Skagit River Journal of History & Folklore 600 of 700 total Free Home Page Stories & Photos (Also see our Subscribers Magazine Sample) 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 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284 Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug
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This photo shows the junction of Ruby Creek and the Skagit River where Ross Lake is located today. It is from the Tommy Thompson collection, courtesy of Will D. "Bob" Jenkin's definitive book about the mountains, Last Frontier in the North Cascades , which is till for sale at the LaConner Museum. The caption reads: "This picture that also shows [John] McMillan's Roadhouse (the long roof at the right). The Upper Skagit flows beneath the cable suspension bridge in middle foreground while Ruby Creek enters from the high Cascades at lower right. The combined streams rush through the famed gorge of the Skagit. This picture was taken in the 1920s after the City of Seattle began core drilling the foundation bedrock for Ross Dam and built the temporary footbridge in the lower foreground. Ross Lake now covers the area right up to the steep slopes of Pierce Mountain on the left, Jack Mountain on the right, and the Canadian border in the distant north."

This circa-1890 map of claims on Coal Mountain, south across the Skagit from Hamilton, is just one of many maps that will help you navigate the North Cascades while reading. It tells the researcher so many important details, including two locations that help us with other research: the location of the very brief town of Bessemer and the early location of the village of Birdsview, east of Hamilton on the north shore of the river.

Any time, any amount, please help build our travel and research fund for what promises to be a very busy 2011, traveling to mine resources from California to Washington and maybe beyond. Depth of research determined by the level of aid from readers. Because of our recent illness, our research fund is completely bare. See many examples of how you can aid our project and help us continue for another ten years. And subscriptions to our optional Subscribers Online Magazine (launched 2000) by donation too. Thank you. We recently visited our newest sponsor, Plumeria Bay, which is based in Birdsview, just a short walk away from the Royal family's famous Stumpranch, and is your source for the finest down bedding. See our Journal feature on this local business and learn more details and how to order items at their website.

This photo makes us wonder about the thoughts in miners' minds, especially on those dreary, rainy November days, as they looked out the entrance of a cave or mine shaft. Did they harken back to their cave-dwelling ancestors when they lived in the caves of Europe several millennia before?

      One novel way that prospectors in this area used to retort gold on site was to put a mix of black sand and mercury amalgam into the pan of a shovel over a hot fire and place a hollowed-out potato over it. The heat from the hot shovel would retort the mercury into the spud, leaving a button of pure gold in the shovel pan.
      We have uncovered some interesting tales from this region, one of which concerns a character named Isaac LaRush who was well known on the upper trail. This trail was named the Goat Trail because of the way it meandered up and down the cliffs along the creeks. Most folks would not have known the name Isaac LaRush if you mentioned it to them, because he went by a curious nickname, "Kiyu." The origin of the name is lost in the mists of time, but that's what everyone called him. When he was in his 70s, Kiyu was working as mule skinner, handling the mules that worked in the. Empire Tunnel of the Anacortes Mine Group (see the Harts Pass/Slate Creek chapter). Though his hair was gray, he was wiry and powerful at his advanced age.
      One night, Will Jenkins and [packer Herman] Rohde were spending the night with Luke Hendrikson and his father in their near the confluence of Canyon and Creeks. The cabin was situated just off trail and perched on the mountainside al the creek bed, such that they were able catch their dinner of rainbow trout right off the back porch. After night had closed around them, they settled down for a long sleep. The others dozed off before Will did, and the sound of the mingled with their snores. Just as Will was drifting off to sleep, he became aware of a strange, low hum that seemed clearly distinct from the other sounds that surrounded him, kind of an off-key hum that rose and fell. After listening for a few minutes, Will woke Herman and asked him if he heard the humming. He did. As the two conversed, Windy awoke, and together they got Henry out of bed
      Not knowing what was in store, they lit the lantern and ventured out the door facing the trail. There, in the middle of the trail, was Kiyu, with his stag shirt rolled up as a pillow, nestled in the warm rocks. He sat up, blinked and looked around. The fellows asked him why he hadn't come to the cabin. Kiyu said that it was so dark he hadn't seen the cabin. He'd just lain down, as he had numerous times before, to spend the night. The men got old to the cabin and arranged for a more inviting sleeping provision for him. It was then they learned that Kiyu's habit of humming himself to sleep.
Ruby Creek rises and falls
and the young whippersnappers get the last laugh       The town of Ruby served as a gateway to the Upper Skagit River Mines. Established at the confluence of the Skagit River and Ruby Creek, it was home to a small hotel, stables, and supply stores for the prospectors in the area hose headed farther up Ruby Creek. The little town was even home to a post office that was established on March 10, 1880, and operated until it was closed on October 12, 1882. Thereafter, mail came through the post office at Birdsview. Ruby didn't last too long. It ended up submerged under Ross Lake, now impounded behind Seattle City Light's Ross Dam. When City Light began its surveys of this portion of the Skagit River Valley, there was a large influx of neophytes into the area. The interactions between these newcomers to the area and the old timers sometimes produced humorous results. One local mountain man, Bert Ferguson, was a well-known practical joker. When two of the City Light's young, college-educated crew, shovels and pans in hand, sought his expertise on how to find gold in the area, Bert couldn't resist.
      At the old Ruby town site stood an abandoned "stiff-leg" crane, consisting of one vertical spar and one angled spar. Bert told the fellows that it had been used to lift the great boulders from the creek, exposing a number of gold nuggets beneath. Bert told them he was sure that, at a certain sharp bend in the creek, there were still boulders that could be removed by more conventional means and that the boulders had never been removed here. Why, some of them could probably be manhandled out by a single person. The City Light guys took the bait. Bert furnished the amateurs some crowbars and a nine-pound sledgehammer, and the pair descended into the creek.
      Now, it was a late summer Sunday, and not much air was moving through the canyon as the intrepid duo began their task. They chose a likely boulder and worked at muscling it out of the streambed. They pushed, they pried, and they lifted, but the stubborn mass of rock just wouldn't move! They quickly realized that the rock would have to be broken into smaller pieces and set to work with the sledge. Slowly, the great pebble began to succumb to the onslaught as the two men labored in the sweltering summer sun. Chip by chip, they reduced the size of their chosen adversary, but it still wouldn't budge. Toward the end of the day, they began to get some movement from the now-shattered boulder by prying with the crowbars. A little more pounding, some prying, and the thing began to move. Between the crowbars and some wooden poles, the exhausted fellows were finally able to lift the boulder from its resting place and move it aside. The telling of the tale might get a little exaggerated at this point. As Will Jenkins writes in his Last Frontier in the North Cascades , "In the deep pocket where the stone had lain so long that it had become as smooth as marble under countless years of erosion, the yellow of free gold lay like peanuts in a bowl!" It is rumored that the find was worth nearly $1,000, not a bad day's work.
      Because values of this amount are not consistent with previous finds in Ruby Creek, there is some doubt about veracity of the tale. Was the joke on old Bert Ferguson, or did the embellishments just make for good storytelling around the campfire? Ferguson reportedly went on a week-long drunk following the pair's find.

• Our portal section about railroads, with links to dozens of features.
  
• Another book by the same authors, about discovering Washington's historical mines
  
• Photos and introduction to the railroad and mines of the Monte Cristo district in the North Cascades in the 1890s.
  
• See our portal section with more than a dozen links to our mining features.
  

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