A Look at Trinidad's Mysterious Rock Ovens

First published on July 28, 2019, in the Columbia Basin Herald - Moses Lake, WA

An intact rock oven built by Italian railroad workers stands north of Trinidad.

Trinidad - Buried in the sagebrush in a small ravine a few miles from Trinidad stands a stone beehive-looking structure. In the same ravine, a similar structure can be seen. This one looks like it has had it’s roof collapse. These unusual structures are believed to be rock ovens built by Italian railroad workers in 1892.

As rail spread across the country, the Great Northern Railroad built a line from Chicago to Seattle. Work on tracks in Grant County happened in the early 1890s, with the line reaching Wenatchee in 1892.

Much debate has taken place over who built these rock ovens, that can be found along various railroad lines around the US. In some places where rock ovens are found, urban legend attributes them to the Chinese. Other possible people to have built them include Greeks, Scandinavians and

“Although many ethnic groups made and used rock ovens, those that are found on early 20th century railroad-related sites are more likely to have been built by Italians simply because that ethnic group constituted the majority of railroad laborers in the United States at that time,” wrote Priscilla Wegars in the article “Who’s Been Workin’ on the Railroad?: An Examination of the Construction, Distribution and Ethnic Origins of Domed Rock Ovens on Railroad-Related Sites,” published in Historical Archaeology, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1991. “Italians were first employed on the railroads in the 1870s; within 10 years, and certainly by the 1890s, they monopolized the laboring jobs on most lines in the United States and Canada, particularly in the northeast. This may have been because they were willing to accept lower wages; the Italians in particular were known to work for up to one-third less than the Irish.”

The Italians were known to have a love for bread. In the various places where they camped, the Italians built rock ovens so they could satisfy their need for bread.

Peter Janni was 17-years-old Italian boy who worked at Trinidad when the railroad was being built. His story was related in the Seattle Times on October 22, 1967, in the article “Rock Ovens That Fed Railway Builders,” written by Leonard Ekman.

“In 1891, when track workers labored on the rock-bound grade near Trinidad, no power equipment was used for drilling or for moving rock,” Eknam wrote. “Hand-held drills, struck by burly, maul-swinging laborers, made the holes for blasting powder. After each round of blasting, the loosened rock was hauled from the cut in wheelbarrows, where it was dumped over the side of the coulee near the project. Pay for this arduous work was $2.00 a day, for a ten hour shift.”

Janni had come to the US with his father, who was working on the copper hill in Butte, Mont. Janni joined the railroad, eventually working at Trinidad. Shortly after arriving at Trinidad, his father returned to Italy, leaving Janni alone in the US.

“Peter’s job consisted of carrying steel drills from the drill crews to the shop where they were sharpened, and back to the drillers when the steel had been reconditioned and tempered,” Ekman wrote. “At times, when no steel needed sharpening, he took a turn on a wheelbarrow, hauling rock from the diggings to the dump on the rim of the coulee. Although he was not required to haul rock, he was afraid he might be fired if caught not working. Since his father returned to Italy shortly after Peter's arrival at the Trinidad camp, the thought of being unemployed and alone in a strange land was indeed frightening.”

Janni was one of approximately 250 Italians that were part of a larger work crew building the tracks at Trinidad. Conditions in the camps were rough. The railroad provided food and shelter to their men, for a charge. One of the practices of the day was to charge company workers such that after expenses, they barely had any money left over. To reduce costs, some Italians would live in makeshift structures, whether it be tents or made out of whatever was available.

“Janni recalls that the men slept on sagebrush boughs covered with blankets, and that at times when the men awoke in the morning they would find that several rattlesnakes had moved in,” Ekman wrote.

Water was scarce, as it had to be hauled three miles up the hill from the river. Baths and clean clothes could only be acquired if the trek across the rattlesnake-infested desert was made.

Since the Italians wanted to save money by not eating the railroad’s food, they had to cook their own meals.

“Janni explained that the Italian men divided into groups of up to ten each,” wrote Ekman. “Each group constructed an oven for bread. Besides the economy factor, their love for bread doubtless was one of the reasons for living in an independent camp. Each group hired a cook whose salary of $2.00 a day was apportioned among its members.”

This now collapsed rock oven once had a beehive shape.

Baking bread in the rock ovens required more time to heat the oven than to bake the bread.
“First, a fire is built inside,” wrote Wegars. “After it burns down, the coals are raked out. The oven floor is swept clean and then sprinkled with cornmeal or flour. Next the loaves are placed inside after closing the flue hole in the rear of the oven’s roof; the door is sealed with a piece of metal or a damp cloth. The entire process took about two and one-half to three hours to prepare the coals, but only about 15 minutes of baking time at 450°F.”

At Trinidad, the bread would have been cooked with wood from sagebrush and placed in the oven with paddles made of driftwood.

Ekman wrote, “In a nostalgic mood Janni said: ‘The bread was so hard that if a man had been struck in the head by one of the loaves it would have killed him.’ Then he added, ‘But it was real bread.’"

Today, only one of the ovens at Trinidad is fully in tacked. A second one is still partially intact. Other ovens may be present, but they are difficult to find under the sagebrush and weeds growing in the area.

Another rock oven used to stand a few miles away, just north of Trinidad. However this one was torn down by the railroad several years ago. Other rock ovens have been reported on the west side of the river, across from Beverly; around Coulee City and in the Stratford area. It is unknown whether the Coulee City and Stratford oven accounts are true or accurate. Pictures have been taken of the Beverly oven, but it’s current condition is unknown. The Tumwater Canyon and Cheney have also had rock ovens found.

In addition to the rock ovens at Trinidad, there are quite a few round, rock walls that were probably also built by the Italians, possibly for the purpose of shelter.

“The independent Italians lived in makeshift tents, shacks made of whatever material could be found and crudely made stone huts,” wrote Ekman.

These structures don’t appear to have roofs that have caved in. Some are wide enough that three men could have cram into them to sleep. Others would only have been wide enough for one man. The true purpose of these walls is unknown.

A stone wall stands in the area of the rock ovens.
This structure could have possibly been a shelter for railroad workers.

Some distance from the campsite is the remains of a stone building. Local legend claims that it may have been a maintenance shed with track possibly running to it. This structure appears to have been a three-sided building. The ruins would suggest that the structure had a wood or canvas for the roof. While most of the walls are crumbled down, a window can still be seen in the rocks.

The remains of what may have been a mechanic’s shed
near the rock ovens at Trinidad.

Hanford B Reactor Tours Open to the Public

First published on April 10, 2019, in the Sun Tribune - Moses Lake, WA

Editor’s note: This article on a small piece of the history of Hanford was not written to be a history piece per say. However, I found my time at the Hanford B Reactor to be quite fascinating.

HANFORD - The Manhattan Project National Historical Park has opened tours of Hanford’s B Reactor for the 2019 season. Tours run April through November.

Hanford was one of several sites around the country that was chosen as a possible site for a nuclear reactor. Coronel Franklin T. Matthias first visited the Hanford area in Dec. 1942. Shortly after his visit, it was decided that Hanford was the best site, thanks to its remote location and closeness to a steady stream of water.

Construction began on the B Reactor in the fall of 1943 and was completed 11 months later on Sept. 13, 1944. It became the first full-scale nuclear reactor in the world. During its construction and the construction of the other buildings and reactors on the Hanford site, over 45,000 workers were on the payroll.

In the 1930s, scientists began experimenting with atoms. It was found that uranium had the possibility of breaking up into smaller pieces and could create a tremendous amount of energy.

“When they found that it could be split, they wondered, ‘Could this be made into a weapon?’” said Ben Johnson, docent for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

Refugees from Europe had written to President Roosevelt saying that they believed that Hitler was attempting to make a weapon. This fear put the Hanford project into high gear.

Lieutenant General Leslie Groves, who was in charge of the project, approached the Dupont Company. Dupont didn’t want to build the reactor, stating that they didn’t know how to build such a building.

“Groves said that no one else did either,” said Johnson.

Dupont agreed to take on the project, with several conditions, such as they didn’t want to run the facility after the war was over and someone else would have to be responsible for tearing it down.
Once Hanford was selected as the ideal site for the new top secret facility, farmers and residents of the area were given eviction notices and told not to tell their family fighting in the trenches. The government was afraid that such news would cause a drop in moral among the troops.

With Dupont agreeing to take on the project, work began.

“This build was probably the largest contract ever let to a commercial firm,” said Johnson. “It was built in 11 months.”

Johnson attributed the speed of the build to the country being scared and seeing the project as a need for survival.

“We can never repeat what happened here at Hanford,” Johnson said. “There was a lot they didn’t know. The success out here is due to the Dupont Company.”

While Dupont didn’t know anything about how to build a reactor, they did get insight from approximately 2000 physicists. Based on the information the physicists provided, Dupont constructed the facility. They knew that water was extremely important to keeping the reactor cool and that it needed to keep flowing for it to work properly. They also build complex and multi-layered protections to keep the radiation levels as low as possible. Dupont built many layers of redundancy throughout the entire reactor, always allowing a backup plan if something were to go wrong.

Today, the B Reactor is the only reactor that has not been totally striped and cocooned. It has been turned into a museum and is defined as a national park. It is part of the Manhattan Project National Park.

Tours of the Hanford B Reactor allow visitors to explore most of the rooms on the main floor. Rooms are checked daily to ensure that radiation levels are at normal and safe levels. Those rooms that may

Rooms available to visitors include the front face of the reactor, the control room, the water valve pit and the intake and exhaust fan rooms. Live presentations, along with audio and video presentations, are available throughout the tour. Visitors are allowed to explore the various rooms at their leisure.

The tours are available now through mid-November. Visitors under the age of 18 are allowed, but must have a signed release form and must be with a parent or adult guardian for the entire tour.

In addition to the B Reactor tour, a Pre-Manhattan Project tour is available until the end of October. This tour looks at the life of residents of the Hanford and White Bluffs and those who were evicted in 1943. Stops on the tour include the Bruggemann Warehouse, the Allard Pump House, the First Bank

To learn more about the Hanford B Reactor tour, as well as the Pre-Manhattan Project tour, call (509) 376-1647 or visit manhattanprojectbreactor.hanford.gov and tours.hanford.gov/historictours. Tours begin and end at 2000 Logston Blvd, in Richland. Pre-registration is required. A four-hour commitment is required for both tours.

How We Got the Grant County PUD

First published on April 24, 2019, in the Basin Business Journal - Moses Lake, WA

The historical information for this article was taken from a series of 1965 newspaper articles.

How did Grant County get its own Public Utility District? Those who have grown up in the county have taken the Grant County PUD existence for granted. They offer cheap, reliable power to those they serve. If one were to take a look at Grant County 100 years ago, electricity was sparse to non-existent.

The Grant County PUD was formed by a vote of the people on Nov. 8, 1938. That vote was a result of years of persistent work by those who opposed private entities, mainly Washington Water Power, owning electrical companies.

The first city in Grant County to get private power was Ephrata in 1916. It was a started “in an old stone garage” with a generator producing power, wrote Dave Johnson in a Grant County Journal article printed on Mar. 4, 1965 entitled “City Plants Furnished First Electricity.” The generator was turned on “each evening from dusk until midnight.” It was also turned on Monday mornings for the convenience of housewives who owned electric washing machines.

Quincy received power next, in 1917. Wilson Creek and Soap Lake also had privately owned power plants. These early power companies were small and typically didn’t have many customers.
Washington Water Power Company announced in January of 1922 “that it would spend $300,000 to build a 70-mile transmission line from Odessa to the areas of Marlin, Wilson Creek, Stratford, Adrian, Grant Orchards, Soap Lake, Ephrata and Moses Lake (Neppel) to provide electricity for pumping water from wells and lakes to 25,000 thirsty acres,” wrote Johnson in a Mar. 11, 1965 article entitled “Washington Water Power Enters County.”

Lines were strung immediately and were ready for use in May 1, 1922. The coming of electricity was a cause for excitement, with a celebration being held in Ephrata on May 12 and 13. Power allowed farmers to pump irrigation water to the desert.

“As early as 1921, the Washington State Grange was promoting a state law which would permit public acquisition of private power systems,” Johnson wrote in “PUD#1 Never Got Off Ground” that was published on Apr. 29, 1965.

Several attempts were made to get the law passed, but it failed four different times. Washington Water Power did not want this bill to succeed. They and other private “power companies fought the utility district bill by reducing rates, extending rural lines and announcing plans to build new power plants,” wrote Johnson. They claimed that the bill was “the most dangerous tax increase measure ever submitted to voters of the state.”

During this same time, the Washington Water Power Company was fighting the creation of the Grand Coulee Dam. While they agreed that the Basin needed irrigation, they were opposed to any idea that included a dam that generated electricity. The battle over the dam lasted many years with the proponents of the dam winning the battle.

Finally in 1930, the bill to allow public utility districts was put on the ballot as a voter initiative and passed. 

“On Oct. 5, 1931, a petition signed by 55 property owners in the Neppel precinct was presented to the Board of County Commissioners, asking that a PUD district be created in that area,” Johnson wrote.

It wasn’t until the election of the following year that the PUD was set up. The purpose of this PUD was to allow farmers who lived out of the Washington Water Power area to band together to pay for the construction of power lines to their homes and farms.

Once the formation of this PUD was approved, it was named Public Utility District No. 1 of Grant County. It was believe that there would be other utility districts forming, due to the lack of coverage that this district had. However, this PUD never became anything “more than a ‘paper organization,’” Johnson wrote. It never built any power lines or levied any taxes.

There was growing discontent with the way Washington Water Power dealt with those wishing to connect to their lines.

There “were a group of farmers who had built an extension line on a co-operative venture to hook up the Washington Water Power transmission lines near Wilson Creek,” wrote Johnson in the article entitled “Grange Led Fight To Create County PUD in 1938,” published on May 6, 1965. “Like others who had become rural customers of Washington Water Power, they were required to deed the line to the company as well as the transformers.”

During the general election on Nov. 8, 1938, a new public utility district was approved by voters. At the same time it was approved, three commissioners were elected.

“Grant County Public Utility District No. 2, the first county-wide PUD in Grant County, became the 18th such district to be formed in the state of Washington,” wrote Johnson.

Unlike the first utility district, this new district began levying taxes the following year. The first two years were spent organizing and exploring how they were going to acquire power lines.

On Dec. 30, 1941, the Grant County PUD was approved for a $600,000 loan through the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). The REA had been created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on May 11, 1935. All the money that have previously been levied had gone to setting up the PUD on paper. The loan, of which only $50,000 was borrowed, was used to purchase the PUD’s first two electric companies. One was in Soap Lake; the other was in Coulee City. These two systems totaled 24 miles of electric lines. Once these lines were making money, the PUD began looking at what other lines they could purchase. They set their sights on Washington Water Power lines in Grant County, with the exception of the Warden and Hartline areas.

On Nov. 13, 1944, a trial began between the PUD and Washington Water Power for condemnation of the private companies power lines. The trial lasted 17 days with jurors awarding the lines to the PUD for $546,984.80. Washington Water Power believed that their lines were worth twice that amount and sought a new trial. In June of 1945, the PUD gave Washington Water Power a certified check for $46,000 over the previously stated amount.

“The difference represented an increase in property valuation granted by the PUD in return for an agreement by Washington Water Power Co. to drop its appeal, and for accumulated interest on the amount awarded by the court back in December,” Johnson wrote, in the article “Condemnation Suit Launched PUD Into ‘Big Time,’” printed on May 27, 1965.


In the years to come, Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams would be built. Smaller projects, in the form of the Quincy Chute hydroelectric project and the Potholes East Canal Headworks hydroelectric project, would be constructed. Fiber lines would begin to be laid to provide the county with high speed internet. And the Grant County PUD would continue to provide cheap electricity to the residents of Grant County.

Dust Storms Cause Havoc for Early Quincy Settlers

“A slight breeze was waving the bunch grass, but all eyes were turned to the west where the soft breeze was coming from. Mrs. Fred Dahmen was the first to speak commandingly, 'We are going home, for I am scared.' She plainly showed the effect of what everyone saw over Saddle Mountains west of the Columbia River gorge. A terrible storm was forming. Mr. Domberger tried to calm people by saying, 'Naw, this is just a plain, old-time dust storm. Nothing serious. We used to have them lots of times in Nebraska where we used to live.' But this huge cloud could be plainly seen rolling up like a huge monster half a mile wide and gaining in speed and size every minute. It was so high it nearly reached the level of the mountains behind the river.”

Dust storms were once a normal occurrence for residents in the Quincy valley. While most did not reach the speed and intensity like the one in April 1908 described above by pioneer Anna M. Fleckenstein-Berner in the book “The Pioneer's Memory Book,” many have created extra work, frustration and disappointment for Quincy residents.

When settlers first arrived in the Quincy valley, dirt did not accompany the winds that blew through the area. But as settlers cleared the land, dirt and sand were stirred up and left exposed to the wind. In 1908, the lack of moisture and many acres of broken ground became the breeding ground for one of the worst storms in Quincy valley history.

The storm was first spotted at the beginning of church on the second Sunday in April. The residents of Burke scattered from church, gathered in their animals and braced for the storm.

“You could hear it roar like a mighty ocean on the beach,” recalled Fleckenstein-Berner. “It had a six mile width and the day was darkening as if the world was coming to an end. The house creaked, jerked and shivered as if the roof were going any minute. It was so bad a sandstorm, you could only see the barn 50 feet away from the house now and then between the sheets of sand. Everyone was too frightened to speak. The fires were out for safety for fear the chimney might go any time.”

When the storm finally ended Tuesday morning, buildings had moved, trees were broken or buried, crops were destroyed and two to three inches of sand covered the inside of houses.

“The memory of the 1908 dust storm, the heat and almost no crop worth harvesting in 1909 were good reasons to explain why more and more people began to leave the prairie,” wrote Faye Morris in her book, “They Claimed a Desert.” “There was hardly a month when someone loaded their belongings and left their cabin abandoned.”

As people left the area, the sagebrush began to grow back. When new settlers came to the area following the promise of irrigation, the sagebrush was once again cleared and dust storms ensued.

“More than one year during the spring, dust storms would come up,” recalled Kenneth Mattson, who first came to the area in 1945. “It would be nice in the mornings. About noon, the sun was gone, the wind would be going and so was the dust. People who had land all leveled up when the wind came up would have to re-level it.”

Farmers had to endure sand piles that buried equipment and covered roadways like snow drifts. Some had crops cut off by blowing sand.

The blowing dirt also caused frustration for housewives. Mattson recalled a friend who decided to clean her house during a reprieve from the constant wind. But, the wind came up once again, leaving a quarter inch of fine dust all over the clean house.

“One Oregon ditch rider heard the country was up and coming and wanted to see it,” said Mattson. “When he got here, he understood, cause it was up and coming.”

Lost Trinidad Gold - legend or truth?

First published on Oct. 6, 2011, in the Quincy Valley Post Register - Quincy, WA

Trinidad, Washington 1876 – John Welch and a party of gold miners, including Welch’s wife, young daughter, two nephews and part-Indian guide, passed through Trinidad on their way from the goldfields of British Columbia to their home in Portland, Ore. When they left, approximately 200 pounds of gold remained. The gold would have fetched around $250 per pound. Today, the gold would be valued at over $5 million.

Gold had been discovered along the Clearwater River in Idaho in 1860, and also along the Caribou Trail located north of Omak into Canada. Many left their homes and headed north in search of riches. Around the time John Welch and his party passed through Trinidad, some of the gold seekers had given up and settled down to farm the land. Those who settled in Eastern Washington had peaceful relationships with the Indians.

The Chinese miners along the Columbia River had a different experience.

“Chinese who had escaped the railroad chain gangs of California to seek gold along the river were being driven out or massacred, probably because the Chinese had taken Indian girls into their camps,” wrote Faye Morris in the book They Claimed a Desert.

 “The 1870 census of eastern Washington listed only two Chinese women in the region at the time,” said Tom Hackenmiller in the book, Wapato Heritage. “Loneliness and necessity brought Chinese men and Indian maidens together in marriage or other fleeting unions. The Indians resented that their young women cavorted with these unwanted Oriental interlopers.”

The conflict between the Chinese miners and the Indians started in the late 1850s and came to a boiling point in 1875 when Indians in the Chelan area killed over 300 Chinese miners.

Welch and his party had stopped just south of Trinidad on the first bench above the river when he learned of the Chinese/Indian conflicts and that Indians were on the warpath. The Indian guide suggested the miners hide the gold, then resigned as guide. The party decided to hide the gold they were carrying, along with other items they thought would help lighten their load and make them less vulnerable to Indian attacks. After drawing a map of the area and the hidden items, they crossed the river and headed for Ellensburg and their homes in the Portland area.

When they reached Portland, they tried to get a military escort back to Trinidad to retrieve the gold. The request was denied. Some of the facts of this visit to Trinidad are sketchy. As some stories go, the party knew they were being watched by Indians. Other stories say that they were searched by Indians after hiding the gold. Some wonder if there were only three men in the party and two died shortly after arriving in Portland. Others report at least four men in the party.

For the next 40 years, the record is silent. It appears that no one from the party came back to claim the hidden gold. After the turn of the 19th century, numerous attempts were made to find the gold. Each attempt and claimed success is shrouded by mystery and uncertainty. Some of the facts are uncertain and vary with each storyteller.

The Columbia River at Trinidad and Crescent Bar as it looked in 1918.
Courtesy of the Quincy Valley Historical Society

The first attempt to recover the hidden gold was made in the fall of 1906. The Quincy Quill mentioned that two men, one a Mr. Stevenson, came to Trinidad. Mr. Stevenson claimed to have been in the Welch party. Some say the second man was Mr. Welch himself.

As the story goes, the two men hired two Trinidad teenage boys to act as guides. The men searched for a week before leaving. Stevenson returned some time later, hired a wagon and was seen loading boxes onto the train when he left. It is unsure if he found the gold or not.

In an article by Rufus Woods, originally published in the Wenatchee Daily World on July 11, 1932, he wrote about a conversation he had with W. D. Van Slyke, the former Trinidad hotel keeper. Van Slyke related some of what a visiting old man had told him 25 to 30 years prior.

“He was one of the men who had left it there in 1876,” Van Slyke told Woods. “His story was that the party of miners had found it necessary to separate during the night. They left in parties of twos. He and his partner headed north along the Columbia, hiding in the day time and traveling at night. They crossed the dry canyon north of Trinidad, went over the hill and made their way across Rock Island Canyon, and later they crossed the Columbia. The man told me that the party was to meet in a certain hotel on a certain date in Portland but they never met.”

The visiting man searched the area, along with the help of one of the local teenage boys, for three weeks before leaving. The man would search the area, then return to one certain spot every evening, appearing to be regaining his bearings. Van Slyke said that two weeks after the man left, he and the boy went back to the search area. They found tracks from a team and buggy and holes where they assumed he had dug. The man had previously told Van Slyke the cache was impossible to find. But Van Slyke believed the tracks and holes indicated the man had found the gold after all. It is not certain if Van Slyke’s man was Stevenson on his return trip to the area or not. However, the two stories seem to fit together, making the possibility look probable.

Around 1909 or 1913, a lady named Mrs. Eliza Turtle or Anna Tuttle (The name varies depending on the story. Eliza Turtle seems to be a more likely name.) visited Trinidad, claiming to have been the small girl from the Welch party, and the only survivor. She had a map her father had made of the hidden gold and said the party hid the gold and personal items in two holes close to each other. She thought she might be able to find the gold if she could find the right area. Her attempts were unsuccessful. She returned multiple times, but found nothing.

“At first the people in the vicinity showed a keen interest in the quest for the gold and many of them instituted searching parties of their own,” wrote Rufus Woods in a Wenatchee Daily World article originally published on July 8, 1932, “but as no trace was ever found of the object of the quest, it became a tradition in and around Quincy that the entire story was a myth, and anyone who wasted any time looking for this gold which never existed was regarded as being slightly ‘off.’”

Somewhere between 1909 and 1912, Ted Williams and Harry Webley found some articles believed to have been hidden from the Welsh party. In an article entitled, "The Trinidad Gold: Fact or Fiction?," Faye Morris, author of They Claimed a Desert, told about this sighting.

"About 1912, Harry Webley reported that while setting traps in a cave, he and his father discovered two old pack saddles, several old cow bells and a small box containing a pair of eye glasses, some beads, several small bottles and a piece of silk cloth. According to Harry, they took the box but left the saddles. I have a letter written by Harry in which he relates his story. The Webleys had heard of the story of the lost gold and so spent some time searching the area before trying to locate Mrs. Tuttle. She had left her address at the Van Slack store in Trinidad, but the store had burned and her address lost. The stories don’t match, for she was not supposed to have visited the area until 1913. Other rumors say that Harry recovered the saddles and put them in the Ellensburg museum. However, the museum has no record of this."

In another article by Rufus Woods, originally published on July 9, 1932, relates seeing the items first hand during a a fact-finding trip to Quincy in which he and three men from Quincy visited the Webley home.

"There we saw some of the material – a piece of old dress goods, two pairs of old fashioned spectacles, comb, brush, jewel case and other small articles," wrote Woods. "The articles bore the unmistakable evidence of their long rest underground. Ted Williams and his sister each have at their homes other articles found."

In a July 8, 1932 article, Rufus Woods said that the saddles were found prior to Mrs. Turtle’s last visit. She was shown where they had been found and dug around the area for some time, but turned up empty.

The Columbia River as it looks today. The construction of Wanapum Dam
made the river behind the dam wider.

It was also reported that two men, claiming to have been hired to search for the gold, built a cabin in the Ancient Lakes area. They searched for several years before for one man mysteriously died. The other man stayed for year and disappeared.

Another gold seeker was Lynn Cramer of Vancouver. Cramer purchased a metal detector and began searching for the gold. When he wanted to get a better detector later on, he was told by the company that the owner, a Mr. Lincoln, had found 60 pounds of the hidden gold. His partner, Mr. Garret, confirmed the story some time later.

"Lynn theorized that this was probably the gold belonging to Welch’s two nephews," said Faye Morris in "Trinidad Gold". "This gold wasn’t buried as everyone had supposed, but was found three feet above the ground, stuck in a crevice in a large rock and covered with a flat rock. The description was so precise that I visited the area and found the spot where the dirt had sifted around the saddlebags to leave their print, so I feel that the story was true."

One other story tells of a homesteader who built his cabin close to the spot where some of the gold was supposedly found. He gave up his homestead after only a few years and embarked on a trip around the United States, stopping at the World’s Fair in St. Louis. He later bought a house in Quincy, where he lived the rest of his life. It is unclear if he found any of the gold.

The hidden gold at Trinidad is still a mystery today. No one is sure who actually found the gold or if it has really been found. Did Mr. Stevenson find most of the gold and Mr. Lincoln find the rest? Or did the Indian guide perhaps see where the Welch party hid the gold and come back to claim it for himself? Did the waters of Wanapum Dam cover whatever gold may still be hidden?

No one will ever know.

The Nostalgia of Old Buildings

Old buildings have always had a special appeal. There is something about them that conjures up questions and stories about who might have lived or worked there, what events might have happened, and what the walls would say if they could talk. Old buildings appeal to one's imagination and curiosity.

Growing up in Central Washington state, most of the old - I should say historic - buildings I saw that were in good condition were the ones found in museums or were government offices. Central Washington is farm country. Most of the houses, mainly farmhouses, built between the 1850's and early 1930's, when Washington became a state and settlers began to move in to the area, have been left to decay. There are not a lot of historic houses and buildings for schoolchildren, history lovers, and dreamers to tour outside of the local museum.
  
Recently, I moved to the East Coast, where old, historic buildings appear to be, well, everywhere. The center of each town is home to several blocks of buildings that appear to date back at least one hundred years. Many buildings have signs in front of them telling the history and significance of the building.

One building in my town with such a sign provokes questions and fanciful stories every time I pass it. The yellow, three-story, brick building was built as an academy. Over the years, the building has served many different purposes.

While I don't know any more about the building than the information on the sign, I can't help making up my  own stories about the building. I imagine that it was once a girls boarding school with mischievous youngsters who liked to play tricks on their spectacle-wearing, spinster, school marms. (I probably have a preteen book to thank for that image.) I also see a shy, scared, little first-grader who is huddled with her bunny in the corner, wishing she was at home with her parents. I can visualize girls running about the grounds, laughing and playing games.

As the years progress, I can see the girls being sent home because funds for the school have run out. Their faces are long, as they wave a sad farewell to each other. I imagine the school sitting empty for many years, accumulating dust and cobwebs. Occasionally, local pranksters sneak into the building to look for ghosts or break a window. Finally, the community takes notice of the old, forgotten building. They clean it up, give it several new layers of paint, and open it up as a community center and recreational hangout. Today, it is the historical center for town.

Now, is that what really happened in the old academy? Most likely not. In fact, if one of the city historians knew what I imagine about the building, they would probably be appalled at the tale I conjured up. Never-the-less, it is still fun to imagine what might have happened in the old, historic building. Now, if only the walls could talk.

Lighthouses on Washington's Pacific Coast - Part 5 - Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

Shipwrecks were once a common occurrence for ships in the Pacific who were trying to enter the mouth of the Columbia River. Over 200 ships have wrecked in this area because of the navigational challenges the ocean-river meeting creates. During storms, early ships had trouble judging their distance from land. To help with navigation at this critical and dangerous location, a lighthouse was built on Cape Disappointment, the southwestern most point in Washington State.

During a recent vacation, my family visited the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. The trail to this lighthouse begins at the parking lot of the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. Visitors weave their way through the forest about a quarter of a mile until they come to a wide paved road. This road leads from the U.S. Coast Guard base to the Cape Disappointment lighthouse. The Coast Guard mans the lighthouse, scanning for ships in distress.

The road leading up to Cape Disappointment lighthouse

One of the U.S. Coast Guard watchers

Captain Robert Gray was the first explorer to enter the mouth of the Columbia River on May 11, 1792. He named the river after his ship Columbia Redivivia. Cape Disappointment was named by Captain John Meares on July 6, 1788, when he tried to seek shelter from a sea storm, but found none.

Navigation was treacherous and dangerous. Trees, signal flags and campfires were used to guide mariners into the Columbia River. A lighthouse was proposed in 1848 and in 1852, funds were laid aside for the project.


The first shipment of supplies was sent by ship. However, the supplies did not reach the cape. On September 18, 1853, the ship carrying the supplies wretched just below the cape. While the crew survived, the supplies did not. It was another two years before construction finally began on Cape Disappointment light.

Construction of the lighthouse was almost complete when it was discovered that the lantern room would not be able to hold the first-order lens designated for the lighthouse. The lighthouse tower had to be disassembled, redesigned, and put back together. The error cost two years time. The lighthouse was finally lit on October 15, 1856.

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

In 1898, the first-order lens was put in the North Head Lighthouse. A fourth-order lens was put in its place. Electricity came to the lighthouse in 1937. The U.S. Coast Guard talked about closing the lighthouse in 1956. Protests from mariners crossing the Columbia River bar persuaded the Coast Guard to leave it open. The lighthouse was completely automated in 1973.
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Lighthouses on Washington's Pacific Coast - Part 4 - North Head Lighthouse

Wind and the wide open ocean are two of the greeters that welcomed my family to the North Head Lighthouse during a recent vacation to the area. The North Head Lighthouse is one of two lighthouse located on Cape Disappointment, in the southwestern corner of Washington State. Cape Disappointment is home to two active lighthouses - North Head Lighthouse in the north and Cape Disappointment Lighthouse in the south. 

North Head Lighthouse

The lighthouse was first lit on May 16,1898. It was built in reaction to the cries of mariners who were trying to navigate into the mouth of the Columbia River from the north. They were not able to see the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse located approximately two miles south due to a piece of land jutting out from the coast. Shipwrecks around this area reinforced the mariners message.

Insets in the main lighthouse building

In addition to the lighthouse, outbuilding were built at the lighthouse. Up the hill approximately a quarter of mile, two houses with additional outbuildings, including a barn, were built for the head light keeper and two assistants and their families.

Outbuildings at the North Head Lighthouse

One of the light keeper residences

The original lens was a first-order lens brought to North Head Lighthouse from the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, which had previously changed lens. In 1936, when electricity was installed in the lighthouse, the lens was replaced with a fourth-order light. The lighthouse was completely automated in 1961. 

Courtesy of Joel Mattson © 2010

The wind has been the source of a few interesting stories. During one particularly windy day, a duck was blown into lantern room, chipping the lens. It is also said that one light keepers wife committed suicide because she could not stand the wind. North Head Lighthouse also became the windy place in the United States on January 29, 1921 with speeds clocked at 126 mph before the wind instrument blew away.

A view of the Pacific Ocean through the trees at North Head Lighthouse

North Head Lighthouse has a beautiful view of the ocean, as well as a souvenir shop. Visitors can also rent the old light keepers house.

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Lighthouses on Washington's Pacific Coast - Part 3 - Grays Harbor Lighthouse

The tallest lighthouse in Washington State, an intact original third-order Fresnel lens and 135 stairs - this is what the Grays Harbor Lighthouse at Westport, WA can boast.

During a recent vacation along Washington State's Pacific coast, my family visited this unique lighthouse. Previously during our trip, we had visited Cape Flattery and Destruction Island lighthouses. Each of these lighthouses we had viewed from a distance. When we arrived at the Grays Harbor Lighthouse, we were excited to find out that not only could we walk up to the lighthouse, but we could take a tour inside lighthouse.

Grays Harbor Lighthouse

The tour began in the base of the lighthouse, which also houses a small gift shop. Visitors who take the tour climb the 135 metal stairs that circle the inside of tower. As visitors climb the stairs, they may stop on the various landings that are built into staircase. A tour guide greets visitors as they reach the last landing and  gives a brief history of the lighthouse as visitors climb the remaining stairs to the gear room.

The gear room is located just under the lens. The gear mechanisms in this room were once responsible for rotating the lens. After explaining the operation of the gears, visitors are invited to climb up a few final stairs to view the lens.

The gears that turned the Grays Harbor light

The Grays Harbor Lighthouse in Westport, Wa, was lit on June 39, 1898. It was equipped with a third-order Fresnel lens that flashed both red and white. During the early years, light reflected off of rubies  was used to produce the red light. But because of the value of the rubies, they kept getting stolen. A form of red plastic was then used, but heat from the refracting lens melted the plastic. Eventually an acceptable red lighting source was found.

A steam-powered fog horn and several other building were built next to the lighthouse. The fog horn was reported to have blasted out to sea every 10 to 20 seconds both day and night. People in the town next to the lighthouse became annoyed by constant noise of the fog horn. They requested the fog horn be removed or changed, but the plea was ignored. Finally the steam shed burnt down and the fog horn was eventually moved further away from the town.

The U.S. Coast Guard automated the Grays Harbor Lighthouse in 1992. The new light, located just outside the lens room, shines the same red and white beams out to sea. Visitors may view the new light from the lantern room. The vast different in size and operation of the two lights is clearly seen.

The Grays Harbor automated light

While in the lantern room, visitors may view the ocean and forest to the west and the town of Westport, WA to the east. During our tour of the lighthouse, my family noticed a picture of a lighthouse next to the ocean. When we inquired about the picture, the tour guide told us that when the lighthouse was originally built, the lighthouse was on the beach. But beach growth, in addition to the growth of new trees, had "moved" the lighthouse inland approximately a half mile inland.

Looking out the Grays Harbor Lighthouse towards the Pacific Ocean

While my family was viewing the lens room, we noticed a thin, dark curtain covering the entire interior of the glass. The tour guide told us that the curtain was to block the sun from shining into the lens room. At one point in the lighthouse's history, a rash of fires broke out all over town. Arson was believed to be the cause at first. But as more fires appeared in random places, the towns people began to look for another answer. It was finally determined that light rays from the sun were being caught and refracted by the lighthouse lenses causing the fires. A curtain was put up in the lighthouse and the fires ceased.

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Lighthouses on Washington's Pacific Coast - Part 2 - Destruction Island Lighthouse

There are five lighthouses located on Washington State's Pacific Coast. All of them are in operation, but one - Destruction Island Lighthouse.

A few months ago, my family traveled down Washington State's Pacific Coast with the intent to visit as many lighthouses as possible. The second lighthouse we visited on our trip was Destruction Island Lighthouse. This lighthouse is located three miles off the mainland out in the Pacific Ocean. Scenic view points along Highway 101 allowed us to view this lighthouse from a distance.

Destruction Island Lighthouse

While no information concerning this lighthouse was given at the time we viewed the lighthouse, a little bit of researched revealed the island and lighthouse's histories.

Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra was the first known explorer to reach Destruction Island in 1775. This Spanish explorer named the island the "Isle of Sorrow" because of the massacre several of his men received when they went on land for supplies.

The crew of Captain Charles William Barkley experienced a similar fate in 1787 when they were exploring the coast line and river north of the island. Captain Barkley named the river "Destruction." The name was later switched to the island and the river returned to the original name given by the Indians.

A request for a lighthouse on Destruction Island was made in 1882 by the Lighthouse board. They were eventually granted $85,000 for the building of a first-order light and fog signal. Building started in August of 1888. However, the lighthouse was not built soon enough. On August 10, 1888, the Cassandra Adams, headed from San Francisco to Tacoma, was overcome by dense fog and hit a reef close to the island. The crew was unable to see the island until it was too late. The ship was soon destroyed by the sea.

In November of 1890, the lighthouse was ready for operation. It was typically manned by a head light keeper and two assistants. If the light keepers had families, their families also joined them on the island. In 1939, the U.S. Coast Guard assumed control of all Lighthouse Service lighthouses. The lighthouse was operated by service men for several weeks at a time.
  
In 1963, the U.S. Coast Guard proposed shutting the lighthouse down. Mariners protested against it, however, and the light remained lit. The lighthouse became automated in 1968 and the last light keeper left the island in the early 1970's. The old lens was replace with a solar-powered electronic beacon in 1995. The lens, along with an emergency back up lens, was moved to the Maritime Museum in Westport, WA.

Finally, in April 1998, the U.S Coast Guard turned off the Destruction Island Lighthouse beam. It became the first lighthouse along Washington State's Pacific Coast to not longer be useful for navigational purposes.

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Lighthouses on Washington's Pacific Coast - Part 1 - Cape Flattery

Lighthouses have held a special place in my family's hearts for many years. Whenever we are in the proximity of a lighthouse, we stop and visit. Recently, my family took a vacation to Washington State's Olympic Peninsula. During our time there, we visited five of the lighthouses located on the Pacific Ocean.

We started our journey at the northeastern most point in Washington State - Cape Flattery. The Cape Flattery lighthouse sits on an island about a half mile off the tip of the main land. There is only one road leading on to the cape. My family concluded that visitors to Cape Flattery do not end up there on accident.

All visitors to Cape Flattery Lighthouse must pass through the town of Neah Bay, the last civilization before the Pacific Ocean. One of the first places we spotted as we entered town was the museum. The museum gives visitors a history of the Makah Indian Nation, Cape Flattery's native population, as well as selling locally made items.

The museum also has information on how to view the Cape Flattery Lighthouse. The road to the lighthouse makes several turns. "Follow the yellow line" was the advice we were given, along with a map. Once the road ends, visitors hike the last half a mile to an observation deck.

The path leading to the observation deck begins as a wide, sloping, gravel path. About a quarter of the way to the observation deck, the trail switches to a narrow plank walkway. In some places, the walkway serves as a bridge so visitors do not have to wade through water.

Our first view of the Pacific Ocean came about three quarters of the way to the lighthouse observation deck. A little side deck off the main trail gives visitors the chance to view one of the many coves along Cape Flattery's outer banks. As visitors approach the lighthouse observation deck, more of the rugged coast line becomes visible through the trees.

Pacific Ocean

Cape Flattery Coast

As the coast line comes into view, so does the lighthouse observation deck. The observation deck is raised off the ground approximately ten feet and can be ascended via a steep, narrow staircase.

When visitors reach the top of the stairs, they are greeted by views of Cape Flattery Lighthouse, the Pacific Ocean and Canada. They are also greeted by a trail guide who is there to answer any questions visitors might have about what they see. The trail guide present when my family visited Cape Flattery told us about some of the wildlife that lived in the area, and gave a brief history of the area.

Captain James Cook was the first to name Cape Flattery in 1778. In 1788, Captain John Meares met Chief Tatooche, chief of the Makah Indians, and named the island off Cape Flattery after him. During the 1850's, exploration of the area led to the proposal and monetary allocations for a lighthouse to be built on Tatooche Island. Cape Flattery Lighthouse sent out it's first beam of light on December 28, 1857. A fog horn and weather station were later installed. The lighthouse became fully automated in 1977.

Cape Flattery Lighthouse

The trail guide also told us about another lighthouse approximately 17-20 miles northwest in Canada. Even though it is not visible to Cape Flattery's day time visitors, we were told that it is still in operation.

My family accomplished two goals while we were at Cape Flattery. First, we added another lighthouse to our list, and second, we could say we had been on the northwestern most point Washington State. Not bad for one day. Next stop - Destruction Island Lighthouse.
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