FIND THE BLACK RIVER
All sites were easy to find except the Black River. You try to find a river that has disappeared...
- Called Liz Stuart, Renton Historical Museum. Refers me to Leslie Betlach at Renton Parks.
- Leslie Betlach refers me to Ron Straka, at Renton Water Department.
- Ron Straka refers me to Ryan Zulaf at Renton Airport.
- Ryan Zulaf tells me to go to Safeway and Fred Meyer parking lots because they were built on fill. Also tells me that there are "visible remnants" of the Black River at the Renton Airport. I go to the aiport but can find no remnants. Enter a private trailer park to get a better look. Confronted by a woman for trespassing. I explain what I am doing and she tells me her son is a screenwriter. "Happy to help," she says. She sends me to the naturalized area next to the wastewater treatment plant. She says there is a heron rookery there and she thinks it is a remnant of the river. Her last words to me. "Not sure I would go there alone."
- I park my car. It looks like the kind of place where ax murderers may be lurking. I call home. "If I don't call you back in an hour, here's where you should send out the search party."
- I've got my pinhole camera, tripod, film box, bucket of sodium sulfide, trash bag, timer, light meter, digital recorder, headphones, microphone. I plunge into the woods and can hear a stream.
- As I trudge along the stream bed, I eventually find a sign saying "Black River Riparian Forest" along with a notation of a watershed conservation group and phone number. Doris Yipez answers my call. She tells me that what is left of the river serves as the stream bed for Springbrook Creek. This mysterious place is now home to 150 nesting pairs of heron.
