Written by - Bret Lunsford
Year by year, local students at the Northwest Career & Technical Academy are helping to preserve the W.T. Preston, door by door. Over the past few years, students working with Wes Fridell, Marine Services Instructor at the NCTA, have collaborated with Dave Margeson, Maritime Curator at the Anacortes Museum, to refinish the custom-made doors on the snagboat. The doors are unhinged from the boat, and the work is done at the Academy.
This project began as an outgrowth of student visits to the W.T. Preston, a National Historic Landmark sternwheeler located near Cap Sante Marina. “When our class took the tour, Dave was interested in having some re-finish work done on some of the Preston's exterior doors,” Fridell stated. “We both felt that it just might be right up the students' alley.”
The W.T. Preston requires frequent maintenance of all kinds, and is closed yearly from November through March for preservation work. Other projects on the list this season are replacement of stairs and preparation for a Heritage Capital Projects grant application to help fund major projects.
Photo Caption: Dave Margeson and Nick Kinney, a senior at Burlington Edison High School, pose next to the wheelhouse door refinished last year by students at the Northwest Career and Technical Academy. Kinney will be assisting with work on another door in 2020.