China Lake Park

Park Overview
This 31-acre forested park includes walking trails, a lake, and numerous opportunities to observe wild birds in a wetland habitat like the ones that once flourished throughout Pierce County.

The City of Tacoma acquired the land in 1942 as a natural space for residents to enjoy, and Parks Tacoma has managed the park lands since the 1980s. In 2010, the City formally transferred ownership to Parks Tacoma.

History and Name Origin
This area is the traditional homelands of the Puyallup people, today known as the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. Before white settlers arrived, it was primarily used for seasonal hunting, and was cultivated by seasonal burnings. After the Native people were forced onto reservations, the land was acquired by federal decree on behalf of the railroads. The Tacoma Land Company sold parcels to developers and settlers to finance the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, including the area that would become Fircrest. The heart of the wetland area around the lake ultimately escaped suburbanization despite the neighborhoods that grew up around it. In the early 1900s the lake was known as “Frazier’s Swamp” or “Leach Lake” (named for local settlers in the area), but by the 1920s it had gained the name “China Lake”.

In 1890 an electric streetcar provided service from downtown Tacoma to Steilacoom. The twelve mile route (a record length at the time) came up 12th Street, jogged south along what is now I-5, and continued west along 19th Street past China Lake to Mildred St. and then through University Place. Streetcars traveled along 19th St. through the 1920s. All Tacoma streetcar service ended in 1938. Image courtesy the Tacoma Public Library.

A promotional image (c. 1907) highlights Regents Park, looking westward over Tacoma. Image courtesy the Tacoma Public Library.

Fircrest, known as Regents Park until 1925, was first platted in 1907 and counted 19th Street as its northernmost border. It is from residents of this small town that China Lake’s name emerged. As recorded by Works Progress Administration oral historians in the 1930s, local youth recall exploring lengthy tunnels and discovering rooms with bunks lining the walls and small exotic artifacts, such as unknown coins and paper scraps with mysterious writing on them. Community knowledge held that these were tunnels dug by Chinese immigrants in the late 1880s, during the period when their presence was deemed illegal in Tacoma and environs. The stories about the China Lake tunnels vary, but some of the theories include:

• They were dug by the Chinese in order to smuggle newly arrived immigrants in from the port or to smuggle opium past customs inspectors (opium was legal to possess but there was an import tax).
• Chinese immigrants lived in the area and dug the tunnels to drain the swamp so they could grow produce; and/or they used the tunnels for storing garden tools.
• They were dug by Chinese laborers as cheap lodging and a way to lay low during the anti-Chinese actions in the 1880s.
• They were used to hide Chinese immigrants while waiting to catch a train out of town after the November 1885 forced expulsion from Tacoma.
• They were dug by settlers in order to drain the swamp for cultivation and development.

Although the stories persist, bolstered by oral history accounts of first-person experiences in these tunnels, local historians have found no specific references to such tunnels from the period which they were supposed to have been built. The earliest written reference to these Fircrest tunnels shows up in a 1907 article laden with anti-Chinese sentiment.

According to a 1925 newspaper article that described the tunnels, they could be entered through a hole located near the intersection of Columbia Avenue and Eldorado Avenue, across 19th St. from the parking lot for today’s park. Although they were rumored to extend throughout Tacoma, most personal accounts of the tunnels described cave-ins and deterioration that limited how far they could be explored.

The October 1925 article in the Tacoma News Tribune featured this image of a supposed tunnel entrance. The story described the mysterious passages, noting that their origins were unknown but portions were being used for the local sewer system. Image courtesy the Tacoma Public Library.

The growth of the stories about the Chinese smuggling tunnels was bolstered by the presence of additional “mysterious” tunnels in other parts of Tacoma, including downtown and Point Defiance. The majority of these tunnels have been identified for their historic uses, such as providing steam heating throughout the downtown area via underground passages, and a partially completed Northern Pacific Railroad tunnel begun under Jefferson and Center Street in Nalley Valley. Tales of shanghaied sailors, Prohibition era speakeasies, tunnels to the basement of Holy Rosary Church, and Chinese laborers smuggled to and from the harbor remain in the community imagination, however.

So who really created the tunnels near China Lake Park? The world may never know, but local historians such as Murray Morgan have concluded that a drainage tunnel seems to be the most plausible explanation for their presence, given the physical terrain and historical context.

The Case for Drainage Tunnels
When the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Tacoma Land Company acquired land, it was their practice to clear cut the land and sell the timber for an additional profit before selling the parcels. This was done at Wright Park, for example. Chinese laborers were brought in as an essential part of the Northern Pacific Railroads enterprise, providing the necessary labor for building the train tracks and operating the business. The stories of the tunnels suggest that they were dug by Chinese laborers. Perhaps they were Chinese laborers working on the orders of the Tacoma Land Company?

“Frazier’s Swamp” was the name given to the wetlands in 1907, just as the town of Regents Park was being platted. Regents Park would change its name to Fircrest in 1925. During the early years of building the streets and blocks of the suburb, drainage was an ongoing concern. The Leach Creek Watershed covers much of University Place, Fircrest, and West Tacoma. In the 1940s and ‘50s the local municipalities were concerned with managing the flow of water from city streets and preventing creeks and streams from being overwhelmed or congested with debris.

The stories of the Chinese tunnels include tales of using the underground passages for storing garden tools and equipment, which seems an excellent secondary use of the tunnels regardless of who first dug them. One of the challenges to the drainage tunnel theory is the description of a large room with bunks in the walls. Perhaps the laborers who built the tunnels slept there as well? Rather than bunks, were they simply shelves? Another twist to the story is the perception that the tunnels ran much further and went deeper than any useful drainage tunnel may be expected to run. One version insisted the tunnel ran all the way to Salmon Beach, 2.5 miles away. The tunnel lengths were impossible to verify, however, and may simply be the result of exaggeration over many retellings.

Historians point out that a tunnel for smuggling people or goods to west Tacoma in the 1880s and ‘90s would be far more work than it was worth, given the mix of rocky glacial soil and heavy clay that make up much of Tacoma. Opium was legal to import, and the cost of the small tax would be much less than it would cost to build a tunnel. As for smuggling people, after the 1885 expulsion, Chinese residents did not return in substantial numbers until the 1920s. The few existing newspaper accounts of smuggling laborers on behalf of companies or cities elsewhere do not mention any tunnels at all. Once again, the cost seemed to outweigh any potential benefits. Despite the potentially mundane explanation fitting the evidence best, numerous articles continue to be written about the “Chinese” tunnels. Although the identity of their builders may be lost to history, the stories have secured a permanent place in local imaginations.

Natural History
Apart from the name of the lake, recent history has focused on the threat of continued urbanization to local wetlands and the ecosystems therein. Although it was heavily logged in the 1890s, after it was acquired by the City in 1942 for greenspace, the natural areas revived at China Lake.

In this 1963 aerial, Fircrest boundaries have been outlined in white dots. The China Lake wetland area is directly to the north, divided by Bantz Boulevard, where Highway 16 would soon be built. Image courtesy the Tacoma Public Library.

In the late 1960s, the development of Highway 16 threatened the wetlands at China Lake and Snake Lake, and the Tacoma Audubon Society advocated for the preservation of these sites with Tacoma legislators and community leaders. Thanks to volunteers such as Helen Engle and the Friends of China Lake, development projects avoided draining or filling in these wetland park spaces. Since that time, Parks Tacoma has committed to educating the public about the significance of these special habitats amidst increasing suburban growth.

What are Wetlands?
Wetlands are transitional areas between land and water, in this case freshwater ponds. Wetlands support specialized plants, offer refuge and habitat for many species of fish, birds, and wildlife. Nearly thirty distinct types of plants and over ninety different animal species, including mammals, amphibians, and birds, can be found in wetlands like this!

Wetlands contain rich nutrients, absorb excess stormwater to help prevent floods, and clean water by filtering out pollutants and sediment. Wetlands are amazing and diverse: the complex interaction of their basic components – soil, water, animals and plants – have helped sustain the interconnected lives of animals and humans for millennia.

Thanks to wildlife advocates this site has been protected from development over the years and maintained as a valuable habitat for plants and animals.

For more details about wetlands at Snake Lake and China Lake, check out the Tacoma Nature Center’s webpage and interactive programs.

Sources

• Harrison-Brose, Phyllis A. “Validation through Explanation: Tacoma’s Chinese Tunnels”, Vol. 4, No. 2 Northwest Folklore (Winter-Spring 1986).
• Dunkelberger, Steve. “Are tunnel legends grounded in fact?” Business Examiner, January 10, 2005. (Murray Morgan is quoted in this article.)
• Dunkelberger, Steve. “Stories of Chinese Tunnels in Tacoma Continue to this Day” South Sound Talk, April 25, 2017. (http://www.southsoundtalk.com/2017/04/25/stories-of-chinese-tunnels-in-tacoma-continue-to-this-day/)
• Dupuis, Carl E, Oscar Cayton, William Zimmerman, and V. W Jenkins (WPA oral historians). “Mysterious Chinese Tunnels”, Washington, 1936. Manuscript/Mixed Material. (https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh002762/)
• McGinnis, Melissa, Doreen Beard-Simpkins, Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma. Tacoma’s Wright Park (Arcadia Publishing: Chicago), 2008.