Cache Creek Tube Project
Title: Virtual Daylighting of the Cache Creek Tube Project
Installation Dates: Summer 2020
Location: Cache Creek Drive – Kelly Avenue, Jackson, WY
Artist: Matt Grimes, Heliocentric Designs
Funding By: Town of Jackson and Teton Conservation District
Jackson Hole Public Art and the Teton Conservation District (TCD), in partnership with the Town of Jackson Public Works Department, collaborated over four months, enlisting Jackson-based graphic designer Matt Grimes (Heliocentric Designs) to create an iconic, highly recognizable graphic brand for the Cache Creek StormwaterTube. This brand is now visible – as a brightly colored blue & orange spray-painted stencil – along the streets that follow the underground path that Cache Creek takes through Town.
“Daylighting” refers to the relatively new approach to reclaim and expose urban streams or drainages through natural, architectural, or cultural restoration. The purpose of virtually daylighting the Cache Creek Tube is to increase public education about stormwater and flood management in Jackson and inform citizens about what they can do to improve local water quality. Large aluminum signs with key messages for the community also follow the above-ground path, in various locations from Cache Creek Drive to Kelly Avenue and into Karns Meadow.
Cache Creek, which originates in wilderness and is Flat Creek’s largest tributary, was buried in three pipes running under the town of Jackson after it flooded in 1974. Where Cache Creek currently daylights in select locations, such as Mike Yokel Park, the stream is just a percentage of its full size. The majority of the creek flows under Kelly Avenue before daylighting into Karns Meadow. Other smaller tubes take the stream north to the Elk Refuge and west to Flat Creek. Across the country, case studies show that daylighting previously buried streams increases community livability, provides economic benefits, and improves water quality and natural habitat.
“Our community has a strong connection with Cache Creek on the National Forest, but that appreciation is lost as Cache Creek enters the Town of Jackson and disappears into its subterranean flow-route. We hope this project sheds light on why Cache Creek is absent within the Town, and helps invigorate an out-of-the-box conversation about how its ecological and community value might be restored.”