"It's official. Kitsap County creek number 0258 is now Pahrmann Creek in the eyes (and official annals) of the federal government, as well as neighbors in Tracyton.The Washington State Board on Geographic Names approved the change last January. But it took until Sept. 28 for the U.S. Board on Geographical Names to recognize the change.In fact, Myrna Campbell, who took on the task of doing the state and federal paperwork to get the creek renamed, was surprised at the speed with which the naming took place.We thought it would be two years, but we got it all done within a year, said Campbell, secretary of the Tracyton/South Central Valley Community Association that spearheaded the push.The creek is named for Henry O. Pahrmann, one of the Tracyton area's earlier settlers. Born in Germany, Pahrmann's family moved to the United States when he was a child. He and his wife, Anna, moved to Seattle from Nebraska, and from Seattle in 1908 to their original 10-acre site, where he operated one of the first dairies in the area, delivering milk door to door.Pahrmann also had a stand at Seattle's Pike Place Market where he sold produce, poultry and beef from his farm.The civic-minded Pahrmann was a member of the school board for Silverdale High School and rode to meetings on horseback. According to the Kitsap County History compiled by the county historical society's Book Committee, electricity came to the area when the neighbors, including Pahrmann, got together and did the installation work themselves.They also blasted out stumps to create Holland Road in the early 1920s after County Commissioner C.E. Greaves gave the men dynamite for the purpose, according to the Historical Society's book.Pahrmann eventually purchased about 20 more acres along Holland Road over the years. Pahrmann's son John, 92, and his wife Esther still live on the original 10-acre site, as well as three Pahrmann grandchildren, Campbell said.The one-mile long creek named for Henry O. Pahrman rises from two ponds on the property and flows west to Dye's Inlet north of Tracyton.The land hosts a variety of wildlife habitats, and the stream is home to chum, coho and cutthroat salmon as well as a variety of minnows and other non-game fish, Campbell said.She said the issue of officially giving the creek the name it had been called all those years by neighbors, came up at one of the Tracyton community association meetings.Campbell volunteered to do the research, putting a support letter for neighbors to sign at the Tracyton Store. The letter garnered about 80 signatures approving the project.Then she got the big packet of information and guidelines the state requires to rename a local landmark.When I saw the packet I thought, 'What am I getting myself into,' Campbell said with a laugh.Why I did it I have no idea, but it was fun, she said. "

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