Mert Turk spent so many hours working in his forest north of Marysville that his wife sometimes had to honk the car horn to call him in for dinner. She once told The Everett Herald that he was "married to this place."
Mother Nature's Window Park, at 9623 55th Ave. NE, reopened to the public in January 2026 after more than 25 years behind a fence. The City of Marysville held its grand opening on May 14. This October is the park's first autumn open in a generation. A walk there takes you through a forest younger than most people assume, along a path older than the park itself, on land that came very close to being built on twice.
The Trail Follows a Road Older Than the Park
The Herald's opening-day photos show visitors walking along Comeford Road under a canopy of mixed trees. The same photos show the Cedar Loop, plus a marked post where the Fern Trail begins.
The road is real history, and the name is a local tradition. Councilmember Peter Condyles, who is also president of the Marysville Historical Society, looked into it for his essay "The Logger That Saved a Forest." He found that a road crossed the southeast corner of the property on the area's earliest maps. It still shows up in aerial images, and the park's trail system follows it. Pioneers with homesteads outside town used it to get into Marysville, and loggers used it to reach timber farther inland.
Turk was one of many who said the road was named for James Comeford, Marysville's founder. Condyles found no map from that era that confirms or rules out the name. He calls the story that it was once a railroad "quite unlikely," since there were rail lines a few miles away on either side.
The Trees Are Second Growth, and the Signs Tell You Their Age
New signs along the trails give each tree's species and age. They're worth reading, because this is not old growth. Condyles is direct about that: the trees are second growth, and studies in the late 1990s dated their planting to the years when logger Nicholas Healy owned the land.
The ownership record starts on October 1, 1875. That's when President Ulysses S. Grant granted the land to John Brady to homestead. In the 1890s, Brady sold a large share to Healy, whose Healy & Sisco logging company ran along Ebey Slough and was one of early Marysville's big employers. Healy's parcel was about three times the size of today's park. It ran west along what is now 100th Street to 51st Avenue, then south to about where 93rd Place is today. No written record shows Healy logging it. The age of the trees is the circumstantial evidence.
So the forest people admire today grew back after an earlier harvest, and a logger is the reason it's still standing.
What Mert Turk Built in the Woods
Merton Turk was born in Everett in 1922. In 1927 his family moved to land just north of Marysville, and he lived there the rest of his life. He and his father ran the Quil Ceda Logging Company, and in 1947 Mert bought his own parcel east of his father's. Over the following decades he bought neighboring lots until he owned fifteen acres.
He meant to harvest the timber. In 1963 he changed his mind. His children were reaching their teens, and he saw that local teenagers had nowhere safe to gather. Over the next ten years he built them a place to go, and per Condyles it had:
- a dance floor made of wood chips the city donated after windstorms
- a bandstand, a BBQ, and picnic tables he built himself
- around 100 kerosene lamps hung in the trees
- an 8-track player built into a tree stump, plus a pulley system for lifting speakers into the branches
- birdhouses and nesting boxes for flying squirrels
At its peak the park held 200 people. Turk made sure it was wheelchair accessible, and he refused to use store-bought materials. Later he opened the site to scout troops and community groups. He charged for events and gave the money to Seattle Children's Hospital, and children with disabilities could visit for free.
At the May ribbon cutting, Condyles noted that Turk's obituary ran to fewer than 20 words and didn't mention the park:
"He didn't need a long obituary. He had a park."
Two Housing Plans That Didn't Happen
Turk's fifteen acres sat inside a forest of about forty-six acres, and most of it belonged to other people. In 1990 the largest neighboring owner sold to a local housing developer that planned thirty-five homes with a three-acre buffer around the park. Turk, his neighbors, the Marysville Globe, the Herald, and the Marysville Community Action Network pushed for Snohomish County to buy the land and make it a larger county park.
A sewer moratorium in Marysville gave them about two years. When it lifted, the county hearing examiner approved the plat in the summer of 1992, and the Herald wrote that "a 45-acre park seems increasingly unlikely." The county tried again for a Conservation Futures grant, with the city as joint applicant. A week before Christmas 1992, the county council awarded $500,000.
The same thing happened again six years later. In early 1998, a Canadian development company bought two long, narrow parcels east of the park. That July, a rezone was approved allowing forty-two homes on about eight acres. This time the county moved quickly and asked for enough money to buy all the remaining land around the forest.
| Grant round | Land | Amount, per Condyles |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 grant, purchased April 1993 | Parcel planned for 35 homes | $580,000 purchase, backed by the $500,000 grant |
| 1998 grant allocation | 8.2 acres rezoned for 42 homes | $1 million |
| 1998 grant allocation | 6.3 acres to the west | $510,000 |
| 1998 grant allocation | 10 acres from Mert Turk, who would keep the right to live there for life | $781,000 |
In October 1998, the county council voted unanimously to award the full $2.4 million grant. The City's 2025 project update says Snohomish County acquired the property in 1999. Before those grants, two developers had approvals to build houses on land that is now park.
Phase 1 Brought Back a Quieter Park
The City annexed the park in 2009 and fenced it off for upgrades. That closure lasted more than a decade. The City has described the reasons as safety and funding challenges. The project picked up again in 2021, when four city employees from the municipal court, Parks and Public Works took on the park as a leadership project.
The City's July 2025 construction update listed what Phase 1 would include: a new driveway and parking lot, sidewalks, stormwater management, lighting, trail improvements, landscaping, irrigation, signage, and site furnishings. According to the City's grand-opening release, the finished site was designed for "environmental education and passive recreation." Part of the cost came from $750,000 in federal funding through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, secured with help from Rep. Rick Larsen. Larsen voted to acquire the land as a county councilmember in 1999.
None of the City's announcements mention bringing back anything from Turk's era. The new signage includes one asking visitors to check their shoes for invasive species before going out on the trails. The City's releases don't give park hours, dog rules, restroom details, or trail lengths, so go by the signs posted at the lot.
Phase 1 is the only phase built so far. In March 2025, the City estimated that future improvements and amenities would need about $2 million in grants or other funding. As of the May 2026 opening, the City says more phases will come "as additional funding becomes available." No timeline has been announced for Phase 2.
Coffee Before, Seafood After
For food after a walk, look to State Avenue and 116th Street NE:
- Kafé Neo Marysville, 9730 State Ave. Its ordering page lists an 11 a.m. opening.
- Ivar's Marysville Seafood Bar, next door at 9726 State Avenue, open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily according to its location page.
- Bacon Breakfast Cafe, 3943 116th Street NE, a cafe and coffee shop on the north side for an earlier start.
For more of the local history, the Marysville Historical Society held its third annual Cemetery Tour on Saturday, September 12, 2026. The next date will be posted on its events page once it's set. Condyles' essay is the best background reading before your first walk on Comeford Road.
The forest at 55th Avenue NE stayed standing because neighbors testified at hearings and the county used grant money to buy land already approved for houses. If you live near the park and are curious what your own property is worth in north Marysville right now, The Erickson Group is glad to talk it through. Start with a free home valuation, and we'll give you a straight answer.
