Walking along the winding path near Dumas Bay, a visitor might stumble upon a lone wooden box with a telephone inside. The telephone is not plugged in and no dial tone will sound when the receiver is lifted.

Instead, the phone is there to act as a physical manifestation of the desire to speak to loved ones who have passed on.

Visitors to the phone are invited to pick up the receiver and share the things they wish they had the chance to tell that loved one before they died, or to speak to their loved one about what’s new in their life, or whatever else they need from this outlet to share.

The installation is called a wind phone and is modeled after an original telephone of the wind, or “kaze no denwa,” created by Itaru Sasaki in Japan.

Federal Way’s version was installed on Friday, Oct. 17.

Sasaki built the original version to process his own grief after an earthquake in Japan that killed a loved one, along with many others. Although he created it as part of his personal healing process, he soon found that the community around him also found it cathartic to visit the memory of their loved ones through the phone.

A similar process has happened with those who were inspired by the Sasaki’s creation, including a phone installed in Olympia, Washington, by Corey Dembeck. He first put the phone up after hearing of the death of a 4-year-old daughter of a family friend. When other people started visiting the phone to express their own grief, he decided to teach himself Japanese wood crafting techniques and create a more permanent and beautiful location for the phone.

His story was covered extensively in the media, and similar installations began to pop up all over the country and the world. His story was featured in August 2023 in the Seattle Times.

A plaque on that phone reads: “This phone is for everyone who has ever lost a loved one. The phone is an outlet for those who have messages they wish to share with their friends and family. It is a phone for memories and saying the goodbyes you never got to say.”

In the midst of her own grief after losing her daughter, a woman named Amy Dawson learned about wind phones and created a website to map wind phones wherever they appear. As of Oct. 13, 2025, she has mapped over 500 public wind phones.

Federal Way’s wind phone

The wind phone in Federal Way is a project that was suggested and championed by the city’s Parks Commission.

“The idea was to have a place of solace where people could communicate with their loved ones that had passed in a secluded and private place just as all of the other wind phone installations in America and Europe have done,” former Parks Commission member Monty Stewart told the Mirror.

The location of the phone within Dumas Bay was a source of contention, according to a current and a former Parks Commission member.

Stewart said he is concerned that the wind phone’s location isn’t secluded enough for visitors to feel comfortable using the phone.

He explained that the subcommittee was tasked with finding the perfect location and that they located an area that featured a solitary tree and a bench, which is “off the walkway just enough to make it private.”

Instead, the phone was installed in a different area of Dumas Bay, which Stewart described as “on a very busy path,” and shared concerns about potential users of the phone to have a private enough space to get the experience the phone is meant to provide.

Parks Director John Hutton told the Mirror that “the location at Dumas Bay that the Parks Commission preferred for the wind phone put it directly in an area that is frequented by attendees of conferences hosted at Dumas Bay. We worked with Dumas Bay staff to find a nearby location that worked well operationally and provided a quiet space for those using the wind phone.”

Stewart also described the process of getting the phone installed as “an enormous struggle,” and that the city’s parks and recreation department fought “tooth and nail resisting the installation for two years.”

Parks Director Hutton stated that this assessment is incorrect and said that “the parks department is happy the wind phone has been installed and hopeful the community finds it to be a valuable addition to our city.”

Hutton added recognition that “the Parks Commission really spearheaded this project, and we have done our best to honor their requests in ways we feel best fit into the broader operation of our parks and city.”