Parkersville Day will be held at Parker’s Landing Historical Park on Saturday, June 3 from noon to 3 p.m.

Area residents can mark their calendars now for the second annual Parkersville Day, held at Parker’s Landing Historical Park on Saturday, June 3 from noon to 3 p.m. Learn about the rich local history of Camas and Washougal in a fun, free, educational experience for all ages.

Parker’s light and dock was noted on the Columbia River maritime charts. On November 11, 1902, The Oregonian printed a notice to Mariners. “On November 15, a fixed white lantern light on a white stake ten feet above the water will be established on the northerly bank of the Columbia River at Parker Landing, Washington, as a guide in the narrow and rocky channel.”

The original Parker’s Landing light was a large kerosene burner with a red lens. At that time, the light was mounted near the center of the dock on a wood platform reached by several stairs. Daily maintenance involved climbing the stairs, filling the lamp with fuel, polishing the lens, and lighting it. Parker’s dock was located at the southwest corner of Section C of the current Parker’s Landing Historical Park.  

The light itself involved several historically notable residents. For instance, the birth of Anna Laura Stoops on June 16, 1883, at Parker’s Landing was said to have been assisted by the Parker’s Landing dock light. Anna married Thomas Jacob (T.J.) Gibbons on December 31, 1902. Gibbons, a dairy farmer born March 14, 1869, in Washougal, was the son of Edward and Charlotte Gibbons, and grandson of Washougal pioneers Joseph and Maria Gibbons. Joseph Gibbons arrived in 1847, second to David C. Parker’s arrival in 1845.  

In an oral history on June 1, 1986, Washougal resident Olger Jemtegaard talked about tending to the kerosene beacon light when he attended high school while living with Cecil and Elsie Van Vleet as did his brother for a short time. After Cecil’s mother, Dr. Louisa Van Vleet died, he leased her Parker’s Landing home and property from 1917 to 1920 to Joseph Ernst, a farmer.

Cecil and Elsie were married on July 21, 1917, lived at Parker’s Landing and tended to the light. During that time, Cecil tore down the last deserted Parkersville building because it was dangerous. Van Vleet, a Parker’s Landing resident and landowner, drove a Model T Ford to Vancouver High School to teach math and science. His wife, Elsie, drove an Overland. She taught English, coached girls’ basketball, and directed plays at a Washougal school, walking to school whenever weather permitted it.

When Cecil found work in San Francisco, California in 1930 through the 1940s, he rented property to Louis and Delia Chevron, who established a dairy there. At least four Chevron family pictures show Parker’s light in the background.

The light was eventually updated to electricity and a white lens sometime before 1931 and removed sometime after 1961. After Cecil’s first wife died in 1952, Cecil returned to live at the property, joined by his second wife, Mary. They lived there until Cecil died in 1977 and Mary moved out in 1978. In 1969, they sold the property to the Port of Camas-Washougal to help pay Cecil’s medical bills, and in the hope that it would become a park. The Parker’s Landing Historical Park was dedicated on June 1, 1986. The VanVleet plaza, located where their home had been, was dedicated on June 15, 2002.

For more event information, follow: https://www.facebook.com/ParkersLandingHistoricalPark.