Jefferson County now has two state ferries named for its Native American heritage: the M/V Chimacum was christened last week, joining the M/V Chetzemoka, launched in 2010.

The Chimacum is the third of four 362-feet, 144-car, 1,500-passenger Olympic Class ferries intended to replace the mid-century–era Evergreen State Class vessels. Sea trials are slated for early 2017, with the Chimacum slated to enter service on the Seattle/Bremerton route next spring.

Special guests Sept. 14 at the ferry’s formal christening ceremony at Vigor’s Harbor Island Shipyard in Seattle included about 60 members of the Chimacum High School band, with half a dozen chaperones. Gov. Jay Inslee gave a shout-out to the Chimacum Cowboy marching band, “which told us that he really knows who we are,” said CHS Principal Whitney Meissner, and he also quipped about loving the apple pie at the Chimacum Café.

Band members received tours of the boat; some even made it into the engine rooms. While the ferry looks basically complete from the outside, its interior is far from finished.

“The kids actually got a real birds-eye view of ferry inner workings and how they build from the outside in,” Meissner said.

Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent invited the band to perform when the Chimacum ferry makes its debut next year on the Seattle-Bremerton run, Meissner noted.

The ferry is on schedule and on budget ($123 million), Gov. Inslee announced. Lynne Griffith, Washington State Ferries assistant secretary, broke a bottle of cider to officially welcome the new ferry to the fleet.

“This represents a tremendous achievement for the men and women who have helped build this beautiful vessel,” Griffith said in a press release.

The Washington State Transportation Commission selected the vessel name in 2014 to honor the gathering place of the Chimacum people, which was at the mouth of Chimacum Creek near Irondale.

The name submission was made by Emily (Russell) Thompson, a 1985 Chimacum High School graduate who now lives in Seattle. Chimacum High School alumni are listed as sponsoring entities for the ferry name suggestion.

“Chimacum is a special place and it warms my heart to know it is now memorialized with a ferry that will probably outlast us all,” Thompson told the Leader. She attended the ceremony along with her parents, Chuck and Karen Russell of Marrowstone Island.

In terms of Chimacum having statewide recognition, Thompson noted that the state Supreme Court’s “McCleary decision germinated in Chimacum and will have a seismic positive impact for our state's school systems. So adding the ferry named Chimacum is just another way to highlight this unique corner of our state.”

History and legend indicate that the Chimakum tribe were a remnant of a Quileute band that had made its way across the Olympic Mountains to the shores of what today is known as Port Townsend Bay. The Chimakum people were said to be warlike, and fought with many other tribes. But the tribe was almost entirely wiped out in 1847 when attacked at their village by a Suquamish war party led by Chief Seattle.

(The first version of this story appeared Sept. 14 on ptleader.com.)