Have you ever walked Seminary Hill on a sunny day?
If you have, I’m certain you appreciate the treasure that is our Seminary Hill. And, I’m so glad that Chloe Palmer and Stellajoe Staebler recognized and protected this rare natural green-space gem.
I was grieved to hear of Stellajoe Staebler’s passing last week. I’ve stopped and walked Seminary Hill during lunch or between appointments many times over the past few years. Actually, this past summer, I found myself there — sitting on the bridge near the bottom of the Canyon Trail — contemplating life. And it led me to feel so grateful to have a place like Seminary Hill for personal reflection.
This is what actually led me to the story of Palmer and Staebler’s advocacy for the natural area. And, fellow columnist Bill Moeller did a great job of telling that story in a recent column, from his perspective as Centralia’s then-mayor. Gretchen and Rebecca Staebler have also penned editorials and pieces about their mother’s love for the natural area.
While Palmer and Staebler were considered instrumental in what led to the formation of the Seminary Hill Natural Area we currently know, they weren’t the first people who believed the area to be hallowed ground of sorts.
For a long time, I thought Seminary Hill was named as such because walking through the towering trees draped in moss sort of felt like a cathedral experience. Or, at least it did to me. But, as it turns out, there used to be an actual seminary on the hill.
According to Chronicle archives, The Northwest Baptist Church Conference founded and built a prominent seminary building on the hill back around 1889. In fact, the building was reportedly so impressive and striking, sitting proudly atop the hill, that people traveling through Centralia on the train recognized the town by the iconic landmark, often inquiring about what the big building on the hill was.
The seminary was ultimately not a successful venture. The building became a home for a time, according to archives, later becoming Centralia General Hospital. This was likely Centralia’s largest medical facility at the time, and believed to be Centralia’s first hospital (as opposed to doctor’s offices that offered hospital services). According to Chronicle archives, around 1918, the site was later proposed to be the site for a college, but that never happened.
Most of the Seminary Hill Natural area came into the city of Centralia’s possession by 1920, when the Seminary Hill reservoirs were constructed. Chronicle archives report that the Works Progress Administration built a 2 1/2-mile-long trail system throughout the natural area, which was then known as “Dry Park” around 1930.
Eventually, the grand seminary-turned-hospital building fell into disrepair, and was torn down in 1938 when the National Guard Armory was built. Part of the site also served as a golf course for a time.
From then on, Seminary Hill became a central activity site for local Boy and Girl scout programs, in additional to acting as an outdoor classroom for Centralia College. Many know, of course, that the Kaiser Trail at Seminary Hill is named for beloved late Centralia College botany professor Rufus Kaiser, who wrote a series of articles in 1978, which appeared in The Chronicle, and was later published in a collection and printed in a book titled “Walking with Rufus.”
While Kaiser’s work in documenting and highlighting Seminary Hill was also instrumental in raising awareness for its beauty, educational and recreational benefits, it was Palmer and Staelber — most often Staebler — who are recognized as working tirelessly to protect and preserve the natural area through the 1970s.
Seminary Hill Natural Area was formally recognized as a forest preserve by the City of Centralia on March 17, 1982. The Friends of the Seminary Hill Natural Area have been maintaining the trail system and grounds since that time.
According to reports in The Chronicle, in 1991 — barely 10 years after the natural area’s formal recognition — “two city reservoirs near the top of the hill collapsed, demolishing one trail and the area’s Bamer Drive entrance when a wall of water and mud crashed down the hillside.”
While that was a staggering blow to the nature preserve, additional reports state that “ … with the help of some federal money because of the disaster, the Friends of Seminary Hill used the opportunity to enhance the entrance, adding a sign, security posts and gates, a gravel parking lot, and landscaping.
All of that led to the picnic area at Seminary Hill we know today, which was dedicated in 2016. As you might have read in The Chronicle from Alex Brown last week, the picnic shelter was the brainchild of Stellajoe Staebler, and proudly displays a quote from her.
After 134 years since the old Seminary Hill school building was commissioned, who would have foreseen so many transformations? From religious school, to hospital, to armory, to golf course, to scouting campgrounds, to protected forest preserve — I’m thankful we have Seminary Hill preserved as a natural area.
What a legacy to have left.
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In all my research on Seminary Hill this past week, there are two things I feel like remain unfinished. Much of the 1980s editions of The Chronicle are missing from the online digital archives, so I have been unable to locate some really key articles regarding Seminary Hill as of yet. And, secondly, I was unable to find any record of Chehalis or Cowlitz Native American ties to what we know as the Seminary Hill area. It would be interesting to know if earlier inhabitants to the Pacific Northwest area also had ties to the natural area.
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Brittany Voie is a columnist for The Chronicle.
