Tacoma’s maritime heritage is about to make a comeback with style. The century-old, once-decaying Balfour Dock, which is perched on Dock Street near the Museum of Glass, will soon be filled with art, amazing watercraft, people, activity and homage to the city’s long, and oft overlooked maritime history.



When completed some time in 2011, the planned maritime heritage center will be the largest education and activity center of its kind on the West Coast. The facility will include a new, expanded Working Waterfront Museum, which will offer a mix of local and commissioned exhibits; a collection of historic vessels, including famed Willits Bros. Canoes, some of the finest canoes ever made, right here in Tacoma. It also will sport a fully-functional boat shop, including classes for folks who want to learn how to build boats; a year-round K-12 marine science laboratory classroom; meeting, conference and performance spaces; and a nice stretch of esplanade that will allow the public to access the water side of the Balfour Dock for the first time in 40 years. Whew!



“We want to help connect the city to the water again,” says Tom Cashman, executive director of the Foss Waterway Seaport, a local maritime heritage organization that has occupied a portion of the Balfour building for several years.



As Cashman tells it, Tacoma’s connection to water surrounding it was once profound, and can be again. For years, Cashman has helped keep that connection alive through work at Tacoma’s Waterfront Maritime Museum, which seeks to educate the public, preserve and showcase the history of Tacoma’s working waterfront. The museum is the only authentic facility in the Pacific Northwest situated at the city’s economic and cultural birthplace — Commencement Bay. For years the museum has hosted maritime skills classes, including boat restoration and new boat construction projects, a hands-on area to help children learn nautical terminology, group activities geared to young people, and lectures about local maritime history. The new maritime heritage center will be The Incredible Hulk to the Working Waterfront Museum’s David Banner.



For now, the people behind the project are working relentlessly to have a juicy sneak peek of the expanded facility available for Tall Ships 2008, which will sail in to Tacoma in early July.

Features on deck for Tall Ships will include a 4,000-square-foot interactive installation dubbed “Finding Your Way,” which will invite the public to learn how mariners navigate vast waterways. The multi-station, hands-on exhibit will demonstrate how to use tools employed by sailors to navigate the sea, including star navigation, nautical distance measurement, and gadgets such as the sextant. Pieces of the exhibit display earthen mounds, starscapes and other mystical tools of ancient (and modern) mariners. The exhibit, created with the help of SFCA’s legendary Exploratorium, will invite someone to get disoriented — not in the traditional Weekly Volcano manner, unfortunately — and get reoriented like a true sailor.



Also on deck will be a collection of stunningly beautiful boats that carry local heritage and style. A displayed Willits Bros. Canoe, for example, is probably the coolest looking little craft I’ve ever seen (my uncle helped run the Seattle Boat Show for years, so that’s saying something). Des Moines, Iowa-born Earl and Floyd Willits built only one model of canoe, but it evolved over time, according to an article in Wooden Canoe, a journal produced by the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association. The brothers got started building in the town of Artondale on Wollochet Bay before moving their operations to Day Island in 1925. Each craft was handmade, with very little help. The planks were cut from teak or mahogany, though the brothers played with Port Orford or Spanish cedar, and were characterized by low-hung seats and planking attached with more than seven thousand copper tacks, spaced every 1.5 inches. Between 1908 and 1963, the Willits Brothers made 950 of their signature vessels.



Spar-varnished, with solid Mahogany planks, riveted with thousands of copper tacks and fastened with brass, the Willits craft provided generously by Pop Culture Production’s Bennett Thurmon is a work of art. During an evening visit to the site, the canoe sits alone in the corner, while Thurmon describes its value like a child describing his best friend — pure, wondered enthusiasm. His excitement is an indicator of just how significant some of these historic boats are. Cashman says the boats that will be on display will offer locals a chance to see the result of pure, old-school craftsmanship and be proud that so much of it happened close to home.



“If you were a canoe aficionado, this was a prize,” says Cashman of the Willits craft on display. “Some of the finest canoes ever made were made right here in Tacoma, on Day Island. Anybody who was anybody (in the boating world) in Seattle and Tacoma had a Willits Canoe. It is one of the great untold stories of Tacoma’s maritime history.”

And that’s just the beginning, he says.



For more information on the Foss Waterway Seaport, go to www.fosswaterwayseaport.org.

Get all your hot Tall Ships Tacoma information at www.tallshipstacoma.com.