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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
Subscribers Edition Stories & Photos
The most in-depth, comprehensive site about the Skagit
Covers from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish & BC. An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness
Noel V. Bourasaw, editor(bullet) 810 Central Ave.,Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
Home of the Tarheel Stomp(bullet) Mortimer Cook slept here & named the townBug
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(Glee Lucinda and Cedar Bar)
Glee Davis and his mother, Lucinda, at Cedar Bar, circa 1900

Profiles of the Davis
family of Cedar Bar,
Skagit River, Part One

      The three excerpts below from the book, Skagit Settlers, illustrate how fine this book is. Although it was published 24 years ago, you can purchase a reprint at the Historical Museum in LaConner. Several people have used our search box to look for stories about Lucinda Davis and her family. She was one of several single women who made a very big mark on the upper Skagit river area. Her sons Frank and Glee grew up to become central characters in opening up that area to exploration and mining, and Glee turned out to be quite a writer and public speaker. We are preparing an in-depth story on the family and their activities, but we present these profiles as an introduction.
Lucinda Davis family
From theConcrete Herald, 1966
(Davis cabin)
      This is the Davis cabin at their property near the Cascade River, before the 1897 flood.

      Lucinda Davis was the daughter of a Methodist minister in Pennsylvania. She had divorced her husband and in 1890 moved from her home in Colorado with her three children. She settled on the Cascade river on the homestead of her brother, George Leach, who had drowned a few months before. The family stayed on the claim during the summer and moved to Mount Vernon in the fall so that the children could attend school
      On Nov. 17, 1897, the Cascade river flooded and destroyed the Davis homestead. Lucinda and her children then moved to Cedar Bar on the Skagit and built a log house near an old cabin which had once been the house of an Indian named Charlie Moses. Cedar Bar was a convenient midway point on the Skagit Trail and Lucinda Davis began operation of a roadhouse for miners traveling to the Ruby or Thunder Creek mines
      Each year after 1898 the roadhouse was opened about April and closed in November. The family raised hay up river at Beaver creek and carried it down to sell to travelers. Glee Davis, Lucinda's youngest son, built a water wheel on Stetattle creek and attached it to a grist mill for grinding flour. A flood carried away the water wheel a few years later in 1900 the roadhouse burned but was rebuilt the next spring.
      In January 1907, Glee and Lucida Davis traveled from Mount Vernon to Cedar Bar. The weather was bad and the trip upriver was dangerous. Lucinda described the trip in a letter written to daughter Idessa who attended school in Tacoma:
      Glee met us at the Marblemount store at noon, Jan. 28th. The stage had been run mounted on a sled as it has been cold for so long. We get our belongings together and started upriver and arrived at the Talc Mines before dark. . . .
      Leaving there we walked the six miles to Babcock's cabin where I cooked supper while Glee shoveled the snow off the roof. Mr. Babcock is working at the Talc, and his barn has already been broken down by the snow. We went the next three miles to Goodell's after dark and it began snowing before we got there. . . .
      In the morning we started out in the deep snow that had fallen during the night and could hardly see the old tracks. Took us one hour to go the one mile to the canyon, but thought that might be the worst part, then three hours to the Mason bridge about two miles more. The slides were numerous and in some places we could hardly find the trail. . . .
      The Devil's Corner was icy but not dangerous when we were careful. Twice I got an avalanche of snow from a big fire tree on me, it nearly suffocated me but I just stood still and let it come. . . .
They were unable to reach Cedar Bar in one day and camped for the night near Midway Creek:
     . . . at four o'clock we built a fire under the big bluff at the foot of long hill, two and a half miles from home. Toward morning the snow came off the bluff about 300 feet high and came near putting our fire out several times, but we slept some. We could hear snow slides all night. It began to rain about five a.m. and we started at seven. . . .
      We were thirty minutes going up the long hill. We hurried all we could for fear of the slides and were glad to find that Two-mile creek had not slid at all. We got to the mid-way point where the trail was blasted into the rock, afraid every second that the ice would break and fall, then here the trail seems to have broken off, but we are not sure. We clung to the bluff until we reached the last section of the bridge and I could not see how we could get over for the snow and ice was much higher than the bridge railings and up to a sharp point, but by bracing himself against the bluff, Glee got over the worst. Had he slipped, he would have gone between the bluff and the bridge and it was all ice to the river about sixty feet.
Finally the two came within sight of their cabin:
      When we got to the fishing hole we saw a lot of smoke up at our place and were afraid that the house was on fire, the snow looked all brown through it. Jack Ring, a neighbor, was burning wet bark. . . .
      I was one hour and twenty minutes from the fishing hole to the cabin. I got my feet in hot water and drank a cup of tea and ate some beans and went to bed.
Home on the Cascade River
(Davis home 2)
      This is the Davis ranch near Diablo and the house that was rebuilt after careless travelers burned the original cabin to the ground in 1900.

By Frank E. Davis, excerpts fromSkagit Settlers, edited by Charles Dwelley
(LaConner: Skagit County Historical Society, 1979, reprint for sale at museum)
      Our family, my mother, Lucinda J. Davis, sister Idessa, and brother Glee and myself, accompanied by my uncle Will E. Leach, arrived at Marblemount Aug. 1, 1890, and reached our homestead on Cascade river about one mile from its junction with Skagit river the next morning. This homestead was originally located by my uncle George S. Leach, who was drowned there in May 1890 while crossing the river in high water with Dick Touey
      There was much activity on Cascade river at that time as the Great Northern Railway was surveying and it was generally thought that this would be the route through the mountains. Many prospectors were traveling the trail and a large pack train operated by Alex Adkins and Bob Vorhies was making regular trips to Gilbert's Cabin
      At that time the Marblemount ferry was a quarter mile above the present river bridge and operated by Morgan W. Davies, Mrs. M. Clark [Matilda Buller], with her sons Carl, Wade and Richard Lee Buller, ran a hotel there; Borgardus & Stewart, a general store; and John Rusner and George Ingalls, a saloon. The Indian family of Moses: Black Moses, Charley, George and Harry, and numerous relatives had the place later bought from them by Billy Barratt [William Barratt, an English immigrant].
      On Cascade river, first was Simon Moses' place and above that was the Indian camp consisting of Abe Moses family and the Jesus family. About a mile farther up they had a fish trap for catching salmon. Near this Joe Emord brought his wife and small son Madore to take up a homestead in 1890. The last of December, 1891, Mr. Emord got into a fight with Frank Barns [Barnes?] and was killed; his funeral was held on his homestead Jan. 3, 1893. There were many homesteaders along the Cascade, vis: Durand Taylor, Scotty Lowden, Harry Colby, Joe Moha (the Polander) near Marble creek; then Frank Bart, Doty, Sibley, Tom Perley, Hurd, Al Kindy, Truax, Tom Barratt and John McCaffery. At the forks of the river, later named Mineral Park, John Kinsella and Oleson ran a general store and Doty ran a saloon. About a mile or two above this at the marsh, Will Leach located a homestead and it was there in 1897 that Gifford Pinchot visited and spent a day with him on his trip through the western forests. This was the last habitation until Gilbert's Cabin
      Gilbert Landre, a French Canadian, came into this district about 1888 and built the first cabin, a small one of logs, and partly dug into the hillside, with a small fireplace for cooking and heating. I first saw him there in 1893 while I was packing for a small survey party, conducted by J.C. Parsons, who was making a map of the mining district. Gilbert was then hewing the logs for the new house. He had the walls about half-way up in the spring of '93 when a snow slide came across from the opposite side and wrecked it. The present cabin was completed the following year, and I have stayed there many times during the next ten years. Gilbert was a great prospector, but I know of no mines that he located. He used to say, "Not much "minera-al," but good indications (he pronounced it: inda-ca-shons). [See the table of contents for Issue 35 for the Gilbert Landre cabin story]
      Jack and George Rouse were among the first prospectors in the district and located the Boston mine [See this Journal website]. The district also had its lost mine like other places. A company of solders came over the pass in the early days and one of them found some rock that reportedly showed much gold. It was later searched for and the Soldier Boy claim was located on what was thought to be the place the gold-bearing rock came from. The only ore I took for there showed only iron pyrite. Many mines were located around that district — the El Dorado, Johannasburg, Horseshoe, Doubtful, Warrier, Blue Devil, Mammouth, Cascade, Silver Butte, Ironclad, and many others. [All are spelled verbatim.]
      In the summer of 1891, a Bohemian artist (Mrs. Billington) persuaded my mother and sister to accompany her on a trip to Horseshoe Basin where she had been hired to paint the mountains. They had quite a tedious trip, but one not to be forgotten. They crossed Doubtful lake on a raft. [Does a reader have any information about Mrs. Billington? We have not found her anyplace.]
      During 1896 and '97 the Cascade wagon road was built about twelve miles up the river to Hurd's cabin. It followed quite near the river and at Lookout mountain bluff it was constructed on bridges. The road was short-lived though, and in the flood of Nov. 17, 1897, much of it was destroyed. [See this Journal website about the early wagon road: ]
      Our homestead was washed away during this flood, taking all of the buildings except the barn. All of the cleared land was later washed away, the present Cascade river bridge crosses over what was then the lower end of eight acres of garden and hay land.

(Frank's canoe)
      During the time that the Davises lived upriver, the primitive wagon roads were barely passable a few months out of the year, so canoes were the preferred mode of travel on rivers and streams. This photo from the book, Chechacos All (reprint for sale at the LaConner Museum), is captioned: "Canoe as prospectors' transportation — Frank Davis, Colonel Chapman and Carl Buller.

The Davis Family on the upper Skagit
By Glee Davis, fromSkagit Settlers
(power plant)
The water-driven power plant
      My mother, Mrs. Lucinda J. Davis, was the first white woman to move into the Upper Skagit valley when she brought her two sons, Frank and myself, and daughter, Dessa, to Goodell's Landing (now Newhalem) to take over the small store and hotel in 1893. These buildings were erected of logs by early day prospectors in 1884 when the spot was the head of canoe navigation. Canoes were used to bring up supplies to Goodell's as late as 1893 when Frank Davis and the Buller brothers brought up a load for Capt. Burbridge who was prospecting near Thunder creek. [See this Journal website about Nathan Edwards Goodell and Goodell's Landing]
      In 1895 we again operated the trading post during the summer season. There were many prospectors working the various gravel bars, such as the Taylor, Ferry, Reflector and Cedar bars, who brought out some fairly large stakes.
      We had become much attached to the mountains and in 1897 went further up the Skagit canyon where we found the place for our permanent home. On June 17, 1898, the stopping place at Cedar bar, known as the Davis ranch, was opened. This was 25 miles from the post office and wagon road over a precipitous grail with several creeks to ford.
(Pelton water wheel)
Frank and Glee with the Pelton water wheel
      This same year the Ruby Creek Mining Co. started development of claims at the junction of Ruby creek and the Skagit river. They built a sawmill far up the mountainside where there was good timber and operated the mill by a Pelton water wheel. Lumber was cut and flumed down the hillside to where they constructed a flume five feet by four feet in size and about three miles long to bring water from their dam on Ruby creek to the placer diggings. They installed two hydraulic giants to wash down the old gravel beds and put them through the sluice boxes.
      All this required a large pack train to bring in supplies and machinery from Marblemount, which was the end of the wagon road. William Parry and four other packers ran this pack train of about 30 horses. Another large pack train was operated by Jack Ring and Preston Conner who took supplies into the Mountain Goat mine and others of Slate creek where there was much activity.
      Earlier than 1893 supplies were brought in to Ruby Creek by John McMillan who ran a pack train over the old Hope trail from the Fraser valley. By 1902 the Ruby Creek Mining Co. had given up and the North American Mining and Milling Co. started development of mining properties at Mill creek, some 14 miles further up Ruby creek. This company built a wagon road up Canyon and Slate creeks to connect with the narrow-gauge railroad from east of the mountains over Hart's pass which terminated at Barron near the Mammoth and Eureka mines. This road became an outlet for many other ventures.
      On Oct. 23, 1900, an early snow came and we had to take our stock out before snow slides closed the trail. While we were away for one night a party of three men stopped at our place. Being careless with fire, the house was burned to the ground with all our belongings. In those days no one carried fire insurance so this was a total loss. In the spring of 1901 we had to begin all over again. Every piece of lumber used had to be cut out of the woods.
      Engineers of the U.S. Geological Survey climbed a nearby peak in 1904, named it Davis peak and built a monument on the top to be used in triangulation work. In 1906 I applied for homestead right and obtained a patent on the land. Later, in 1913, I was married to Hazel Campbell of Bellingham and she, too, become much attached to the Upper Skagit
      We needed electric lights and water at the ranch so my brother and I got busy and cut lumber out of the timber, planed it and built a flume 2,000 feet long to carry about four second-feet[??] of water from the dam we constructed across Suiattle creek. A powerhouse also was built and a generator installed.
      There was always a fair transient trade. As the prospecting and mining travel wanted the tourist trade built up. We planned to gradually build up a larger and better place and make an attractive mountain resort. Our dreams of this were brought to an abrupt ending when City Light took the entire place by condemnation after two court trials.
Links, background reading and sources
(Glee and Hazel Davis)
Glee and Hazel Davis

      See this Journal website for a timeline of local, state, national and international events for years of the pioneer period.
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(bullet) Story posted on Jan. 29, 2002, and last updated Aug. 5, 2006
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