Annual salmon slide makeover not a small-scale operation

Blistering heat has been the story in La Conner this month.

But the cause of some very visible blistering here can be traced to winter weather conditions.

The surface materials of the landmark 13-foot salmon slide that highlights Conner Waterfront Park has experienced moisture blistering for a third straight year.

Retired Town Administrator John Doyle, as previously, returned to the slide last week to make repairs.

“The materials,” Doyle said during a brief Thursday morning break, “have blistered the last three winters.”

Doyle has devoted about a week each summer since the slide was installed to grinding, sanding and painting its exterior, providing the shoreline attraction a subdued yet stylish makeover.

“He’s trying to make a fish pretty,” La Conner Parks Commission Chair Ollie Iversen told fellow panel members during their video-conferenced meeting Wednesday morning. He is Doyle’s co-worker,

The annual salmon slide maintenance, while requiring relatively few hours, is no small-scale operation in terms of its significance. The slide has become a magnet for visitors and local residents alike. It is cited in numerous travel articles featuring La Conner.

Doyle, who has worked on the slide during cool morning hours, can attest first-hand to the popularity of the park and its signature slide.

“There’s been a steady flow of people, most of them locals, to the park,” he said.

Tom Jay, the late Chimacum bronze sculptor and functional artist, built the slide prior to the 2017 opening of Conner Waterfront Park, which was developed in a former maritime industrial area beneath Rainbow Bridge.

The slide is modeled after one Jay, who died two years ago, created for Carkeek Park in Seattle in the late 1990s.

Conner Waterfront Park was made possible by grant support from the Osberg Family Trust and individual donations.