In search for identity, toss goes to fish

OLYMPIA – The change jingling in the nation’s pockets will not, it turns out, include an image of Bigfoot swinging from the Space Needle.

After nearly a year of consideration by a 22-person commission and tens of thousands of online votes, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Thursday unveiled her choice of design for Washington’s commemorative quarter. The “tails” side of the quarter will depict two state icons: a salmon leaping from splashing water and a snowcapped Mount Rainier flanked by an evergreen forest. On the bottom, near the date, will be the words “The Evergreen State.”

“This is kind of what we’re about,” the governor said. The U.S. Mint is expected to approve the design later this year.

Among the things that we’re not about, judging by the proposals that fell by the wayside: steaming lattes, raindrops and banana slugs. Also rejected was a depiction of the reported 1947 sighting of nine “flying disks” over Mount Rainier. All those suggestions, however, will be carted off to the state archives, a bomb-proof underground complex near the state Capitol.

The state commission, citing federal law, also refused to consider suggestions for a two-headed coin with George Washington on both sides.

Gregoire’s choice mirrors the recommendation of the commission, which chose the salmon-and-Rainier image from three finalist designs. It was the most popular in an online poll, with 45 percent of votes cast.

One of the runners-up was a similar design. It featured smaller images of a salmon and the mountain, as well as a branch laden with plump apples. It drew 41 percent of votes.

The third design – an Indian-art representation of a spouting orca – got about 14 percent of votes.

Some Eastern Washingtonians were unhappy that the apple didn’t make the final cut.

“No apple,” sighed Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, when told the news. Sure, there are salmon in Eastern Washington, he said, but it’s not the same.

“The salmon has created an awful lot of problems in Eastern Washington with irrigation and agriculture,” he said. “I wanted it balanced out with something representing agriculture.”

Another member of the commission, Spokane’s Mary Ann McCurdy, said the chosen design is beautiful. But she also favored the design with the apple.

“I also expressed my interest in seeing wheat on the quarter,” she said. “Eastern Washington people like to see wheat, and we like to see apples.”

At the state Apple Commission, President Dave Carlson was philosophical about the loss. He’d voted online.

“Us Eastern Washington folks sometimes don’t have enough votes,” he said.

Still, he said Gregoire’s been supportive in other ways. She last week sent three state agency heads to meet with the commission about challenges facing the tree fruit industry, Carlson said.

“We understand that majority rules,” he said about the quarter. Apple orchardists will lobby heavily whenever the feds get around to redesigning the dime, he jokingly vowed.

Since states get their quarters minted in the order that they entered the union, Washington is 42nd in line. The quarters should begin circulating next March or April.

Gregoire said she wanted a design that wasn’t crowded and showed the state’s natural heritage. Both the salmon and the mountain are important state icons, she said, and are important to Native Americans who lived here long before statehood.

“I didn’t think anything was more appropriate, because simplicity was the key,” she said.

She said the design shouldn’t be seen as slighting Eastern Washington. Mount Rainier can be seen from many high points east of the Cascades, she said, and salmon recovery efforts are under way in places like Walla Walla.

“This is not an east coin or a west coin or a north coin or a south coin,” she said. “This is our coin, our Washington state coin.”

“That salmon could be jumping in the Columbia River,” added the governor’s husband, Mike Gregoire.