Lacey finalizes Goose Pond and Jackson Memorial Marker

The Lacey Historical Commission finalized the Goose Pond and Jackson Memorial Marker design during their regular meeting yesterday.

Lacey Parks and Recreation Director Jennifer Burbidge said the installation ceremony would be on October 4 at the Karen Fraser Woodland Trail. 

“We just think it turned out beautiful,” Burbidge commented.

The marker features the family history of Nathaniel Jackson and Thelma Harrison Jackson, who sold a portion of their property, including Goose Pond, to the City of Lacey to continue ecological restoration efforts.

Prior to the sale, Lacey installed a groundwater recharge well to improve water quality, flow, and reservoir collection at Woodland Creek. This system introduced duckweed and changed the nutrient levels in Goose Pond.

The historical marker was funded by a Diversity in Local History Grant from the Washington State Historical Society to the City of Lacey and the Lacey Museum.

Goose Pond is on the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people, the Nisqually and Squaxin Island Tribes. The marker will also serve as a recognition for the tribes’ descendants. 

“We acknowledge, and remember not to forget, those Tribal People that were absorbed into other tribes for survival or relocated, and we recognize their descendants still here today,” the marker read.

“The City of Lacey respects and affirms tribal sovereignty as it works in governmental partnership with the Nisqually and Squaxin Island Tribe.