Packwood Mountain Festival speakers talk East Lewis County trails, tourism and more

May 4-With the spring sun shining down strongly in East Lewis County, residents from throughout the area came out for the annual Packwood Mountain Festival this past weekend, hosted by volunteers from the White Pass Country Museum at the Packwood Schoolhouse Event Center and Museum.

Outside of the museum in Packwood were a number of local vendors along with representatives from the U.S. Forest Service, the White Pass School District, the East Lewis County Journal and other local volunteer organizations.

Arbor Health also held a fun run on Saturday morning, which was followed by a number of speakers touching on topics from how to grow a volunteer trail support base to trail apps to how to use recreation and outdoor activities to drive a local economy.

One of those speakers was Todd Chaput from Discover Lewis County, which already has a number of information brochures produced for communities, including Packwood, highlighting recreational opportunities.

"I've had conversations with people saying, 'We don't really want tourism.' That's like saying, 'We don't really want AI.' Too bad, that door closed years ago and this is the reality we're in," Chaput said. "You can either figure out how we're gonna work with it, and save what makes Packwood, Packwood ... It's not 'do we want it?' It's 'how do we manage it?'"

Currently, he along with other Discover Lewis County representatives are focusing on helping East Lewis County through the "shoulder seasons" - the times in between the winter ski season and summer hiking, fishing and hunting seasons in which local businesses in the area see a decline in business.

While the shoulder seasons can be rough in East Lewis County, Packwood Visitor Center employee Alissa Thornton explained the region still appears to be ripe for tourism growth opportunities.

Thornton started working at the visitor center in 2021, and stated going back to 2019 the center saw between 2,000 and 3,000 visitors annually.

"We're over 10,000 (visitors annually) now, in just those four and a half years," Thornton said.

However, while more tourists seem to be visiting lately, many of them don't appear to be visiting for very long.

According to Foothills Rails-to-Trails Coalition member Tim O'Brien, one of his friends who lives in Packwood stated while there are many Airbnb and other vacation rental homes in the area are empty most of the time.

"Nobody's there, she said. It would be better if people used them," O'Brien said.

Chaput suggested owners of vacation rentals should start considering offering them at discounted rates, especially on days of the week they are frequently empty.

"If you're an Airbnb owner, and you're not occupied on Sunday and Monday, why isn't it half price? Why aren't you late checking-out," Chaput said.

The goal is to get visitors to stay as long as possible, in order to keep them spending at local businesses and restaurants.

Chaput added Discover Lewis County's current focus is trying to re-establish Lewis County as "volcano country," as from various points throughout the county Mount Rainier, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens are all visible.

For more information on the White Pass County Museum, visit its website at https://whitepasscountrymuseum.org/.

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