By JORDAN ESSOE/YachatsNews.com
YACHATS — It’s no longer wishful thinking.
After six years of patient planning, fundraising, unseen delays, and determined advocacy, the very first suspension bridge on part of the 382-mile Oregon Coast Trail is finally stretching its frame across Amanda Creek just south of Yachats.
The suspension towers and main steel cables are up, as are the vertical drop cables and the horizontal spreader beams that will soon support the final decking that hikers will walk on. The 142-foot-long arcing structure is not finished but it already looks very much like a bridge.
This will be the third bridge for the north head of the 3.2-mile section of the Oregon Coast Trail called Amanda’s Trail. But it will be the first bridge built high enough to avoid damage by future mudslides.
The original bridge was constructed in 1997 and was not durable enough to last more than 10 years. A fiberglass bridge was installed in 2011, but it was destroyed by a big mudslide in December 2015, caused in part by clear-cut timber harvesting upstream.
A principal champion of the newest bridge project is Joanne Kittel, the longtime trails advocate whose home directly neighbors the trail. Kittel and her late husband, Norman, purchased 27 acres of coastal woodland property in 1986 that include the area where the bridge traverses the creek. She has created an irrevocable easement that ensures permanent public access for the two acres south of her driveway where the Amanda Trail leaves federal land and encounters U.S. Highway 101.
Standing under a light rain in front of the nascent bridge where the construction crew were working, Kittel had two things on her mind.
“First, relief — it finally happened. Second, I feel gratitude. For all the agencies and groups that were involved. Not only that, but so many individuals. The list goes on and on.”
Off the top of her head, Kittel named all the organizations that have contributed labor and financing to the $434,277 project, including FEMA, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, Three Rivers Foundation, Discover Your Northwest, and View the Future, a nonprofit Kittel helped found.
Kittel also maintains a list of all individual donors, about 170 people including Yachats residents and View the Future board members Nan and Greg Scott, who contributed the largest private contribution of $50,000. Everyone’s name will be included in the program for the bridge dedication ceremony planned for May.
Cascade Civil Corp. of Redmond is responsible for construction. After workers finish necessary adjustments to the suspension cables, they will install five runs of composite decking over the next couple of weeks. Then come handrails.
Must meet Feb. 28 deadline
The project started last October and is running on schedule to be finished by the end of February.
But working on the Oregon coast in winter is not without complication. High winds in early January caused a tree to fall onto some equipment, causing minor damage. More recently, they were set back a day when a boom lift proved too heavy for the soft, muddy creek bed and had to be replaced. On other days it was impossible to even reach the site. When it snowed, or road conditions were too icy, Cascade’s crew couldn’t travel over two mountain passes from Redmond.
“You have to improvise. That’s what we like about working out here,” said Anthoney Castañeda, a Cascade construction worker.
Company president Paul MacClanahan agrees. “That’s part of working in the woods for us. We planned for it, and we’ve been very fortunate.”
They must complete all major construction by Feb. 28. This is a manageable but relatively tight delivery window.
“It’s tight. It absolutely is. There’s always a risk,” said MacClanahan.
The specific schedule was imposed because March 1 is the official beginning of nesting season for the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet. Sept. 30 marked the end of last year’s nesting season.
These two Pacific region bird species are federally listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and both populations remain in significant danger.
Murrelets nest within just one to three miles offshore, and loud noises from heavy construction equipment during their nesting season would present as much risk to the birds as any physical disturbance.
MacClanahan, Kittel and John Seevers, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department’s project manager and engineer, all agree they will be able to finish on time. Beyond March 1, the plan is to minimize any environmental impact.
“Past that date, I expect we’ll just be doing some minor work and completion elements like replanting and trail improvements,” said Seevers.
Honoring Amanda’s story
Another consequence of the 2015 mudslide was the destruction of a statue of Amanda Du-Cuys, the blind indigenous woman of the Coos tribe for whom the trail, creek and bridge are all named. Kittel was instrumental in organizing and executing the all-volunteer effort to replace the Amanda statue with a similar work by the same artist, Sy Meadow, in April 2016.
In 1864, as a part of expulsion effort by a militia of armed white settlers that displaced hundreds of Native Americans, Amanda was taken from her home and forced to abandon her daughter. She was ushered bloody and barefooted through miles of harsh wilderness and relocated to a military facility called the Alsea Sub-agency where she is presumed to have died of disease, exposure, or starvation. The location of the sub-agency camp overlaps with what is now Yachats Memorial Cemetery.
Kittel has been compelled by the story of Amanda for decades. She was instrumentally involved in the original 10-year effort to complete the Amanda Trail, in addition to participating in the planning of the gathering area where the statue and its small surrounding amphitheater are installed.
Kittel is a trained psychotherapist and says that truth is how one must confront trauma. She says the truth about the atrocities committed against the indigenous people in the area was ignored for more than 100 years.
“What can we give back now?” she asks. “If nothing else, I can give Amanda’s story back. Amanda has to live. As long as that happens, I’m happy.”
Kittel doesn’t consider the donation of her time, land, and money a generous act. “It was just the right thing to do,” she says.
Celebration planned in May
Because of the construction and storm debris, the Amanda Trail is currently closed. A cleanup crew will begin clearing the federally owned portion of the trail in a few weeks.
The hope is that the bridge and trail will both be fully open to the public no later than March 15, and conceivably as early as March 1.
A bridge dedication ceremony is scheduled 1-2:30 p.m. May 21 at the bridge site, followed by a reception in the Yachats Commons and a small production of a play titled “Amanda Transcending.”
No parking will be permitted near the Amanda Bridge site, but free bus service will be available to transport guests to and from the Yachats Commons.
The dedication will be livestreamed at the Yachats Commons and will feature speakers from Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, Siuslaw National Forest, Lincoln County commissioners, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw. An encore performance of “Amanda Transcending” will take place May 22.
All dedication events are free to the public but limited to 200 participants and it is mandatory that guests follow all Oregon Covid-19 safety guidelines. Registration is required and will be available in March through Brown Paper Tickets.
- Jordan Essoe is a Waldport-based freelance writer who can be reached at alseajournal@gmail.com