The City of Tukwila, which stretches from the Seattle city limits to SeaTac and Kent, put on a big celebration last week to embrace its former farmers, who were founders, on this 100th year since one of them first plowed the rich Green River Valley bottom land.

The celebrants did it on top of a huge new parking garage behind the Southcenter Sears store in a temporary tent.

Elsbeth and I went to salute the pioneers, watch some skits put on by Foster High kids, eat some snacks and go to lunch at a huge new eatery called Cheesecake.

The whole event was designed to launch a movement to build up tourism to attract more dollars to what is already the biggest shopping center this side of Chicago. No skating rinks, merry go rounds or statues. They do have a bowling alley.

Kent and Auburn are also smart enough to work on that form of attractors.

Burien, Normandy Park, Des Moines (it does have a marina) and Federal Way would be wise to put serious thought and money to do the something to make travelers stop by and rave about to the home folks before they visit the Space Needle and Pike Place Market.

Yes, I know we do have the Sea-Tac International Airport, but you have to take your shoes off.

Tukwila doesn't have Golden Arrow Dairy any more. That was a great tourist draw. That acreage, often underwater every time the Green River flooded before the dam was built, had 400 wonderful cows to look at.

Ivan Umbedact, who grew tons of string beans on about 75 acres, is history but Southcenter replaced him and hires a lot more than bean pickers like me. I used to hunt ducks in that acreage, too. Now Elsbeth drags me through a tour of Nordstrom's and Costco.

Mike Kelly, who had a stump ranch in Allentown, probably got tired of the flooding Duwamish River and climbed the hill to what he called Sunnydale in 1870 and staked out his 144-acre farm. That was 138 years ago.

And it had a lot of black bears (Mike killed 24 himself), deer, cougars, coyotes, eagles and pheasants. But no Indians.

The Chinooks came up out of the bottomland and dug for clams and speared salmon at Three Tree Point and Normandy Cove. They did not call it that. Land developers called the trail made by Indians hungry for seafood, what else? The Indian trail.

Tourists are invited to walk it but are advised to keep an eye out for dog doo.

Maybe Burien should build a wild animal sculpture park to attract tourists. Maybe it could be incorporated into the new museum the Highline Historical Society is building in Olde Burien. If that is too expensive, maybe a huge wild animal mural could be painted along one whole wall.

It is not as good as Pirates of the Mosquito Fleet or Rum Runners at Salmon Creek. But it might bring tourists here to buy lunch at Mealmakers. Oops. That place is history.

How about Huckleberry Square? I remember when it was called Whizburger over 50 years ago. Tourists would come back each year just for the pepper pot soup.