Forgotten Fruit

Day 191: Over half a century ago, the town of Alder WA sat above the Nisqually River, occupied largely by men in the timber trade and their families as it had been for many years previously. When Tacoma Public Utilities decided to dam the river, the town and adjacent Reliance were shut down and the area was flooded by the formation of the reservoir. At the time the dam was completed in 1945, it ranked as one of the tallest dams in the US, measuring 330 feet high and 1,600 feet long. Many of the residents relocated to the present-day Alder, but traces of the old homesteads' orchards can be found in nearby woodlands. This lovely bouquet of Springtime blooms at what is now called Stacel Point, a TPU campground.