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Community
Terraforming the Wasteland: Dune Peninsula

August 31, 2019
Eve Hart
by Eve Hart

Climbing one of the sail mounds at Dune Peninsula is like ascending a pyramid.

At the top, you can see Dash Point and Vashon Island across the water; to the east, the buildings of Tacoma with Mt. Rainier looming behind it all. 

pyramid-like sail mound at Dune Peninsula with Mt. Rainer in distance
Mt. Rainier looms behind a sail mound at Dune Peninsula. The sail mounds were built using rock materials sourced from Kapowsin Quarry in Orting, Washington. The name “sail mound” came from early designs in which the shape of the structure resembled sailboat sails. From an aerial view, the mounds are triangular with curved edges, just like sails.

On September 7, 2019, Dune Peninsula will celebrate its completion with free family activities and a concert. Sure to become a local icon, this beautiful park represents rebirth from a dark past.

How the Peninsula Came to Be: Frank Herbert’s Wasteland

Imagine ash raining down from the sky and the smoky smell of sulfur dioxide filling the air. For nearly a century, this was a reality for the citizens living near what is now Point Ruston and Dune Peninsula. In fact, that reality inspired the wasteland described in the science-fiction novel Dune, the namesake for the peninsula.

Beginning in 1890, the bluff above Point Ruston was occupied by an ore-processing plant operated by the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO). The plant refined mostly copper.

giant kettle sculpture sits at the edge of the peninsula with the bay and Mt. Rainier in the background
This sculpture is actually an iron slag pot turned on its side. The pot would have been filled with molten slag and carted down a rail line. The contents would then be dumped into Commencement Bay. The pot marks the entrance to Dune Peninsula.

In the 1940s, ASARCO began dumping molten slag—the leftovers of the refining process — into Commencement Bay. The lava-like material built up over decades and extended farther and farther into the bay, creating a 23-acre peninsula. This new landform was the foundation for Point Ruston and Dune Peninsula.

black and white photo of the many buildings that made up ASARCO in 1948
Taken in 1948, this aerial view shows the ASARCO complex in the foreground. In the right-hand corner of the photo, you can see the peninsula where the Tacoma Yacht Club and Dune Peninsula currently reside. Photo courtesy of the General Photograph Collection at the Tacoma Public Library image archive.

Over its lifespan, the ASARCO plant created incredible amounts of pollution. Toxic chemicals like arsenic and lead are estimated to have settled over more than 1,000 square miles of the Puget Sound Basin. Because of this kind of ecological devastation, in the 1950s, Tacoma was considered one of the most polluted cities in the United States.

black and white photograph of a very tall, skinny tower called a smelter stack
This 1925 photo shows the smelter stack of ASARCO. Image courtesy of the Chapin Bowen Collection at the Tacoma Public Library image archive.

The ASARCO plant finally closed in 1985, and the area was declared a Superfund site. In 1993, the smelter stack, once the tallest in the world, was reduced to rubble as tens of thousands of people watched.

Now all that remains of the ASARCO plant is the strange landform it left behind.

The Vision: Restoring the ASARCO Site

The reclamation of the slag peninsula began in 2015. Over 20,000 truckloads of contaminated soil were removed from the site. The remaining 400,000 cubic yards were sealed in with a geotextile cap.

New topsoil formed the base for the new park, and the shoreline was armored with rock. The video below features some of the construction work done on Dune Peninsula and the resulting architecture.

In an interview with Tacoma Weekly, Metro Parks Board Commissioner Erik Hanberg compared this process to the plot in the novel Dune: “The characters in the novel have a goal to ‘terraform’ their planet back to its inhabitable origins. That’s what we’ve done here [with Dune Peninsula]. We have terraformed a polluted wasteland into a beautiful environment for all to enjoy.”

Exploring Dune Peninsula

Three sail mounds rise above the new park. Built from interlocking quarry rock, waist-high concrete steps climb up the face of each mound, and long gravel paths lead down the backsides. The steep slopes of these monoliths are flush with wildflowers.

gravel trail goes through tall grasses and is flanked by boulders on either side
A trail climbs up the backside of each sail mound.

Project Manager Roger Stanton explained that the sail mounds reflect the peninsula’s past. “You can see that there was an artful installation of these mound faces,” he explained at a community meeting in 2018. “And the whole point is, this land is built out of slag rock. And so we wanted it to almost look like the rock was captured on the end of these mounds.”

Concrete paths wind around the peninsula, offering a long path for bikes and joggers. Stretches of lawn await future community events.

boulder juts above ground and overlooks Commencement Bay
The Frank Herbert Trail leads from the upper portion of Point Defiance Park to Dune Peninsula. Overlooks like this one line the trail. The giant boulder pictured here was dug up during construction and reclaimed.

In the distance, the Wilson Way Bridge towers above the marina and connects the upper portion of Point Defiance Park to the Frank Herbert Trail, which leads directly to Dune Peninsula. Those seeking access to the marina can walk down five flights of stairs—or use the slides at each level.

Rocking the Peninsula

The gray-blue rock that makes up the main component of the mounds was locally sourced in Orting, Washington, and ethically mined at Washington Rock Quarries. Washington Rock provided over 50,000 tons of rock products for the project—that’s 200 million pounds.

boat driving past rocky shoreline of Dune Peninsula
A boat drives past the shoreline of Dune Peninsula. Over 30,000 tons of armor rock from Washington Rock line the peninsula and protect it from wave action.

Nearly 30,000 tons of quarry spalls—large pieces of rock—were used to create a kind of armor around the shoreline of the peninsula. The same rock was purposefully used in the sail mounds.

“We wanted people to see the mounds as an extension of the peninsula itself, made of the same materials, hiding the same mysteries,” explained Clayton Beaudoin, principal for landscape architect SiteWorkshop.

Washington Rock’s materials were used in many other areas. Fish rock—a special mix of river rock—was used to created a buffer zone on the northeast side of the peninsula where fish can thrive. Pea gravel was used around plantings.

pea gravel surrounds wild grasses
Pea gravel from Washington Rock Quarries was used around wild grasses to imitate shoreline habitat.

Wherever you look, these rock materials represent a departure from the past and a striving toward a future where human innovation respects nature.

Cleanup Efforts Continue

Even with the transformation of Point Ruston and Dune Peninsula, efforts to remediate the impact of the ASARCO plant are not over. In 2009, Washington State launched a program to replace the contaminated soil of homes near the ASARCO plant. Over 300 homes have had their soil replaced.

green grass lawn after new topsoil replaced contaminated old topsoil
This yard was remediated as part of the Tacoma Smelter Plume Cleanup project. The topsoil was provided by Washington Rock.

Washington Rock has provided thousands of tons of topsoil for this remediation effort and will continue supporting this important cause until the work is finished.


Visit our Destination Point Defiance page for more information about the materials Washington Rock provided to Dune Peninsula. Washington Rock is located in the Puget Sound region of Washington State.

For more information about Dune Peninsula, check out these articles:

  • The ASARCO Smelter: Gone But Not Forgotten
  • New Tacoma Park Emerges from Superfund Site
  • From Toxic Site to Green Space: New Tacoma Park Exemplifies Civic Reinvention
  • PBS Documentary about Ruston

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