Pierce's LegacyHow a bedroom community and farming town carries on. Story by Christopher Amundson Photography by Bobbi and Steve Olson |
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NINE O'CLOCK ON TUESDAY MORNING and
Rick Higgins’ car is full of groceries. The ice cream and milk are cold
packed. The eggs and bread are on top. No time to delay – 20 elderly ladies
are waiting for their food.
Higgins is both owner and delivery
boy at Pierce’s grocery store, Hometown Market. He started there as a
delivery boy fresh out of high school and made it his own 20 years later. One
gal calls for shopping lists every Monday morning. Another fills orders on Tuesday
morning. By 9 a.m., Higgins is on the streets making deliveries. An hour or
two later, he’s back at the downtown store, usually with a belly full
of cookies and bars.
“I don’t look this way
for nothing,” he said, pointing at his mid-section.
With 1,700 residents, Pierce is a
town that takes care of its people. It has to, Higgins said, being just 15 miles
northwest of Norfolk on Hwy 13.
“We’re a bedroom community.
And if we’re going to be a bedroom community, we’re going to be
the best bedroom community and take care of our people,” he said.
And yet, as Pierce residents head
to Norfolk for work, their hearts stay in Pierce – easily seen at Gilman
Park Arboretum where loved ones both past and present are memorialized under
trees, shrubs and on park benches.
Under one Korean pine tree about 10
feet tall is a plaque that reads: “Where Sean Proposed to Libby. Two hearts
– one soul.” Walks in the park were a favorite activity of the daughter
of Dr. Larry and Mary Birch. Her young suitor pursuaded her to go on an afternoon
walk two years ago. As they approached the Korean pine tree, he stopped and
said, “Hey, look at this tree. There’s a new plaque.” He then
dropped to a knee and produced a ring from an Orvis gum box in his pants pocket.
They were married a year later at
the gazebo in Gilman Park.
“We’re up to $30,000 in
memorials and we’ve got a waiting list now,” said Gary Zimmer, superintendent
of the park and arboretum.
Zimmer gave us a tour of the arboretum on a late-summer morning. Sprinklers
rattled in the distance as we walked along a winding concrete trail through
an aspen colony and two mini pine forests. Black-eyed Susans were in full bloom
as the last of the summer’s butterflies danced around us.
The arboretum and walking trail could
have been an RV park, Zimmer said.
“Fortunately the city council
saw through that,” he said. Instead, they decided to dedicate the land
to trees, flowers and education. Zimmer is the creator and caretaker.
Zimmer had moved away from Pierce
for college and was looking for his first job in 1974 – it happened to
be in Pierce. The city hired him as parks superintendent and later allowed him
and encouraged him to develop the arboretum.
“It was a dream come true for
me,” Zimmer said.
The trees that Zimmer planted have
grown and the bushes have filled in. Zimmer is satisfied with the fruit of his
labor. He’s beginning to see more unique plantings around yards in Pierce
and is proud of the Tree City USA signs on the edge of town.