PLAN THAT PARK

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

A 16-acre park near the top of Fernan Hill is pretty much the same as when Emma Seagraves Van Laken in 1997 donated the land to a Boise-based parks foundation.

But changes are coming to the Seagraves family homestead per the wishes of the donor, who asked the land be made into a park to honor veterans like the many Seagraves who served.

City and county residents are encouraged to attend a Monday open house at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library meant to gather input regarding development of Veterans Centennial Park and any changes that could affect the former Seagraves homestead.

The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Coeur d'Alene Public Library Community Room at 702 E. Front Ave.

Over the past two decades since Seagraves Van Laken’s death, the land, a pasture and forest tucked into surrounding neighborhoods, has remained the same, but ownership and management of the property have settled in Coeur d’Alene.

The land is managed by the city for public use, but held in trust by the Panhandle Parks Foundation.

The park at the crest of Fernan Hill is a quiet, out-of-the-way piece of solace that includes an 8-acre pasture and 8 forested acres, and includes the Seagraves log homestead. A new, three-house development is pressing against its northeast border.

Although some neighbors in past meetings with the city’s Parks and Rec department, which maintains the land for public use, were vehemently against development at the site, Jocelyn Whitfield-Babcock, director of the Panhandle Parks Foundation, said the land was donated for such development.

“The wording is the park shall be maintained in as natural a state as possible,” Whitfield-Babcock said. “It’s very ambiguous.”

Parking at the site requires vehicles to drive into the pasture, a no-no during summers when fire danger is high, she said. And the woodlot has been unmanaged for decades with a lot of down trees and potential fire loads.

Building a parking lot at the site and managing the forest is a priority not just for the park, but for the safety of surrounding neighbors, she said.

Managing the noxious weeds is another priority. One plan includes planting native trees as part of an arboretum project.

“She left the land as a gift to the citizens and the public,” Whitfield-Babcock said. “We think it was very important to her to preserve the land she really loved.”

According to family history, Harry Seagraves, who settled at Fernan Hill in 1885, was a blacksmith from Pennsylvania who, on his sojourn west, made horseshoes for Custer's regiment. Seagraves married Annah Ramsey and they had five sons and a daughter. The five brothers were veterans of The Great War and the Big One. The land was eventually deeded to Emma Seagraves Van Laken (whose grandfather was Steve Liberty, the namesake of Liberty Lake). Her husband, Peter Van Laken, was a bricklayer who worked on the Masonic Lodge and Coeur d’Alene’s Old City Hall.

Less controversial than upgrading the ground for the public is a clause in the deed that addresses the park’s name.

“She wanted the family name attached to the park,” Whitfield-Babcock said. “We hope to have it changed to Seagraves Veterans Centennial Park to fully honor her wishes.”

The property is accessible through an easement from Fernan Hill Road and from the west end of Balcony Drive. Seagraves Van Laken stipulated that the property be used for “passive recreational uses and not for activities such as organized sports,” according to the city. The city’s Urban Forestry Committee has recommended a portion of the site be used as an arboretum featuring native plants.

A plan for the park can be found under Parks and Recreation on the city’s website: http://www.cdaid.org/3475