McCarteney Creek, Washington

164 miles

Oct 23 – What looked like a creek on the map – a named creek! – looks more like a dip in the dry scrub.  A nursery for future tumbleweed.

creek bed crossing, Washington

153 miles

Oct 22 –  There’s not much to see here.  No farmhouse, no crossroad, no rocky outcropping, no flowing river or inspiring bridge.  Just a fairly dry creek bed to mark the spot on the road where I will stop for the night.

Waterville, Washington

142 miles

Oct 21 – Columns of basalt are visible from the highway along the Columbia River. 

Waterville was named for having the only water-producing well for many miles around, but it is famous for its wheat production & crop circles.  I think crop circles are a sign of clever young people without enough fulfilling creative outlets.  

Lincoln Rock, Washington

131 miles

Oct 20 – This craggy cliff face looks something like a profile of Abraham Lincoln if you see it from the right angle.  And the best place to see it is from across the Columbia River at the Lincoln Rock State Park.  The park offers facilities for picnicking, camping, & hiking, as well as fishing, boating, & swimming.  I can go to sleep tonight imagining that I am tucked up snug in my imaginary camper.  Or, as long as it’s a virtual experience, I could sleep out under the stars to see Abe across the river.

Monitor, Washington

120 miles

Oct 19 – The road into Monitor seems grim and depressing.  I guess that’s the downside of judging a place from just one photo.  Monitor is a very small town (342 people), and the most interesting thing I can find out about is the name.  In 1902, the citizens named it after the ironclad warship USS Monitor, the famous Union battleship in the Civil War.  It’s interesting that people in the West would choose to honor that particular heritage 40 years after the war.  The citizens involved in the decision may have been veterans or children of Union sailors on that warship. 

Leavenworth, Washington

109 miles

Oct 18 - Visible from the roadside: Drury Falls: Such an exciting 2-star horsetail falls!

In the 1970s, this mountain town adopted a Bavarian-style theme to attract tourists.  What a success!  Every season, on almost every weekend, it seems, they host a different festival of some sort.  Since I spent part of my childhood in Germany, I love the Bavarian-style food, architecture, & wood carvings, however contrived.

Chiwaukum, Washington

Chiwaukum Graben

98 miles

Oct 17 - Chiwaukum is located among mountains of schist 40 million years old.  Sadly, most of the images I found online were of the 2014 wildfire.  But I'm trying to post images of what I would see there today.

Coles Corner, Washington

87 miles

Oct 16 - This roadside diner is probably a community gathering place.  It is festively decorated, and it looks like people have ridden bicycles to it in semi-snowy weather.

Eleven miles !

Oct 15 - Today I cycled 11 miles, and it wasn't much more difficult than 10 miles!  I can do this day after day!  I can be in Vermont a month sooner!

Berne, Washington

Cascade Tunnel

Oct 15 - The Cascade Tunnel was an improvement over the old track with many switchbacks.  This tunnel provided snow protection.  At 7.79 miles, it is the longest railroad tunnel in the United States.

It's time for me to get into the mountains!

Wellington, Washington

Alpine Falls

66 miles

Oct 14 – This pretty waterfall, Alpine Falls, was near the road along my way today. 

snowshed gallery

What a stunning picture of this old railroad structure, with mineral stains & algae running down the concrete and sunlight streaming in!  This is a “snowshed” or “avalanche gallery”, an open tunnel built to protect the train tracks from avalanche & rockslides on steep mountainsides.  Now it is part of a hiking and biking trail.  And here I am biking!

waterfall info:  A Waterfall Lover’s Guide to the Pacific Northwest, by Gregory A. Plomb

snowshed image:  http://cory-bagley.com/

Skykomish, Washington

56 miles

Oct 13 –This old railroad tunnel through the Cascade Mountains has become part of the Iron Goat Trail, popular for hiking & biking.  I’ve never been fit enough to go there & enjoy it, but I can imagine myself there now.

Baring, Washington

46 miles

Oct 11 – 10 miles today!  I’m strong enough to do this every day!  If only I could count these as real miles, I could turn it into a vicarious trip to Vermont!

Here’s another Bavarian-themed chalet by the roadside.  This one contains the Post Office as well as a convenience store.  The Post Office sign proclaims “100 Years”, which would pre-date the theming of Leavenworth.

image:  http://www.postofficefreak.com/baring-wa-post-office/

Oct 10 - Castleton, Vt, locations

       The largest group of letters we have from the Horr family centers on the letters that Sarah Smith Horr, in Castleton, Vt., wrote to her married daughter S. Angelette Blakely in Pawlet.  She always conveys the news of many relatives in Vermont & Massachusetts, so I need to find out who all of these people are.  And she fills up her letters with tidbits of information about the people of Castleton & Poultney whom Angelette may remember from growing up there.  Sarah is more informative about the people of Castleton who Angelette has not met, so the letters contain many tidbits of news & gossip that are not related to our family history.  When Alice & I visited the historical society, we learned that he town records of Castleton were destroyed by a fire in the early 1860s, so these may be  the only existing records of the stories. 

             I’m figuring out the geography of the town of Castleton.  A detailed town map was published in 1869, at the same time when maps were published for many New England towns.  The research for these must have been conducted over a few years, so they may not be specific to 1869.  People were moving around a lot and new buildings were being built.  But it is great to have this resource!  Individual houses & businesses are labelled!

               On the town map is a house labelled “H Horr” on South Street.  The houses & names of neighbors are shown as well.  How easy & clear!  But I’ve also looked at the Federal Census for 1870, where the census taker walks from house to house along the street and lists every person in each residence, and the two lists do not match up.  Was the map researcher mistaken?  Did the Horrs move between the pre-1869 map research & the 1870 census?  I don’t have any other source for this kind of information.

               Outside of town is a lake which Sarah Smith Horr calls “Lake Bombasine”.  The modern name is “Bomoseen”.  Bombasine (or bombazine) is a type of cloth made from weaving silk & wool together.  Black bombazine was popular in the 19^th century for mourning wear.  How was this lake associated with black cloth?  Did it shimmer in the moonlight?  The term “Bomoseen" is supposed to be an Indian name, meaning "pleasant water".  It seems likely that the original Indian “Bomoseen” sounded strange to 19^th century Americans, but so similar to the familiar cloth that they called it that.  Then later, when bombazine cloth was no longer so popular and ancient native tribes were becoming more romanticized, perhaps around 1900, the older name was revived.

               In one letter of July 1857, Sarah Smith Horr mentions that she visited “the Seminary”.   This refers to Castleton Seminary, which went by several different names over the decades as it developed from a private academy into more of a college.  She hadn’t been there some time, and she said that it was “different from former times,” but did not give details.

               Sarah also visited Poultney, where she had raised her children, but did not go to the house.  At the Castleton Historical Society, Alice & I were told that we might be able to find out where the Horrs’ farm was in Poultney, but that line of inquiry fizzled out, with no response from the expert amateur researcher.

"the Pond" near Castleton

               In a few letters, Sarah mentions “the Pond.”  Some of the people she talks about “live near the Pond.”  In late summer of 1857, “There was a very melancholy accident happened on the Pond. … on the Sabbath five Welshmen were drowned … They were enticed to drink by a man named Colburn who privately kept [unclear] to sell … they became intoxicated and, in attempting to cross the pond were drowned … four of their bodies were soon found … there is one yet remains in his watery grave.”  On the 1869 map of Castleton is an unnamed pond, just south of town.  On the modern Google map, the same pond can be seen near Pond Hill Road, and in Earth View mode, I can see that the shoreline is steep-sided with many dusty roads near the edge.  It looks very much like a former quarry.  19^th century Welsh immigrants to Vermont often worked in quarries.  It is not the sort of pond where people built mansions for the scenic view.  It looks now like the sort of place where teenagers & ne’er-do-wells go to get drunk & act foolish.  So it is likely that it has been this kind of place for 200 years.  What about the people who “live near the Pond”?  Why would that be a detail that Sarah would mention about them?  Are they poor?  Disreputable?  Drunkards or sellers of cheap liquor?  Respectable people who are unfortunate enough to be located near all this trouble?

     This incident of drunken drowning was probably the talk of the town.  Who told Sarah about it?  Where did she get her news?  This news must have been written in a newspaper, so is there a copy available in an archive somewhere?

Castleton history & Bomoseen derivation:  http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vermont/TownshipCastletonRutland.html

Index, Washington

roadside espresso chalet

36 miles

Oct 10 – This kitschy roadside “espresso chalet” seems poised to catch tourists from Seattle who seek espresso on their way to the Bavaria-themed town of Leavenworth.

I’m entering an area of Index granite batholith, rock of the Oligocene era 33 million years ago, but I haven’t found any good images to represent it.

Oct 8 - PASLON ?

Who were all of these people mentioned in the family letters?  Where did their family histories come from?  Where – exactly – were they living, and how did they spend their time when they weren’t writing letters?

The Horr family in the 1840s was living in Castleton, Vermont, but their children were growing up and moving away.  (This geographical separation is a gift to us, because it necessitated their writing letters to each other.)  But Hiram & Sarah Horr had farmed in Poultney for much of the time when they were raising their children, John, Angelette, & Richard.  Their parents had come to Vermont from western Massachusetts and still had relations there.  We have a few deeds that indicate the Hiram Horr was buying and selling pieces of land in Poultney and later in Castleton.  I’m curious about how serious he was about farming.  Maybe he was more of a land speculator, buying and improving the land to sell for a better price. 

The first document we have from this branch of the family is from 1813.  It is a school report card. 

Hiram Hoar, at the age of 9, is making satisfactory progress in school.  This report is handwritten & signed by the teacher with extra ornamentation.  But what is that inscription at the top:  PASLON?  Is it the name of the school?  The last name of the founder?  An acronym for a school motto?  I haven’t been able to find out anything about it.  This teacher used beautiful handwriting, but made several errors in spelling and spacing.  And then he decorated the page so much with geometric shapes that this use of time and ink seems ridiculous.  Such extravagant praise!  Was it really Hiram himself who wrote this, making a joke?

Sultan, Washington

looking ahead to mountainous roads

27 miles

Oct 8 – This land is in a flat valley, but we are approaching a pass into the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

image: Google Street Views

Monroe, Washington

Quaint corner house on Blakely Street

18 miles

Oct 7 – This house is so pretty!  We’ve driven past it when coming home from the big regional quilt show, and imagined living there.

Coincidentally this house is on Blakely Street, and my family history project is focused on my Blakely ancestors in Vermont.

Oct 6 - dive into research questions

I just got back from Vermont on Saturday, & I can’t wait to get into this project!  Before my visit to my cousin Alice, we had agreed to focus on the Horr branch of our family and the interconnections with our Blakely branch starting in the 1840s.  I gathered deeds, documents, a diary, photos, and several pieces of handwoven cloth and needlework from that branch to take with me to show Alice.  I set up a family timeline with dates of births, deaths, marriages, etc. and a catalog of the letters in chronological order.  I packed one suitcase with all of my historic treasures, including the older letters we had, from 1840s to 1860.

While we were together, Alice & I shared all of the treasures we had, finding joy in our shared enthusiasm.  We explored the cemeteries where these ancestors had been buried and investigated the archives of several small town historical societies.  She showed me a way to open the letters gently & keep them in archival quality plastic pockets.  Alice will keep the cloth heirlooms and make contact with experts at the Shelburne Museum and the American Textile History Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts, to find out more about them & their historic value.  She will keep the photos, too, and scan & organize them.  She has far-flung contacts who can help identify some of these unlabeled family & friends.  I brought the letters & deeds back to Washington, but she will transcribe the scanned letters for us. 

Now I can dive into the substance of the letters!  

Maltby, Washington

Maltby Café

9 miles

Oct 6 – The Maltby Café is a place that gives me some idea of how far I can ride.  I’ve driven here to have lunch with my quilting friends.  It seems to be a community gathering place for locals.

At Home in Kenmore

October 2015

My backyard represents my sense of place.  I spend a lot of time tending to it in the warm weather.  Here the dew is glistening on the bare branches of a January morning.