Making a town attractive for tourists usually takes work on many dimensions. For Gig Harbor, one of those dimensions heralds back to its days of farming, fishing and boat building.

“Instead of competing with the Kirklands and Lake Unions… or other tourist attractions, we’re defining ourselves by who Gig Harbor already is,” says Lita Dawn Stanton, an artist who grew up in Gig Harbor in a family of fishermen.

Last year, Stanton and a small group of likeminded Gig Harbor residents rallied the community to preserve one of those elements that define Gig Harbor, a boatyard where the world-famous Thunderbird boat was once built. As the property went up for sale, and a developer intended to build a private home on the waterfront parcel, the group went into action.

“Everybody in the community really understood the significance (of the property). It was truly a grass-roots movement,” Stanton said. “The community said, ‘Stop, we like (Gig Harbor) the way it is.’ Eddon Boatworks took on part of that poster child appeal of a distinct heritage.”

After getting the city council on board with the idea of buying the property for a park, and financing it with a bond, the group calling itself Friends of Eddon Boatworks had to convince the rest of the residents to vote for it.

Following the approval of the bond by voters, the city purchased the Eddon Boatworks property for a future waterfront park, and has hired an environmental consultant to develop a cleanup plan. The park’s estimated opening is June 2007.

“The thing that was the most amazing, in that economic climate, from Thurston to Kitsap counties, almost all park levies and quite a few fire district levies failed. This bond passed,” said Gig Harbor City Administrator Mark Hoppen.

Hoppen grew up on that property, where his father, Ed Hoppen, built the revolutionary Thunderbird boat out of plywood, along with many other boats. The people’s desire to save the building was “beyond my wildest expectations,” he said.

At a time when funding roads and infrastructure becomes a priority for jurisdictions, financing open spaces is a challenge. Nonetheless, the city has purchased several historic properties in the last few years, and has added about 55 acres of open space in the last decade. Buying Eddon Boatworks, in Hoppen’s view, adds another layer to preserving the heritage.

Earlier this year, Friends of Eddon Boatworks received one of two special awards by the Washington State Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. In accepting the award on behalf of the group, Hoppen’s brother, Guy Hoppen, was said to have joked that his father would have questioned whether the purchase was a practical decision but that he would have been proud of the community for taking that step.