BATTLE GROUND — While searching through family archives in 2018, Susan Tripp discovered that her family generations back owned a 40-acre farm outside of Battle Ground, which is now part of the city’s parks master plan.
R.S. Durkee farmed the property and lived in the farmhouse built in 1912. His daughters Dorothy Harris and Virginia Richards (Tripp’s father’s cousins) donated 35 acres to Clark County in 1992 when they were in their 80s, honoring their father’s wishes to make it open to the public. The farmhouse is on half of the other 5 acres and is now owned by another family.
In 2012, the county deeded the property to the city of Battle Ground, even though it lies a mile east of the city’s border.
“It was deeded originally with an image of what the family had in mind. It would be a natural open space area. It would provide nature trails,” Tripp said. “The family loved hiking and camping, as did mine, and they felt that would be best serving the public good.”
In the last 32 years, the park has remained closed to the public — despite Durkee’s wishes.
Master plan
The city of Battle Ground adopted its Parks, Recreation and Open Space Plan in 2022. One of the plan’s recommended projects included a master plan for parks.
The plan includes:
- the Remy property, northeast corner of Southwest 20th Avenue and Scotton Way
- the Gardner Oaks property, east side of state Highway 503 near Southwest 10th Street
- Fairgrounds Park, 912 E. Main St.
- the Durkee property, north side of Northeast 219th Street and around Northeast 173rd Avenue.
The plan’s preferred vision for the Durkee property included a sports center.
In May, Tripp rallied supporters and headed to a joint meeting of the city’s parks and community engagement board and planning commission.
“We had a full house there of people that wanted to make three-minute respectful comments about the future park, and they all said that they felt it should be nature trails to benefit the residents but also to honor the family and the donation,” she said.
The advisory board then recommended against using the property for a sports complex because the topography, deed restrictions, family’s wishes and other elements weren’t conducive to it, Battle Ground City Manager Kris Swanson said.
“Durkee just wasn’t an appropriate piece of property for that,” she said.
Consultants presented the parks master plan at the Aug. 19 Battle Ground City Council meeting. Each site will have its own plan to guide park improvements and development based on the city and community’s input about a theme, program elements, site constraints and recreation activities, according to the agenda.
The proposal for the Durkee property included implementing viewpoints, a forest labyrinth, a nature-themed playground, trails and a parking lot. Construction is estimated to cost $3.9 million for parking, asphalt, gravel pavement for pedestrian traffic, trails, play equipment, visitor features, utilities and vegetation restoration.
The Battle Ground City Council voted unanimously to adopt the parks master plan as presented.
“The master plan is more of just establishing a vision, maybe a little bit more specific for open spaces that we want to create and construct park facilities,” Swanson said. “The next step is to decide funding allocations. We’re going to have to prioritize and decide specifically, you know, which parks or which park or parks that the council wants to progress with.”
Durkee history
Tripp’s grandmother’s older sister married R.S. Durkee.
He served the public as a teacher at Maple Grove Elementary School, the first principal of Battle Ground schools, a state representative and a farmer. Durkee was one of the Clark County Fair’s founders, a Grange member, and served on the board of the Fort Vancouver Canners Cooperative, the Cattlemen’s Association and the Nut Growers Cooperative, according to Columbian archives.
“Public service was front on his mind and heart,” Tripp said.
When the sisters donated the property to the county, they required a conceptual plan for potential use of the property. The county approved the plan’s budget in July 1991, and in January 1992, prepared a proposed plan, including the state’s Tukes Mountain property.
“By this conveyance, the grantors understand that the real estate conveyed will be developed for park or public open space purposes,” the gift deed stated, according to a 2011 Vancouver-Clark Parks & Recreation fact sheet acquired by Tripp.
When the county transferred ownership of the Durkee property to Battle Ground, the interlocal agreement stated, “The city agrees to operate and maintain the subject property in a manner consistent with the provisions of the gift deed accepted by the county.”
The city agreed to manage the area as a public park or open space, keep the name “Durkee” and protect the conifer trees along the creek.
In 2007, the property was adopted by the Vancouver-Clark Parks & Recreation department’s Comprehensive Parks, Recreation and Open Space Plan. The intention was to create a future regional park, including the Tukes Mountain site, which never occurred.
When Tripp later discovered the park plan, she reached out to her second cousins — the grandkids of R.S. Durkee — to get their support, she said.
“Although Dorothy and Virginia lived well into their 90s, they did not live to see the Durkee property opened to the public,” Durkee Richards, grandson of R.S. Durkee, wrote in a 2021 Columbian op-ed. “At 80, I am now the same age as my mother when she and her younger sister gifted this property. I hope that I will live to see the public fully enjoying this property in keeping with the original deed of gift.”
Now that the master plan is approved, Tripp said she will continue to advocate for the Durkee property, she said.
“We’re just trying to raise the public’s awareness of the public interest in this park so they know what could be possible,” Tripp said. “But it will need to be continued, to be heard, so that the council does prioritize it because of the need for the residents, but also because of the lapse of time since the gift. They really haven’t fulfilled the obligation to provide a park.”
