Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington, Part 115

Author:
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Spokane, Wash. : Western History
Number of Pages: 992

USA > Washington > Chelan County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 115
USA > Washington > Ferry County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 115
USA > Washington > Okanogan County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 115
USA > Washington > Stevens County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 115

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The pen of the most clever word painter fails utterly to even approach justice in an at- tempted description of the manifold beauties of Lake Chelan. The nearest approach to a graphic delineation of its attractions is from the lips of an enthusiastic tourist, fresh from the scene. To be appreciated the lake must be visited, must be traversed, taken into commun- ion of spirit, a heart-to-heart investigation of one of nature's most picturesque features. Let the reader sail with us upon the waters of this mountain gem.

We come full upon the lake at its south- eastern extremity, its foot situated at the base and under the shadows of the lofty Cascades in eastern Washington. It lies just beyond the

Big Bend country, separated from that land of mammoth wheat crops by the Columbia river. Through the Chelan river the lake drains into the Columbia, the Chelan being about three miles in length. Over a rocky bed the river flows in its first reaches, thence plunging into a canyon where it breaks into an avalanche of cascades, falls and rapids. Viewed from the road above or from the water's edge the sight is beautiful. Emerging from the mouth of the canyon the stream plunges onward down to the bottom lands bordering the Columbia, leaping huge boulders and forming what is known as Chelan Falls. Water power ex- perts will realize the value of this stream when told that in the course of three miles the fall is over 376 feet.

From the foot of the lake we obtain a view extending northwest twelve miles. This is not the end of the lake, although appearances would indicate it. Here where the view is ob- structed, it bends to the south, and it is this sharp turn that obstructs our view. Perhaps this first inspection of the lake is disappointing. The crags, the mountain crests, the mighty domes and bluffs we came to see are not here, but farther up the lake. Let us take a boat-the winter boat, perchance the famous "Flyer." The craft creeps out upon the ultramarine blue, a shade seen on waters only of stupendous depths, and now the mountains and hills rise in low terraces, gentle, rounded, a scene which may be described as pretty, but not yet sublime. This is only the preliminary of the witchery- the transformation scene comes later.

The Flyer having made the first turn in the lake we are brought face to face with banks in- creasing in height, imposing, precipitous flanks. Do you see that mountain side on the left, cleft as sheer and straight as a knife would cut through a mammoth cheese? There, aeons ago, was a mighty avalanche, a slide that de- posited the whole face of a gigantic mountain in the waters of the lake. Another turn to the left and a more magnificent view presents itself,

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a reincarnation of power, grandeur, sublimity, a realm that might appropriately be dedicated to a mountain god-a scene rivalling Goethe's "Night on the Brocken." But just ahead of us are the "Narrows." Here the mountains lean toward each other, as though in whispered consultation-plotting some catclysm of na- ture with which to overwhelm the adventurous tourist. And now the snowy peaks rise in the distance. These old hills fall back a bit at Twenty-five Mile Creek, exposing a large, cir- cular opening of bench land, a point of ex- quisite beauty. A sheltering nook, as its name implies, is Safety Harbor, on the other shore, to the right. It lies just around a monstrous bluff, a crescent-shaped enclosure winding gently back into the Methow ranges. We have won our way to Twenty-five Mile, and yet the scenic beauties are not all that fancy painted. No awe-compelling mountain heights have claimed rapt attention, particularly on the east- ern side of the lake. But perhaps the western exposure has grown in stature, and, mayhap, at times there has stolen over us a scene of im- pending confirmation of our most ardent hopes. The oncoming enchantment is not sudden-the spell is gradual. The gap in the range, the open savannahs, the slimly wooded terraces, with the houses of the ranch people glinting along the shore or nestling in the vistas of wild woodland, have all served their turn in check- ing the awe, or at least the effect of it, of the now overpowering mountain wall.

Shakespeare has written, "Everything must suffer a sea change." But we are now to pass through a combination of sea and land changes of whose wonders none can write with satisfying result. The transformation takes place at the "Narrows." Here fret and chafe the waters of the lake that erstwhile had been placid as the face a sleeping infant in a crib. Hurtling down from the Alpine snows and the srags far ahead sweeps the wind. And the mountains! They loom now in colossal gran- deur. To the right, to the left, the same gi-

gantic forms stand forth from frames of mam- moth proportion-frames formed by the wide horizon alone. The poet has sung :

"It's up among the Rockies where the clouds. are hanging low,

And the mountains stand like pictures, like: pictures in a row."

But no such pictures as these were ever pre- sented by the Rockies. No such stupendous heights, gigantic domes, cavernous precipices carved and fluted with ravines and canyons. We begin to feel like pigmies-Lilliputians on the Brobdingnagian palm of mighty nature. "Than Chelan there is no more beautiful sheet of water in the world." This is what has been said of it and reiterated. We are speeding onward to the head of the lake. Be- hind the vista at our wake is more pituresque than it was when we faced it lower down the lake. But ahead of us! Mountains rise seem- ingly out of the inky bosom of the waters and pierce the skies; where the wind fails to stir the lake huge reflections of mountains vastness plunge downward into the depths which have become gigantic mirrors, doubling the sublim- ity of all the surrounding scenery. It is and is not duplication. These reflections are as power- ful and real as are the timbered mountains themselves. Tinkling cascades boil and tim- ble down the hights, mainly on the western shore. Would you see them at the acme of their beauty? Come in the spring time when the condensing snow swells these gentle streamlets into mountain torrents. When the soft, musical tinkle rises into the hoarse roar of a mighty flood.

Bare and brown is Round Mountain, a withered bluff rising several hundred feet from an imposing precipice. No soil can be de- tected on its repellant face, and it uplifts by a series of terraces, a formation peculiar to this entire country. Under the walls of this moun- tain skirts the Flyer, and under the Flyer at this point hangs a wall of water, the deepest

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

in the lake. The Flyer has borne us into a wilderness of everlasting hills. Like the oppos- ing hosts of armies, on the verge of combat, yet forever petrified, they stand arrayed against a background of loftier heights. And how vastly different the configuration of these an- tagonistic mountains! Of the eastern range the masses nearest to us are not so ravaged by canyons. A feature of this side is the dome- like structure of many of precipital walls ris- ing from the water's edge. These overhanging cliffs are not only in their entirety dome- shaped, but their faces are pinched and weather-beaten into a multitude of lesser domes. Some of the flutings or grooves are hundreds of feet long. What cut them so sheer and clearly? Mountain streams that in spring and summer bound down these natural viaducts to the sombre lake below. Black Cap is now in view, a towering rounded rock, faced into a bald bluff and boldly confronting the lake. It long holds our attention. Mark now the pronounced difference between the eastern and western shores. Of loftier height is the western, of greater variety of form, more ex- uberant foliage, deeper canyons and more im- posing gorges. Into all descriptions of monu-

mental forms Father Time has carved the sum- mits thousands of feet above us. Pyramidal crags, sharp, incisive peaks, oblong heads, bat- tlemented walls, turreted cliffs, imagination can supply almost any mediaeval or feudal pic- ture desired from the configurations, and they all shoot toward the zenith, whichever way you look.

From scenery so bewildering and overpow- ering it is a relief to turn and contemplate the more quiet aspect of the lake. We are now nearing the head of these wonderful waters into which flows the little Stehekin river. The north wind has sent white caps scurrying southward, and there is a perceptible roll to the Flyer. Here is a paradox. Over the port rail of the steamer the water is deep green, glinted by slanting rays of the declining sun. On the

starboard quarter it is the glorious blue which we have noticed since leaving the foot of the lake. And in the wake the churning wheel throws foam and spray, revealing millions of dancing crystals, and all of varying hues. Far to the left is a scene not to be witnessed from the deck of the Flyer. With the aid of a small rowboat we gain a mighty cliff named "The Painted Rocks." Here nature and rude art combine. High up on the face of this cliff, yet fifty feet below the summit is a series of gro- tesque designs, done in artificial pigments by Indians. The pictures represent, crudely, yet plainly enough, men and horses. No one has yet come forward with an explanation satis- factory to us as to how these savages scaled the precipitous height to paint the pictures. The proof that they did so is before us. This is another addition to the wonders of the world. It is something that could appropriately be in- corporated in Wendell Phillips' celebrated lec- ture on the "Lost Arts."

And now, Chelan, farewell. The shadows creep along the shores, the giant pictures in your depths fade with the declining sun Night wears on apace and all nature seems bathed in a supernatural light. The moon climbs over a mountain crag and hangs like a brazen shield in the evening sky. Let us leave the boat and repair to a comfortable hotel, there to disillusion ourselves, to exor- cise the spell that long hath bound us and free ourselves from an enthusiasm which only a night's rest can overcome.

The elevation of Lake Chelan is given by the United States Geological Survey as 1,079 feet above sea level. The distance from Wenat- chee, via the Columbia river, is 40 miles ; the climate is mild; the trout fishing superb. Lying west of the Columbia three miles it is the larg- est body of fresh water within the limits of the state of Washington. It is fed by glaciers and is navigable for the largest vessels, much larger craft than the commercial enterprise of the sur- rounding country will warrant. Although it

VIEW. ON LAKE CHELAN.

LAKE CHELAN. VIEW FROM MOORE'S POINT.

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is only three miles from the Columbia river, its elevation is nearly four hundred feet above that stream: Rarely does the mercury drop below zero in the vicinity of the lake. What is known as the foot of the lake is about midway between Seattle and Spokane; the lands sur- rounding it are open to the successful cultiva- tion of almost every description of agricultural products. The prevailing winds are from the west in summer; from the east during the win- ter months. The mountains are more or less timbered, heavily in some localities, the quality being excellent sawmill timber. The nearest railroad facilities are at Wenatchee, from which point connection is made by steamers on the Columbia. Of game there is an abundance in the vicinity at all seasons of the year; grouse, prairie chickens, ducks, geese and swans are plentiful, and the neighboring mountains are the natural haunts of the bear, cougar, deer, goat and various other animals falling within the classification of "big game." Six steamers and several gasoline launches ply the lake at present. Among them are the Stehekin (mail steamer), Flyer, Dexter, Swan, Lady of the Lake, Rustler, Mountaineer and Vixen. For fifteen miles along the lower end of the lake the valley and foot-hills afford a comparatively large area of arable land, productive of fine fruits, cereals, grasses and all varieties of vege- tables.

Prominent among the scenic attractions of Lake Chelan is a coulee heading from a point a short distance above Judge Navarre's, extend- ing several miles in a southerly direction through the mountain spur to the breaks of the Columbia river, which trends to the westward south of Chelan Falls. Comparatively little higher than the lake level is the bed of the coulee. For quite a distance the side walls are perpendicular, rock precipices, hundreds of feet high. Dotting the narrow valley are cool, grassy meadows, interspersed with clumps, or "openings," of evergreen trees. The valley widens on the southern outlet and here the scen-

ery is magnificent. This is Park Canyon, and it extends from a point on the lake nearly three miles from the mouth to the Columbia river. Nearly a quarter of a mile in width, it is a nat- ural roadway with walls ranging from 500 to 800 feet in height, rugged and rough in places, with their granite ribs exposed in bold and regular flutings, like giants' ribs and again in places covered with an excellent quality of soil, rich bunch grass and wild shrubbery. Huge pines are scattered over the surface of Park Canyon ; standing out from a luxuriant carpet of bunch grass. Evidences of seismic disturb- ance are scattered around in the shape of large boulders which have been jarred from the mountain side. In sharp contrast to this awful reminder the place, through the glorious sum- mer months, is a veritable flower garden, changing in its variety of bloom as the seasons pass.

Fifteen miles up the lake from the town of Chelan is Mountain Park, a strip two or three miles wide and densely wooded, paralleling the south shore, and gently sloping from the base of the mountain to the water's edge. The picturesque home of Thomas R. Gibson is lo- cated near the center of this gem in the wilder- ness. He pre-empted the property in the early 90's, being one of the pioneers of Chelan Val- ley. The lake is narrower at this point than elsewhere. Passing steamers are always in sight and the most of them make a landing at this place. Here, against the side of the moun- tain is a large, almost perpendicular, fan-shaped gash, the result of the mountain slide previous- ly mentioned. It is named "Mineral Slide," and is visible for miles.

On the north shore of the lake, fifty miles from Chelan, and six or eight miles from the head of the lake, is Moore's Point. In 1889- 90 it was taken up by Colonel J. Robert Moore, a New York veteran who had served with dis- tinction through the Civil War. In his judg- ment this spot was ne plus ultra, far and away ahead of all other localities on the lake in which

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to build a tourists' resort and a home. The experience of years has not caused the colonel to regret his choice. A stream rises away back among the lofty mountains called Fish Creek. At times it swells into a mad torrent aggravated by the melting snows of spring. Whipped by the line of the zealous angler this runlet yields many a fat basket of delicious trout. South- west, four miles diagonally across the lake is Railroad Creek bar, where there is a grade of the C. T. & S. Company's contemplated rail- road for the purpose of conveying ore from the Holden mine to the lake. In the early 90's a distinguished guest visited Colonel Moore's hotel, no less a personage than Miss Clara Bar- ton, of Red Cross fame, and since then the place has been honored by many persons highly dis- tinguished in official and social life.

Of the "Painted Rocks," in a small cove where the cliffs come sheer into the deep waters of the lake, one can say little authoritatively. All is conjecture. Here the smoothi face of the cliff is covered with Indian sign-writing; startling hieroglyphics done in red, brown and blue paint, and rudely representing men and horses, figures of war-parties with bows and spears, and wild goats and other animals resembling buffalo. These designs are far above the reach of man in a boat, even at the highest stage of water. Since they could have been painted only from a canoe we drop into conjecture, and offer the not altogether plausible explanation that this is the work of a race that roamed the land before the Chelan river had cut so deep a gorge between the lake and the Columbia. There are some, however, who believe they are not older than fifty or sixty years, reaching this conclu- sion by the rapidity with which the colors are fading.

Field's Hotel is at the head of Chelan, one of the most popular resorts in the state. The building is three stories high, entirely sur- rounded by a broad porch, elegantly furnished and the service embracing all the market affords. Hon. M. E. Field. Chelan county's

popular representative, is proprietor of the ho- tel. Here is the point of departure for the world-famed Horseshoe Basin, Cascade Pass, Bridge Creek and other notable mines. The surrounding scenery is picturesque and attrac- tive. At the present writing Julian E. Itter, the noted artist, has passed several months in the vicinity of upper Lake Chelan painting a panorama of the scenery of Horseshoe Basin for the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposi- tion. When completed the picture will be twenty feet in height and two hundred feet long.

The evidence of ice action in Okanogan and Chelan counties is most pronounced. To be convinced that the ice age has retreated none too soon one has but to note the fresh appear- ance of terminal moraines, kettle holes and ter- races, together with the occurrence of glaciers by the score on the western ranges. Not by a general ice-sheet was the glaciation of this re- gion effected. It was accomplished by local and somewhat restricted action. Let us look for no ice-sheet margin; each individual gla- cier will halt or deploy upon the plain in a man- ner depending on the size of the area of its ac- cumulation. Down the valleys of the Chelan, Methow and Okanogan these glaciers swept respectively. It is believed that on account of the narrowness of its valley and the height of its mountains the Chelan glacier was the first to reach the Columbia river. In an article on "Glacial Phenomena" Rev. W. L. Dawson, in the American Geologist, says :

"In doing so, it forced out the waters of the pre-glacial Lake Chelan, which must have ex- isted at a level some four hundred feet below the present one, as a lateral reservoir of the Col- umbia river. Upon reaching the Columbia, in- stead of at once and effectually damming up the stream, in the struggle which ensued the glacier was held in check and its foot dissolved by the impetuous river. Besides this it had a lateral means of discharge through Knapp's and Navarre's coulees. These lateral ice

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

streams also emerged upon the Columbia river, but at a lower point, where the valley is wider, and today great benches and banks of morainic and half-sorted material may be found dis- tributed for several miles on the Douglas coun- ty side of the river. Examples of the third class of coulees are the most numer- ous. The fact has already been referred to that the Chelan glacier found channels of discharge through a barrier range to the southward by means of Knapp's and Navarre's coulees. The latter of these is the larger and in some respects more remarkable, but the former has been carefully studied and will be described briefly. An observer standing on the north side of Lake Chelan across from the north end of Knapp's coulee sees a low divide cutting deeply through an east and west range of foot-hills, which rise from 1,800 to 2,500 feet above the level of the lake; cutting deeply, I say, yet not down to the lake level, for it ends substantially in a con- fusion of irregular terraces some 200 feet above the lake. Passing through the four or five miles' length of this coulee, we find that the cen- tral portion is level for quite a distance, and is bounded by abrupt mountain walls, while the slope in either direction toward the ends of the valley is only four or five per cent. It is an ice-hewn valley, a discharge-pipe of the Chelan glacier. Originally consisting of two opposite valleys heading at near the same point on the divide, it was selected by the ice as presenting the easiest avenue of escape across the rampart, i. e., the lowest point, and was subsequently deeply excavated by the long-continued and gradually concentrated ice-flow. Today its superficial features of kettle-holes and morainic banks have not been obliterated nor even no- ticeable modified bp subsequent drainage. *

"The Chelan glacier, when it encountered the Columbia river, began to deposit a moraine across the mouth of its valley. This deposi- tion was kept up at least until the Columbia valley was occupied by the southward flowing, west fork of the Okanogan glacier. As the ice

began to retreat it is possible to suppose that both the Chelan and Methow glaciers began to withdraw at first, while the Okanogan glacier still filled the Columbia gorge, and that the ice of the latter bulged into and followed the path of the retiring glaciers. This apparently out- of-the-way explanation is called for because of the remarkable presence of certain boulders in the Chelan and Methow valleys. Distributed all along the western bank of the Columbia river, and at certain points in the lower Methow and Chelan valleys, there occur large, rounded masses of basalt boulders, brought by the ice. I saw two on the Methow at least five miles from the mouth of the river. Another near Lake Chelan weighing hundreds of tons lies half buried in the hillside about fifty feet above the water on the north shore of the lake, and also five miles from the Columbia. The pos- sible parent beds of these traveled blocks can be found only on the east bank of the Columbia or in the region east of the Okanogan river, that swept by the eastern flank of the Okano- gan glacier. A notable aggregation of these boulders is to be seen in the Columbia valley a little below the entrance of the Methow. The appearance of the great boulder-field there found is difficult to account for. * *

"But to recur to the subject of terraces ; we notice that in the Chelan Valley there must have been a time after a partial recession of the ice, while yet the ice occupied the Columbia gorge, when the pent-up waters filled the lower end of the valley. This feature is indicated at various levels, but especially at the 225 foot. level, where the material of lateral moraines was worked over and spread out in benches, which are now capped by a fertile soil.

"One of the latest phases in the retreat of the lake waters is to be read in the Wapato dis- trict. This is a comparatively level section of land which occupies the angle of a bend in the lake, where it emerges from the north and south narrows to open into the eastward-stretching terminal sheet. At the knee of this bend a val-

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ley opens westward. Down this valley a gla- cier flowed. Moreover, it did not tarry until its foot rested against the angle of the Wapato section, thus forcing the lake waters to cross between it and the highland opposite. The broad and shallow channel thus formed is now completely evacuated by the lake waters, and is occupied through its five or six miles extent only by occasional alkali sinks. Lake Chelan is held in place by a dam of gracial debris. The terminal moraine of the Chelan glacier chokes up the lower valley and holds the lake back at a level of 325 feet above that of the Columbia river which sweeps its base. Instead of exca- vating a channel through the heaped up mate- rials of the moraine and so reducing the lake to its pre-glacial level, the outlet of Lake Che- lan has found another route-a precipitous channel through the granite. This course is, · perhaps, determined, as Mr. Russell suggests, by the fracture-line between two immense fal- len rock-masses, which were at some time split off from the northeast corner of Chelan butte. At the time of the Kokshut Mountain disaster water coming from some point in the river burst forth from under the moraine, and has since persisted as a series of springs-making a verit- able garden spot at La Chapelle's landing, where was only barren sand before. If it be true that the Chelan river, instead of cutting through the granite, has merely followed a break in the rock, then no reliable estimate of its age can be formed on this basis. Better results, however, may be expected from work at the head of the lake, for the Stehekin river, which occupies the continuation of the valley to the west, has been filling in the head of the lake for a considerable time and has shortened its length by several miles.

"Little, however, has been done to explore the ice-fields which occupy the rugged region to the north and west of Lake Chelan, and the Methow river. Prospectors report them as be- ing numerous throughout that country. From the summit of a high mountain west of Chelan,

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Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington, Part 115

Author: Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Spokane, Wash. : Western History Number of Pages: 992

Author:
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Spokane, Wash. : Western History
Number of Pages: 992