Parkersville Heritage Foundation selling engraved bricks

Interested in helping preserve history, promote educational opportunities and honor a loved one at the same time? The Parkersville Heritage Foundation is once again selling engraved bricks to help raise funds for Parker’s Landing Historical Park in Washougal.

Proceeds from this year’s brick sale will help purchase labels for the park’s historic trees, which commemorate the importance of agriculture in early Camas and Washougal, and be used to fund educational, history themed events at the park.

The bricks sold in 2020 will be placed near the park’s Chinook Plaza water feature.

“You can learn about local history by looking at the bricks,” said Susan Tripp, a member of the Parkersville National Historic Site Advisory Committee. “The bricks really tell a story about the people and the events that were prominent in the area. We hope that the funds raised by the bricks continue to allow us to add to those educational pieces so the history can be fully appreciated.”

The site advisory committee provides input about the historic Parker’s Landing to the Port of Camas-Washougal, which manages the site.

The bricks can be used to “remember a loved one, recognize family members, memorialize a friend, (or) demonstrate business and community support,” said Tripp.

She purchased a brick in her great-grandfather’s name after moving to Vancouver from California in 2012, and said her passion for early Clark County history is deeply personal. Tripp’s great-grandparents immigrated to Washougal from Norway by way of Illinois in the 1860s and secured a 160-acre homestead near Mount Norway. Tripp’s grandmother, the last of 10 children, was born in 1889. The family then moved a land claim donated by Joseph Gibbons, one of Washougal’s more prominent settlers.

“I have a deep love and appreciation for local history,” Tripp said. “I learned about it from my parents and grandparents, and I’m teaching my kids about it. I want to pay it forward. Visual reminders are necessary. We’re a visual species, so to not only hear about things, but see them allows us to hold them in our minds.”

In addition to the bricks, the Parker’s Landing Historical Park includes story plaques, historic trees and kiosks.

“The purpose of promoting our local heritage is to remember the hardships and early opportunities that gave us today’s Camas and Washougal, to make future generations proud of their roots and (aware of) what we did for them in keeping this history alive and well,” Tripp said.