If you ask Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, Tenino sandstone has sedimental value.
Now, he wants his colleagues in the Washington state Legislature to agree.
On Tuesday, Abbarno pre-filed legislation to designate the stone as the official rock of Washington state.
“The Legislature finds that Tenino quarry sandstone has both historic and contemporary significance for the state of Washington,” the proposal reads.
The sedimentary rock, part of the McIntosh Formation, formed around 47 million years ago from layers of oceanic sand. Samuel W. Fenton and George Van Tine opened Tenino's first sandstone quarry, and in the late 1800s, the stone was used in construction throughout the West Coast.
“The 1889 historic fire in Seattle created the opportunity for Tenino sandstone to be used on a more regular basis for construction of buildings throughout the Pacific Northwest,” the legislation reads.
After a building made from the material was one of the few to survive the San Francisco earthquake, it increased in popularity, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.
According to the legislation, the Tenino sandstone “is included in the east wing of the Washington state capitol, the original main branch of the Seattle public library, the Bailey building in Seattle, the Northern Pacific Railway station in Missoula, Montana, the Calvary Presbyterian church in San Francisco, California, and the main high school in Stockton, California.”
The bill would add another chapter to chapter 1.20 of the Revised Code of Washington. Other mementos codified in this section include the state tree, state grass, state flower, state fruit, state fossil, state insect and state gem.
In 2022, the chapter added its newest designee when the Legislature adopted pickleball as the official sport.
Abbarno’s proposal has left legislators stuck between a rock and a hard place in the past. An attempt in 2011, brought by former Sen. Dan Swecker, died in committee without a vote.
During the 2023 legislative session, Abbarno secured $160,000 in funds for the Tenino Carvers Guild to construct a workshop and classroom near the Tenino quarry to help train the area’s future stone carvers.
“The more people who get to know the stone carvers here, I do think there’s a better chance that when you’re building a public building, and there’s a requirement for a certain amount of art, it’s not just thrown on a wall,” Abbarno said during a September tour of the Tenino quarry.
In Washington, .5% of the construction cost of a public building must go toward art acquisition, and Abbarno hopes the stone is considered for future projects.
"Tenino sandstone is part of the history and tradition of Washington state," Abbarno stated in a news release Thursday. "This legislation would help bring that history to life, to the classroom, and provide the recognition that the stone and Tenino community played in building our state."
