The Dream of Friends Landing

The Dream of Friends Landing

For years, Dave Hamilton dreamed of a river teeming with trout and salmon where he and his friend, Billy, could go fishing. Before Billy went to Vietnam, fishing had been one of his favorite activities, but when he came home minus both of his legs, nearly every outdoor activity was beyond him. If only there had been a place where disabled people could explore nature and fish and camp like other people, Hamilton thought, maybe Billy wouldn’t have decided to end his life in 1978.

Hamilton, a logger in Elma, Wash., (pop. 3,049) waited 10 years for his dream to come true. It began when the Friend family of Aberdeen, Wash., wanted to make a charitable donation of 152 acres they owned on the Chehalis River not far from Elma. Hamilton and fellow members of the Grays Harbor Chapter of Trout Unlimited persuaded the family to donate the property to their nonprofit organization for use as a recreation area and campground—designed especially for people with disabilities. Two Trout Unlimited members, it turned out, were grant writers. Once the steering committee for the campground was organized, the writers helped the organization obtain county, state, and federal grants totaling $1.2 million.

At long last, Hamilton began to believe that wheelchair-accessible fishing and camping—a dream he’d so wanted for Billy—would become a reality. The river is a favorite for steelhead and coho salmon anglers but is easily accessible in only a few places, which tend to be crowded, so the donated land was especially precious.

“With a 38-acre lake and almost a mile of river frontage, there was a lot that could be done,” says George Caldwell, who joined Hamilton and Trout Unlimited President Jon Lewis in the early planning stages of what is known today as Friends Landing.

Caldwell was 24 when he was felled by a tree in a windstorm while working as a lineman for the telephone company. “I was an avid hunter, and I used to fish a lot before the accident,” he says. “I was still very active in my wheelchair.” His input on the unique design of Friends Landing proved to be invaluable.

Friends Landing has no hills or stairs. The 1.75-mile trail surrounding the lake is level asphalt, and the boat ramp is designed so that people in wheelchairs can transfer into a boat. There are covered fishing shacks right along the water’s edge, a fishing pier on the river, and four piers on the lake—all wheelchair accessible. The children’s playground is surfaced with compacted wood chips that wheelchairs roll easily over, and there’s a special swing with safety straps. Even the fire pits at the campsites are high enough so that a person in a wheelchair can build a fire.

As any angler knows, indoor amenities can be just as important as the outdoor ones. At Friends Landing, a ramp leads to the bathhouse, where guests can get a hot shower and use a changing table and a shower bench. Facilities are spacious enough that an attendant can accompany a person in a wheelchair. Everyone is welcome to fish and camp at Friends Landing, but those with disabilities are given priority when the campgrounds are close to full.

Over the 10 years that it took to complete Friends Landing, hundreds of people volunteered thousands of hours to see it through.

“I’ve seen a lot of projects that don’t work out,” says Hamilton, “but at Friends Landing everybody put the project ahead of their own self-interest. They had a vision of what they wanted to get done. And the people in wheelchairs kept everybody focused on the common goal.”

Penny Dalton, a speech therapist from Ocean Shores, Wash., (pop. 3,836) is one of the many people for whom Friends Landing is an invaluable resource. Disabled at birth, she gets around in a motorized wheelchair.

“Being able to go on walks, fishing, picnicking—nothing really compares to Friends Landing,” she says.

Laurel Holliday is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

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