to another spot on the unconsolidated floodplain. The move took most of a week, involved nearly two dozen helicopter flights up and down a 30-mile stretch of the Quinault Valley, included transport of steel beams, hydraulic pumps, and a gas-powered generator—all in designated wilderness.
Estimated cost to the public: $164,000 not including NEPA planning or agency compliance, but the total cost of the move has not yet been calculated and probably never will be. This much is certain: every dollar for this costly and unnecessary project came directly out of an already-stressed park budget at a time when funding for visitor services, rangers, maintenance staff, interpretive programs, visitor centers, campgrounds, roads and trails has been slashed.
OPA will once more advocate for taking the building down. But with the lavish investment in saving the structure already made, that outcome is unlikely. Ultimately, it will be the wild Quinault River that makes the final call on the future of the Enchanted Valley Chalet.
OPA’s May 28, 2014, comment letter to the park service can be viewed here.
Tim McNulty’s op-ed on the chalet in the March 26, 2014, Peninsula Daily News can be seen here.
Background
Enchanted Valley Chalet Finding of No Significant Impact
Olympic National Park Plans to Move Enchanted Valley Chalet
Quinault River Poses Uncertain Future for Enchanted Valley Chalet
2005 Case Decision Regarding Replacing Home Sweet Home & Low Divide Shelters