Final Submittal 

An Interpretive History of the 

Elwha River Valley 

and the Legacy of Hydropower on 

Washington’s Olympic Peninsula 

by

Paul Sadin, Project Historian 

Dawn Vogel, Research Historian 

Project Manager 

Heather Lee Miller, Associate Historian 

Historical Research Associates 

1904 Third Avenue, Suite 240 

Seattle, WA 98101 

Submitted to

 

National Park Service 

Olympic National Park 

600 East Park Avenue 

Port Angeles, WA 98362 

January 2011 
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Table of Contents 

Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................... ix

Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... xi

Selected Chronology of Events: Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams, 1855-2009 ......................... xiii

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1

The Power of the Elwha ............................................................................................................................ 4

Chapter 1 The Power of the Elwha River ....................................................................................... 9

The Klallam People of the North Peninsula ............................................................................................ 10

European Contact .................................................................................................................................... 21

Homesteading in the Elwha Valley ......................................................................................................... 23

Olympic Forest Reserve .......................................................................................................................... 41

Chapter 2 Elwha Dam Construction Powers Industrial and Community Growth, 1900–1914 .... 45

Thomas Aldwell and Elwha River Power ............................................................................................... 47

Elwha Dam Construction ..................................................................................................................... 61

Foundation Blowout and Aftermath........................................................................................................ 72

Initial Impact of Elwha Dam Construction........................................................................................... 77

The Hatchery Agreement ..................................................................................................................... 79

Chapter 3 Transformations: A River, a Tribe, a City .................................................................. 87

The Industrial Growth of Port Angeles ................................................................................................... 88

Pulp and Paper Mills, 1918–1929 ........................................................................................................... 95

More Power from the Elwha ................................................................................................................... 99

Port Angeles and the Great Depression, 1929–1945............................................................................. 119

Life on the Elwha River ........................................................................................................................ 128

Elwha Valley Recreation ...................................................................................................................... 134

The Power of Place: The Elwha River and the Elwha Klallam ............................................................ 160

Chapter 4 Power Politics: The Environmental Era Arrives and Challenges to the Dams Begin, 

1968–2008................................................................................................................................... 167

The Elwha Klallam Tribe’s Challenge to Relicensing .......................................................................... 176

Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act ........................................................................ 196

Local Resistance to Dam Removal ....................................................................................................... 203

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 219

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 227

Appendices 

Catalogue of Photographs and Graphics Identified for use in Publication .................... Appendix A 
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List of Figures 

Figure 1. Map of the Elwha River watershed on the north side of the Olympic Peninsula. The vast 

majority of the watershed lies within Olympic National Park. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .... 3

Figure 2. Aerial view of (top to bottom) Lake Mills, Glines Canyon Dam and power plant, and the Elwha 

River, n.d. Photograph by Jet Lowe. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ............................................ 5

Figure 3. Construction workers hanging from a revolving crane in the early phase of building Glines 

Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 

2010.200.086. ......................................................................................................................................... 7

Figure 4. Elwha River. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .................................................................... 10

Figure 5. Map showing the mouth of the Elwha River, Freshwater Bay, and the location of the Elwha 

Klallam village, 1908. Courtesy of Olympic National Park Archives. ................................................ 12

Figure 6. Fragment of an almost 3,000-year-old basket, made of roots and limbs, found by visitors to 

Olympic National Park, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ...................................................... 15

Figure 7. Example of a culturally modified tree. This scarred cedar was found in the Tongass National 

Forest of southeastern Alaska, 2009. Photograph by Eric Carlson, Historical Research Associates, 

Inc. ........................................................................................................................................................ 16

Figure 8. Hand-colored postcard depicting the Elwha Canyon, prior to dam construction. Photograph by 

P. C. Nailer and Co., Port Angeles, Wash. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ................................ 18

Figure 9. Underwater view of swimming salmon. Photograph by National Park Service. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. ........................................................................................................................ 20

Figure 10. Salmon eggs in stream gravel. Photograph by National Park Service. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. ....................................................................................................................................... 20

Figure 11. Hand-colored image of black and white photograph showing Glines Canyon and footbridge 

across Elwha River prior to dam construction, ca. 1900. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .......... 23

Figure 12. Affidavit containing the statements of two Clallam County residents testifying that Marcellus 

Huntoon made sufficient improvements to his homestead to obtain title to the land, June 2, 1873. The 

document indicates that Huntoon settled on the parcel on December 25, 1861, and moved into his 

permanent “log dwelling house” on approximately February 25, 1862. Courtesy of National Archives 

and Records Administration. ................................................................................................................ 25

Figure 13. Humes Ranch along the Elwha River, 1918. New residents quickly realized what Klallam 

tribal members had long known—the soil-rich bottomlands where the Elwha River’s previous floods 

had deposited mud and debris were the best locations for settlement and raising crops. The terrain was 

also flatter than on steep slopes farther away from the river. Courtesy of Lyman R. Humes Collection, 

Olympic National Park. Ref. no. .......................................................................................................... 27

Figure 14. Dodger and Norma Bender in front of their home on the Elwha River. Photograph by Gary 

Wagner. Courtesy of Alice Alexander. ................................................................................................ 28

Figure 15. “Doc” A. Ludden’s Geyser Apiary Co. in the Elwha Valley, ca. 1914. Courtesy of the Bert 

Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. ................................................................. 30

Figure 16. Elwha Valley homesteaders Will Humes, Orlin Burdick, and Grant Humes at the Humes 

Ranch cabin, 1905. Photograph by Frank Pearson. Courtesy of Gerry Humes Collection, Olympic 

National Park. ....................................................................................................................................... 32

Figure 17. Humes Ranch Cabin, interior, n.d. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, ref. no. 

988.64.24. ............................................................................................................................................. 33

Figure 18. Hunter John homestead on the Elwha River, 1915. Elwha Klallam tribal member Hunter John 

established a farm on this parcel in the mid-1870s, eventually receiving a homestead patent. After he 
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died in 1912, the homestead went to his granddaughter Maggie Jackson and grandson Charley 

Sampson. Before they could move onto the parcel, the blowout of the Elwha Dam’s foundation 

brought floodwaters that washed away all the existing crops and buildings. Courtesy of Beatrice 

Charles. ................................................................................................................................................. 36

Figure 19. Interior view of cannery. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic 

Library System. .................................................................................................................................... 37

Figure 20. First swimming pool at Olympic Hot Springs, prior to construction of a concrete pool, ca. 

1910. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. ...................... 39

Figure 21. Bridge across the Elwha River, prior to 1910. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ............... 40

Figure 22. Map of Port Angeles, showing locations of Ediz Hook, platted downtown area, Puget Sound 

Cooperative Colony, and the Elwha River (far left), 1891. Courtesy of the North Olympic Library 

System. ................................................................................................................................................. 46

Figure 23. Unidentified tribal members camped on Hollywood Beach at the foot of Lincoln Street, ca. 

1900. Courtesy of Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. ............................ 49

Figure 24. Front Street, looking to the north, ca. 1888. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the 

North Olympic Library System. ........................................................................................................... 50

Figure 25. Front Street, looking to the north, ca. 1889. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the 

North Olympic Library System. ........................................................................................................... 50

Figure 26. Front Street, looking to the northwest, ca. 1890. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of 

the North Olympic Library System. ..................................................................................................... 50

Figure 27. View from harbor looking south to Port Angeles waterfront, showing piers and buildings 

along Front Street, ca. 1893. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ...................................................... 50

Figure 28. The Port Angeles business district, looking east down Valley Street, in 1891. This photograph 

shows First Street being filled. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library 

System. ................................................................................................................................................. 51

Figure 29. Panoramic view of Port Angeles after the Townsite Reserve was opened, 1897. Courtesy of 

the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. .................................................... 53

Figure 30. Interior view of the first electric light plant in Port Angeles, located on Cherry Hill. Courtesy 

of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. ............................................... 56

Figure 31. Decorated car participating in a Sequim, Washington, parade, 1910. Sequim was one of 

several Olympic Peninsula communities eager for Elwha River hydropower to boost the industrial 

growth of the city. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ...................................................................... 57

Figure 32. Elwha Dam in the earliest stages of construction, ca. 1910. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. ...................................................................................................................................................... 59

Figure 33. Elwha Dam construction, ca. 1910-1911. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ...................... 61

Figure 34. Elwha Dam construction, ca. 1910-1911. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ...................... 62

Figure 35. Early stages of construction of the Elwha Dam spillway and powerhouse, looking upstream, 

ca. 1910-11. Photograph by Critchfield. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 

2010.200.145. ....................................................................................................................................... 64

Figure 36. Construction of the powerhouse at the Elwha Dam, ca. 1910-11. Photograph by Critchfield. 

Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.147. ..................................... 64

Figure 37. Scaffolding and unstable hillside during early phase of Glines Canyon Dam and powerhouse 

construction, 1926. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.064. ..... 65

Figure 38. “Fatal Accident at Elwha Power Plant.” Newspaper headline from the Port Angeles Tribune 

Times, March 8, 1912. .......................................................................................................................... 66

Figure 39. Elwha Dam construction, ca. 1910-1911. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ...................... 67

Figure 40. Workers at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .......... 68
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Figure 41. Scaffolding at the nearly complete Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1927. In January 1927, a portion 

of scaffolding collapsed, killing four men and injuring seven others. Courtesy of Clallam County 

Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.082. ................................................................................... 70

Figure 42. Historic American Engineering Record sketch of Elwha River Hydroelectric System, 1910–

1927. HAER Drawing WA-130. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ................................................ 71

Figure 43. Elwha Dam powerhouse, showing damage from the 1912 foundation blowout. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. ........................................................................................................................ 73

Figure 44. Engineering drawing of the Elwha Dam, showing the layers of materials used to shore up the 

dam’s foundation to prevent further leakage. HAER Drawing WA-130-A. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. ....................................................................................................................................... 76

Figure 45. Lake Aldwell, behind the Elwha Dam, August 1946. Photograph by Thompson. Courtesy of 

Clallam County Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.041. ......................................................... 77

Figure 46. “River de Front,” Front Street in Port Angeles under water during regrade sluicing operations, 

June 1914. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .................................................................................. 82

Figure 47. Dedication of the Clallam County Courthouse, located at Fourth and Lincoln Streets in Port 

Angeles, June 14, 1915. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library 

System. ................................................................................................................................................. 83

Figure 48. The city’s first passenger train, run by the Milwaukee Railroad Company, ready to leave Port 

Angeles for the Elwha River, July 21, 1914. Photograph by Angeles Studio. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. ....................................................................................................................................... 85

Figure 49. Laurel Street, looking north, 1916. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North 

Olympic Library System. ..................................................................................................................... 88

Figure 50. Jack Pike, on the left, and unknown companion by cedar tree along Elwha River, 1930. 

Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .................................................................................................... 90

Figure 51. The Puget Sound Co-operative Colony’s lumber mill at the north end of Chambers Street, 

1888. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. ...................... 92

Figure 52. Filion Lumber Mill and men outside the mill during building construction, Port Angeles, 

1893. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. ...................... 93

Figure 53. Earles’ Mill, also known as the “Big Mill,” ca. 1914. Photograph by “H. B.” Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. ........................................................................................................................ 94

Figure 54. The U.S. Spruce Corporation Mill, located at the mouth of Ennis Creek, ca. 1918. Courtesy of 

the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. .................................................... 95

Figure 55. Construction of Washington Pulp and Paper Company mill, August 7, 1920. Photograph by F. 

G. Lewis Photo, Port Angeles, Wash. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ........................................ 98

Figure 56. Aerial view of the Elwha Dam, showing power plant annex (left of the main power plant 

building) and larger-diameter penstock, both added in 1922, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. .................................................................................................................................................... 100

Figure 57. Interior of the Elwha Dam power plant, showing the no. 3 generator, ca. 1922. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. ...................................................................................................................... 101

Figure 58. Thomas Aldwell and other company and city leaders at Glines Canyon Dam construction site. 

Aldwell is the fourth from the left, wearing long overcoat, ca. 1926. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. .................................................................................................................................................... 102

Figure 59. Engineering drawing of Glines Canyon Dam. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ............. 103

Figure 60. Crew digging bypass tunnel at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-1927. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. ..................................................................................................................................... 104

Figure 61. Construction of intake at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. .................................................................................................................................................... 105
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Figure 62. Diversion tunnel at Glines Canyon Dam, June 15, [1927]. The river was diverted through this 

tunnel while dam construction was underway. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, ONP 

ref. no. 2010.200.135. ......................................................................................................................... 106

Figure 63. Construction of a cofferdam at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-1927. Courtesy of Clallam 

County Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.089. .................................................................... 107

Figure 64. Glines Canyon Dam bunk houses, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical 

Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.144. .................................................................................................. 108

Figure 65. Cooks for work crews at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. During the two years of 

construction at Glines Canyon a temporary community of more than a hundred laborers, engineers, 

carpenters, pipe fitters, cooks, janitors, and so on enlivened that part of the Elwha Valley. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. ...................................................................................................................... 109

Figure 66. Cement chute at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical 

Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.059. .................................................................................................. 111

Figure 67. Workers at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ........ 112

Figure 68. Overview of near complete Glines Canyon Dam, showing (left to right) upper portion of dam 

structure, water pouring from spillway, surge tank, section of penstock, and power plant, ca. 1927. 

Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .................................................................................................. 113

Figure 69. Air compressors at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Clallam County 

Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.070. ................................................................................. 114

Figure 70. The Elwha River, June 1926. After the Glines Canyon Dam was completed, this spot was 100 

feet beneath the surface of the reservoir. USFS photograph. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ... 116

Figure 71. Papermaking machine inside Washington Pulp and Paper Company’s mill, ca. 1923. 

Photograph by Asahel Curtis. Courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections 

Division, Asahel Curtis Photo Co. Collection, PH Coll 482, CUR1477. ........................................... 117

Figure 72. Washington Pulp and Paper Company mill, September 29, 1923. Photograph by F. G. Lewis 

Photo, Port Angeles, Wash. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library 

System. ............................................................................................................................................... 118

Figure 73. Crown Zellerbach baseball team photo, n.d. Photograph by Thompson Studio. Courtesy of 

Clallam County Historical Society. .................................................................................................... 122

Figure 74. Port Angeles Salmon Club headquarters, 1937. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the 

North Olympic Library System. ......................................................................................................... 125

Figure 75. Salmon Derby Clubhouse on Ediz Hook, ca. 1940. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of 

the North Olympic Library System. ................................................................................................... 125

Figure 76. Boats in Port Angeles harbor, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [FishingFleet.jpg] .. 126

Figure 77. Group of children at Elwha Forest Camp, July 1938. U.S. Forest Service photograph. Courtesy 

of Olympic National Park. .................................................................................................................. 128

Figure 78. Pioneer picnic, 1962. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library 

System. ............................................................................................................................................... 129

Figure 79. Dick Goin’s wife, Marie Goin, holding a 44-pound salmon caught in Freshwater Bay, 1960s. 

Courtesy of Dick Goin. ...................................................................................................................... 131

Figure 80. Families of USFS ranger staff made the Elwha Valley their personal playground. Taken near 

the Elwha Ranger Station, June 1926. USFS photograph. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ...... 135

Figure 81. Cabin in Elwha Valley that may have served as first Elwha Ranger Station, n.d. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. [3001.JPG] ................................................................................................... 136

Figure 82. Jim Byrne, ranger in the Olympic National Park on the Elwha in the 1930s and 1940s. 

Courtesy of Bernie Byrne. .................................................................................................................. 138
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Figure 83. Fishing in the Elwha River, July 1936. USFS photograph. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. .................................................................................................................................................... 140

Figure 84. Dick Goin and his son holding 53 lb. fish, and two smaller fish caught in Freshwater Bay, 

1963. Courtesy of Dick Goin. ............................................................................................................. 142

Figure 85. Barracks at Camp Elwha CCC camp. Courtesy of Bernice Byrne. ........................................ 144

Figure 86. Clearing for Highway 101, along the southern edge of Lake Crescent. Olympic National 

Forest photograph. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ................................................................... 146

Figure 87. Elwha Resort Service Station and members of the Ormbreck family, ca. 1929. With the 

completion of the Olympic Loop Highway, more motorists came to the Olympic Peninsula and 

services for automobile tourism sprang up. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ............................. 147

Figure 88. Map of loop highway around the Olympic Peninsula. Courtesy of University of Washington 

Libraries, Special Collections, PAM0044. ......................................................................................... 149

Figure 89. Thelma and Gudrum, pictured here, were nieces of John Ormbreck, owner of the Elwha 

Resort, 1924. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ............................................................................ 150

Figure 90. Local residents in a Ford automobile in the Elwha Valley, n.d. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg 

Collection of the North Olympic Library System. ............................................................................. 151

Figure 91. Elwha River sign, 1950. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ............................................... 152

Figure 92. Advertisement for Olympic Hot Springs in the upper Elwha Valley. Postcard by Torke’s 

Studio. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ...................................................................................... 153

Figure 93. Olympic Hot Springs lodge. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic 

Library System. .................................................................................................................................. 154

Figure 94. Olympic Hot Springs swimming pool. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North 

Olympic Library System. ................................................................................................................... 155

Figure 95. Olympic Hot Springs brochure cover. Courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, 

Special Collections, PAM0042. ......................................................................................................... 156

Figure 96. Camp DYB, “A Real Camp for Real Boys,” pamphlet cover. Courtesy of National Archives 

and Records Administration–Pacific Alaska Region, Seattle, Wash. ................................................ 158

Figure 97. Aerial view of Camp DYB campus, ca. 1924. Courtesy of National Archives and Records 

Administration, Pacific-Alaska Regional Branch, Seattle, Wash. ...................................................... 160

Figure 98. Lighthouse on Ediz Hook. Photograph by Clifford B. Ellis. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. .................................................................................................................................................... 162

Figure 99. Aerial view of Port Angeles, looking south, 1960. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of 

the North Olympic Library System. ................................................................................................... 168

Figure 100. Nippon Paper (former Crown Zellerbach/James River) mill in Port Angeles, n.d. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. ...................................................................................................................... 170

Figure 101. Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce promotional brochure, ca. 1960. Courtesy of University 

of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, UW29171. ................................................................ 171

Figure 102. Port Angeles Vacationland brochure, 1961. Courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, 

Special Collections, UW29157. ......................................................................................................... 172

Figure 103. The Port Angeles Salmon Derby was a regional attraction until restrictions on commercial 

and sport fishing brought the festival to end in 1995. Salmon Derby activities on Ediz Hook, ca. 1970. 

Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. .............................. 173

Figure 104. Bluffs and Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation at the mouth of the Elwha River, n.d. 

Photograph by Robert Lundahl. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ............................................... 176

Figure 105. High water flow at the Elwha Dam, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .................... 177

Figure 106. Face of the Glines Canyon Dam, 1995. Photograph by Jet Lowe. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. ..................................................................................................................................... 179
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Figure 107. Peninsula Daily News headline, August 10, 1990. ............................................................... 180

Figure 108. Powerhouse control room, Elwha Dam, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ............. 182

Figure 109. Control panels at the Elwha Dam, 2005. Photograph by Betsy Carlson. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. ..................................................................................................................................... 183

Figure 110. Generators at the Elwha Dam, 2005. Photograph by Betsy Carlson. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. ..................................................................................................................................... 185

Figure 111. Jamie Valadez talking to teachers at the Elwha River, July 2005. Photograph by Betty 

Carlson. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .................................................................................... 187

Figure 112. Bald eagles feed extensively on dying salmon and steelhead during the spawning runs, n.d. 

Photograph by Scott Church. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ................................................... 188

Figure 113. “Unknown Earth First! artist paints ‘crack’ on Elwha Dam.” Newspaper headline from the 

Peninsula Daily News, September 3, 1987......................................................................................... 189

Figure 114. Drawing of anadromous fish species formerly found in the Elwha River, with map showing 

their potential habitat after restoration of river is completed. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .. 191

Figure 115. The mouth of the Elwha River, 1994. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ........................ 195

Figure 116. Ediz Hook, with Nippon Mill at bottom of picture, n.d. Washington Department of Ecology 

photograph. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .............................................................................. 198

Figure 117. Elwha Klallam tribal members Bea Charles and Adeline Smith, with the Elwha River in the 

background, n.d. Photograph by Jacilee Wray. .................................................................................. 199

Figure 118. Representative Al Swift on a trip to Olympic National Park in 1985. Courtesy of Al Swift 

Congressional Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University. ...... 201

Figure 119. Aerial photograph of the lower portion and mouth of the Elwha River, location of the Lower 

Elwha Klallam Reservation, 1994. Courtesy of Dick Goin................................................................ 202

Figure 120. “Proposal to remove Elwha dams finds community sharply divided.” Newspaper headline 

from the Daily World (Aberdeen), August 16, 1990. ......................................................................... 203

Figure 121. Lake Mills, above the Glines Canyon Dam, May 25, 2005. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. .................................................................................................................................................... 205

Figure 122. Lake Aldwell, above the Elwha Dam, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ................ 206

Figure 123. Seattle Times newspaper headline, March 30, 1990, following the release of a General 

Accounting Office report on the Elwha Dams. The report concluded that FERC did not have the 

authority to relicense the Glines Canyon Dam. .................................................................................. 206

Figure 124. Map showing the historic runs of Chinook salmon up the Elwha River. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. ..................................................................................................................................... 209

Figure 125. Bull trout, n.d.. Photograph by Dave Zelenka. Courtesy of Olympic National Park............ 210

Figure 126. Upper Elwha River watershed, in Olympic National Park, above Glines Canyon Dam, n.d. 

Photograph by Robert Lundahl. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ............................................... 211

Figure 127. Editorial cartoon, from the Columbian (Vancouver, Wash.), March 20, 1996. ................... 213

Figure 128. Editorial cartoon lampooning Washington Senator Slade Gorton, from the Seattle PostIntelligencer, ca. 1996. ....................................................................................................................... 213

Figure 129. Brian Winter, NPS fisheries biologist and Elwha Project Coordinator, on the bank of the 

Elwha River giving talk to a group of dignitaries that includes (from left to right) Congressman Norm 

Dicks, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, ONP Superintendent David Morris, Lower Elwha 

Klallam Tribe Chair Frances Charles (back to the camera), and Congressman Jay Inslee, August 

1997. Courtesy of Olympic National Park Archives. ......................................................................... 215

Figure 130. Restoration of the Elwha River ecosystem will benefit many different species. Fishers were 

reintroduced to the Olympic Peninsula in 2008, including several in the Elwha Valley. Photograph by 

John Jacobson. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ......................................................................... 216
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Figure 131. Artistic rendering showing Glines Canyon before (above) and after (below) dam removal. 

Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .................................................................................................. 218

Figure 132. NPS scientist Dr. Jerry Freilich and volunteer backcountry ranger Dr. Dick Vancalcar take a 

sample of the macroinvertebrate community that dwells in the bottom of the Elwha River, 2006. 

Photograph by Vicki Vancalcar. Courtesy of Jeff Duda, USGS. ....................................................... 221

Figure 133. Fisheries staff from the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and students from Peninsula College in 

Port Angeles deploy a seine net in the Elwha River estuary as part of a juvenile salmon study, 2006. 

Photograph by Pat Shafroth. Courtesy of Jeff Duda, USGS. ............................................................. 223

Figure 134. Aerial photograph of the sediment-built delta behind the Glines Canyon Dam on Lake Mills. 

Image taken just following completion of the first pre-removal construction tasks—carving a channel 

through the delta and the removal of the glade of alder trees covering it—at the dam site. September 

2010. Photograph by Tom Roorda. Courtesy of Tom Roorda, NTI. .................................................. 225
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Executive Summary 

 In June 2009, the National Park Service (NPS) and Olympic National Park contracted with 

Historical Research Associates, Inc. (HRA), of Seattle, Washington, to write an interpretive 

history of the Elwha Valley and the Elwha River dams. The two hydroelectric dams have stood 

on the Elwha River for more than eighty years produced power that spurred the growth of the 

pulp and paper industry in the nearby city of Port Angeles, but also blocked the passage of the 

once prodigious Elwha River salmon runs. After three decades of intense debate on the subject, 

the dams are now scheduled for removal in 2011-13, in order to restore the Elwha River 

ecosystem and help salmon and steelhead return to the river. In October 1992, President George 

H. W. Bush signed Public Law 102-95, the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration 

Act, which set the dam removal project in motion. During the course of conducting the numerous 

studies in preparation for dam removal, the two dams were named eligible for listing in the 

National Register of Historic Places. Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 

1966 requires mitigation to compensate for the alteration or removal of historic features such as 

these when they are owned or operated by the federal government. To address this requirement, 

the National Park Service, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Washington State Preservation Officer, 

and Advisory Council on Historic Preservation entered a programmatic agreement detailing the 

steps required for mitigation. The mitigation agreement specified that the NPS would oversee the 

survey and documentation of all historic structures, and develop an interpretive plan that would 

ensure that the story of Elwha and Glines Canyon dams would be conveyed effectively to park 

visitors and the general public. This historical narrative is part of that interpretive effort. 

 As of this writing, the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Project is about to 

become the largest dam removal action in U.S. history and one of the largest NPS construction 
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projects ever undertaken. This book is but a small piece of the extensive mitigation activities 

connected to removal of the dams, which will include such momentous tasks as restoring the 

aquatic habitat of the Elwha River and replenishing the populations of all five species of native 

Pacific salmon once found in the Elwha. The project will also provide the Lower Elwha Klallam 

Tribe with access to their traditional sacred sites, cultural activities, and livelihoods in salmon 

fishing, and provide scientists an unprecedented opportunity to study the restoration of an entire 

ecosystem. 
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Acknowledgments 

 The preparation and production of this book would not have been possible without the 

assistance of many different individuals and organizations along the way. The authors would like 

to thank the National Park Service (NPS) and Olympic National Park (ONP) for contracting with 

Historical Research Associates, Inc., and making this book possible. In particular, we are 

indebted to Jacilee Wray and Paul Gleeson of ONP for planning the project, arranging for the 

contract, preparing an extensive collection of research materials, and carefully reviewing and 

commenting on each draft of the manuscript. Similarly, we wish to thank NPS historian Gretchen 

Luxenberg in the NPS Seattle Support Office, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe members Robert 

Elofson and Latricia Suggs, ONP archivist Gay Hunter, and ONP Elwha Project team leader 

Brian Winter for assisting with research and reviewing drafts of the manuscript. 

 Additional thanks go to Beth Witters, librarian at the Port Angeles branch of the North 

Olympic Library System; Kathy Monds and Donna Cloud at the Clallam County Historical 

Society in Port Angeles for their assistance with the historic images used in the book; and to Jeff 

Duda, U.S. Geologic Survey, Bernice Byrne, and Dick Goin for sharing photographs from their 

personal collections. Bernice Byrne also spent uncounted hours for us at the copy machine, while 

Heather Hennum diligently transcribed the oral history interviews. We also received assistance 

obtaining historic images from staff in the Special Collections Division, University of 

Washington Libraries in Seattle, and the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western 

Washington University in Bellingham. 

 We also want to thank the following individuals who participated in interviews conducted for 

this project: Russell Busch, Orville Campbell, Shawn Cantrell, Patty Elofson, Robert Elofson, 
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Maureen Finnerty, Richard (Dick) Goin, Cat Hawkins-Hoffman, Juan Macias, and Joe 

Michalczik. 
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Selected Chronology of Events: 

Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams, 1855-2009 

1855 Treaty of Point No Point with Klallam, Twana, and Chemakum tribes 

1856-57 First non-native settler in area that is now Port Angeles

1861 First homesteader in the Elwha Valley

1884 Indian Homestead Act 

1889 Washington statehood 

1891 Steam-powered electrical lighting comes to Port Angeles

1894 Thomas Aldwell begins buying land for Elwha River dam and reservoir

1897 Olympic Forest Reserve established

1905 Forest Reserves placed under the new U.S. Forest Service

1909 Mount Olympus National Monument established; Olympic Hot Springs Resort opens 

1910 Aldwell and George Glines establish the Olympic Power and Development Company; initial 

work at Elwha Dam site begins 

1911 Construction of Elwha Dam foundation blocks upstream fish passage for first time 

1912 Blowout of Elwha dam foundation damages power plant and Elwha Klallam homesteads

1913 Reconstruction of dam foundation and completion of Elwha Dam

1914 Olympic Power and Development Company begins electrical transmission to Port Angeles 

and other customers in January 

1914 Construction of state fish hatchery on Elwha River in lieu of fish passage. 

1916 Olympic Power and Development reorganized as Northwest Power and Manufacturing Co.

1918 Crescent Boxboard Company, first pulp and paper mill in Port Angeles, begins operation

1919 Zellerbach Company buys Elwha power plant to run new mill in Port Angeles 

1920 Washington Pulp and Paper Company mill completed and begins production on Ediz Hook; 

new mill built atop abandoned Klallam village and burials at Tse-whit-zen 

1922 Construction of Elwha power plant annex and turbines; state hatchery at Elwha Dam site 

ceases operations 

1924 Northwestern Power and Manufacturing Company reorganized to form Northwestern Power 

and Light Company 

1926 Construction of Glines Canyon Dam begins; Federal Power Commission grants dam a 50-year 

operating license 

1927 Glines Canyon Dam construction completed and power generation begins 

1929 Beginning of the Great Depression

1930 Olympic Forest Products (subsequently Rayonier) opens mill in Port Angeles 
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1931 Olympic Peninsula Loop Highway opens

1934 Indian Reorganization Act; First Port Angeles Salmon Derby

1937 Crown Zellerbach Corporation purchases the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams 

1938 Congress establishes Olympic National Park

1938 Fourteen Klallam families move onto land purchased for the tribe near the mouth of the 

Elwha River 

1940 Expansion of Olympic National Park adds Glines Canyon Dam site and Olympic Hot Springs to 

park 

1941 U.S. entry into World War II

1949 Port Angeles and Crown Zellerbach mill connected to Bonneville Power Administration grid

1966 Olympic Hot Springs Resort closed

1968 Crown Zellerbach files license application for the Elwha Dam; Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe 

gains federal recognition and establishes reservation along Elwha River 

1973 Crown Zellerbach files application to relicense Glines Canyon Dam

1974 Boldt Decision reaffirms treaty fishing rights of western Washington tribes 

1985 Lower Elwha Klallam tribe files suit to prevent relicensing of dams; Crown Zellerbach sells 

the Port Angeles mill and two Elwha dams to James River Corporation 

1986 Seattle Audubon Society, Friends of the Earth, Olympic Park Associates, and Sierra Club, file 

motion seeking removal of Elwha River dams 

1988 Daishowa purchases the Port Angeles mill from James River Company; Congress designates 

95 percent of Olympic acreage as wilderness 

1991 FERC releases Draft Environmental Impact Statement concluding that dam removal is 

feasible 

1992 President Bush signs P.L. 102-495, the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act

1996 Park issues final Implementation EIS for Elwha River Ecosystem Restoration 

1999 First meeting between National Park Service, Fort James Company, and Daishowa America 

to discuss federal acquisition of Elwha and Glines Canyon hydroelectric projects 

2000 Federal government completes acquisition of the Elwha and Glines Canyon hydroelectric 

projects 

2004 NPS, city of Port Angeles, and Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe sign Memorandum of 

Understanding that identifies dam removal mitigation measures and responsibilities 

2005 Park issues Record of Decision on Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on 

Elwha Ecosystem Restoration Implementation 
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Introduction 

The Elwha River in Clallam County is a turbulent stream that has flowed unvexed and unbinded 

from the mountains to the sea for countless centuries until it occurred . . . to harness the 

tumbling waters of the swiftest of rivers and compel it to work. 

Sequim Press, April 8, 1911

 On October 24, 1992, President George H. W. Bush signed Public Law 102-95, the Elwha 

River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act, which set the stage for the federal government to 

remove from the Elwha River two dams that have stood in the river’s path for nearly a century. 

During that time, the dams generated hydroelectric power that attracted new industries and 

transformed the social and economic life of the Olympic Peninsula. Power from the Elwha River 

spurred the growth of the city of Port Angeles and its neighboring communities. But these gains 

came at a great cost to others, as the presence of the dams produced painful consequences for the 

Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, which has lived in the Elwha River Valley since time immemorial, 

and for the once-prodigious runs of anadromous fish that were the staple of the Klallam diet and 

the central element of the Elwha River ecosystem. This history tells the story of the people of the 

Elwha Valley and the city of Port Angeles and describes how their social and economic 

connections to the river and the dams shaped their lives during the twentieth century. 

 The Elwha River is located on the northern half of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, 

descending 45 miles from its source in the heart of the Olympic Mountains to the river’s mouth 

on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. About 83 percent of the Elwha River watershed, which includes 

over 100 miles of tributaries, now lies within the boundaries of Olympic National Park. The 

remaining five miles runs through land owned by the U.S. Forest Service, Washington State 

Department of Natural Resources, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, City of Port 
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Angeles, private landowners, and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, which has its reservation at 

the mouth of the river. The river flows from south to north through lush old-growth and secondgrowth forests with stands of immense red cedar, Douglas fir, and western hemlock trees, which 

flourish in the 60 to 80 inches of rain the Elwha Valley receives each year. The forest provides 

important habitat for terrestrial animals that include Roosevelt elk, deer, black bears, cougars, 

coyotes, snowshoe hares, and numerous species of weasels, squirrels, mice, voles, and shrews. 

 The Elwha Valley is also home to numerous avian species, including eagles, ospreys, 

songbirds, waterfowl, and endangered marbled murrelets and northern spotted owls.1 But the 

Elwha River gained its greatest renown from the eight species of anadromous fish that returned 

to the Elwha in large numbers each year to spawn in the river’s main channel, tributary streams, 

and an upland lake. Local tribes, commercial fish operators, and anglers from around the region 

considered the Elwha to be the biggest salmon and steelhead producing river on the entire 

Olympic Peninsula. The Elwha’s waters also provided excellent habitat for native trout, 

numerous amphibians, and a multitude of insects on which the fish and amphibians fed. 

 1

 Department of the Interior, Department of Commerce, and Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribe, The Elwha Report: 

Restoration of the Elwha River Ecosystem and Native Anadromous Fisheries. A Report Submitted Pursuant to 

Public Law 102-495 (1994), 18–20. Authors’ note: At time of publication, the federally endangered/threatened 

status for each of these species should be rechecked. 
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Figure 1. Map of the Elwha River watershed on the north side of the Olympic Peninsula. The vast 

majority of the watershed lies within Olympic National Park. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [Elwha 

Watershed_cropped.jpg] 
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 For thousands of years, the Elwha River was free-flowing from the mountains to the strait. 

That changed in 1911, when a private company began construction of the first of the river’s two 

hydropower dams, the Elwha Dam. Completed in 1913, the Elwha Dam is 105 feet tall and holds 

back the 2.5-mile-long Lake Aldwell reservoir.2

 The dam sits about five miles from the mouth of 

the Elwha River. The 210-foot-tall Glines Canyon Dam, completed in 1927, sits more than eight 

miles farther upstream at river mile 13.4. Behind it is the Lake Mills reservoir. In addition to 

storing water for hydropower production, the dams have accumulated approximately 21 million 

cubic yards of sediment that otherwise would have been deposited downstream in the riverbed, 

onto the Elwha River delta, and along the nearby shoreline of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. 

Originally, the roughly twenty megawatts of electricity generated by the two dams served 

numerous residential communities and industries on the Olympic Peninsula. But since the 1940s, 

the Elwha dams’ power has gone to a single customer, the former Crown Zellerbach (now 

Nippon Paper Industries) pulp and paper mill in Port Angeles.3

The Power of the Elwha 

 The Seattle Post-Intelligencer journalist who wrote in 1901 that “the Elwha, sublime in its 

majestic and awe inspiring scenery, is destined to become a mighty power for good in the hands 

of ingenious humanity, for the present and future generations,” was right about the Elwha 

River’s capacity for electrical production once human hands had harnessed its energy.4

 But he 

also alluded to the fact that the river, with its “majestic and awe inspiring scenery,” was already a 

 2

 The Elwha Dam and powerhouse structures were completed by December 1913, but continuous power 

generation did no begin until January 1914. The delay was due to the failure of the electrical contractor, Chase 

Engineering Company, to complete their work on the transformer station in Port Angeles in time to receive Elwha 

power in December. “Elwha Juice in Town,” Port Angeles Olympic-Leader, December 12, 1913. 

3

 The dams could produce a maximum of 28 to 29 megawatts at times of peak water flows, but the average 

continuous production was approximately 19 megawatts of electricity. Orville Campbell, interview by Jacilee Wray, 

Port Angeles, Washington, April 6, 2010, transcript, 11. 

4

 “Scenic Wonders of the Picturesque Elwha River,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 1, 1901. 
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mighty force. Indeed, for thousands of years, the river was a place of power for the Klallam 

Indians, as it was the source of their creation story and home to one of their most important 

spirits, Thunderbird. The river empowered the tribe by providing food, recreation, cultural 

traditions, and a transportation corridor. Because the tribe relied so heavily upon the river’s 

resources, construction of the Elwha Dam and the resulting loss of valuable salmon runs 

significantly damaged the economic and spiritual foundations of the tribe. 

Figure 2. Aerial view of (top to bottom) Lake Mills, Glines Canyon Dam and power plant, and the Elwha 

River, n.d. Photograph by Jet Lowe. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [HHWA130B1-1.jpg] 
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 Elwha River power produced a very different story in the city of Port Angeles. Harnessing of 

the river for hydroelectric power helped propel the growth of the community, and shaped the 

lives of the people who lived and worked there. Olympic Power and Development Company 

helped change the face of the Olympic Peninsula in 1914, when it began transmitting electricity 

for residential lighting in Port Angeles, Sequim, and Port Townsend, and to power the 

development of new peninsula sawmills, a steel mill, pulp and paper mills, and the U.S. Naval 

Yard in Bremerton. The Elwha River that had sustained salmon runs and the Elwha Klallam 

people for millennia now nourished budding industries and sped the growth of former “frontier” 

communities. One twentieth-century industry in particular, the pulp and paper manufacturing 

business, seized upon the inexpensive and plentiful power from the Elwha and the abundance of 

another natural resource, Olympic Peninsula timber, to transform the economic and social life of 

Port Angeles. Pulp and paper mills built between 1918 and 1929 gave the city a core industry 

that became the basis for future economic growth. In 1926-27, construction of a second 

hydropower facility on the Elwha River, the Glines Canyon Dam, provided the electricity for the 

continued growth of the pulp and paper industry. For roughly the next fifty years, pulp and paper 

mills provided secure employment for hundreds of local residents and boosted the city’s 

significance in the economy of the Pacific Northwest. 
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Figure 3. Construction workers hanging from a revolving crane in the early phase of building Glines 

Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 

2010.200.086. [201020086.JPG] 

 The two Elwha power plants operated with little regulation for 50 years, until the Federal 

Power Act required the owner, the Crown Zellerbach Company, to license the Elwha Dam and 

relicense the Glines Canyon Dam with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 

the 1970s. Challenges to the legitimacy and safety of the dams began soon thereafter, and led the 

Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and several environmental organizations in the mid-1980s to call for 
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the removal of the Elwha River dams. After a long and controversial campaign aimed at helping 

salmon runs return to the river, restoring critical habitat, and providing safety assurances for the 

tribe, Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act in October 

1992. The Elwha Restoration Act established the legal framework for the removal of the two 

dams and the subsequent environmental restoration. But another ten years transpired before 

Congress finally secured the necessary appropriations to pay for the project. In 2000, the 

National Park Service purchased the dams from the James River Company, and in 2004, 

representatives from Olympic National Park, the city of Port Angeles, and the Lower Elwha 

Klallam Tribe signed a Memorandum of Understanding that identified the measures necessary to 

protect municipal and industrial water supplies. In September 2010, preparation work at the dam 

sites commenced, keeping on schedule for dam removal to begin in fall 2011. 

 The history of the Elwha dams encompasses much more than descriptions of the concrete, 

turbines, and transmission wires that produced electricity for Olympic Peninsula consumers. The 

construction of the dams and their impact contain the interwoven story threads of various people, 

places, and events. In addition to a narrative involving the people of Port Angeles, Elwha Valley 

homesteaders, and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, the pages of this book also encompass the 

activities of the work crews that built the dams; accounts of pulp and paper industry giant Crown 

Zellerbach and its successors; the efforts of many local and national environmental 

organizations; and the actions of federal agencies, including the National Park Service, U.S. 

Forest Service, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. This book brings together these 

diverse stories about the river, the dams, and the people connected to them into a single narrative 

that describes a century of “balancing power” on the Elwha River. 
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Chapter 1 

The Power of the Elwha River 

We were told the salmon belonged to us, it was given to us by our maker. It was part of our 

culture . . . our way of life. 

Beatrice Charles, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, 2002 

 For thousands of years, the Elwha River carved deep into the bedrock of the Elwha Valley, 

nourishing and sustaining an abundance of salmon runs, a rich lowland forest ecosystem, and the 

physical, cultural, and spiritual needs of the Klallam Indians who lived on the river’s banks. 

Roughly 150 years ago, the river’s resources fostered the settlement of a new community of nonnatives who established homesteads along the Elwha River and introduced their own traditions 

and economic practices to the valley. About the same time, some five miles to the east of the 

river mouth, the frontier town of Port Angeles was beginning to grow into what would became 

one of the key economic centers on the Olympic Peninsula. The history of the Elwha River 

revolves around the history of the Klallam people, settlers of the Elwha valley, the city of Port 

Angeles, and other Olympic Peninsula communities that utilized the river’s power to grow and 

prosper in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 
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Figure 4. Elwha River. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [elwha_21.jpg] 

The Klallam People of the North Peninsula 

 The Lower Elwha Klallam Indian Reservation sits at the mouth of the Elwha River, on a 

small piece of former Klallam territory. Here the Elwha Klallam people continue to use the 

river’s resources for their livelihood and for the cultural connection it provides to their past and 

for their future. The Klallam (the Port Gamble and Jamestown S’Klallam tribes spell it 

differently) people were one of several cultural groups that lived on the northern Olympic 
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Peninsula and both sides of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.1 The ancestral territory of the Klallam 

extended along the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula from the Hoko River, west of the Elwha 

River, to Port Townsend and the northern reach of Hood Canal on the east. More than 30 

permanent villages dotted Klallam territory, including Becher Bay, across the Strait of Juan de 

Fuca on Vancouver Island. Although the villages were separate political entities, inhabitants 

shared a common Klallam language and culture. The Klallam language is one branch of a large 

family of Native American languages called Salishan or Salish languages spoken by Indian tribes 

in a territory that encompassed what are now the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and 

Montana, and the province of British Columbia.2

 1

 See Wayne Suttles, “Central Coast Salish,” in Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William Sturtevant, 

vol. 7, Northwest Coast, ed. Wayne Suttles (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1990), 453–56; and Jamie 

Valadez, “Elwha Klallam,” in Olympic Peninsula Intertribal Cultural Advisory Committee, Native Peoples of the 

Olympic Peninsula: Who We Are, ed. Jacilee Wray (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002), 22. Here, the 

term Klallam, when used alone, refers to the collection of bands and villages that lived in the area prior to European 

contact. We refer to contemporary tribal entities as follows: Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe (or Elwha Klallam), Port 

Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, and Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. 

2

 University of North Texas, Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication, Klallam Language 

website, http://www.lingtechcomm.unt.edu//~montler/Klallam/index.htm (accessed July 22, 2010). 
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Figure 5. Map showing the mouth of the Elwha River, Freshwater Bay, and the location of the Elwha 

Klallam village, 1908. Courtesy of Olympic National Park Archives. [t2858.tif] 

 The Elwha River was at the heart of Klallam life and culture. More than ten Klallam villages 

sat along the Elwha River, on the Strait of Juan de Fuca east and west of the river’s mouth, and at 

Ediz Hook.3

 Ediz Hook is a natural sand spit, formed by years of Elwha River sediment deposits, 

that extends from Port Angeles into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, forming Port Angeles Harbor. 

Descendants of families from these villages eventually formed the federally recognized Lower 

Elwha Klallam Tribe. The Elwha Klallam also had one permanent village roughly eight miles 

from the mouth of the river and made numerous trips into the high country, where they kept 

 3

 Randall Schalk, Lou Ann Speulda, and David Conca, “Elwha River Ecosystem Restoration Project, Cultural 

Resources Survey,” prepared by INFOTEC Research, Inc. for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, December 1996, 3.3, 

electronic file provided by Jacilee Wray, Olympic National Park (hereafter ONP). 
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seasonal and permanent camps.4 Early historical accounts, such as that of the 1890 Press 

Expedition, the Seattle Press newspaper’s exploration and publicity trek up the Elwha Valley 

and across the Olympic Peninsula, created the assumption that the Elwha Klallam had restricted 

their subsistence and cultural activities to the river valley and coastline. However, archaeological 

studies and recent interviews with tribal members have revealed that the Elwha Klallam 

frequently traveled through and occupied sites in the subalpine meadows of the Olympic 

Mountains, high above the Elwha River. Hurricane Hill and Obstruction Point were two of many 

traditional hunting and gathering grounds. The Klallam gathered berries and roots, hunted elk 

and other game, and traveled through the mountains to visit other peninsula tribes. One Klallam 

tribal member in particular, Boston Charlie, was renowned for his mountain hunting and 

exploration, blazing trails that later mountain travelers would continue to follow.5

 4

 Personal communication with Jacilee Wray, ONP. 

5

 Valadez, “Elwha Klallam,” 22. On some occasions, tribal members crossed the Olympic Mountains to visit the 

Quinault Indians. 
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CLUES TO THE PAST 

The prehistoric past of the Klallam people is revealed to us in several ways. Tribal elders have 

passed down traditional stories of tribal origins, beliefs, and momentous events. Artifacts found 

in archaeological investigations and ancient burial sites convey details about tribal cultural and 

spiritual practices. Recently uncovered artifacts at the site of Tse-Whit-Zen, a major village site 

in present-day Port Angeles, shed light on the day-to-day lives and ceremonial practices of 

Klallam ancestors. Tribal members working at the site carefully unearthed items that ranged 

from practical (tools, spear points, utensils) to ceremonial.6

[INSERT, if available, images of one or two items uncovered at Tse-whit-zen] 

Sometimes, coincidence provides a new understanding of the Klallam past. In 1993, park visitors 

on a stroll near Hurricane Ridge stumbled upon a fragment of a 3,000-year-old Klallam basket at 

the very moment the item was melting out of a snow bank. Although some of the artifact 

crumbled when they tried to collect it, the family made a videotape of the item while still 

embedded in the snow and turned the fragments over to the park (a federal requirement). 

 6

 Lynda V. Mapes, Breaking Ground: The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Unearthing of Tse-whit-zen 

Village (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009). 
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Figure 6. Fragment of an almost 3,000-year-old basket, made of roots and limbs, found by visitors to 

Olympic National Park, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [10.20a.BasketFrag.jpg] 

For those who know how to read the signs, the forests of former Klallam territory also provide 

clues to ancient Klallam activities. Klallam people used cedar, spruce, and western hemlock trees 

to create shelter, transportation, clothing, tools, and art. They might use an entire cedar tree to 

make a canoe or to cut planks for a long house. To manufacture other items, Klallam people 

harvested only the parts of the tree they needed. Most often, they collected bark, particularly the 

bark of the cedar tree, for a multitude of uses. Everything from soft diaper material to sturdy 
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baskets came from cedar bark. Tribal members used an adze or axe to cut into the bark and then 

pulled the bark away from the trunk.7

Figure 7. Example of a culturally modified tree. This scarred cedar was found in the Tongass National 

Forest of southeastern Alaska, 2009. Photograph by Eric Carlson, Historical Research Associates, Inc. 

[HRA_DSCN0766.jpg] 

 7

 Michael Lewis and C. M. Mobley, “Culturally Modified Tress of Bartlett Cove, Glacier Bay National Park, 

Alaska,” 1994, report prepared for Alaska Region, NPS, 

http://www.nps.gov/glba/historyculture/upload/Lewis_Mobley_1994_CulturallyModifiedTrees_smallest.pdf 

(August 16, 2010). 
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Usually, the amount of bark stripped away allowed the tree to continue growing, but the scars 

remain, still visible hundreds of years later. The scars are typically triangular, rectangular, or 

oval shaped, depending upon the technique and type of tool used to pull the bark away. Scientists 

can count the number of tree rings to determine when the bark was stripped. These particular 

clues to the past, called culturally modified trees (CMTs), are found in the Elwha Valley, and 

throughout the forests of the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and southwestern British Columbia. 

 Although tribal members trekked into the nearby mountains, the river was the constant 

lifeblood of Elwha Klallam economic and spiritual life. The river provided the tribe with food, 

transportation, recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, and spiritual retreat. Former tribal council 

member Patty Elofson called the Elwha River the cultural “core of our people,” and added that 

“there is a lot of serenity being on the river. It’s very spiritual. Our traditional stories, our 

birthing stories come from the river.”8 The river was the site of the tribe’s creation story and the 

home of Thunderbird, a supernatural being who gave them strength and knowledge.9 According 

to tribal legend, “Thunderbird lived in a cave and chased the salmon upriver by sending thunder 

and lightning toward the mouth of the Elwha.”10 The thunder and lightning signaled to the 

Klallam people that it was time to go fishing, because a large salmon run would soon come up 

the river. 

 8

 Patty Elofson, oral history interview by Paul Sadin, October 20, 2009, Port Angeles, Washington, audio 

recording and transcript, 2, Oral History Collection, OLYM-605, Olympic National Park Archives (hereafter 

ONPA). 

9

 Valadez, “Elwha Klallam,” 22. 

10 Valadez, “Elwha Klallam,” 22. 
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Figure 8. Hand-colored postcard depicting the Elwha Canyon, prior to dam construction. Photograph by 

P. C. Nailer and Co., Port Angeles, Wash. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [POL002055.JPG] 

 The Elwha Klallam considered salmon, “so precious . . . that they had additional restrictions 

for proper handling and harvesting.”11 As Elwha Klallam elder Beatrice Charles recalled in a 

film interview, “we were told the salmon belonged to us, it was given to us by our maker. It was 

 11 Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Elwha Watershed Information Resource, “Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe,” 

http://www.elwhainfo.org/people-and-communities/lower-elwha-klallam-tribe (accessed December 8, 2009). 
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part of our culture . . . our way of life.”12 Prior to 1910, the salmon were plentiful. In fact, the 

abundance of the river’s anadromous fish runs and the size of some individual fish became wellknown among Olympic Peninsula tribes. Tribal elder Ed Sampson recalled that the river was 

always filled with fish. “When I went out fishing with my grandmother,” he said, “I would catch 

50 fish. She would catch 100. We’d carry them back in a wheel-barrow. . . . The fish were so 

plentiful that there was no need to select “good” areas.”13

SALMON LIFE CYCLE 

Salmon and other anadromous fish (steelhead, bull trout) hatch in freshwater, swim to the ocean, 

and then return as adults to freshwater streams to lay their eggs (called spawning). The term 

anadromous is a Greek word that means “running upward.” Salmon begin their lives as peasized eggs buried in the gravel of cold, swiftly running rivers. After hatching, juvenile salmon go 

through a smolt phase—a process that enables them to adapt to saltwater before they swim to the 

ocean. As they move downriver, smolts imprint on the sequence of odors they encounter. After 

maturing in the ocean, they find their way back to the waters of their birth to spawn, ending one 

and beginning another migration cycle. Salmon generally die after spawning, while steelhead can 

live to repeat the spawning cycle.14 Five species of salmon—Chinook, coho, pink, chum, and 

sockeye—as well as steelhead, sea-run cutthroat trout, and sea-run bull trout were originally 

found in the Elwha River.15

 12 Beatrice Charles, quoted in Unconquering the Last Frontier: The Restoration of a River and a Culture, VHS 

tape, directed by Robert Lundahl (Robert Lundahl & Associates, LLC, 2002). 

13 Quoted in Lane and Lane Associates, “The Conflict between Indian Terminal Fisheries and Hydropower on 

the Elwha River,” unpublished manuscript, May 1990, 16, OLYM-1597, Resource Library, ONP. 

14 Lisa Mighetto and Wesley J. Ebel, Saving the Salmon: A History of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 

Efforts to Protect Anadromous Fish on the Columbia and Snake Rivers (Seattle: Historical Research Associates, 

Inc., 1994), 11–12. 

15 Department of the Interior, Department of Commerce, and Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribe, Elwha Report, 13. 
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Figure 9. Underwater view of swimming salmon. 

Photograph by National Park Service. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. [SalmonUnderWater.jpg] 

Figure 10. Salmon eggs in stream gravel. 

Photograph by National Park Service. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. 

[SalmonEggsinGravel.jpg] 

 The Elwha Klallam used a number of fishing techniques that their ancestors had honed to 

perfection. Elwha Klallam tribal members employed a strategy, common to many Pacific 

Northwest tribes, of constructing a post and latticework weir across the river or its tributaries, in 

order to direct fish into an enclosure. Tribal members stood on a platform over the weir and used 

dip nets, gaff hooks, or forks to collect the salmon or steelhead. One of the most important 

Klallam salmon fishing sites was the confluence of Indian Creek and the Elwha River, which 

was the location of the permanent upriver village mentioned earlier. In addition to river fishing, 

Klallam Indians fished the open waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in their canoes, using gill 

nets or trolling lines to catch salmon, steelhead, halibut, cod, rockfish, and other species.16 The 

abundant shellfish population, especially clams that grew in the intertidal zones of Freshwater 

Bay and other protected shorelines were a staple of the Klallam diet.17

 16 Lane and Lane Associates, “Conflict between Indian Terminal Fisheries and Hydropower on the Elwha 

River,” 27. 

17 Department of the Interior, Department of Commerce, and Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribe, Elwha Report, 14–

15. 
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European Contact 

The Elwha Klallam’s first contact with Europeans likely took place when Spanish explorer 

Manuel Quimper anchored near the mouth of the Elwha River in Freshwater Bay in 1790. This 

meeting heralded the advent of a period of abrupt change for Klallam society. More frequent 

interactions with European and North American traders began in 1843, when the Hudson’s Bay 

Company established Fort Victoria, a new trading post on the southern coast of Vancouver 

Island.18 In the mid-1800s, three events marked a more permanent alteration of the Klallam 

world. First, there were deadly epidemics of European diseases, for which the native people of 

North America had no natural immunity. The second event—Euroamerican settlement of the 

peninsula—arrived much more slowly than the disease epidemics. The first permanent white 

residents on the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula staked homestead claims or established 

squatter’s rights in the early 1850s, and by the 1880s, many homestead claims were filed, all the 

way into the upper Elwha Valley.19 The third significant alteration to Klallam life during this 

period was the creation of Washington Territory in 1853. 

 Close on the heels of early peninsula settlement and the establishment of Washington 

Territory, the first governor of the new territory, Isaac Stevens, began a series of treaty councils 

with the various Indian groups within the territory. He intended to negotiate treaties that would 

move tribes onto reservations that were but a small fragment of the size of their aboriginal 

homelands. The tribes were to renounce their ownership claims to lands beyond the reservation, 

 18 Richard Somerset Mackie, Trading Beyond the Mountains: the British Fur Trade on the Pacific, 1793-1843

(Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press, 1997), 276-79. 

19 Gail H. E. Evans, “Historic Resource Study: Olympic National Park, Washington” (Seattle: NPS Cultural 

Resources Division, Pacific Northwest Region, 1983), 76–77. Marcellas Huntoon was the first non-native to settle 

on the Elwha River, taking over a parcel of land where the Elwha Klallam had a village at the mouth of the river. 
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but were told they could keep their hunting and gathering grounds on “open and unclaimed 

land,” and fishing rights at “usual and accustomed grounds and stations.”20

 In January 1855, Stevens and his entourage traveled to the northern Olympic Peninsula to 

negotiate a treaty agreement with the Klallam, Twana, Chemakum, and Skokomish tribes.21

After the conclusion of the treaty proceedings, Indian leaders agreed to sign the treaty that ceded 

their former territorial claims and also restricted their movements to a small portion of the 

traditional homeland. In discussions with Stevens and government agents preliminary to signing 

the Treaty of Point No Point, Klallam leaders were led to believe that the government would 

provide them a reservation somewhere on the north Olympic coast.22 But unlike their neighbors 

the Makah or the Skokomish, who obtained reservations within their ancestral territories, the 

terms of the treaty dictated that the Klallam leave their traditional homeland and move onto the 

Skokomish Reservation, some 80 miles away at the southern end of Hood Canal. The 

government expected them to leave behind their homes, sacred sites, ancestors’ graves, and 

traditional hunting and fishing grounds to reside within the homeland of another tribe. Not 

surprisingly, most Klallam Indians chose to remain on the peninsula’s north coast rather than 

move to the Skokomish Reservation. But in the eyes of the government and the non-native 

homesteaders who wanted to stake claims to Klallam land, the tribe had surrendered ownership 

of their traditional land base. The federal government quickly added the land to the public 

domain and opened the area for homesteading. 

 20 United States, “Treaty of Point No Point,” January 25, 1855, Article 4, http://www.elwhainfo.org/people-andcommunities/lower-elwha-klallam-tribe/tribal-history-and-periods/treaties (accessed January 5, 2010). 

21 Jacilee Wray, “Introduction,” in Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula, 11. 

22 Wray, Native Peoples of the Olympic Peninsula, 19. 
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Figure 11. Hand-colored image of black and white photograph showing Glines Canyon and footbridge 

across Elwha River prior to dam construction, ca. 1900. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[elwha_07.jpg] 

Homesteading in the Elwha Valley 

 From the 1860s on, the Elwha Klallam shared the valley and the river’s gifts with a slowly 

growing community of new residents, American citizens mostly of European descent.23 Under 

the terms of the original Homestead Act of 1862 and the Timber Culture Act of 1873, new 
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arrivals hoping to make their living farming in the Elwha Valley staked claims to 160-acre 

parcels of land, almost always adjacent to the river and on former Klallam lands. Heads of 

families or individuals filed claims with the General Land Office in Olympia, after which they 

had five years to “prove up,” which meant they had to show that they had made visible progress 

toward taking up residence and raising crops on their claim. If they were successful in meeting 

the requirements of the act, the government gave them title to the land. Thus a new source of 

power—the General Land Office, wielding the authority of the Homestead Act—began to alter 

the human geography of the Olympic Peninsula, including the Elwha Valley. 

 The Elwha’s earliest non-Indian homesteaders settled in the Lower Elwha Valley almost 

simultaneous to passage of the first Homestead Act in 1862. Marcellus Huntoon became the first 

homestead claimant when he occupied a parcel of land at the mouth of the Elwha River that had 

once been part of an Elwha Klallam village. General Land Office records indicate that Huntoon 

first settled the site on Christmas Day, 1861, and two months later took up permanent residence 

in the “good, comfortable hewed-log dwelling” he built on the site.24 Over the course of the next 

ten years, Huntoon also built two hay sheds and cleared 30 acres of his land. He received his title 

patent to the parcel in June 1873.25

 23 One had to be a citizen to homestead. 

24 General Land Office, homestead affidavit given on behalf of Marcellus Huntoon, June 2, 1873, Olympia, 

Wash., Cash Entry File 4646, General Land Entry Files, Records of the Bureau of Land Management, Record Group 

49, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington D.C. (hereafter RG 49, NA-DC). 

25 General Land Office, Patent Certificate of Marcellus Huntoon, June 5, 1873, Olympia, Wash., Cash Entry 

File 4646, General Land Entry Case Files, RG 49, NA-DC. Huntoon received the patent to Lots 1 and 2 of Section 

27, Township 31 N., Range 7 W. 
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Figure 12. Affidavit testifying that Marcellus Huntoon made sufficient improvements to his homestead to 

obtain title to the land, June 2, 1873. The document indicates that Huntoon settled on the parcel on 

December 25, 1861, and moved into his permanent “log dwelling house” on approximately February 25, 

1862. Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration. [HuntoonAffidavit.jpg] 

 Between 1865 and 1889, a number of other non-Indian homesteaders joined Huntoon on the 

Lower Elwha; they included Daniel McClees, Silas Goodwin, Alden Loomer, Clara Goodwin, 

John McGarey, Harry Owen Daniel, Samuel Carusi, Joseph Morris, Dora Hall, and Julius Kragh. 

Between 1888 and 1889, Henry and Jake Hansen, brothers from Norway, and William 
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MacDonald became the first non-Indians to homestead in the vicinity of the eventual dam site. 

MacDonald also became the Elwha Valley’s first postmaster.26 Elwha homesteaders were not 

just men. Clara Goodwin, Silas Goodwin’s daughter, made her homestead application in 1880; to 

“prove up,” she erected a house and barn, planted fifteen apple trees, and cleared over two acres 

of land on her parcel.27 Regardless of where they settled in the valley, Elwha homesteaders still 

faced the mammoth task of felling, burning, or otherwise clearing and hauling away the giant 

cedar, hemlock, and Douglas fir trees that stood on their claims.28 To remove the stumps from a 

Pacific Northwest forest environment like that of the Elwha Valley, “the new farmer had to work 

harder and spend more money than in any other forested areas of the United States.”29

 26 Gretchen Luxenberg and Jacilee Wray, “Final Draft—Cultural Resources of the Elwha River Valley: Elwha 

River Ecosystem Restoration Project Historic Context Statement, Olympic National Park, Washington,” April 2010, 

41–45, document provided by Jacilee Wray, ONP; and Alice Bretches Alexander, A Pioneer Family: Homesteading 

the Upper Elwha River Valley (Port Angeles, Wash.: N.p., 1993), 11–13. 

27 General Land Office, Homestead Application No. 4646 filed by Clara Goodwin, Olympia, Wash., October 

25, 1880, H.F.C Case File 899, Bureau of Land Management Land Entry Case Files, RG 49, NARA. 

28 Matthew Sneddon, Olympic Peninsula Community Museum, “Northwest Homesteader,” developed in 

partnership with the Center for the Pacific Northwest and the Department of History, University of Washington, 

Seattle, n.d., electronic file provided by Jacilee Wray, ONP. 

29 Richard White, Land Use, Environment, and Social Change: The Shaping of Island County, Washington

(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1980), 115. 
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Figure 13. Humes Ranch along the Elwha River, 1918. New residents quickly realized what Klallam 

tribal members had long known—the soil-rich bottomlands where the Elwha River’s previous floods had 

deposited mud and debris were the best locations for settlement and raising crops. The terrain was also 

flatter than on steep slopes farther away from the river. Courtesy of Lyman R. Humes Collection, 

Olympic National Park. Ref. no. [OLYM1098.JPG] 

 Although several Elwha homesteaders painted rosy pictures of their parcels’ agricultural 

productivity, they were simply repeating the common mantra found in most public narratives of 

nineteenth-century homesteaders throughout the American West. That is, the soil was rich and 

productive, crops abundant, water plentiful, and success right around the corner. In reality, nonIndians who staked claims in the valley faced less-than-ideal conditions for their traditional 

agricultural methods.30 Most Elwha claims were small, annual rainfall was high, and few parcels 

were ready for immediate planting. After clearing their farmland of fir trees, homesteaders in 

Olympic Peninsula valleys such as the Elwha usually planted fruit trees and a garden. Farmers 

 30 Historian Richard White explains that the soils of Pacific Northwest forests, even after the stumps are 

removed, are poorly suited for traditional agricultural practices (Land Use, Environment, and Social Change, 115-

16). 
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helped make ends meet by taking some of their produce to Port Angeles to sell. The crops that 

generally grew the best on the small plots strewn with stumps and forest debris were hay, clover, 

and root crops such as potatoes.”31 Most Elwha homesteaders found that potatoes were their 

most successful crop, often producing enough both to sell and to store for lean times. But as Burt 

Herrick, son of an early Elwha homesteader, revealed about his hardscrabble life on the family 

homestead, they, “like most of the other ‘farmers’ of the Elwha [were] engaged in almost 

everything but farming.”32

Figure 14. Dodger and Norma Bender in front of their home on the Elwha River. Photograph by Gary 

Wagner. Courtesy of Alice Alexander. [krouse 003.jpg] 

 31 Sneddon, “Northwest Homesteader.” In the case of truck garden, truck meant “trade,” not a type of motor 

vehicle. 

32 Burt Herrick, quoted in “Early and Recent History of the Elwha District,” Port Angeles Olympic-Tribune,

September 27, 1925, News Clipping File, Newspapers 1916 to 1925, ONP Resource Library (hereafter News 

Clipping File 1916 to 1925). 
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 Indeed, most Elwha homesteaders took on multiple occupations in order to survive for very 

long on an Elwha homestead parcel. Herrick, for instance, operated a grocery business, was a 

guide and packer for hunting and fishing groups in the Olympic Mountains, and managed the 

Elwha post office.33 The Humes brothers also worked as guides and packers, in addition to 

hunting for food. Warriner Smith operated a sawmill on his homestead, while others, such as 

Ernst and Meta Krause and Will Anderson, grew crops, tended orchards, and raised livestock. 

Doc Ludden, who arrived in the valley a bit later than the original group of homesteaders, 

probably had the widest array of pursuits: he grew fruit trees and a variety of plants (including 

attempts at growing tobacco), maintained an apiary, and ran a hostel for travelers.34

 33 “Early and Recent History of the Elwha District,” September 27, 1925. 

34 Evans, “Historic Resource Study,” 77–87. 
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Figure 15. “Doc” A. Ludden’s Geyser Apiary Co. in the Elwha Valley, ca. 1914. Courtesy of the Bert 

Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. [ELWA BLDX – 027.jpg] 
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THE HUMES BROTHERS 

During their years in the Elwha Valley, the name Humes was well-known to homesteaders, local 

hunters and anglers, and even visitors from other regions. The Humes brothers’ time on the 

Elwha spanned an era of significant transition in the valley community, a period when many 

homesteaders gave up their claims and moved away while the remaining residents took jobs in 

the recreation and tourism business. Will and Martin Humes, along with a cousin, Ward Sanders, 

arrived in the Elwha Valley in 1897, and Grant Humes came to join his brothers in 1899. Martin 

left the area shortly afterward.35 While their original plan was to mine gold, the brothers soon 

realized that hunting and farming would prove to be more profitable endeavors. They claimed 

homesteads in the Upper Elwha, prepared their land for planting, and took advantage of the 

variety of wildlife available in the Elwha Valley. 

A 1913 report on Will Humes’ claim in the Olympic National Forest described his homestead: 

“he has about 12 acres under cultivation and has a full outfit of tools and farming implements 

such as plow, harrow, cultivators etc, the house is also well furnished with the ordinary 

conveniences and everything has the appearance of a permanent home. . . . Claimant has a 

substantial built four room house made of logs and shakes, one barn 50 feet–60 feet, root house 

and other outbuildings. The house is habitable at all seasons, a spring near the house furnishes 

the domestic water supply.”36

 35 Gail H. E. Evans, Historic Resource Study: Olympic National Park, Washington (1983), 79-80. Sanders also 

left the area, though the date of his departure is not clear. 

36 Report by Chris Morgenroth, District Forest Ranger, Olympic National Forest, September 6, 1913, Record 

Group 49, Bureau of Land Management, Serial Patent Case File, 572288, National Archives and Records 

Administration. Washington, D.C. 
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Figure 16. Elwha Valley homesteaders Will Humes, Orlin Burdick, and Grant Humes at the Humes 

Ranch cabin, 1905. Photograph by Frank Pearson. Courtesy of Gerry Humes Collection, Olympic 

National Park. [Humes1905-2.jpg] 

In the late 1890s, “when the Humes brothers first settled on their Elwha land, it was necessary to 

walk ten miles in from the Elwha covered bridge and pack supplies in by pack train.”37 In order 

to keep food on the table, the Humes brothers tackled a variety of jobs. Will and Grant farmed in 

the summer, hunted in the autumn, and ran pack trains whenever someone hired them. They 

grew a wide variety of crops, almost all for their own larder. In 1913, 

Fully twelve acres are now producing agricultural crops, about one acre of this is 

in young orchard four year old a few trees about ten years old are now bearing 

very abundantly, one acre is planted to potatoes and other garden truck, the rest of 

the cultivated land is Oats Wheat and Clover. Claimant cleared and raised a small 

garden the first year of settlement, this clearing and cultivation has been increased 

 37 “Death Comes To Grant Humes, 61, Elwha Pioneer,” Port Angeles Evening News, April 21, 1934. 
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to its present stage. There is also a slashing of six acres which has been burned 

over. and is now seeded to grass, this slashing is used for pasture ... About 20 ton 

of hay and oats is raised on this land annually, this is fed to claimants’ horses, 

cow and chickens. . . . Claimant owns nine horses and one cow, these are pastured 

on claimants own land and no permit is needed.38

Figure 17. Humes Ranch Cabin, interior, n.d. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, ref. no. 

988.64.24. [HumesRanchInterior010002.tif] 

Hunting and fishing provided the men with subsistence and additional income. Elk, deer, and 

cougar were their most common prey. In 1933, Grant Humes wrote to his brother Will, who had 

 38 Report by Chris Morgenroth, District Forest Ranger, Olympic National Forest, September 6, 1913, Record 

Group 49, Bureau of Land Management, Serial Patent Case File, 572288, National Archives and Records 

Administration. Washington, D.C. 
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returned to the East Coast in 1916, reminiscing about their early hunting exploits: 

I heard 3 or 4 hooters [grouse] and when one sounded pretty close by on the Seig 

bench, I sought him out and with my ‘game-getter’ (22 barrel) brought him to 

earth with a crease thru the back of his bean, the first of the season. You know we 

pronounced them a ‘delicacy,’ just as we did boiled dolly vardens in our first 

years here. Now, boiled fish are taboo, and I only kill 2 or 3 grouse a year–to have 

something fresh in place of bacon and ham . . . A tough old hooter–we now 

know–to be anything but a ‘delicacy.’ Verily, tastes change with the times and 

years.39

As more tourists began to come to the Olympic Peninsula, Will and Grant Humes became 

packers and guides for groups of fishing enthusiasts and mountaineers. Grant Humes was the 

official guide for roughly 60 members of The Mountaineers [of Seattle] during their three-week 

jaunt through and over the Olympic Mountains.40 The brothers developed their pack train 

services into a commercial endeavor, “and during the thirty-five years of its operation, Mr. 

Humes became intimately acquainted with many Pacific Northwest celebrities who went to the 

upper reaches of the Elwha basin for summer vacations. The Humes ranch was an over-night 

stopping place for practically all parties enroute up the Elwha trail.”41 Grant Humes continued to 

farm, hunt, pack, and guide until his death in 1934 in Port Angeles.42

 Elwha Klallam tribal members also made successful homestead claims in the valley. Initially, 

federal law prohibited the Klallam from making homestead claims in the valley that their 

ancestors had inhabited for several millennia. But the Indian Homestead Acts of 1875 and 1884 

finally allowed Indians to file claims to land under terms similar to the General Homestead Act 

 39 Grant Humes to Will Humes, April 19, 1927, Folder: 59 Humes Correspondence, Box 1, Philip Johnson 

Elwha Sources, Access. no. OLYM-428, ONP Archives. 

40 Helen Neal Radke and Joan Ducceschi, Olympic Leaders: The Life and Times of the Websters of Port Angeles

(Port Angeles: Western Gull Publishing, 2003), 26. 

41 “Death Comes To Grant Humes.” 
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of 1862.43 Between 1879 and 1895, 10 Elwha Klallam obtained homestead patents, including 

nine in the Lower Elwha Valley—Boston Charlie, Seatcum (Shingle George), Joe Sampson, 

Hunter John, Alberni Jack, Charles Jackson, Moses Sampson, Charley Hopie, and Johnny 

George.44 Adapting to new economic patterns in the Elwha Valley, tribal members raised a 

variety of crops for personal use and commercial sale; provided canoe transit for goods, visitors, 

and valley residents; worked in logging camps and lumber mills; sold salmon to settlers; and 

continued to engage in traditional hunting, gathering, fishing, and cultural practices. 

 42 Evans, Historical Resource Study, 83-84. 

43 Under the terms of the 1875 Act, only those tribal members who took up “civilized pursuits” and cut off 

relations with their tribe could become citizens and obtain land under the Homestead Act. A second Indian 

Homestead Act in 1884 removed those restrictions and extended the trust period, during which the U.S. held the 

parcel in trust for the sole benefit of the Indian claimant or heirs, to 25 years. Act of July 4, 1884, U.S. Statutes at 

Large 23 (1884): 96. 

44 Luxenberg and Jacilee Wray, “Final Draft—Cultural Resources of the Elwha River Valley,” 15-17. 
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Figure 18. Hunter John homestead on the Elwha River, 1915. Elwha Klallam tribal member Hunter John 

established a farm on this parcel in the mid-1870s, eventually receiving a homestead patent. After he died 

in 1912, the homestead went to his granddaughter Maggie Jackson and grandson Charley Sampson. 

Courtesy of Beatrice Charles. [1915 Homestead..sharper.jpg] 

 With the growth of the non-Indian population of the valley and nearby Port Angeles during 

the 1890s, tribal fishermen were able to sell fish to commercial fish packers in addition to what 

the Elwha Klallam kept for their own consumption. When the Port Angeles Packing Company 

opened in 1892, Klallam fishermen began to sell some of their catch directly to the cannery as 

well as to other commercial fish processors.45 Thus by the end of the nineteenth century, the 

Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s power as arbiters of their environment was diminished, but they 

remained a strong people living by the river that had sustained them for untold generations.46

 45 Lane and Lane Associates, “Conflict between Indian Terminal Fisheries and Hydropower on the Elwha 

River,” 29. 

46 Lane and Lane Associates, “Conflict between Indian Terminal Fisheries and Hydropower on the Elwha 

River,” 29–30. 
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Figure 19. Interior view of cannery. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic 

Library System. [PTAN BLDN – 015.jpg] 

 In the late nineteenth century, a new, more diverse Elwha Valley community emerged. 

Homesteaders, seeking to make their lives more comfortable and their homes easier to access, 

built new roads, schools, and stores. By the early 1900s, the Elwha Valley supported Herrick’s 

grocery store, a school, a post office, a grange hall, and a sawmill. Elwha homesteaders’ most 

popular diversion was located in the picturesque valley of Boulder Creek, an Elwha tributary, 

where several small springs of hot water spilled from the hillside. The Elwha Klallam had long 

known of the springs and used the waters for medicinal purposes. In 1907, Billy Everett, whose 

mother was one-half Klallam, Charles Anderson, and Thomas Farrel began to develop the 

springs into a rustic resort and built the first trail to the springs. Before long, Farrell and 

Anderson pulled out of the operation, leaving it to Everett, his wife Margaret Schoeffel, and her 
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brother Karl Schoeffel to carry on. 47 They laid claim to the mineral rights, “constructed wood 

tubs, mud baths, a cabin and bathhouse,” and opened Olympic Hot Springs as a rustic leisure 

destination in 1909.48 Four years later, the two men obtained an 11-acre lease from the U.S. 

Forest Service in order to develop the hot springs as a full-fledged commercial resort. An 

account of a visitor to the hot springs in 1913 expresses the primitive conditions of the resort in 

its early years: 

The cabins were more like tents, with wooden floors and sides, and pyramidshaped tents on top. . . . We enjoyed the pool. It was real primitive. Just a hole 

dug out and filled with hot mineral water. One end had smooth logs running down 

into the pool and I remember hanging onto a log at the top and then letting go and 

sliding into the water. Although we wore swimming suits, only all men or all 

women could be in the pool at any one time. If the women were in the pool a 

white shirt was hung on a limb. A red shirt was hung out for the men.49

The trip to Olympic Hot Springs during the early years of the resort was far from leisurely. 

Visitors had to make an 11-mile hike or horseback ride over a rugged trail to reach the resort. 

Yet it was the highlight of many Elwha Valley outings for city residents and homesteaders alike. 

 47 Alice Bretches Alexander, Early Settlers on the Upper Elwha (Port Angeles: Pen Print Incorporated, 2009), 

51-52. 

48 NPS, Olympic National Park, “Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Olympic National Park,” draft document, 

1991, ONP Cultural Resources Division; and Evans, “Historic Resources Survey,” 281. 

49 Emily Lewis Miles, The Evolution of Emily: Frontier Child to Modern Woman (Port Angeles: Creative 

Communications, 1981), 41–42. 
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Figure 20. First swimming pool at Olympic Hot Springs, prior to construction of a concrete pool, ca. 

1910. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. [ELWA ACTV – 

001.jpg] 

 The arduous trek to Olympic Hot Springs underscores the fact that transportation up and 

down the valley was one of the most difficult aspects of life on the Elwha. While the Elwha 

Klallam were proficient at canoeing the river, non-Indian homesteaders had to rely on rough 

trails, rudimentary bridges, and slow-moving ferries (when bridges washed out) to move about. 

Even the trip to Port Angeles by way of Pine Hill and Coleman ranch followed “what at the time 

passed for a country road but which in reality was far from being a road.”50 Locals erected 

bridges across the river, but several washed away during the river’s floods. Patty Elofson 

described how her grandfather, Joe Sampson, ran a small ferry across the Elwha River after the 

collapse of the foundation of the Elwha Dam washed out the footbridge in 1912.51 The county 

 50 “Early and Recent History of the Elwha District,” Port Angeles Olympic-Tribune, February 20, 1925, News 

Clipping File 1916 to 1925. 

51 P. Elofson interview, 2. 
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paid him $50 a month to run the ferry until a new bridge was erected.52 During that time, the 

ferry was the key transportation link for valley residents who had to cross the river. 

Figure 21. Bridge across the Elwha River, prior to 1910. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[Image32.jpg] 

 Despite the hard work homesteaders put into establishing their land claims, constructing 

roads and buildings, and creating a social scene, most of them gave up on their claims or 

struggled to make ends meet. The Elwha Valley community never grew beyond the high point 

 52 Luxenberg and Wray, “Draft—Cultural Resources of the Elwha River Valley,” 55-56. 
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reached in the early 1890s, and soon afterward the population began to shrink away. When the 

Laufeld family came to the Elwha Valley in 1898, they found most of the earlier homesteads 

abandoned. Their nine-year-old daughter Olive was often lonely because there were no 

neighbors close to their farm. 53 Her father eventually took a job as a ranger with the newly 

established U.S. Forest Service, as did a number of other settlers on the Olympic Peninsula. The 

former valley community based on homestead settlement, small commercial enterprises, and 

farming was withering just as a new era of federal administration and corporate hydropower 

development of the valley was about to begin. 

Olympic Forest Reserve 

 At the end of the nineteenth century, the federal government increased its role in the affairs 

of the Olympic Peninsula. In 1897, President Grover Cleveland established the Olympic Forest 

Reserve to protect the vast coniferous forests of the peninsula; the reserve’s original boundaries 

encompassed 2,188,800 acres of peninsula forestland including the upper reaches of the Elwha 

Valley above Haggerty Creek. Congress had laid the groundwork for the Olympic Forest 

Reserve when it established the Forest Reserve Act of 1891. The act gave the president authority 

to set aside large tracts of public domain lands to protect timber stands and rangeland from 

overcutting and to provide a steady source of timber for the United States. On March 30, 1891, 

President Benjamin Harrison created the first forest reserve—Yellowstone Park Timber Land 

Reserve—in Wyoming.54 By 1905, roughly 63 million acres of the western states had been 

designated as forest reserve lands. That year, Congress created the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to 

manage the quickly growing system of reserves; two years later, the new organization’s first 

 53 Alexander, Early Settlers on the Upper Elwha, 37. 

54 Forest Reserve Act of 1891 (26 Stat. 561); and U.S. Forest Service, “Reserve Act and Congress: Passage of 

the 1891 Act,” http://www.fs.fed.us/global/wsnew/fs_history/issue12.doc (accessed December 17, 2007). 
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chief, Gifford Pinchot, replaced the term “forest reserves” with a new name, “national forests.”55

Olympic Forest Reserve thus became Olympic National Forest in 1907, by which time President 

William McKinley had reduced its size to approximately one million acres.56

 Forest reserves were similar to the national parks in that they set aside large swaths of 

undeveloped land for the benefit of the American people. But there were also important 

differences between the two. Forest reserves and the USFS were part of the Department of 

Agriculture (rather than Department of the Interior), underscoring the new agency’s emphasis on 

providing utilitarian benefits that included clean water, recreation, and timber harvests. National 

forests “reserved” forested lands for future public use and commercial timber harvests, while 

national parks “preserved” lands for future public use and aesthetic enjoyment. 

 On March 2, 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt gave the heart of the Olympic Mountains 

additional protection by creating Mount Olympus National Monument. Although it did not have 

the same preservation status as a national park, Roosevelt was able to utilize the authority of the 

Antiquities Act of 1906 to protect some of the upland forests from cutting and to provide a 

refuge for the herds of Olympic elk that Roosevelt admired.57 The USFS introduced another 

group of residents to the Elwha Valley; forest rangers and their families joined the Elwha River 

community. 

 For people with a connection to the Elwha River, especially the Elwha Klallam Tribe, the 

remaining homesteaders in the Elwha Valley, the city of Port Angeles, and other north peninsula 

communities, construction of the first Elwha Dam brought tumultuous change. For the remainder 

 55 David A. Clary, Timber and the Forest Service (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1986), 2–4; see also 

Samuel P. Hays, Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The Progressive Conservation Movement, 1890–1920

(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959). 

56 Hal Rothman, “American Eden: An Administrative History of Olympic National Park,” final draft 

manuscript, July 2006, 33–34, electronic file provided by Jacilee Wray, ONP. 
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of their lifetimes, the dam would alter their relationships with the Elwha River. Dam construction 

changed the prior course of commerce, transportation, and subsistence living in the Elwha Valley 

and the emerging towns and cities of the region. Hydropower was about to spur the growth of 

cities and new industries, while at the same time the older communities of the Elwha Valley 

were diminishing. 

 57 Rothman, “American Eden,” 36. 
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Chapter 2 

Elwha Dam Construction Powers Industrial and Community 

Growth, 1900–1914 

The story of power proved to be a battle royal from start to finish. 

Thomas Aldwell 

 In early twentieth-century America, hydroelectric dams were the technological and aesthetic 

equivalent of medieval castles, whose thick, soaring walls were meant to hold back attacking 

armies and to convey the absolute power of a monarch or lord. As dams grew bigger and more 

complex, the nation’s citizens and political establishment became enthralled with what historian 

David Nye called the “American technological sublime,” a public fascination with feats of 

construction and engineering, best exemplified by suspension bridges and hydropower dams of 

that era.1

 It was common for newspaper reporters and guidebook authors to exclaim about dams 

“taming” the ancient power of rivers, and revealing humankind’s superiority over nature. In a 

similar vein, when towns and cities began to light their streets and homes with electricity, civic 

leaders and residents saw the modern technology as a sure sign that their hometown had come of 

age. When a private company announced plans in the early 1900s to construct a hydroelectric 

dam on the Elwha River, city officials, newspaper editors, and community members in Port 

Angeles and other Olympic Peninsula towns gave it their wholehearted support. 

 1

 David Nye, The American Technological Sublime (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1994). 
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Figure 22. Map of Port Angeles, showing locations of Ediz Hook, platted downtown area, Puget Sound 

Cooperative Colony, and the Elwha River (far left), 1891. Courtesy of the North Olympic Library 

System. [SNV30001.JPG] 

 Prior to construction of the Elwha Dam, important new technologies had emerged that would 

enable the dam to produce enough electricity to power the industrial and civic growth of the 

Olympic Peninsula. A new type of wire that transmitted electricity via alternating current (AC), 

instead of direct current (DC), carried electricity produced in the Elwha power plant to nearby 

Port Angeles but also to customers as far away as the Bremerton Naval Base. The technological 

advances arrived just as Port Angeles was beginning its transition from wilderness outpost to 

emergent city. The timing of these intersecting events and technologies helps explain why the 

Elwha Dam played such a crucial role powering the life and growth of Port Angeles and other 

peninsula communities. 
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Thomas Aldwell and Elwha River Power 

 Thomas Aldwell, known for boasting about his accomplishments, wrote that he was the first 

to realize the potential of harnessing the Elwha River to produce hydroelectric power. In 1890, 

Aldwell, a Canadian citizen, left his banking job in Ontario to “go West” and find adventure. He 

arrived in Port Angeles aboard the steamer George E. Starr in 1890, seeking personal challenges 

and financial success. He explored his possibilities in the larger cities of Seattle and Port 

Townsend, but chose Port Angeles as his ultimate destination. He wrote, “I wanted something 

even newer, some place where only the potentials existed, unrecognized perhaps by other men.”2

Aldwell and other newcomers saw in the rawness of the town and the surrounding Olympic 

Peninsula a place where they could turn a profit and make a name for themselves by applying 

their entrepreneurial spirit to the growth of a community and the commercial development of a 

region. 

 After staking a squatter’s claim to government land on a bluff above the waterfront, which he 

gained legal possession of a year later, Aldwell set out to make his fortune. He tried his hand at a 

number of vocations, including banking, running the local newspaper, and real estate 

speculation. He also served as a Port Angeles customs officer, county auditor, shopkeeper, and 

railroad lobbyist. During each of those endeavors, Aldwell promoted Port Angeles as a city of 

remarkable promise, and remained on the lookout for new enterprises that could bring him 

success. In addition to buying town lots, Aldwell also purchased and proved up on a parcel of 

land along the Elwha River, roughly five miles upstream from the river’s mouth. In his 

autobiographical account of his exploits, Conquering the Last Frontier, he recounted that he 

valued the river property as a recreational and aesthetic haven. Aldwell wrote that the parcel’s 

 2

 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 17. 
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“needle-covered earth, the patterned tree branches, the sky, the fresh bracing woods’ smell—all 

seemed to make me part of the earth I rested on.”3

PORT ANGELES 1890 

When Thomas Aldwell stepped off the steamer George E. Starr onto the Port Angeles harbor 

dock, he thought it looked to be a “wild frontier town.” Many others arriving at that time might 

have said the same. Inez M. Isbell, who came to Port Angeles with her family in 1890, described 

the place to relatives back east, “I do not think it is a very pretty city for there are so many log 

huts and shake shanties scattered all over it. And it is only a few years [ago] when the whole 

town was forest. Now the town is covered with stumps and bare half burned tree trunks that spoil 

the look of the town. But of course they will get them out some day.”4 Inez also described the 

haphazard layout of the town, with businesses built over the water on pilings, and the residential 

area on the hill overlooking the beach.5 The city’s population was roughly 1,300, but the town 

already boasted 16 saloons and an opera house.6 Port Angeles residents had migrated there 

primarily from Michigan and other states of the upper Midwest, where they worked in the timber 

industry. They made their way west to the untapped forest resources on the Olympic Peninsula 

after the forests of the Great Lakes region were depleted.7

 3

 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 69. 

4

 Quoted in Phrania Jacobson, interview by Emily Thomas, June 1995, transcript, Oral History Collection, 

OLYM-605, ONPA, 11. 

5

 Jacobson interview, 10–11. 

6

 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 18. 

7

 Keith Thompson, interview by Russ Dalton, December 15, 1983, Port Angeles, Washington, transcript, Oral 

History Collection, OLYM-605, ONPA, quotation on 4, see also 2, 11–12, and 17. 
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Figure 23. Unidentified tribal members camped on Hollywood Beach at the foot of Lincoln Street, ca. 

1900. Courtesy of Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. [INDN ACTV – 

002.jpg] 

Among the city residents were Klallam tribal members living in tents or houses along the beach 

to the south of the wharves, and on the sand spit of Ediz Hook, near the remnants of one of their 

former villages, Tse-whit-zen. Visitors from other tribes also stayed on the beach when they 

came to exchange trade goods. When Aldwell arrived, “between 200 and 300 Indians were living 

and camping on the beach in front of the town. Most of them had large canoes, handhewn from 

logs, and some practically lived in their canoes.”8 The majority made their livelihood fishing, 

though others worked in logging camps or other jobs. 

 8

 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 18. 
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Figure 24. Front Street, looking to the north, ca. 

1888. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of 

the North Olympic Library System. [PTAN 

BLDX – 064.jpg] 

Figure 25. Front Street, looking to the north, ca. 

1889. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of 

the North Olympic Library System. [PTAN BLDX 

– 053.jpg] 

Figure 26. Front Street, looking to the northwest, 

ca. 1890. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection 

of the North Olympic Library System. [PTAN 

BLDX – 008.jpg] 

Figure 27. View from harbor looking south to Port 

Angeles waterfront, showing piers and buildings 

along Front Street, ca. 1893. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. [Rotation of 

PA_BayView1903.TIF] 

But Port Angeles, with the only deep, protected harbor on the entire peninsula, had an “up-andcoming” feeling to it as well. A local newspaper wrote that it was in 1890 that “Port Angeles first 

commenced to grow into prominence and give promise of becoming a city of importance.”9 That 

year, the city became the seat of government for Clallam County and began to show signs of 

rapid growth. The population increased from roughly 1,000 in 1890 to 3,000 residents in just two 

years, and the corresponding building boom resulted in the construction of roughly 200 new 

 9

 “The Electric Lights; Port Angeles Illuminated by Electricity,” Port Angeles Tribune, February 19, 1891, 

reprinted in Crown Zellerbach Corporation, 1890–1949: More Power to You . . . Port Angeles and Clallam County, 

brochure (Port Angeles: Crown Zellerbach Corporation, Port Angeles Division, [1949]). 
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structures by 1892, including the city’s first opera house, as well as three additional wharves on 

the harbor. Larger businesses began to set up shop in Port Angeles, further convincing locals that 

the city’s rise to prominence was inevitable. The first cannery opened in 1891, increasing local 

employment opportunities and creating a new olfactory experience for nearby residents. 

Figure 28. The Port Angeles business district, looking east down Valley Street, in 1891. This photograph 

shows First Street being filled. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library 

System. [PTAN BLDX – 011] 

City residents found the living conditions and social climate improved as well. On February 14, 

1891, Washington Electric Light and Motor Company fired up a steam-driven power plant and 

began producing electricity to light city streetlamps and a few of the homes in town. A Port 

Angeles Tribune reporter said, “the city presented the appearance of being studded by stars.”10

However, the company’s electric rate of $5.40 per month was far beyond most residents’ reach. 

 10 “The Electric Lights.” 
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 In 1894, during his stint as manager of the local newspaper, Aldwell met R. M. Brayne, 

owner of an Oregon pulp mill. Brayne was looking for a possible power-generation site to 

provide electricity for a pulp mill on the peninsula. Aldwell and Brayne discussed how a mill of 

that kind could be the industrial driver for the growth of Port Angeles. At that point, Aldwell 

said, he saw the Elwha River as “a source of electrical power for Port Angeles and the whole 

Olympic Peninsula,” a realization that “magnetized all my energies.”11 He suggested that his 

own Elwha property, where the fast-flowing stream ran between steep canyon walls, would be 

the ideal site for the hydroelectric facility. Aldwell seized the opportunity. He and Brayne 

entered into a partnership aimed at constructing a dam at Aldwell’s homestead site that would 

create a reservoir filling the valley upstream. They envisioned that the potential water-storage 

capacity could generate 10,000 horsepower to produce electricity for a mill, other industries, and 

residents of Port Angeles.12

 With or without Aldwell, the canyon would have prompted interest as a possible site for a 

hydroelectric dam. Indeed, the same year Aldwell hired hydraulic engineers to conduct a survey 

of the river canyon for its hydroelectric potential, the U.S. Corps of Engineers undertook a 

similar study of their own accord.13 The decade of the 1890s was the outset of the dam-building 

“Reclamation Age” of water development in the western United States, which centered on the 

creation of irrigated gardens out of previously arid landscapes and the construction of dams for 

hydroelectric production. 

 11 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 77. 

12 David Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System, Port Angeles Vicinity, Clallam County, WA,” Historic 

American Engineering Record report, HAER WA-130 (1995), 15. 

13 Virginia G. Egan, “Restoring the Elwha: Salmon, Dams, and People on the Olympic Peninsula, A Case Study 

of Environmental Decision Making” (PhD diss., Antioch University New England, 2007), 9. 
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Figure 29. Panoramic view of Port Angeles after the Townsite Reserve was opened, 1897. Courtesy of 

the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. [PTAN VIEW – 008.jpg] 

 Aldwell was enthusiastic about his prospects, but recognized the task before him would be 

long and difficult. For one thing, although Aldwell already held title to most of the planned dam 

site, he and Brayne would have to acquire the numerous upstream properties that the reservoir 

would eventually inundate when the dam was completed. Brayne bankrolled the realty costs, 

while Aldwell maneuvered carefully to purchase properties in an unobtrusive fashion, in order to 

avoid land speculation or competing claims. Moving slowly between 1894 and 1906, Aldwell 

recalled that “for 12 years, acre by acre, sometimes it seemed foot by foot, I bought up the 

land.”14 He succeeded in his task “without anyone’s knowledge of our plans.”15

 14 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 80. 

15 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 81. 
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 During the time he was purchasing land in what would become the reservoir area, a realtor 

acquaintance introduced Aldwell to Canadian real estate investor George A. Glines. Glines 

became so intrigued with the project that in 1908 he bought out Brayne’s half of the 

partnership.16 In order to solicit financial support and negotiate contracts to sell their electricity, 

Glines and Aldwell established the Olympic Power and Development Company in 1910. The 

partners hired consulting engineers to ensure that their selected dam site would produce the 

power—and the financial payoff—they expected. In concert with Glines, Aldwell’s next step 

was to obtain adequate financing for dam construction. To convince outside investors of the 

project’s value, Aldwell and Glines had to assemble a suitable number of customers to purchase 

their electricity. They garnered contracts to deliver electric power to the city of Port Angeles, the 

Citizen’s Electric Company of Port Townsend, the Western Steel Corporation mill at Irondale, 

and the U.S. Navy Yard in Bremerton, more than 70 miles distant. 

 Aldwell made several journeys to the eastern United States to drum up financial backing for 

the project. He succeeded in establishing a financial partnership with Peabody, Houghteling and 

Company, a Chicago investment firm. In making the agreement, however, Aldwell sacrificed 

much of the autonomy he originally held in the project. But the immense technical challenges 

and extensive costs of dam building, particularly hydroelectric facilities, almost always required 

the help of outside investors. Small companies like Olympic Power and Development did not 

have the wherewithal to pay for projects of this size. 

 The decision to obtain financial support from an outside investment firm marked an 

important juncture in the history of the Elwha Valley, which would produce unfortunate 

consequences for Aldwell and valley residents, especially members of the Elwha Klallam Tribe. 

 16 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 82. 
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The problems derived from the Chicago investment firm’s decision to hire L. L. Summers and 

Company to build the dam. The Summers Company, a Midwestern construction outfit, was 

unfamiliar with the geologic and climatic conditions existing in the Elwha Valley. The 

construction company’s design for the Elwha facility led to a catastrophic outcome—a blowout 

of the dam foundation—during the second year of construction. 

 In addition to outside investment, Aldwell and Glines also required local political capital to 

build the dam and power plant. Fortunately for them, they found an eager and willing audience in 

Port Angeles’s city leadership and citizens. Port Angeles residents had already tasted the 

possibilities that electrification offered, as the Washington Electrical Light and Motor Company 

began producing electricity from steam-powered dynamos for city streetlights and some private 

residences in 1891.17 But the cost of lighting a single family residence remained beyond the 

reach of the average citizen, and the small amount of electricity produced could not meet the 

power demands of large industries. But local residents had seen other Pacific Northwest cities 

benefit from new hydroelectric installations, such as the Snoqualmie Falls Hydroelectric Project, 

which began producing electricity to run streetcars and industries in Seattle and Tacoma in 1899, 

and the Whatcom County Railway and Light Company power plant at Nooksack Falls, which 

provided electricity to the city of Bellingham in 1903.18 On clear nights, Port Angeles residents 

could see the electric street lights of Victoria, British Columbia, sparkling across the Strait of 

Juan de Fuca. Victoria’s electrical lighting system went on line in 1883. As they watched events 

unfold in these other cities, Olympic Peninsula residents could see that accessible and 

 17 Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System,” 11. 

18 Lisa Soderberg, “Hydroelectric Power Plants in Washington State, 1890–1938,” National Register of Historic 

Places Multiple Property Documentation Form, 1988, E3, E6. For more detailed information on the development of 

hydroelectric power in the Pacific Northwest, see Robert Wing, ed., A Century of Service: The Puget Power Story

(Bellevue, Wash.: Puget Sound Power & Light Company, 1987); and Craig Wollner, Electrifying Eden: Portland 

General Electric, 1889–1965 (Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1990). 
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inexpensive electric power handsomely profited and promoted the growth of those nearby 

communities; naturally, they desired the same benefits for their hometowns. 

Figure 30. Interior view of the first electric light plant in Port Angeles, located on Cherry Hill. Courtesy 

of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. [PTAN BLDN – 002.jpg] 

 A 1913 news article in the Port Angeles Olympic-Leader commented, “The completion of 

this work and the supplying of cheap power for factories means the certainty of a great era of 

prosperity for the Olympic Peninsula and Port Angeles in particular, as in this age there is no 

more potent factor in the upbuilding of communities than electricity.”19 The article summed up 

what most city residents were thinking regarding construction of the Elwha Dam. Likewise, the 

Sequim Press wrote, in an article titled, “Putting the Elwha to Work,” that, “this river will be 

made a power for good . . . and it will be a powerful factor in developing this new country. Every 

step of the way in town or country, in field or farm or home, [you] will find electricity a help.”20

 19 National Park Service, “Hydroelectric Power Plants in Washington State”; and “Contract Let for Canyon 

Dam,” Port Angeles Olympic-Leader, May 16, 1913. 

20 “Putting the Elwha to Work,” Sequim Press, April 8, 1911. 
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Figure 31. Decorated car participating in a Sequim, Washington, parade, 1910. Sequim was one of 

several Olympic Peninsula communities eager for Elwha River hydropower to boost the industrial growth 

of the city. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [Sequim1910.TIF] 

 Other Olympic Peninsula communities wanted the benefits of electrification as well. As work 

on the dam got underway in February 1911, the Olympic-Leader proclaimed that the dam’s 

hydroelectric production would “be sufficient to furnish lights and power for Port Angeles, 

Dungeness, Port Townsend, Irondale, and intermediate places, and this power will be 

undoubtedly utilized for many private enterprises throughout Jefferson and Clallam counties.”21

In the small town of Irondale, located on the peninsula about nine miles south of Port Townsend, 

the Western Steel Corporation contracted with Olympic Power and Development Company to 

 21 “The Olympic Power Co.,” Port Angeles Olympic-Leader, February 24, 1911. 
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supply 5,000 horsepower to run its plant.22 The Olympic-Leader article noted that the peninsula’s 

civic leaders and citizenry saw in the dam the potential to develop new industries and 

transportation systems, thereby transforming their communities into major cities like Seattle, 

Bellingham, or Victoria. In fact, this was the biggest difference between the Elwha project and 

similar dams and power plants built close to the same time on the west side of Puget Sound. 

Companies constructed the other turn-of-the-century hydroelectric facilities to meet the 

burgeoning power needs of existing urban populations and industries on the east side of Puget 

Sound. Olympic Power and Development Company, conversely, built the Elwha Dam to “spur 

development” of industries that, for the most part, did not yet exist in that area.23

 22 “Olympic Power Company,” Port Angeles Olympic-Leader, June 23, 1911. 

23 National Park Service, “Hydroelectric Power Plants in Washington State,” E13. 
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Figure 32. Elwha Dam in the earliest stages of construction, ca. 1910. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. [HHWA130A34-1.jpg] 

 The Olympic-Leader article regarding the Elwha Dam project also typified early twentiethcentury thinking regarding the use of the country’s natural resources: 

In the growth of new communities, the planting of new industries, the bettering of 

transportation, in fact, in all the activities called into action by the settlement, 

cultivation and improvement of a new country by an industrious people nothing 

more helpful and desirable could be installed among us than the great power of 
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the river converted from its waste and loss into a magnificent source of energy 

and strength.24

 This statement expresses major themes of that period of American history called the 

“Progressive Era,” when political and social leaders voiced a can-do attitude about the country’s 

future. Progressives anticipated the limitless potential of human achievement, believing that the 

utilitarian consumption of the seemingly endless bounty of America’s natural resources could 

make the nation strong and virile. Conservationism was a central tenet of Progressive Era politics 

and politicians. But conservationists of the day, most notably President Theodore Roosevelt, 

believed the best strategy entailed making the most efficient use of natural resources while 

providing for their long-term protection. Progressive Era conservationists wanted to stop the 

rampant, ungoverned destruction of natural resources common to the nineteenth century. They 

wanted society to utilize natural resources in a way that furthered human progress and the 

nation’s economic development. In the Progressive Era, waterpower was one of the key 

resources to “conserve,” harness, and put to use to better humankind.25 Citizens of the towns 

spread across the Olympic Peninsula who saw their region as a still “unsettled” frontier thus 

tended to focus on the benefits the river’s power could produce to launch industries, propel 

transportation systems, and fuel urban growth of the area. 

 24 “Putting the Elwha to Work.” 

25 Alfred Runte, National Parks: The American Experience (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997), 68–

71. For a complete discussion of the topic, see Samuel B. Hays, Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The 

Progressive Conservation Movement, 1890–1920 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959). 
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Figure 33. Elwha Dam construction, ca. 1910-1911. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [Image40.jpg] 

Elwha Dam Construction 

 Concrete hydroelectric dam structures appeared in the United States during the early 1890s, 

spurred into use by new technological developments in several different fields. Hydropower is 

produced by diverting rushing water through large conduits into turbines connected to electrical 

dynamos. The dynamos convert waterpower into electrical current and then transfer the current 

through power lines. The earliest transmission lines operated on direct current (DC), which 

decreased in efficiency the farther the lines ran away from the power plants. Effective DC 

transmission also required the use of costly copper wiring and conductors. 

 By 1890, however, two new discoveries changed the situation entirely. In 1887, George 

Westinghouse patented a new transmission method, adopted from a technology first developed in 

Europe, called alternating current (AC). Electricity delivered on AC transmission lines could 
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travel much longer distances without the power loss that limited the earlier DC systems. The 

Westinghouse Company introduced another change that made AC electrical power more 

functional for various applications. In the Westinghouse systems, electrical current produced 

inside a generator at the low voltage appropriate for power generation was dramatically 

increased in order to travel efficiently along transmission lines. When the electricity entered 

transformers at the end of a power line, the Westinghouse system decreased the electrical charge 

to the appropriate voltage needed for residential lighting or heavy industrial production. 

Westinghouse installed the first high-voltage long-distance line to operate a mine generator at 

Telluride, Colorado, in 1891.26

Figure 34. Elwha Dam construction, ca. 1910-1911. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [Image43.jpg] 

 26 Duncan Hay, Hydroelectric Development in the United States, 1880–1940 (Washington D.C.: Edison 

Electrical Institute, 1991), 28–31; and National Park Service, “Hydroelectric Power Plants in Washington State, 

1890–1938,” E2. 
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 Other technological advances around the turn of the twentieth century helped set the stage for 

Elwha power production. These included the development of high-capacity hydroelectric 

turbogenerators (made by the Pelton Water Wheel Company), high-voltage transmission lines, 

and expanded applications for Portland cement in dam construction. After 1900, poured-concrete 

dams began to be constructed at steep-walled canyon sites where more traditional earthen or 

timber-crib construction was more difficult.27

 In late 1910, Summers and Company hired a collection of workers from communities around 

the state of Washington to begin clearing timber and moving earth at the Elwha River 

construction site. Summers brought their own construction supervisors to the Elwha, but Aldwell 

managed to hire Fred Mandeau, a local Port Angeles man that he knew well, to be the 

construction foreman.28 The initial phase of work was slow and deliberate due to the rugged 

topography and because, as a Port Angeles reporter described, “the close confines of the rock 

walls in which the preliminary work must be done” permitted only a “few men” to labor during 

each shift.29 The first major task was the construction of a cofferdam to divert the natural flow of 

the river away from the dam site. The cofferdam was a large, wooden, watertight box built on the 

riverbed that allowed crews to begin pouring the cement foundation. By March 1911, cofferdam 

construction was well underway, with a crew of 97 men working and living on-site. The size of 

the work crews and support staff more than doubled the population of the Elwha Valley.30

Construction camp brought together men from different social backgrounds, careers, and 

nationalities, creating a new community in the Elwha Valley.

 27 Hay, Hydroelectric Development in the United States, 13–19, 48–50. 

28 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 93. 

29 “The Olympic Power Co.” 

30 “100 Men Working at Power Plant,” Olympic-Leader, June 6, 1913. 
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Figure 35. Early stages of construction of the 

Elwha Dam spillway and powerhouse, looking 

upstream, ca. 1910-11. Photograph by Critchfield. 

Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, 

ONP ref. no. 2010.200.145. [2010200145.JPG] 

Figure 36. Construction of the powerhouse at the 

Elwha Dam, ca. 1910-11. Photograph by 

Critchfield. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical 

Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.147. 

[2010200147.JPG] 

DANGER FROM ABOVE AND BELOW 

Workers at the construction site were familiar with physical risks involved in frontier labor, 

having worked in logging camps, construction sites, loading docks, and aboard ships. But 

construction tasks at the Elwha Dam carried dangers from both above and below. During initial 

construction, the crews had to descend into the canyon on shaky wooden ladders, or cross the 

gorge on rough wooden planks supported by skeletal scaffolding. No safety ropes or netting was 

there to protect them. The steep slopes above them loosed slides of mud and rock toward the 

workers. Far below, the Elwha River ran fast, deep, and cold. All the while, heavy machinery, 
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logs, and giant pieces of the power plant were hoisted over and into the canyon. 

Figure 37. Scaffolding and unstable hillside during early phase of Glines Canyon Dam and powerhouse 

construction, 1926. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.064. 

[201020064.JPG] 

The 1912 blowout of the Elwha Dam foundation was the biggest accident during dam 

construction. Fortunately, no lives were lost. Several workers who fell victim to other accidents 

were not so lucky. Soon after construction began, in January 1911, a cable hauling a huge 

support log across the canyon snapped, sending the log plummeting toward the river and hurling 

one laborer—a resident of Port Angeles—through the air into a tree stump. He was lucky to 

survive, but had three broken ribs. Several weeks later, a much more serious accident occurred. 

Three workmen, residents of Seattle, standing on a section of wooden scaffolding suspended 

above the canyon were thrown into the river when a rockslide knocked them off of the platform. 

One of the men drowned and another received a broken collarbone and other injuries.31

 31 “Slight Accident at Aldwell Canyon,” Port Angeles Olympic-Leader, January 6, 1911; and “Man Drowned at 

Elwha Canyon; Two Hurt,” Port Angeles Olympic-Leader, February 3, 1911. 
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Figure 38. “Fatal Accident at Elwha Power Plant.” Newspaper headline from the Port Angeles Tribune 

Times, March 8, 1912. [19120308_tribtimes.jpg] 

Later in February, a similar accident led to another drowning. A Tacoma man, a ship’s carpenter 

by trade, simply lost his footing atop the scaffolding and the river carried him away before 

anyone could help. In November 1911, another workman drowned when he fell into the river 

while trying to break up a log jam above the dam.32 Then in March 1912, a near-repeat of the 

first accident occurred, but with a more deadly result. A guy cable supporting a hoist derrick 

snapped, sending the derrick crashing into the river and knocking two more workmen into the 

water, where both drowned.33 All told, five men died while performing construction tasks at the 

Elwha Dam. 

 32 “Man Drowned at Olympic Power Co.’s Plant,” unattributed clipping, December 1, 1911, News Clipping File 

1911 to 1915, ONPA. 

33 “Breaking of Guy Cable on One of the Big Derricks Sends Two into Eternity, Wounding a Third—Others 

Narrowly Escape,” Port Angeles Tribune-Times, March 8, 1912. 
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Figure 39. Elwha Dam construction, ca. 1910-1911. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [Image36.jpg] 

In the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of a backwoods construction camp, individual antagonisms 

between workers could be dangerous as well. In August 1911, two immigrants laborers—one 

Polish and the other Danish—got into a fistfight near the lip of the canyon. During the fight, the 

Dane tripped, struck his head on a log, and plummeted into the river below. He was dead by the 

time they pulled him out.34

 34 “Fell over Canyon Wall,” Olympic-Leader, August 18, 1911. 
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Figure 40. Workers at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[HABSHAER_OLYM437_Oliver4.TIF] 

The worst dam construction accident on the Elwha River took place fifteen years later during the 

work on Glines Canyon Dam. While crews poured concrete on the partially completed Glines 

structure, the most dangerous tasks were those that required workers to climb up and walk along 

the top of the wooden scaffolding high above the unfinished dam. Tragedy struck on January 18, 

1927, when a section of scaffolding collapsed, sending a number of men, large timbers, and 

machinery tumbling down onto other workers who were pouring concrete on the level below. 

Three men died at the site and eight were injured, including Oscar Sims, who died in a Port 

Angeles hospital two days later. Sims was one of the crew working beneath the scaffolding, 

where he was crushed under falling debris. The other fatalities were Arthur Fisher, a German 

immigrant, and Harold and Milton Anderson, brothers from the town of Ferndale, Washington. 
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Several of the men who survived had a long road to recovery.35 Neil Pendley, who fell roughly 

35 feet from the top of the scaffolding down to the area where the molds were being poured, 

stayed in the hospital for three years recovering from his injuries. He recalled he was carrying 

lumber along the rail track that stretched across the top of the scaffolding. They used the rails to 

transport the grout machine that mixed the concrete. Pendley was walking just in front of the 

grout machine when the structure gave in, sending him and the machine tumbling down 

together.36 He remembered, “I went down into that concrete . . . my feet were buried kind of, 

because it’s soft—see we had just been pouring the concrete, and I went down and then I was 

setting in it.” When the ambulance finally got him to the hospital some 12 hours later, the 

medical staff had to scrape the dried concrete off of him as well as tend to his leg, which 

fractured in three places. Getting Pendley and some of the other injured men to the hospital took 

so long because there was only one ambulance available, and because the new section of road 

from Elwha Dam to Glines Canyon was still so rough that it took the ambulance five hours to 

make the round trip to the dam and back to the hospital in Port Angeles.37

 35 “Four Men Are Killed in Canyon Dam Tragedy,” Port Angeles Olympic Tribune, January 21, 1927. 

36 Pendley interview, 4-5. 

37 “City News in Brief,” Port Angeles Olympic Tribune, January 21, 1927. 
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Figure 41. Scaffolding at the nearly complete Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1927. In January 1927, a portion 

of scaffolding collapsed, killing four men and injuring seven others. Courtesy of Clallam County 

Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.082. [201020082.JPG] 

 Olympic Power and Development Company also erected the power transmission lines that 

would carry electricity to Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Irondale, and Bremerton. Crews cleared 

the timber and debris from a 20-foot-wide right-of-way between Port Angeles and Irondale, and 

dug a total of roughly 1,000 seven-foot-deep holes spaced every 350 feet apart through the rightof-way. Into each hole, they sank twelve-inch-diameter cedar poles that would hold up the 
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transmission wires.38 In their eagerness to get the job done, the work crew cut a 60-foot-wide, 

three-mile-long swath through the timber holdings of the Puget Mills Company before Aldwell 

had managed to obtain the right-of-way, leading the property owner to sue and obtain a 

settlement from Olympic Power Development Company for the damages.39

Figure 42. Historic American Engineering Record sketch of Elwha River Hydroelectric System, 1910–

1927. HAER Drawing WA-130. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[HABSHAER_OLYM437_Systemsketch.TIF] 

 38 “Olympic Power Company.” 
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Foundation Blowout and Aftermath 

 Despite the optimism in Port Angeles that the builders of the Elwha Dam had successfully 

exercised dominion over the natural world, the Elwha River continued to “fight back” by 

undermining the dam foundation while the water level rose and pressure increased behind the 

closed floodgates. The problem stemmed from the contractor’s decision to follow a less 

expensive, but inadequate, design for the dam foundation. From the outset, Summers Company 

managers failed to grasp the importance of local conditions, including the geology of the 

riverbed and the wet coastal climate that could quickly swell the size of the reservoir before the 

dam was ready. Eight days after the reservoir reached its maximum water level, the river’s 

undermining action finally forced a “blowout” of the entire foundation on October 30, 1912.40 In 

the course of a single hour, all of the water stored behind the dam rushed through the opening, 

draining the reservoir and scouring away the entire foundation. The surge of water and logs also 

battered the power plant and damaged the power turbines. 

 The foundation blowout of October 1912 produced further hardship for Elwha Klallam tribal 

members who had homes and homesteads along the river: one watched the flood completely 

destroy his riverside home and property; several others saw the floodwaters wash away crops, 

canoes, houses, and portions of their land. They apparently received no advance warning of the 

disaster, and were fortunate to escape unharmed. None of the affected tribal members was 

compensated for their losses. The blowout’s power heightened Elwha Klallam fears that the dam 

threatened their downriver homes. Even after completion of the dam, continuous small leaks in 

 39 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 113–14. 

40 Resident Engineer, Mead and Seastone, Consulting Engineers, to Thomas Aldwell, June 13, 1913, File 1-34, 

Box 1, Accession 4082, Thomas Aldwell Papers, Manuscripts and University Archives, University of Washington 

Libraries, Seattle. 
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the foundation added to the wariness of the Elwha Klallam, who had seen firsthand the 

destructive power of the water if it was released too quickly. 

Figure 43. Elwha Dam powerhouse, showing damage from the 1912 foundation blowout. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. [Elwha Powerhouse after 1912.jpg] 

 The foundation blowout was also a distressing setback to the project. The accident, 

subsequent delays, and the uncertainties that followed nearly caused Aldwell and Glines to lose 

their financial backing and their local support for the project. In the immediate aftermath of the 

blowout, according to one news account, Port Angeles city officials began to inquire how much 

they could recoup if they exchanged the transformers meant to receive Elwha power for 

equipment to run a new electric plant in the city.41 Aldwell, already struggling to refinance his 

company and regain the confidence of his Chicago investors, was understandably dismayed to 

 41 “Power Ready by Next November,” Port Angeles Olympic-Leader, April 18, 1913. 
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hear that his adopted hometown was losing faith in his project. He assured the city council that 

the company was already working strenuously to rebuild the dam and power plant. Aldwell told 

the council he had “at least 40 men . . . constantly at work” repairing the facilities, and asserted 

that the Elwha plant would be producing electricity by the end of November 1913.42 He made 

this claim despite the fact that engineers still had not determined how to patch the damaged dam. 

He also acknowledged that the reconstruction job would cost an additional half-million dollars. 

The city council and his Chicago backers regained some confidence in the project when Glines 

put up $250,000 of his own fortune to refinance the work.43

 Unlike the city council, the editors of the Olympic-Leader were quick to resume their praise 

for the power project and promote the benefits it would bring to the city and the peninsula. A 

May 1916 article about the project argued that the two owners had “certainly earned the hearty 

co-operation and support of all our citizens and everyone interested in the upbuilding of the 

peninsula.”44 The account stated that Aldwell and Glines were “deserving of a great deal of 

credit for the fortitude with which they took the catastrophe of the blow-out of the dam and their 

persistence in overcoming the trouble.”45

 Houghteling, Peabody and Company decided to put another Chicagoan, Jason Heyworth, in 

charge of the reconstruction as the lead contractor. Heyworth and his consulting engineers 

decided not to build the new concrete foundation down to the bedrock of the canyon, even 

though that construction strategy was the main cause of the blowout. To compensate for that 

problem, Heyworth’s crew drove two rows of steel pilings into the bedrock, one set on each side 

 42 “Power Ready by Next November.”

43 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 108. 

44 “Contract Let for Canyon Dam.” 

45 “Contract Let for Canyon Dam.” 
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of the dam. Laborers then began blasting rock from the canyon walls below the dam to fill the 

area between the pilings and the foot of the dam. The blasting sent pieces of canyon rock 

weighing as much as ten to fifteen tons tumbling into the river below, along with cascades of 

smaller rocks and pebbles. According to a reporter on the scene, the blasting work had created 

“an enormous mass of great weight—a brace against the lower side of the dam which no power 

could by any possibility move.”46

 The Olympic-Leader boasted that “every engineer who has examined the work has 

unhesitatingly stated that there is no question but that the Elwha is harnessed at last and 

forever.”47 The correspondent’s comment demonstrated the extent of pre–World War I society’s 

trust in the engineering capabilities of modern humans (and the technological tools they wielded) 

to tackle even the most Herculean of tasks. In the case of the Elwha Dam, however, the engineers 

again underestimated of the organic power of the Elwha River, which continued to seek its way 

downstream. Large leaks appeared in the newly laid rock foundation, necessitating the contractor 

to apply additional loads of ballast to hold the foundation in place. 

 46 “Elwha Harnessed for the Last Time,” Port Angeles Olympic-Leader, November 7, 1913. 

47 “Elwha Harnessed for the Last Time.” 
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Figure 44. Engineering drawing of the Elwha Dam, showing the layers of materials used to shore up the 

dam’s foundation to prevent further leakage. HAER Drawing WA-130-A. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. [Elwha plan.jpg] 

 Regardless of the Olympic-Leader’s proclamations of success, the company’s engineers, 

contractors, and consultants never successfully ceased the Elwha’s unrelenting power, which 

continued to create leaks that threatened the plant’s potential power production. Workers at the 

site continued to dump rock and hydraulic fill material at the upstream base of the dam from 

1914 to 1919, and finally, poured a gunite cap atop of the fill, thus “completing” the makeshift 

repairs and enabling the reservoir to rise to it full capacity. Nonetheless, leaks continued 

throughout the life of the dam, closely monitored by dam operators.48

 48 Joe Michalczik, oral history interview by Paul Sadin and Dawn Vogel, August 28, 2009, Port Angeles, 

Wash., transcript, ONPA, 10. Michalczik explained that operators monitor the leak via a gauge that tells them if the 

water flow is increasing or decreasing, but “it seems to have been rather stable all the years that I have been here.” 
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Initial Impact of Elwha Dam Construction 

 Construction of the Elwha Dam produced both geographically far-reaching and intensely 

local consequences. The dam dramatically altered the riverine environment, interrupted the life 

cycles of as many as ten different anadromous fish runs, reduced the populations of terrestrial 

species in the valley, and gradually eliminated the nearshore habitat along the Strait of Juan de 

Fuca near the mouth of the river and east to Ediz Hook. Construction of the Elwha Dam also 

dramatically altered the world of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. By the time Aldwell and 

Glines were drawing up plans for the dam, the previous centuries of European diseases and at 

least a half-century of white settlement and destructive government policies, had already reduced 

the tribe and its territory to a shadow of its former size and strength. But prior to 1911, tribal 

members could still count on abundant salmon runs and shellfish gathered near the mouth of the 

river for sustenance. 

Figure 45. Lake Aldwell, behind the Elwha Dam, August 1946. Photograph by Thompson. Courtesy of 

Clallam County Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.041. [201020041.JPG] 
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 The most significant impact of dam construction fell upon the prodigious salmon fishery that 

was a central element of Elwha Klallam life and culture and a critical piece of the river’s 

ecological systems. By late summer 1911, the completed sections of the dam already blocked the 

upstream passage of several valuable fall salmon runs. In response to a complaint lodged by area 

salmon cannery managers, Clallam County fish and game warden J. W. Pike visited the dam in 

late August. He found the disconcerting sight of “thousands of salmon at the foot of the dam 

where they are jumping continually trying to get up the flume.”49 He was referring to the power 

company’s diversion flume that carried water around the dam during construction, which was not 

a fish passage. 

 Pike stayed to watch the situation until he was certain that no salmon could ascend above the 

dam. After reading Pike’s report, John Crawford, general superintendent of the Washington State 

Fish Hatcheries, visited the dam site the following month. He confirmed Pike’s observations that 

the dam had completely blocked upstream fish passage. The engineer at the dam site assured 

Crawford that he intended to construct a fish passage as soon as the dam “was high enough to 

make the fishway effective.”50 This must have come as a surprise to Aldwell and Glines because 

the dam’s design did not include a fish ladder and because the engineer had no authority to make 

such a substantial change to the project. 

 Pike and the local sheriff were troubled to see the fish cut off from their spawning grounds, a 

situation they called “contrary to the statutes made and provided” to protect the state’s fish runs. 

 49 J. W. Pike, Clallam County Game Warden, to Jno. [John L.] Riseland, State Fish Commissioner, September 

12, 1911, Folder 48: Fishways for Dams Corresp.-State Fish Commissioner, Box 1, Phillip Johnson Elwha Sources, 

Access no. OLYM-429 (hereafter Johnson Elwha Sources), ONPA; and Lane and Lane Associates, “Conflict 

between Indian Terminal Fisheries and Hydropower on the Elwha River,” 50. 

50 John Crawford, General Superintendent, Washington State Fish Hatcheries, to Jno. [John L.] Riseland, 

October 23, 1911, Folder 48, Box 1, Johnson Elwha Sources, ONPA. 
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During a September visit to the site, Pike found hundreds of salmon had “gathered just below the 

dam during the last few days until they are packed in together like a school of herring, or 

sardines in a box. Every few moments a big fellow makes a jump clear [out] of the water that 

shoots out of the flume . . . only to be thrown back to the pool below.” Like Pike, Clallam 

County Sheriff Gallagher concluded that “not a single fish can get thru.”51

 Complaints of locals and game officials resulted in a variety of suggested schemes to move 

fish above the dam, but none proved practical or effective. Among the flurry of suggestions were 

proposals to net or otherwise trap the fish and transport them by derrick, truck, or “electric 

elevator” directly into the reservoir or to a temporary fish hatchery just above the dam.52 State 

Fish Commissioner John L. Riseland informed Aldwell that it was the Olympic Power and 

Development Company’s responsibility to build and operate a trap and lift system and to supply 

land above the dam for a state-run hatchery. If they failed to build an effective fish elevator, 

Riseland said, the company would be required to “construct a fishway in strict compliance with 

the provision of our State Law.”53 Eighteen months later, however, the dam was almost finished, 

but without any sign of a fish-passage facility.54 

The Hatchery Agreement 

 Once the dam was completed, Aldwell argued that the various parties involved should admit 

there was no effective means to build a functional fish passage over a 100-foot-tall dam. In 

 51 “Power Company Will Fish with a Derrick,” Port Angeles Olympic-Leader, September 1, 1911. 

52 “U.S. Hatchery Secured,” Port Angeles Olympic-Leader, February 23, 1912. 

53 Jno. [John L.] Riseland, State Fish Commissioner, to Thomas Aldwell, January 11, 1912, Folder 48, Box 1, 

Johnson Elwha Sources, ONPA. 

54 [Leslie H. Darwin], State Fish Commissioner to Aldwell, August 8, 1913, Folder 48, Box 1, Johnson Elwha 

Sources, ONPA. 
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August 1913, Commissioner Leslie H. Darwin offered a solution to Aldwell’s liking.55 Instead of 

building a costly fish ladder and stalling power production (costing him even more money) until 

the fishway was complete, all Aldwell needed to do to circumvent the state fisheries law was to 

donate land adjacent to the dam as a site for the hatchery. In a time when state government did 

not give public hearings or post notice of its doings, there was no opportunity for the Elwha 

Klallam Tribe, cannery owners, or concerned citizens of Port Angeles to voice their protest. 

 Even after securing the highly advantageous deal for Olympic Power and Development 

Company, Aldwell still postponed building the hatchery. In August 1914, Darwin complained to 

Aldwell that the failure to have the hatchery ready risked the loss of the 1914 salmon runs, since 

the state had no place to put the fish that began collecting at the foot of the dam. Darwin 

“threatened” Aldwell with a court order that would force him to build a fishway, because, he 

said, “it is out of question for us to allow another fish run to beat its brains out against the 

dam.”56 On advice of the company attorney, Aldwell finally paid for the construction of the 

hatchery at the foot of the dam. As a result of these negotiations, Olympic Power and 

Development Company could operate the Elwha Dam without any fish passage facility. 

 In 1914, the state built the Elwha fish hatchery with Olympic Power and Development 

Company money, but it would prove unsuccessful. High-water events caused by reservoir 

releases created intermittent floods that washed away the racks set to catch and hold spawning 

salmon.57 The hatchery operation began collecting eggs from spawning salmon in 1915, but soon 

afterward, run size had decreased dramatically, to the extent that the hatchery ceased taking fish 

 55 Darwin to Aldwell, August 17, 1913. 

56 Leslie H. Darwin to Thomas Aldwell, June 2, 1914, quoted in Lane and Lane Associates, “The Conflict 

between Indian Terminal Fisheries and Hydropower on the Elwha River,” 56. 

57 Johnson, “Historic Assessment of Elwha River Fisheries,” 87, 96. 
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in 1922. Thereafter, fish that were able to spawn in the lowest four miles of the river were the 

only salmon successfully reproducing. 

 The dam’s completion marked a new reality for the river, the valley, and the Lower Elwha 

Klallam Tribe. For the tribe and the famous salmon runs of the Elwha River, the dam became an 

immense problem rather than a harbinger of future promise. But in Port Angeles, city leaders and 

residents’ eagerness for hydropower to the spur the city’s industrial growth easily overshadowed 

any concerns they might had about the salmon runs. Likewise in other peninsula towns, such as 

Sequim and Port Townsend, which envisioned the benefits they too might gain from Elwha 

electricity. 

PORT ANGELES in 1914: PROSPERITY AND PROMISE 

To the business leaders and residents of Port Angeles, 1914 was a benchmark year in the growth 

of their community. The year began with the transmission of electricity from the Elwha River 

Dam to the city, just one of the several changes remaking Port Angeles in 1914. A city booster 

proclaimed, “Port Angeles and the Olympic peninsula are enjoying a pronounced business 

revival, not only as a result of the completion of the power plant, but by reason of the coming of 

the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, the building of the great sawmills, shingle mills and 

other industrial factors, all of which contribute to the general wave of prosperity.”58

 58 “A Big Day in Port Angeles,” 
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Figure 46. “River de Front,” Front Street in Port Angeles under water during regrade sluicing operations, 

June 1914. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [Rotation of PA_RiverdeFront.TIF] 

That summer, city work crews transformed the downtown. Using high-powered water jets, they 

sluiced through the hill that had formerly separated Front Street from the rest of the downtown 

area. A flood of water and dirt ran down Laurel Street until the water slackened and the dirt 

settled. The city then built new streets atop the fill material.59 In the meantime, work had begun in 

1914 on the new, all-brick Clallam County courthouse at Fourth and Lincoln. Down on the 

waterfront, Michael Earles completed the construction of his new sawmill in 1914. The “Big 

Mill,” as it soon became known, dwarfed the downtown and the other businesses on the 

waterfront. The mill’s large size compared to the buildings around it foreshadowed the dominant 

 59 Paul J. Martin, Port Angeles, Washington: A History (Port Angeles: Peninsula Publishing, Inc., 1983), 109–

15. 
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role that the lumber, pulp, and paper industries—powered with Elwha electricity—would occupy 

in the history of Port Angeles and the surrounding vicinity for the next century. 

Figure 47. Dedication of the Clallam County Courthouse, located at Fourth and Lincoln Streets in Port 

Angeles, June 14, 1915. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. 

[PTAN BLDX – 090.jpg] 

Also in 1914, a grand new tourist destination, the Olympic Hotel, also opened its doors. The 

Olympic, a three-story, 50-room, brick edifice with hot and cold running water, electric lights, 

and telephones in every room, provided “all the convenience of a first class hotel.”60 The 

“Prosperity Edition” of the Port Angeles Tribune-Times noted that the Olympic Hotel gave “to 

Port Angeles an institution that she has long wanted.”61

All the new developments in 1914—the hotel, the regraded waterfront area, the new courthouse, 

Earles Mill, and, especially, the transmission of affordable Elwha power to the city—left city 

 60 “New and Modern Hotel Olympic,” Port Angeles Tribune-Times, Prosperity Edition, n.d., ca. 1914, News 

Clipping File 1911–1915. 

61 “New and Modern Hotel Olympic.” 
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leaders and civic boosters bursting with pride and boasting about the area’s rosy future. The 

Olympic-Leader captured the city’s swelling sense of importance in a June 1915 article revealing 

the city of Seattle’s possible interest in purchasing Elwha power, or the power plant itself, from 

the Olympic Power and Development Company. The paper saw it as evidence that Port Angeles 

was “coming into its own and that the eyes of the world are daily watching the development of 

the Olympic Peninsula.”62 Every burgeoning former frontier community dreamed of growing into 

a regional power and gaining national recognition. Community members felt certain that the new 

developments of 1914 signaled that Port Angeles was ready to become one of the leading cities of 

the Pacific Northwest. Some of the expected benefits came to fruition. But in reality, Port Angeles 

and the north peninsula still had a long way to go to capture the full extent of the promise and 

anticipation in the air that year. 

 62 “City of Seattle Wants Elwha Power Plant,” Port Angeles Olympic-Leader, June 9, 1915. 
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Figure 48. The city’s first passenger train, run by the Milwaukee Railroad Company, ready to leave Port 

Angeles for the Elwha River, July 21, 1914. Photograph by Angeles Studio. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. [PA_1stPassengerTrain.TIF] 
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Chapter 3 

Transformations: 

A River, a Tribe, a City 

Going on down the Seig trail to the great clearing overlooking two miles of bottom, it was at 

once evident that the Old Elwha is in tethers.

Grant Hume, 1927 

 Completion of the Elwha Dam powered the growth of Port Angeles and other Olympic 

Peninsula communities and shaped the lives of individuals who lived and worked there. Elwha 

River electrical production and another abundant local resource, Olympic Peninsula timber, 

brought important new industries, most notably pulp and paper processing, to the region. Just as 

Thomas Aldwell had foreseen, “power generation on the Elwha made industrial development 

possible” in Port Angeles, Sequim, and Port Townsend.1

 The introduction of hydropower to the 

region, coupled with scientific advances in timber processing, expanded the range of potential 

forest products that could be manufactured in Port Angeles. As a result, the town grew and 

flourished until the most difficult years of the Great Depression arrived. 

 1

 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 120. 
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Figure 49. Laurel Street, looking north, 1916. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North 

Olympic Library System. [PTAN BLDX – 025.jpg] 

The Industrial Growth of Port Angeles 

 Even before the development of Elwha River hydropower, Port Angeles’ economy was tied 

to timber and timber products. Logging camps and lumber mills were significant industries on 

the Olympic Peninsula as early as the 1880s, and their prevalence increased with the advent of 

new technologies. The peninsula’s first loggers typically used draft animals to haul logs out of 

the thick Olympic forests to small sawmills or the nearest navigable body of water. But as the 

easily accessible stands near the shorelines disappeared in the latter part of the nineteenth 

century, timber operators turned to a mechanized device called the steam donkey to retrieve logs 

from deeper within the forests. The steam donkey employed a steam-powered winch that could 

drag large logs out of the forest to an area where the logs could then be loaded onto railroad cars 

or trucks. The steam donkey enabled loggers to increase production and work in previously 
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untapped timber stands.2 Parts of the Elwha Valley, including the Indian Creek and Dry Creek 

tributary drainages, were logged at the turn of the century.3

 In 1912, the Seattle Daily Times

boasted that Clallam County contained more than 60 billion board feet of timber on privately 

owned land and another 25 billion feet on federal land.4

 2

 John McCallum and Lorraine Wilcox Ross, Port Angeles, U.S.A. (Seattle: Wood and Reber, Inc., 1961), 82, 

104; and Elmer Critchfield, “Logging—Central Area Port Angeles to Lyre River and Twin Rivers Area,” in Jimmy 

Come Lately: History of Clallam County, ed. Jervis Russell (Port Angeles: Clallam County Historical Society, 

1971), 574–78. 

3

 Evans, Historic Resource Study, 139. 

4

 “Clallam County Is Empire in Itself,” Seattle Daily Times, June 27, 1912, 28. 
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Figure 50. Jack Pike, on the left, and unknown companion by cedar tree along Elwha River, 1930. 

Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [FIS004001.JPG] 

 In the late nineteenth century, logging companies began laying railroad tracks to their inland 

timber holdings. The railroads that pierced the wilderness also boosted timber production and 

hastened the supply line of logs headed to the mills. A Seattle, Port Angeles and Western 

Railway promotional piece praised the company’s logging rail line, which made it “possible to 

manufacture and market the vast timber resources of Clallam County at and from Port Angeles,” 
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putting the city “on a footing with other Coast localities.”5 Logging crews used railroads to move 

timber to mills in Port Angeles and elsewhere, allowing crews to work even deeper in the forests 

of the Olympic Peninsula.6 Logging and timber mills also became the primary source of jobs in 

the region. Elwha Klallam tribal members, Indians from other tribes, long-established 

homesteaders, and new immigrants all found employment in the forests and mills. 

 Logging camps and small sawmills began to dot the peninsula soon after new homesteaders 

arrived. The Puget Sound Co-operative Colony launched the peninsula’s first substantial logging 

and milling operation in 1887, which produced the materials needed to build the colony. 

Organizers of the colony hoped to create a utopian community where members lived and worked 

together, and selected the developing community of Port Angeles as the ideal location for their 

experiment.7

 The colony’s mill, the first timber mill in Port Angeles, was located at the mouth of 

Ennis Creek. The mill began operation in 1888, producing lumber, shingles, shakes, and laths; it 

changed hands several times in 1889, before an 1890 housing boom in Port Angeles increased 

demand for building materials. The mill burned around 1904, close to the same time that the 

colony disbanded.8

 5

 Seattle, Port Angeles and Western Railway Co. A New Empire (Seattle: Izzard Company, 1915), [8], ONPA. 

6

 Kit Oldham, “Clallam County—Thumbnail History,” HistoryLink.org, Online Encyclopedia of Washington 

State History (hereafter cited as HistoryLink.org), 

http://historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7576 (accessed November 13, 2009). 

7

 Paul J. Martin, Port Angeles, Washington: A History (Port Angeles: Peninsula Publishing, Inc., 1983), 36. 

8

 G. M. Lauridsen and A. A. Smith, The Story of Port Angeles, Clallam County, Washington (Seattle: Lowman 

and Hanford Company, 1937), 134–35; Martin, Port Angeles, 42; James Machenheimer, “Puget Sound CoOperative Colony Mill,” in Russell, Jimmy Come Lately, 598; and Kit Oldham, “The Puget Sound Co-operative 

Colony is established at Port Angeles in June 1887,” HistoryLink.org, 

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8219 (accessed November 3, 2009). 
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Figure 51. The Puget Sound Co-operative Colony’s lumber mill at the north end of Chambers Street, 

1888. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. [CLNY MILL – 

002.jpg] 

 In 1893, the Filion brothers, Ismael, Felix, and Alfred, left their Michigan sawmill and 

moved to Port Angeles to open a shingle and lumber mill. They built the mill at West 16th Street 

between B and C streets, away from the Port Angeles Harbor in what is today a residential area. 

Despite the economic panic of 1893, the Filion brothers began milling operations, providing 

needed jobs for area residents. For two decades, between 1893 and 1914, the Filion mill 

employed more workers than any other company in Port Angeles. The mill closed only briefly 

when a 1903 fire necessitated rebuilding. The Filion mill remained running during World War I, 

employing women to work jobs vacated by men who were fighting in Europe.9

 9

 Lauridsen and Smith, Story of Port Angeles, 131–32; Fred Filion, “The Filion Mill and Lumber Company,” in 

Russell, Jimmy Come Lately, 601–2; Kit Oldham, “Port Angeles—Thumbnail History,” HistoryLink.org, 

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Figure 52. Filion Lumber Mill and men outside the mill during building construction, Port Angeles, 

1893. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. [loggmill—2.jpg] 

 Michael Earles, who had recently moved to the Olympic Peninsula from California’s 

redwood country, opened the next sawmill in Port Angeles. Eager to boost industrial growth in 

Port Angeles, city civic and business leaders purchased land near the base of Ediz Hook for 

Earles to build what became known as the “Big Mill.” Earles established the Puget Sound Mills 

and Timber Company and began milling operations in 1914.10 That year, the Port Angeles 

Tribune-Times reported that the Puget Sound Mills and Timber sawmill was “the largest mill on 

Puget Sound and the most modern in the world.”11 The Big Mill produced lumber construction 

 

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=8210 (accessed November 3, 2009); 

“Olympic Peninsula of the State of Washington,” [14]; and Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 26–27. 

10 Martin, Port Angeles, 97; Lauridsen and Smith, Story of Port Angeles, 132–34; and “Olympic Peninsula of 

the State of Washington,” [14]. 

11 “Built at a Cost of One and a Half Million Dollars, Is the Last Word in Modern Methods of Handling the 

Manufacture of Lumber,” Port Angeles Tribune-Times, May 1914, reprinted in Straight History 4, no. 3 (Spring 

1989). 
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materials and also made boxes.12 After Michael Earles’ death in 1919, the Charles Nelson 

Company purchased the sawmill from the Puget Sound Mills and Timber Company.13 By then, 

abundant timber resources, rail transportation, and Elwha River hydropower were making Port 

Angeles a center of the regional timber industry. 

Figure 53. Earles’ Mill, also known as the “Big Mill,” ca. 1914. Photograph by “H. B.” Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. [Rotation of HAER_OLYM437_HistoricMill0001.tif] 

 After the onset of World War I, the U.S. Army’s Spruce Division moved into the forests of 

the Olympic Peninsula to begin logging spruce trees, which had became particularly valuable 

because the lightweight wood was used to build airplanes. To facilitate spruce production, the 

Army laid tracks for a railroad from Lake Pleasant to Joyce (and a connection to the Port 

 12 Martin, Port Angeles, 106. 

13 Martin gives Earles’ death date and suggests that the Charles Nelson Company purchased the mill after that 

date (Port Angeles, 134), while Lynda V. Mapes gives both 1914 and 1929 as the date when the Charles Nelson 

Company took over operations (Breaking Ground: The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Unearthing of Tse-whitzen Village [Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009], 94, 97). See also Harriet U. Fish, “Port Angeles Mills 

that Located on Waterfront,” Chronicle, January 2, 1985, available in Mills folder, Northwest Reference vertical 

files, North Olympic Library System (hereafter NOLS) clippings file, Port Angeles, Washington. 
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Angeles Western Railroad), via the northern shore of Lake Crescent.14 To complement the 

logging camps and railroad, the army also decided to construct a Spruce Division lumber mill at 

the mouth of Ennis Creek in 1917. However, completion of this mill coincided with the end of 

World War I, and it never opened.15 As soon as the war ended, the market demand for spruce 

plummeted. 

Figure 54. The U.S. Spruce Corporation Mill, located at the mouth of Ennis Creek, ca. 1918. Courtesy of 

the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. [PTAN MILL – 002.jpg] 

Pulp and Paper Mills, 1918–1929 

 Technological advances in the late 1910s expanded the range of products that companies 

could make from timber. Even logs that in the past were left behind could be ground up and 

processed to create pulp for papermaking.16 The pulping process turned what were once termed 

 14 Martin, Port Angeles, 131. 

15 Martin, Port Angeles, 126–31; Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 133–38; James Machenheimer, 

“United States Spruce Corporation Mill,” in Russell, Jimmy Come Lately, 606; and Critchfield, “Logging,” 578–79. 

16 Mapes, Breaking Ground, 83. 
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“slash” tree species, particularly the ever-abundant Western hemlock, into a valuable timber 

resource. The availability of Elwha hydroelectric power, the abundance of timber and fresh 

water, and growing demand for paper combined to make the pulp and paper industry a lucrative 

enterprise on the Olympic Peninsula.17

 In 1918, the Northern Boxboard Company opened the city’s first pulp and paper mill. At the 

time, Northern Boxboard already owned a boxboard mill in Sumner, Washington. Company 

owners and the general manager, A. H. Dougall, decided to expand their business to Port 

Angeles, where inexpensive Elwha hydropower and plentiful timber resources were sure to make 

them a profit. Thomas Aldwell helped convince Dougall to make the move, because the new mill 

would pay the Olympic Power and Development Company $45,000 annually for electricity from 

the Elwha Dam power plant.18 The Chamber of Commerce, City Council, and Clallam County 

Board of Commissioners also wooed the boxboard company to come to Port Angeles by giving 

the company city land to build their mill. Northern Boxboard created a subsidiary, the Crescent 

Boxboard Company, which completed construction of the mill and began operations in 1918.19

The mill produced boxboard, also known as fiberboard, which was used to make cartons for food 

products such as milk, ice cream, and other edible packaged goods.20 Crescent Boxboard sat just 

southwest of Earles’s “Big Mill” on the Port Angeles waterfront. Crescent Boxboard Company 

became Fibreboard Products, Incorporated, in 1927, but mill operations remained the same. 

 17 Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System,” 24. 

18 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 131. 

19 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 132–33. 

20 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 130–33; Martin, Port Angeles, 133; McCallum and Ross, Port 

Angeles, 113; and James Machenheimer, “Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation,” in Russell, Jimmy Come Lately, 

603. 
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 Even before the Crescent Boxboard Company arrived, Canadians James and George Whalen 

were preparing to build a paper mill of their own in Port Angeles. In 1917, the two brothers 

shipped sawmill equipment from their family-owned plant in British Columbia to the site they 

had chosen on Ediz Hook. But America’s entry into World War I and the brothers’ financial 

shortcomings put an end to their project before they could begin construction, leaving their 

machinery sitting in a warehouse.21 In the meantime, Aldwell and Edward Mills, a partner at 

Peabody, Houghteling and Company were still looking for financially solvent customers to buy 

electricity from the Elwha power plant. They eventually convinced the Zellerbach Paper 

Company of San Francisco to open a new mill in Port Angeles. In the late teens, Zellerbach 

Paper Company was a large conglomerate of mills and other companies, but it did not yet have a 

stake in the Pacific Northwest. Isadore Zellerbach, head of the company, wanted to expand 

operations into Washington to tap into the state’s wealth of forest resources.22 Elwha River 

hydropower and abundant Olympic Peninsula timber convinced Zellerbach to launch a new mill 

in Port Angeles. In 1919, the Zellerbach subsidiary Washington Pulp and Paper Company 

purchased the Whalen brothers’ equipment and began construction of a new pulp and paper mill 

at the base of Ediz Hook. That year, Zellerbach also purchased the Elwha Dam power plant from 

Northwestern Power and Manufacturing Company (successor to the Olympic Power Company) 

to ensure the mill would have the electricity it needed. 

 21 William Welsh, A Brief History of Port Angeles (Port Angeles: Crown Zellerbach Corporation, 1941, rev. 

1960), 24-25. 

22 Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System,” 25. 
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Figure 55. Construction of Washington Pulp and Paper Company mill, August 7, 1920. Photograph by F. 

G. Lewis Photo, Port Angeles, Wash. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [PA_WAPulp_construc1920-

rotatedcropped.TIF] 

 The Washington Pulp and Paper mill opened in late 1920, producing newsprint and paper for 

city and county directories. The mill had produced its first reel of newsprint on December 14, 

1920. After some initial adjustments to the machinery, the plant began turning out 55 tons of 

paper a day, and the company made the first shipment of newsprint to San Francisco by the end 

of the year.23 Washington Pulp installed the plant’s second and third newsprint machines in 1922 

and 1927, respectively. The company name changed to the more familiar Crown Zellerbach 

Corporation after the 1928 acquisition of the Crown Willamette Pulp and Paper Mill. By that 

time, the pulp and paper industry that would dominate the economic life of Port Angeles and the 

 23 “Crown-Z Newsprint Mill Producing 350 Tons Daily,” Port Angeles Evening News, April 19, 1941. 
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north peninsula for the next 80 years was flourishing with two large mills (Crescent Boxboard 

and Crown Zellerbach) operating at full speed and another soon to come on-line.24

TSE-WHIT-ZEN 

One of the major Elwha Klallam villages, Tse-whit-zen, sat at the base of the Ediz Hook sand 

spit, which forms Port Angeles Harbor. When Elwha River hydropower helped bring a new 

industry—pulp and paper manufacturing—to Port Angeles, private companies built two of the 

new pulp mills on top of portions of the abandoned village and unearthed human remains in the 

process. Tribal elders kept alive, in their memories and oral traditions, the story of Tse-whit-zen 

and the knowledge that many of their ancestors were buried beneath the paper mills. But the full 

extent of the burial site was not clearly understood until 2005, when excavation for a new state 

dry dock unearthed the remains of what would eventually total more than 300 burials. 

INSERT: Images of artifact(s) from site if available and permission obtained. 

More Power from the Elwha 

 The promise of plentiful Elwha electrical power lured the Zellerbach Paper Company to Port 

Angeles to build the Washington Pulp and Paper Company pulp and newsprint plant. Yet within 

two years, Washington Pulp and Paper’s power requirements had quickly outstripped the initial 

production capacity of the Elwha Dam, prompting the owners to return to the river to generate 

more electricity. In 1922, Northwestern Power Company, the corporate successor of the Olympic 

Power and Development Company, built an annex onto to the original Elwha power plant and 

 24 Martin, Port Angeles, 135; McCallum and Ross, Port Angeles, 115–16; Aldwell, Conquering the Last 

Frontier, 119; and James Machenheimer, “Crown Zellerbach Corporation,” in Russell, Jimmy Come Lately, 598–99. 
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installed two new Francis-type turbines with Westinghouse AC generators. A single 15-foot 

diameter penstock with a ‘Y’ joint at its end delivered water to both turbines.25 The beefed-up 

power plant produced an additional 6,600 kilowatts of electricity, roughly doubling the plant’s 

former capacity.26

Figure 56. Aerial view of the Elwha Dam, showing power plant annex (left of the main power plant 

building) and larger-diameter penstock, both added in 1922, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[Walsh#8.jpg] 

 25 Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System,” 14. 

26 Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System,” 26. 
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Figure 57. Interior of the Elwha Dam power plant, showing the no. 3 generator, ca. 1922. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. [HAER_OLYM437_LewisWP&P2.TIF] 

 Despite the increased voltage, just two years later, the Washington Pulp and Paper mill was 

again looking for more power to operate a third paper machine. The owners turned to the 

Northwestern Power and Manufacturing Company (another recapitalization of the original 

Olympic Power and Development Company) for a new source of electrical power production. 

The company’s hydraulic engineers investigated possible sites for new dams on the Elwha River. 

They reported that three locations—McDonald Bridge, Rica Canyon, and Glines Canyon—were 

the most promising. 
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Figure 58. Thomas Aldwell and other company and city leaders at Glines Canyon Dam construction site. 

Aldwell is the fourth from the left, wearing long overcoat, ca. 1926. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[HAER_OLYM437_LewisWP&P4.TIF] 
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Figure 59. Engineering drawing of Glines Canyon Dam. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [Glines 

plan.jpg] 

 The company eventually selected Glines Canyon, eight and one-half miles upriver from the 

Elwha Dam, because it offered several benefits over the McDonald Bridge and Rica Canyon 

sites. For one, Northwestern Power and Light already owned much of the land encompassing the 

dam site and impoundment area of the future reservoir, as part of Aldwell’s land acquisition 

scheme in preparation for construction of the first dam. Second, the physical location was ideal 

for the type of dam they had in mind. Glines Canyon, unlike the Elwha Dam site, had bedrock 

immediately below the stream-bottom gravel, ensuring a sound foundation for the dam. And 

Glines was a narrow canyon that featured near-perpendicular walls rising roughly 200 feet above 

the river, an ideal spot for a concrete-arch dam, the favored hydropower structure of the day. In 
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fact, Seattle City Light had recently completed a similar arch dam at Diablo Canyon in the North 

Cascades Mountains.27

Figure 60. Crew digging bypass tunnel at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-1927. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. [HAER_OLYM437_Oliver1.TIF] 

 Concrete-arch dams, because of their higher strength-to-materials ratio, could be built at a 

lower cost than gravity dams like the Elwha Dam. Glines Canyon offered a second moneysaving advantage: the company would link the new dam’s hydropower generation and 

transmission systems to the existing Elwha power plant, significantly reducing the company’s 

operational costs. Since Northwestern Power continued to face financial difficulties, they chose 

Glines Canyon because it offered them the greatest power generation at the lowest cost. 

 27 Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System,” 29. 
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Figure 61. Construction of intake at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. [HAER_OLYM437_SlemmonsElwha1.TIF] 

 The emphasis on cost savings, however, did not extend to skimping on the structural integrity 

of the dam. Aldwell and Peabody, Houghteling had learned their lesson at the first Elwha Dam. 

They chose a contractor with experience in the mountain West, the San Francisco-based 

construction firm Thebo, Starr and Anderton, Inc., to perform the work. Construction work 

began in May 1926. Before they could start the blasting and framing tasks in the canyon, the 

contractor first built a five-mile extension to the Elwha River Road in order to transport the 
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required equipment and materials to the site.28 Workers then blasted a diversion tunnel through 

one wall of Glines Canyon to direct water around the dam construction site during construction. 

Thus the Glines Canyon project not only expanded the power production for Washington Pulp 

and Paper and Port Angeles but also expanded motor access to the upper Elwha Valley and 

Olympic Hot Springs, a result that area recreationists would take advantage of once construction 

was completed. 

Figure 62. Diversion tunnel at Glines Canyon Dam, June 15, [1927]. The river was diverted through this 

tunnel while dam construction was underway. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, ONP ref. 

no. 2010.200.135. [2010200135.JPG] 

 28 Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System,” 28. 
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Figure 63. Construction of a cofferdam at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-1927. Courtesy of Clallam 

County Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.089. [201020089.JPG] 

 Preparatory to building the dam, a community of workers, virtually all men, came to live and 

work at the construction site. The construction camp was situated on the river’s west side, high 

on a bluff above Glines Canyon. Another tent camp was located about a mile farther upstream, 

occupied by loggers felling trees in the “backwater” area behind the dam. Before the road was 

completed, Oscar Peterson ran pack trains up and down the valley to keep the camp supplied 

with food and equipment.29 The construction crew was a diverse group, made up of locals, 

residents of other Washington communities, and immigrants from Greece, Germany, and other 

 29 Rollin Shaw, interview by Anna Clawson, January 6, 1995, transcript, Oral History Collection, OLYM-605, 

ONPA. 3-4. 
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foreign countries.30 There were surveyors, engineers, equipment operators, laborers, carpenters, 

cooks, drivers, maintenance workers, and numerous other occupations represented in the camp. 

Figure 64. Glines Canyon Dam bunk houses, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical 

Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.144. [2010200144-2.JPG] 

 Dam construction drew spectators to the site as well. In an era before television, a major 

construction project provided high entertainment value. Charles Pangrantz remembered his 

 30 Neil Pendley, interview by Jacilee Wray, July 26, 1996, transcript, Oral History Collection, OLYM-605, 

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family making Sunday trips up the Elwha Valley to Glines Canyon to view the construction 

activities. As he recalled, “That was quite a thing to see that dam going up in stages. My folks 

used to go up there and my dad was all interested in the outdoor activities and what not.”31

Figure 65. Cooks for work crews at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. During the two years of 

construction at Glines Canyon a temporary community of more than a hundred laborers, engineers, 

carpenters, pipe fitters, cooks, janitors, and so on enlivened that part of the Elwha Valley. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. [NPSElwha_Glines1.TIF] 

 The Glines Canyon location provided many advantages for dam building, but it also 

presented major challenges and dangers to the workers. The canyon was a narrow notch between 

near-vertical cliff walls, thus all of the contractor’s housing, equipment, and materials staging 

 

ONPA, 6. 
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had to be located high above.32 One of the most critical functions--concrete preparation and 

pouring--was accomplished at a facility perched on the very edge of the canyon precipice. Crews 

sent the mixed concrete down flumes that extended out over the river, using gravity to help them 

pour the molds for the foundation and walls.33 In January 1927, the wooden scaffolding buckled 

under a load of cement, sending logs, equipment, and cement careening to the base of the dam. 

Four workmen at the bottom were crushed to death, and seven others working above on the 

scaffolding suffered severe injuries from their falls.34

 31 Charles Pangrantz (CH) and Father Clement Pangrantz (CL), interview by Paul Gleeson, September 16, 2000, 

transcript, Oral History Collection, OLYM-605, ONPA, 27-28. 

32 Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System,” 29. 

33 Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System,” 30. 

34 “Four Men Are Killed in Canyon Dam Tragedy,” Olympic-Tribune, January 21, 1927. 
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Figure 66. Cement chute at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical 

Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.059. [201020059.JPG] 
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Figure 67. Workers at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[HAER_OLYM437_Oliver3.TIF] 

 A little less than a year later, the 200-foot-tall dam was finished. The new Federal Power 

Commission, established in 1920, issued a 50-year operating license for the Glines Canyon 

facility in 1926. The commission’s authority did not include licensing dams built prior to passage 

of the Federal Power Act, so the original Elwha Dam continued to operate without a license. 

Northwestern Power Company began generating electricity at the Glines Canyon power plant on 

April 29, 1927. A penstock delivered water to a Frances Pelton Water Wheel Company turbine 
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that excited a vertical General Electric AC generator. At 17,500 horsepower, the Pelton turbine, 

and transformer, could generate up to 66,000 volts. High-power wires transferred the electricity 

to the Elwha power plant.35

Figure 68. Overview of near complete Glines Canyon Dam, showing (left to right) upper portion of dam 

structure, water pouring from spillway, surge tank, section of penstock, and power plant, ca. 1927. 

Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [Glines May 24 1927-1.jpg] 

 A unique aspect of the Glines power plant was its “semi-automatic and remote control 

system.”36 At any given moment, the system could turn the generators on and off according to 

demand loads and water elevation. This remote operating system was important on the Elwha, 

because the company needed to synchronize power generation at Glines Canyon with the Elwha 

 35 Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System,” 31. 
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Dam’s power plant. Each power plant was typically staffed by one superintendent and five or six 

employees. Dam operators, supervisors, and maintenance personnel lived at each dam site with 

their families. The company required them to live on-site because, particularly in the early 

decades of the power plants, power outages were frequent occurrences. Since any stoppage of 

electrical generation at the power plants would also slow or shut down the Crown Zellerbach 

mill, the superintendent and his helpers had to be ready to respond immediately. 

Figure 69. Air compressors at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Clallam County 

Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.070. [201020070.JPG] 

 36 Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System,” 31. 
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DISAPPEARING LANDSCAPE OF THE HOMESTEAD ERA 

As the new reservoir (later named Lake Mills) began to fill behind the Glines Canyon Dam, 

longtime valley resident Grant Humes paid a final visit to the “landmarks of past years that are 

soon to disappear from view, forever.”37 As the water backed farther upstream, the lake 

inundated numerous fishing holes, recreational haunts, and old homestead claims familiar to him 

and to many of the valley’s residents. During his excursion, Humes paused at the former 

homestead of Gustave and Emiline Wolff to mark the water’s progress: 

[An INSET PHOTO, portrait style, of Grant Humes would be effective here, but not currently 

available] 

Going on down the Seig trail to the great clearing overlooking 2 miles of bottom, 

it was at once evident that the Old Elwha is in tethers. The water is backing up 

rather rapidly—altho [sic] the river is low—about 1 1⁄2 feet a day as conditions 

now are. At Seig Rock there is about 9 feet of new river on top of the old. . . . 

Took a picture looking up toward Mt. Fitzhenry over the cleared area—the last 

view of Wolff’s ranch, probably, that will ever be seen. The water lacked by 2 

feet of covering Wolff’s old root cellar in the bank of the slough, some 200 feet 

down river from where the old barn stood, and it just reached the mouth of 

Boulder Creek, and also the spot where Smoky Cabin once stood. There is 

approximately 80 or 85 feet more water to come on when the dam is full to the 

top. . . . Of all Wolff’s buildings that stood when I first came on the scene, 

nothing is left to tell the tale except two grassed over mounds of rock once 

serving as fireplaces, and within a week these will also be gone from view, even 

as Wolff himself—the builder—has passed from view.38

 37 Grant Humes to Will Humes, April 19, 1927, Folder 59: Humes Correspondence, Box 1, Johnson Elwha 

Sources, ONPA. 

38 G. Humes to W. Humes. 
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Figure 70. The Elwha River, June 1926. After the Glines Canyon Dam was completed, this spot was 100 

feet beneath the surface of the reservoir. USFS photograph. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[3137_210059.jpg] 

 In Port Angeles, construction of Glines Canyon Dam and power plant produced substantial 

economic gains. The additional hydropower enabled Washington Pulp and Paper Company to 

add a third paper machine at the mill, creating more income for the company and more jobs for 

the local community. Each paper machine required five people to operate; since the mills ran 

around the clock, with a workday usually divided into three shifts, the company required roughly 
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45 employees to operate the three paper machines. The company kept an even larger number of 

mechanics on the payroll, as well as employees who managed the many other tasks that went 

into paper production, such as hauling chips and wastepaper to the mill, converting chips to fiber, 

and reconverting fiber to pulp.39 The timing of the expanded operations gained added 

significance two years later, when the country began its slide into the worst economic crisis of 

the twentieth century. 

Figure 71. Papermaking machine inside Washington Pulp and Paper Company’s mill, ca. 1923. 

Photograph by Asahel Curtis. Courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections 

Division, Asahel Curtis Photo Co. Collection, PH Coll 482, CUR1477. [CUR1477.jpg] 

 39 Michalczik interview, 12. 
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Figure 72. Washington Pulp and Paper Company mill, September 29, 1923. Photograph by F. G. Lewis 

Photo, Port Angeles, Wash. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library 

System. [PTAN MILL – 063.jpg] 

 As Crown Zellerbach and the other Port Angeles mills continued to increase their output, 

they required more than just copious supplies of timber and electrical power; they also needed an 

abundance of freshwater. For this, the city again returned to the Elwha River. In 1929, Port 

Angeles residents voted their near-unanimous (2,819 to 11) approval for construction of a sevenmile-long water pipeline from the Elwha River to the city. A news editorial hailed the vote, 

saying that Port Angeles had “showed her colors to Northwest industrial leaders,” and 

demonstrated that the city was “an ideal place to locate industries.”40 The new pipeline supplied 

city residents with drinking water and provided the water necessary for newcomer Olympic 

Forest Products to build another large pulp and paper mill on Port Angeles Harbor.41

 40 “A Solid Front,” editorial, Port Angeles Evening News, September 31, 1929. 

41 Martin, Port Angeles, 165. 
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 Olympic Forest Products began work on the new mill in late 1929, building near the mouth 

of Ennis Creek, on the site of the shuttered U.S. Army Spruce Division plant, after the latter had 

been demolished.42 Edward Mills, the same man who helped convince the Zellerbach Company 

to expand to Port Angeles, and a group of business associates established Olympic Forest 

Products. Taking advantage of new advances in chemical pulping, the company specialized in 

converting Western hemlock logs into cellulose products such as rayon and cellophane. As John 

Gray, general manager of the mill after it became Rayonier, explained, “A tree is a bundle of 

cellulose fibers bound together by lignin, . . . What we do is take the tree apart and put it together 

again in a whole range of useful products.”43 The mill used the remaining wood scraps as fuel to 

power the plant. Their new plant began production in June 1930. In 1937, Olympic Forest 

Products merged with two other companies and became Rayonier, Incorporated.44

Port Angeles and the Great Depression, 1929–1945 

 When the Great Depression began in 1929, Port Angeles had two large sawmills, two 

existing pulp and paper mills, and a third pulp mill about to begin construction. Newspaperman 

E. B. Webster wrote to his son in 1933, describing the conditions in Port Angeles at that time. He 

said that the continued growth of the Zellerbach plant meant that “the hard times weren’t felt 

here until two years after things generally flattened out. Really last year was the only year of 

what might be called hard times we had, but after the work stopped things were worse here . . . 

because so many came in to work on the mill . . . and then stayed on.”45

 42 Oldham, “Port Angeles.” 

43 McCallum and Ross, Port Angeles, 113; and Martin, Port Angeles, 165. 

44 James Machenheimer, “I.T.T. Rayonier Mill, Incorporated,” in Russell, Jimmy Come Lately, 606–7; and 

Martin, Port Angeles, 165. 

45 Helen Neal Radke and Joan Ducceschi, Olympic Leaders: The Life and Times of the Websters of Port Angeles

(Port Angeles: Western Gull Publishing, 2003), 10. 
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 All three pulp and paper mills in Port Angeles at the beginning of the Great Depression 

(Crown Zellerbach, Fibreboard, and Rayonier) survived those difficult years and persisted 

beyond the end of World War II. However, the Filion sawmill became a casualty of the 

Depression, and the Charles Nelson Company mill (formerly Earles’ Mill) burned down in a 

1940 fire.46 As authors Helen Neal Radke and Joan Ducceschi noted, “During all the years, the 

mill’s curl of smoke above the harbor meant paychecks and food on the table for many in Port 

Angeles. . . . Operating around the clock, Rayonier and the other mills provided a livelihood for 

many families and were the means by which the area contributed to the nation’s productive 

effort.”47

 Nonetheless, the deadened national economy did affect the town. Crown Zellerbach’s 

customers reduced newsprint orders during the Depression. By mid-1931, hard economic times 

forced the company to cut its hours of operation, and some mill workers volunteered to take a 

salary cut in order to remain employed.48 Dick Goin, who came to the area with his family in 

1937, recalled that in the late 1930s, the deer herds of the Olympic Peninsula dwindled because 

hungry local residents poached wildlife to put food on the table during the Depression.49

 The Port Angeles pulp and paper industries recovered quickly from the Depression. 

Beginning in 1939, Fibreboard ran its mill nonstop—twenty-four hours a day, seven days a 

week—and maintained this schedule until at least 1953, when the Port Angeles Evening News

reported on Fibreboard’s 14 years of continuous operation. The labor requirements of such 

continuous operation meant that Fibreboard employed three shifts of workers throughout that 14-

 46 Martin, Port Angeles, 134; and Filion, “Filion Mill,” 602. 

47 Radke and Ducceschi, Olympic Leaders, 63. 

48 Aldwell, Conquering the Last Frontier, 164; and Martin, Port Angeles, 150. 
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year stretch.50 Crown Zellerbach also returned to full production during the war years, and 

continued to expand its operations. In 1940, Crown Zellerbach celebrated the twentieth 

anniversary of operations at the Washington Pulp mill, which was then producing 350 tons of 

newsprint a day and “pouring millions of dollars in wages and other expenditures into the 

town.”51 The following year, the Port Angeles Evening News celebrated the mill’s continued 

growth, observing that “twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, great ribbons of white 

newsprint paper are rolling out from the speeding machines at Crown Zellerbach mill.”52 By 

1949, the company had 620 employees at its Port Angeles mill and a total of more than 800 

workers throughout Clallam County on its payroll.53 

 The city’s pulp and paper mills, particularly Crown Zellerbach, provided steady employment 

for hundreds of local men and women, and also became powerful fixtures in the fabric of Port 

Angeles social life, business connections, and labor organization. From the 1920s on, for 

example, Crown Zellerbach fielded company baseball, bowling, and other sports teams that 

competed in city and regional amateur leagues. Many mill employees earned salaries sufficient 

to buy homes in Port Angeles or in nearby towns, creating a more stable civic life and economic 

base.54

 49 Richard “Dick” Goin, oral history interview by Paul Sadin, October 21, 2009, Port Angeles, Washington, 

audio recording and transcript, ONPA, 1–2. 

50 Port Angeles Evening News, November 28, 1953, quoted in Johnson, “Historic Assessment of Elwha River 

Fisheries,” 55. 

51 Crown Zellerbach Corporation, 1890–1949: More Power to You . . . Port Angeles and Clallam County,

brochure (Port Angeles: Crown Zellerbach Corporation, [1949]). 

52 “Crown-Z Newsprint Mill Producing 350 Tons Daily.” 

53 Crown Zellerbach Corporation, 1890–1949: More Power to You.

54 Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce, A Brief History of Port Angeles, Washington (Port Angeles: Crown 

Zellerbach Corporation, 1941, 1960), 26–27. 
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Figure 73. Crown Zellerbach baseball team photo, n.d. Photograph by Thompson Studio. Courtesy of 

Clallam County Historical Society. [CrownZbaseball.tif] 

 In another boost to the local economy, Port Angeles attracted a new lumber products 

operation in the early 1940s. In 1941, a cooperative of workers and investors created the 

Peninsula Plywood Company on the Port Angeles Harbor, located between the former Earles’ 

Mill and the Rayonier pulp mill. Peninsula Plywood opened just prior to the attack on Pearl 

Harbor, and produced plywood made from several different types of native trees. The plant’s 

customers included the U.S. government, Northwest Door Company of Tacoma, and the U.S. 
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Plywood Corporation.55 Peninsula Plywood employed fewer people than did Crown Zellerbach 

or Rayonier, but the company played an important role in the continued growth of Port Angeles. 

Almost all of the 270 stockholders were local residents, and according to Aldwell, “the entire 

profits of their plant are expended in our community, of which they are really the backbone.”56

Peninsula Plywood operations also furthered the demand for Olympic Peninsula timber, raising 

the question as to whether the seemingly limitless supply of peninsula forest resources might 

have some limits after all. 

 By the 1940s, the dams on the Elwha River could no longer generate enough electricity to 

meet the demands of Port Angeles residents and industries. In fact, the Crown Zellerbach 

Corporation had already constructed a steam-driven power plant to provide supplementary power 

for their mill.57 In 1940, Clallam County residents took advantage of state law that allowed them 

to form a Public Utility District (PUD). Four years later, PUD No. 1 condemned the Puget Sound 

Power and Light Company’s holdings in Clallam County, and purchased their distribution lines 

and other infrastructure. But the utility district could not keep up with the rapid growth of Port 

Angeles and other nearby communities, which overtaxed electrical transmission facilities in 

Clallam County.58 In 1949, the city, county, and Crown Zellerbach turned to a different source, 

the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), to obtain adequate electricity.59 The BPA generated 

electricity at a series of hydropower dams on the Columbia River. While Crown Zellerbach 

 55 Oldham, “Port Angeles”; Martin, Port Angeles, 181; and Glenn R. Wiggins, “Peninsula Plywood 

Corporation,” in Russell, Jimmy Come Lately, 599–600. 

56 T. T. Aldwell to Horace J. Andrews, April 10, 1947, ONPA. 

57 Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric System,” 34. 

58 Soderberg, Hydroelectric Power Plants in Washington State, 1890–1938, E-19. 

59 Soderberg, Hydroelectric Power Plants in Washington State, 1890–1938, E-19; Aldwell, Conquering the Last 

Frontier, 139; Crown Zellerbach, 1890–1949: More Power to You; and Louter, “Elwha River Hydroelectric 

System,” 35. 
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continued to use Elwha River hydropower to meet about 40 percent of its electrical needs, the 

BPA grid regulated the power and had the capability to bring in additional power when needed.60

PORT ANGELES SALMON DERBY 

In the first half of the twentieth century, civic leaders and business boosters in Port Angeles 

sought additional ways to bring attention and prosperity to their city. Beginning in the late 1920s 

and early 1930s, town boosters successfully pitched Port Angeles as a new destination for sport 

fishing and boating. These promotional efforts dovetailed with increased popularity of outdoor 

recreation, including fishing, during the same period. In 1929, the Chamber of Commerce 

collaborated with the city boating club and the local branch of the Isaac Walton League, a 

national fishing- and hunting-oriented conservation organization, to create a boat-mooring and 

fishing facility on Ediz Hook. In 1933, a group of Port Angeles business and civic leaders 

formed the Port Angeles Salmon Club, with the prime objective of creating a “salmon derby” to 

draw more sport fishing enthusiasts and boaters to Port Angeles. 61

 60 Michalczik interview. 

61 Johnson, “Historic Assessment of Elwha River Fisheries,” 102. 
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Figure 74. Port Angeles Salmon Club headquarters, 1937. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the 

North Olympic Library System. [PTAN ACTV – 021.jpg] 

Figure 75. Salmon Derby Clubhouse on Ediz Hook, ca. 1940. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of 

the North Olympic Library System. [PTAN ACTV – 024.jpg] 
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In 1934, the Salmon Derby’s first year, 190 people initially entered the contest, and 44 men 

continued on to the finals. Ultimately, Wilbur Hughto caught a 27 pound, 6 ounce salmon just 

off Ediz Hook to win the first derby. Two years later, the Salmon Derby included a junior 

division, and Glen Rudolph and Sally Price won bicycles for their prize salmon, both of which 

weighed in at just over 11 pounds.62 The Salmon Derby quickly grew into a local and regional 

phenomenon, attracting anglers and news coverage from all across the state. 

Figure 76. Boats in Port Angeles harbor, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [FishingFleet.jpg] 

 During the 1950s, Port Angeles began to promote itself as a “livable” community, a good 

place to find work, start a family, and own a home. Promotional literature explained that “aside 

 62 Martin, Port Angeles, 161–62, 165. 
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from its attraction as a tourist and vacation area, Port Angeles is a busy, thriving community—a 

good place to live.”63 As evidence, city leaders touted the National Municipal League’s 1954 

selection of Port Angeles as an “All-American City.” The Municipal League bestowed the award 

because of the community’s “civic pride, the friendly spirit of [the] people,” and a knack for 

“getting things done.”64 All the while, the pulp and paper mills remained at the heart of the 

community’s work life and social spheres, employing approximately 2,300 people during the 

1950s. 

 Since 1914, residents of Port Angeles had enjoyed the benefits hydroelectric power and 

abundant timber resources brought to their homes and the town’s economy. The pulp and paper 

industry would remain the number one business in Port Angeles and the surrounding area for 

some time to come. A book on Port Angeles history by John McCallum and Lorraine Wilcox 

Ross offered a snapshot of industry in 1961. The paper products industry employed 1,200 

workers, the plywood industry employed 345 workers, the lumber mills employed 175 workers, 

and logging employed 1,451 workers. With the population of Port Angeles that year at slightly 

less than 15,000, more than 20 percent of the town’s residents were employed directly in a 

timber-related industry, with many others at work in affiliated businesses, such as shipping, 

accounting, and health care. In terms of companies in Port Angeles, the three pulp and paper 

mills, one plywood mill, and one lumber mill employed over one-half of these workers, while 

loggers worked in nearby forests. The persistence of the mills in Port Angeles kept the town’s 

economy strong even through the end of the 1960s. 

 63 Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Port Angeles: Vacationland (Port Angeles: Western Market 

Development Corporation, 1961), 3. 

64 Chamber of Commerce, Port Angeles: Vacationland, 3. 
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Life on the Elwha River 

 Six miles west of Port Angeles in the Elwha Valley, the construction of the dams had made 

an equally significant impact as it had in the city, but with a very different set of consequences. 

Elwha Dam’s biggest impact was its immediate blockage of the upriver spawning grounds of all 

the river’s anadromous fish runs, but the deleterious effects of the dam did not end there. 

Increased water temperatures, depletion of sand and gravel on the river bottom and nearby 

shorelines, and dramatic surges and drops in water levels from power-related gate openings all 

resulted from the first Elwha dam. But the two reservoirs and the access roads built during dam 

construction created new additional recreational opportunities for local residents and visitors. 

Figure 77. Group of children at Elwha Forest Camp, July 1938. U.S. Forest Service photograph. Courtesy 

of Olympic National Park. [REC079.JPG] 
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Figure 78. Pioneer picnic, 1962. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library 

System. [PTAN ACTV – 031.jpg] 

 During the interwar and immediate post–World War II era, the Elwha Valley was home to a 

diverse collection of people that included families living on their forebears’ homestead claims, 

commercial resort managers, U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and National Park Service (NPS) 

rangers, dam operations staff, and, during the 1930s, urban and local youths laboring with the 

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Fishing and recreation remained the central attractions of 

Elwha life. But other activities—soaking at Olympic Hot Springs, boating on Lake Aldwell, 

summer camping and hiking in the valley, and, after 1931, motoring around the peninsula’s loop 

highway—also drew additional visitors who sought out the Elwha as a vacation destination.65 

 65 In 1940, the Washington State Highway Department approved the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce’s 

petition to name the reservoir behind the Elwha Dam “Lake Aldwell.” About the same time, the Highway 

Department consented to the name Lake Mills for the upper reservoir behind Glines Canyon dam. Aldwell, 

Conquering the Last Frontier, 179–80. 
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 The Elwha River had gained renown as a fishing enthusiast’s paradise because of a habitat 

that sustained ten anadromous fish runs as well as abundant populations of several trout species. 

It also was legendary for the size of the Chinook salmon that swam upriver to spawn. Dick Goin 

recounted that during one of the family’s first years in the valley, a large run of pink salmon 

came up the river. Bereft of any fishing gear, they simply waded out into the stream to “grab 

them by the tail and us kids would put them in gunnysacks.” Afterward, “we took them home 

and they canned them in an old water bath canner on a wood stove. And we did this a number of 

times. That provided our protein source.”66 For a short time, the Elwha Klallam, too, continued 

to fish unfettered at their favorite spots downstream from the Elwha Dam, before stricter 

interpretations of state fishing regulations prohibited them from taking even the dead salmon on 

the riverbank. 

 66 Goin interview, 1. 
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Figure 79. Dick Goin’s wife, Marie Goin, holding a 44-pound salmon caught in Freshwater Bay, 1960s. 

Courtesy of Dick Goin. [Goin7.TIF] 

 Native anadromous runs that depended most on small tributary streams or upstream lakes for 

spawning—coho, chum, and sockeye—were soon reduced to remnant individuals. But two 

species of the Elwha’s anadromous fish populations, the Chinook (king) salmon and steelhead, 

were capable of spawning in the remaining five miles of channel below the Elwha Dam as long 

as the river bottom contained enough gravel for the fish to dig their nests. In addition, according 

to Goin, occasional “monster runs” of pink salmon continued to swim up the Elwha, although the 
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tribe and other valley residents could not count on the run for productive fishing in any given 

year. Unfortunately, wild salmon and steelhead populations went into steeper declines as the 

long-term consequences of dam construction began to accrue. Power plant requirements and the 

fact that these were run-of-the-river dams sometimes prompted dam operators to cut off water 

flow intermittently and at other times, to discharge surges of water that quickly increased or 

decreased the depth and flow rate of the stream. As a result, the water level of the river below the 

dam dropped dramatically, leaving fish stranded in small pools that quickly dried up. An Elwha 

Klallam tribal member recalled that “they would shut the dam operations down every Sunday 

and the poor little fishes would just be flipping around below the tunnel. Adeline Smith, Beatrice 

Charles, Adeline’s brother Harold, and Bea’s brothers Ernie, Wilbur, and Chuck would scoop 

them up with a little five pound pail and bring the fry down to where the river had water and spill 

the little pail into the river. They never understood why they would shut down the water, killing 

the fish like that.”67 The problem angered Elwha Klallam members and local anglers alike. 

 In September 1956, local resident W. H. Gwynn sought to impress the severity of the 

problem upon Milo Bell at the State Department of Fisheries. Gwynn mailed a “sample” of dead 

fish that he picked up on the banks of the Elwha River after another precipitous rise and fall of 

the water level. He included a note saying he would supply additional “proof when desired,” 

because “there were lots of dead fish, Mr. Bell.” In case the first package did not make the 

intended visual and olfactory impact, Gwynn concluded his note with the promise, “You will 

receive these fish from time to time.”68 Bell promptly responded that he had received the fish, 

 67 Adeline Smith, interview, March 23, 2010, excerpt provided by Jacilee Wray, ONP. 

68 W. H. Gwynn, Port Angeles, to Milo Bell, Washington State Department of Fisheries, Seattle, September 4, 

1956, Folder 23: Dead Fish Correspondence, 1956, Box 1, Johnson Elwha Sources, ONPA. 
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but added that “unfortunately, they were in such a state of decomposition that our biologists were 

unable to handle them for complete identification.”69

 Former dam operator Joe Michalczik recalled that the abrupt changes in water levels “had 

always been kind of a sore subject with a number of people in town,” mainly with fishing 

enthusiasts.70 Despite frequent protests from the tribe, local fishermen, and the state fish 

commission, the power company always “had the influence to overcome” the complaints.71

Michalczik summed up the company’s attitude in saying that producing the water draw downs 

“wasn’t a terrible thing to do,” because “we weren’t the only dams doing it. Every dam was 

doing that.”72

 In addition to salmon and steelhead, the river provided valley inhabitants with resident trout, 

crayfish, and lamprey, and along the Strait of Juan de Fuca shoreline near the mouth of the river, 

abundant shellfish. At the sand beach east of the Elwha River delta, Elwha Klallam tribal 

members gathered clams, mussels, geoduck, and other intertidal-zone organisms. Goin recalled 

that even in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the beach produced “clams that wouldn’t quit.”73

Prior to dam construction, the free-flowing Elwha had continually transported silt, sand, and 

gravel, as well as logs and other vegetation downstream and deposited the sediment on the river 

bottom, in the river delta, and along the shores of the strait near the Elwha’s mouth. The dams, 

however, locked up the sediment directly behind these structures, while the surging river current 

 69 Milo Bell, Technical Coordinator to W. H. Gwynn, September 5, 1956, Folder 23, Box 1, Johnson Elwha 

Sources, ONPA. 

70 Michalczik interview, 2. 

71 Michalczik interview, 2. 

72 Michalczik interview, 2. 

73 Dick Goin, conversation with Paul Sadin, Port Angeles, Washington, October 22, 2009. 
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below the lower dam scoured sand and gravel off the bottom and out beyond the delta, until there 

was none left to replenish the delta and its sandy shores. 

Elwha Valley Recreation 

 The Elwha Valley witnessed a recreational boom in the late 1920s and 1930s, due to 

improved road access, increased popularity of Olympic Peninsula destinations, and expanded 

commercial facilities to serve tourists. Hunting, fishing, and hiking were the earliest significant 

recreational pursuits in the valley. From the 1890s through the 1920s, outdoor groups including 

the Oregon Alpine Club and Mazamas from Portland, Oregon, the Mountaineers of Seattle, and 

the local Klahhane Club and Olympians made organized hiking trips through the valley and into 

the high country.74 Elwha homesteader Grant Humes frequently guided trips for these groups. 

ELWHA RANGERS 

Beginning in the early 1900s, a new group of inhabitants—Forest Service rangers and their 

families—began to work and live in the Elwha Valley. For the next four decades, USFS rangers 

patrolled up and down the valley from their stations at Elwha, Elkhorn, and Olympus. In 1940, 

NPS rangers took over that task, using the same infrastructure established by forest rangers. 

During the 1960s, the NPS further expanded and improved the ranger quarters and tourist 

facilities at those locations. 

Forest rangers began patrolling the Elwha Valley shortly after the turn of the century, setting up 

tent camps as a base of operations. Chris Morgenroth, a German immigrant who joined the 

Forest Reserve ranger force in 1903, became one of the first district rangers for the area that 

 74 Luxenberg and Wray, “Cultural Resources of the Elwha River Valley,” 70. Double check page on final 
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included the Elwha, beginning in 1909. Morgenroth began his career working on building the 

trail along the south shore of Lake Crescent at a government salary of $60 per month.75 That 

summer, he also began patrol work, noting in his diary that he typically patrolled on foot from 15 

to 20 miles each day. Aside from watching for any telltale smoke that would indicate a fire, his 

days also involved “posting fire notices, serving grazing permits, cruising timber, investigating 

mineral and oil locations and repairing trail.”76

Figure 80. Families of USFS ranger staff made the Elwha Valley their personal playground. Taken near 

the Elwha Ranger Station, June 1926. USFS photograph. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[REC085.JPG] 

The USFS erected the first Elwha Ranger Station some time between 1912 and 1915. In 

approximately 1915, they added the Elkhorn and Olympus patrol cabins farther up the valley. 

 75 Chris Morgenroth, Footprints in the Olympics: an Autobiography (Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1991), 

96-97. 

76 Morgenroth, Footprints in the Olympics, 97. 
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The government supplied the cabins with small cook stoves, dining tables, and sleeping 

accommodations. These remote ranger cabins served as summer residences and workstations for 

staff in isolated areas, emergency overnight shelters for rangers on winter patrol, and storehouses 

for fire-fighting and trail maintenance equipment. The trails and cabins were an essential piece of 

the fire patrol system. Patrol staff stocked each cabin with enough tools, food rations, first-aid 

kits, and bed rolls to maintain a fire-fighting detail. 

Figure 81. Cabin in Elwha Valley that may have served as first Elwha Ranger Station, n.d. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. [3001.JPG] 
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Forest Service rangers were among the few who traveled the distant reaches of the valley in 

wintertime, traveling on skis or snowshoes if necessary. When the snow melted in late spring and 

early summer, patrol rangers tackled a multitude of other tasks. They rode horses or hiked along 

the muddy trails to restring telephone lines, clear downed trees and debris from the paths, repair 

footbridges and stone cairns, and post trail signs. They led pack trains loaded with barrels of 

fingerling trout to restock the lakes and streams. As the Elwha Valley became a more popular 

recreation destination, rangers spent much of their time dispensing visitor information and 

responding to occasional emergencies. 

When the power company extended the Elwha River Road to the Glines Canyon dam site in 

1926, the Elwha Ranger Station was no longer an isolated outpost. Visitors now traveled by auto 

rather than by horse to the Hot Springs and the station became the jumping off point for 

recreational fishing, camping, and hiking outings into the backcountry.77 Ranger staff 

constructed a residence and utility buildings in the late 1920s to accommodate additional staff 

and new job activities. 

In the early 1930s, there was a significant increase in recreational visits to the Elwha due to the 

opening of the Olympic Loop Highway, expansion of the Olympic Hot Springs resort, and USFS 

designation of the Elwha Valley as a recreation destination. In response to rising visitor needs, 

the USFS built a new Elwha Ranger Station, bunkhouse, and ranger residence in 1932. Forest 

Service and CCC workers also expanded and improved the facilities at the nearby Elwha and 

Altair campgrounds. These structures, and several others added shortly thereafter, still stand and 

are part of a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.78

 77 Frederick Walters, “Olympic National Park, Elwha Ranger Station Historic Structures Report,” prepared for 

Olympic National Park, 2008, 21-22. Document provided by Jacilee Wray, ONP. 

78 Walters, “Olympic National Park, Elwha Ranger Station Historic Structures Report,” 25-26. 
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Figure 82. Jim Byrne, ranger in the Olympic National Park on the Elwha in the 1930s and 1940s. 

Courtesy of Bernie Byrne. [Byrne_JB.jpg] 

As the decades passed, visitor’s vehicles, interests, and equipment changed significantly, but 

other activities, such as fishing, remained constant. The same was true for the tasks rangers faced 

each day. Some former tasks were modernized, deleted, or delegated to other personnel. But 

other events remained common to every decade, such as this rescue described in an Elwha 

Ranger Station logbook entry dated July 5, 1963: 
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Report was turned in that a man was stranded on a cliff above the Elwha River. . . 

. The fisherman, Mr. S., was located. . . sitting astride of a small tree on the face 

of about a 60 degree slope above the Elwha River. A rope was lowered down to 

Mr. S. from about 60 feet above his position. He tied the rope around his chest . . . 

and was pulled to safety. Mr. S. seemed more interested in saving his fishing 

equipment than in cooperating with the personnel pulling him to safety.79

 Recreational access improved as USFS rangers continued to blaze trails and build 

campgrounds in the 1920s and 1930s. The older USFS trails built prior to 1915 had been “hastily 

and often poorly constructed, especially difficult for horses to travel,” in part because they were 

meant to serve primarily as aides to fire fighting.80 But that pattern changed in the 1920s, when 

Fred W. Cleator, a USFS Northwest Region forester and planner, began working on a recreation 

development plan for Olympic National Forest and Mount Olympus National Monument. In 

1929, he completed the “Olympic Forest Recreation Plan,” also known as the “Cleator Plan,” 

which aimed to increase the forest’s recreational opportunities while maintaining its forestprotection mandate.81 By 1935, the USFS had built more than 900 miles of trails, over 100 

campgrounds, and a network of more than 80 wooden trailside shelters for backpackers to 

utilize.82 The lean-to shelters offered respite for hikers traveling up the Elwha Valley to popular 

destinations at High Divide and Elkhorn. Other favored Elwha pursuits included boating in the 

Lake Mills and Lake Aldwell impoundments and camping at Altair. The USFS also built new 

 79 Elwha Ranger Station Log, June 14, 1963 to November 6, 1966, Ranger Log Books, Box 1, accession 

OLYM-424, ONPA. 

80 David Louter, “The Forest before the Park: The Historic Context of the Trail System of Olympic National 

Park, 1898–1938,” draft manuscript, 32, electronic file provided by Jacilee Wray, ONP. 

81 Louter, “The Forest before the Park,” 41. 

82 Louter, “The Forest before the Park,” 45. 
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ranger stations, entrance kiosks, and other administrative structures, including a new Elwha 

Ranger Station and associated buildings in the 1930s. 

ANGLING THE ELWHA 

Even while the number of returning salmon gradually decreased after the Elwha Dam was 

completed, the Elwha River maintained a reputation as a top-flight destination for recreational 

fishing. Elwha Klallam tribal members, the small number of non-Indian residents of the Elwha 

Valley, and many residents of Port Angeles continued to visit their favorite fishing holes on the 

river and tributaries. Fishing enthusiasts of all sorts, from local youths to tourists from distant 

cities, wanted to try their luck and test their skills on the Elwha River. 

Figure 83. Fishing in the Elwha River, July 1936. USFS photograph. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[REC090.JPG] 

In 1934, Mount Olympus National Monument custodian Preston Macy patrolled up the Elwha 

River to the high country at Hurricane Ridge. Along the way, he found every trail shelter full of 
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anglers “catching all they wanted to eat.” Macy surmised, “There is no question but the Elwha is 

the best trout stream in the Olympics,” but he also thought that the NPS would need to restock 

the stream in order to keep it that way.83

Dick Goin remembered the simplicity and also the challenge of fishing in the Elwha when he 

was boy, during the late 1930s and early 1940s. First, he and friends went into town to buy their 

fishing poles: 

We would go down to Wilson’s Hardware and they had canes. They were dried. 

And there were two. There were yellow ones, which were referred to as Calcutta, 

and there was one that was a darker brown and it was referred to as Cola Cane. . . 

. they just let you dig through them and you would thrash them around. And the 

Calcutta was twenty-five cents and the Cola was fifty. And so then you bought 

[one] . . . 

And you could buy a little stamped out reel seat and tape it on and that was your 

rod. And they were quite good. But then you had, oh my, the line you had . . . they 

called it raw silk. For the life of me I don’t know what it actually was, but I do 

know this, you had to soak it. If you were going fishing tomorrow you put it in a 

bucket of water tonight. Because it was very, very stiff. Extremely stiff. . . . We 

had some kind of an old reel. It was like a big fly reel. Pretty cheap. And you 

stripped out line and then you [cast] it.84

 83 Preston Macy to O. A. Tomlinson, Superintendent, Mount Rainer National Park, August 20, 1934, Folder 4: 

Administrative History, Olympic National Park, Box 1, Johnson Elwha Sources, ONPA. 

84 Goin interview, 10. 
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Figure 84. Dick Goin and his son holding 53 lb. fish, and two smaller fish caught in Freshwater Bay, 

1963. Courtesy of Dick Goin. [Goin8.TIF] 

Other anglers sought to enjoy their sport on the Elwha without having to “rough it.” During the 

1930s, a group of Seattle business executives and professional men made an annual summer 

pilgrimage to the Elwha Valley. They shipped their supplies ahead to Waumila Lodge, and then 

headed upriver from there. They required “an average of fourteen horse-loads to handle our 

party,” which included a hired camp cook. They prided themselves “in having the most complete 
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camping equipment in the hills. Not only do we include such things as cots, tents, and one 

thousand and one other items necessary for a rest cure,” as well as “boxing gloves and 

horseshoes to take up the slack periods in the day.” But at the real competition of their trips was 

aimed at who could “snatch the granddaddy rainbow of them all.”85

 In addition to the USFS trail, camp, and administrative improvements, in 1933, the 

government established a CCC camp in the Elwha Valley. One of President Franklin D. 

Roosevelt’s make-work economic programs of the Depression Era, CCC camps became common 

sights in western national parks, national forests, and other federal lands after the program 

commenced in March 1933. The heart of the program was to provide work for the unemployed, 

who, in turn, labored to build or maintain tourist and recreational facilities. A visitor to “Camp 

Elwha” remarked that “a remarkable transformation has been achieved . . . a neat and imposing 

group of a dozen or more buildings is situated in a cleared plot a hundred years or thereabouts 

south of the ranger station.”86 The camp included five barracks, dining hall, administration 

building, bathhouse, infirmary, tool shed, and blacksmith shop. Conservation Corps “boys” lived 

and worked at Camp Elwha from 1933 to 1938, during which time they constructed new roads, 

trails, and campgrounds, including two community kitchens at Elwha and Altair campgrounds in 

what was then the national forest.87 The two kitchens still stand today within Olympic National 

Park and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Camp Elwha’s CCC work crews 

 85 Ben Bridge, “Seattle Business Men Go Fishing,” Olympic Peninsula Magazine, March 1936, 13. 

86 “Elwha C.C.C. Force Carries On Regardless of Road Uncertainties and Sob Journalism, Now Housed in 

Neat, New Camp Buildings,” Port Angeles Evening News, July 19, 1933. 

87 Evans, “Historic Resource Study: Olympic National Park, Washington,” 336–39. The CCC enrolled young 

men, typically under age 30. 
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also replaced, repaired, or reconstructed numerous other facilities, roads, and trails throughout 

the valley. 

Figure 85. Barracks at Camp Elwha CCC camp. Courtesy of Bernice Byrne. [Byrne_Elwha CC 

Camp.jpg] 

 The construction of the northern leg of the Olympic Highway, including a road along the 

edge of Lake Crescent to Mora and Forks, enabled motorists to drive to the ocean beaches. 
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Completed in 1922, the road helped lure more travelers to the Elwha Valley.88 Completion of the 

final coastal link in 1931 created a round-the-peninsula loop that became a popular circuit for 

automobile tourists seeking new motoring adventures. As a promotional brochure declared, “The 

creation of the Olympic Loop Highway system . . . in conjunction with the ascendancy of the 

automobile as family transportation brought new residents to the peninsula and established the 

area as a bona fide tourist destination.”89

 88 Luxenberg and Wray, “Final Draft—Cultural Resources of the Elwha River Valley: Elwha River Ecosystem 

Restoration Project Historic Context Statement,” 57. 

89 “The Evergreen Playground,” Olympic Peninsula Community Museum online exhibit, University of Washington 

Digital Collections, http://content.lib.washington.edu/cmpweb/exhibits/evergreen/index.html (accessed November 

23, 2009). 
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Figure 86. Clearing for Highway 101, along the southern edge of Lake Crescent. Olympic National 

Forest photograph. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [3205_Highway clearing about one-half mile 

west of Singer’s La.jpg] 
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Figure 87. Elwha Resort Service Station and members of the Ormbreck family, ca. 1929. With the 

completion of the Olympic Loop Highway, more motorists came to the Olympic Peninsula and services 

for automobile tourism sprang up. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [Elwha Resort G.tif] 

“The Olympic Peninsula is a land of myriad wonders. Glorious lakes, sapphire-hued, forest 

edged; towering mountains; streams that teem with gamey fish; winding highways that lead to 

enchanted spots; delightful resorts lure the outing enthusiast, the fisherman and the vacationist. 

Here one finds Nature at her best—brilliant, masterful, soul-stirring. A scenic wonderland, 

unsurpassed in the world, is the Olympic Peninsula.”90

-“Where-to-Go, Directory of the Pacific Coast,” ca. 1930s [brochure]

 90 Olympic Peninsula Community Museum, “Evergreen Playground.” 
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 Another boost to tourist travel to the area came when Congress established Olympic National 

Park (ONP) in 1938. Although Mount Olympus National Monument already protected the alpine 

heart of the Olympic Mountains, and the Olympic National Forest reserved the forestlands 

surrounding it, the designation of “national park” status gave the area additional cachet as a 

tourist destination. The creation of ONP garnered national recognition for the peninsula as a 

scenic and recreational delight. In that era, the terms national park and loop highway were 

magnetic lures for American motorists, who prized collecting the windshield stickers from as 

many national parks as possible as they undertook multi-park driving tours of the American 

West. In a 1941 publication, Romance of the National Parks, Harlean James put the Olympic 

Loop Highway and the new national park on the proverbial “map” for motorists around the 

country. He wrote, “Within this modern highway lies one of the most interesting and alluring 

wilderness mountain-and-valley areas remaining in this country.”91 James noted that although the 

journey might begin amid “the mills and smoke and noise of Puget Sound's industrial 

communities,” auto tourists would quickly find themselves in “dark and jungle-like forests [that] 

cover the lowlands and extend far up the narrow river bottoms.”92

 91 Harlean James, Romance of the National Parks (New York: Macmillan, 1941), chap. 7. 

92 James, Romance of the National Parks, chap. 7. 
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Figure 88. Map of loop highway around the Olympic Peninsula. Courtesy of University of Washington 

Libraries, Special Collections, PAM0044. [OlympicLoopMap.jpg] 

 Resort operators in the Elwha Valley opened new lodgings or expanded older facilities to 

accommodate the growing number of motoring tourists. Olympic Hot Springs, Waumila Resort, 

Elwha Resort, and “The Place” were some of the most popular tourist facilities, although 

numerous smaller camps and cabins were also in frequent use. Along with Olympic Hot Springs, 

one of the early operations catering to travelers was the Way Side Inn. Olive (Laufeld) Johnson 

recalled that just after the turn of the twentieth century, her father opened the Way Side Inn close 
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to the Elwha Bridge. It consisted of the post office and a small general store where locals and 

travelers could purchase the basics: “sugar, flour, coffee, crackers, canned goods, coal oil, 

matches, lard, rolled oats and vinegar.”93 Like most Elwha homesteaders, John had to take on 

multiple jobs to make ends meet. In addition to minding the store, he worked as a ranger in 

Olympic National Forest. 

Figure 89. Thelma and Gudrum, pictured here, were nieces of John Ormbreck, owner of the Elwha 

Resort, 1924. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [ElwhaResort_OLYM500_girls.TIF] 

 Joe Stanley opened the Waumila Resort in 1930 as an auto camp with ten “housekeeping 

cabins,” a store, and an open-air community building that also served as a dance pavilion.94 New 

owners Art and Rhea Shelleberger took over in 1936 and continued operations into the late 

1940s. The Waumila Resort offered an example of the typical pattern of resort development in 

 93 Olive Ruth (Laufeld) Johnson, “Incidents on the Elwha,” unpublished manuscript, n.d., 5, Homestead Files, 

ONPA. 

94 Evans, “Historic Resource Study: Olympic National Park, Washington,” 289. 
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the Elwha. Many rustic lodge, campground, and cabin accommodations first opened in response 

to the auto touring and outdoor recreation booms that arrived with new roads in the 1920s, and 

then added more facilities, often housekeeping cabins to house the influx of automobile tourists 

during the 1930s. The Waumila, as with many other small resorts, began a slow decline during 

the war years and eventually began to decline. Those buildings that were within the park 

boundaries were eventually removed. 

Figure 90. Local residents in a Ford automobile in the Elwha Valley, n.d. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg 

Collection of the North Olympic Library System. [ELWA VEHC – 001.jpg] 

 A new tourist boom arrived soon after World War II, but by then, most American motorists 

expected more modern facilities. Housekeeping cabins and campgrounds fell out of favor as 

motor courts, motels, and self-contained recreational vehicles appeared on the scene. 

Nonetheless, the Elwha Valley remained popular among hikers, hunters, and, in particular, 

fishing enthusiasts. The NPS began to improve facilities for these groups in the 1940s, adding 
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and expanding campgrounds, improving trails and trail access, and creating new interpretive 

opportunities, including visitor centers. 

Figure 91. Elwha River sign, 1950. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [OLYM344783095.JPG] 
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OLYMPIC HOT SPRINGS 

Figure 92. Advertisement for Olympic Hot Springs in the upper Elwha Valley. Postcard by Torke’s 

Studio. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [CAH002001.JPG] 

Between 1909 and 1926, Olympic Hot Springs had served as a simple but enjoyable leisure 

resort for the local Elwha community and for Port Angeles residents willing to make the journey 

by foot or on horseback over 11 miles of rough trail. The resort proved less popular than the 

larger, easier-to-reach Sol Duc Hot Springs after the latter reopened in 1921 and the highway 

around Lake Crescent was completed in 1922. But Olympic Hot Springs regained some of its 

popularity when the road built to the Glines Canyon Dam site shortened the trip considerably. 

After 1927, tourists could drive along the shore of Lake Mills to within a short distance of the 

hot springs. Although the new owners, the Schoeffels (descended from one of the original 

founders, Billy Everett), relied almost entirely on cutting and milling their own construction 

materials, they made substantial improvements to the facilities, especially to lodgings, between 
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1910 and 1930. The resort owners improved the accommodations in 1917, adding a lodge and 

bathhouse and constructing a wooden swimming pool. In 1919, they replaced the tent-like cabins 

with more traditional wood-frame resort cabins. 

Figure 93. Olympic Hot Springs lodge. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic 

Library System. [ELWA BLDX – 001] 
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Figure 94. Olympic Hot Springs swimming pool. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North 

Olympic Library System. [ELWA BLDX – 002] 

The completion of a joint USFS/Clallam County road construction project in 1929 finally gave 

motorists access to the resort: the Forest Service also built a new auto campground close to the 

Springs.95 By the next year, Olympic Hot Springs had a new bathhouse, a hotel with 12 

bedrooms, and a new pool. The owners managed to stay in business during the Depression, but 

two events in 1940 dealt blows to the resort’s future prospects. The hotel burned down that year 

(although it was quickly rebuilt) and Congress made the hot springs area part of Olympic 

National Park. 

 95 Morgenroth, Footprints in the Olympics, 111. 
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Figure 95. Olympic Hot Springs brochure cover. Courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, 

Special Collections, PAM0042. [HotSprings.jpg] 

In 1950, Emily Lewis, who had first visited the resort as a child years before, went to work at the 

Olympic Hot Springs and recalled some of the changes: 

There was a long building. It was the lodge. The downstairs was where you 

registered for your stay and use of the pool, or just lounged around and relaxed. 

The whole front was big windows that looked out on the beautiful concrete-lined 

pool. Upstairs were the dining room, kitchen and so forth. On each side of the 

pool were the dressing rooms with shower facilities. . . . The road approached the 

hot springs along the west bank of Boulder Creek and you could look across the 
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creek to the resort. Then the road crossed the creek on a bridge and started back 

along the opposite bank. The first five cabins you came to were real nice little 

houses—just like living down home, but they cost more to rent. Up on the hillside 

were about twenty single cabins.96

During the 1950s and 1960s, the resort facilities began to deteriorate noticeably, reducing the 

resort’s appeal. When modern health standards required the resort to chlorinate the pools, it 

reduced some of the charm of the springs, and contributed further to the drop in tourist visits. 

The resort remained in the park until 1966, when it had degenerated to the point where it was 

closed to the public. The buildings and other associated structures were removed in 1972.

 Located ten miles downstream from Olympic Hot Springs at the mouth of the Elwha River 

was a very different sort of recreational destination, a summer camp for boys called Camp DYB, 

which was in operation during the 1920s and early 1930s. Camp DYB, which stood for “Do 

Your Best,” was created in the mold of the Boy Scouts, YMCA, and other youth organizations 

that sought to build stronger moral, physical, and spiritual habits in American youth, and thus 

improve the health of the nation. According to the camp’s promotional literature, “Summer 

camps fill a distinct need in the life of the city boy, providing for physical, mental and moral 

training during the long vacation time—so often a problem to the thoughtful parent.”97 The camp 

aimed to return boys to their parents “with useful knowledge, learned in the woods and in camp; 

a boy who is a better sport, and who has gained a new appreciation of the natural environment in 

which he lives.”98 In order to achieve these goals, Camp DYB featured outdoor activities such as 

 96 Emily Lewis Miles, The Evolution of Emily: Frontier Child to Modern Woman (Forks, Wash.: Olympic 

Graphic Arts, Inc., 1981), 77–78. 

97 “Camp DYB: A Summer Camp for Boys,” brochure, n.d., Folder: Clallam Projects 1, 2, 3 (Tulalip) 2 of 2, 3, 

Box 217, Jurisdiction Files of the Realty Branch and Predecessors, 1945–61, Records of the Bureau of Indian 

Affairs (BIA), Portland Area Office (hereafter Jurisdiction Files of the Realty Branch and Predecessors, PAO), RG 

75, National Archives and Records Administration–Pacific West Region, Seattle, Washington (hereafter NARA). 

98 “Camp DYB: A Summer Camp for Boys,” 3. 
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canoeing, swimming, hiking, team sports, and an overnight backpack trip to Mount Angeles. 

There were also leisure trips to Lake Crescent, Agate Beach, and Olympic Hot Springs.99 The 

camp’s activities consisted of the Elwha Valley’s most popular recreational pursuits, but couched 

those endeavors in moral and patriotic terms. 

Figure 96. Camp DYB, “A Real Camp for Real Boys,” pamphlet cover. Courtesy of National Archives 

and Records Administration–Pacific Alaska Region, Seattle, Wash. [RG 75, Camp DYB, image 1.jpg] 

 99 “Camp DYB: A Summer Camp for Boys,” 7–11. 
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 Boys at Camp DYB tackled their “training” on a site formed by Elwha River sediment, land 

that once stood at the center of Elwha Klallam social and subsistence activity. In the late 1930s 

that land was incorporated within the Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation.100 But as the boys 

played and relaxed at the camp during the 1920s and 1930s, their easygoing experiences on the 

Elwha could not have contrasted more with the lives that the remaining Elwha Klallam members 

led on the very same shore. By the 1930s, the tribe had reached one of the lowest points of its 

long history on the peninsula, seemingly ready to disappear from view along with the salmon 

runs they so depended upon. At a time when DYB boys left the camp supposedly “abounding in 

the joy of life . . . with rugged strength stored from the healthful activities of the summer,” 

roughly 175 Elwha Klallam members struggled to eke out a living from small vegetable gardens, 

“beachcombing,” and the diminishing salmon populations.101 As they found themselves squeezed 

out of or forcibly evicted from their village sites and homesteads, they looked to the Elwha River 

to continue to sustain them. 

 100 “Camp DYB: A Summer Camp for Boys,” 3. 

101 Quotation from “Camp DYB: A Summer Camp for Boys,” 3; and George Wren, Assistant Land Negotiator, 

Office of Indian Affairs, “Statement Concerning the Project,” Clallam [sic] Project–Tulalip Indian Agency, 

December 6, 1935, Folder: Clallam Projects 1, 2, 3 (Tulalip) 1 of 2, Box 217, Jurisdiction Files of the Realty Branch 

and Predecessors, PAO, NARA. “Clallam Projects” were the names given to the government’s land purchase 

program in the Lower Elwha Valley. 
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Figure 97. Aerial view of Camp DYB campus, ca. 1924. Courtesy of National Archives and Records 

Administration, Pacific-Alaska Regional Branch, Seattle, Wash. [RG 75, Camp DYB, image 2-

rotatedandcropped.jpg] 

The Power of Place: The Elwha River and the Elwha Klallam 

 In the mid-1930s, government officials at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Tulalip Agency 

took steps to restore some of the former Elwha Klallam lands and to improve the living 

conditions of tribal members, including many that had been forced out of their dwellings on Ediz 

Hook near their former village of Tse-whit-zen. The families in these “shacks,” as many 

observers and the newspapers described them, which sat on government land, had managed to 

hang onto homes along a narrow stretch of sand exposed to the waves and wind of Pacific storms 

that threatened to push their dwellings into the harbor. 

 In September 1929, the federal government attempted to force the Elwha tribal members out 

of their homes on Ediz Hook by threatening to burn all of their cabins on government property. 

Department of the Navy officials gave Lighthouse Keeper Albert Beyers the order to remove all 
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of unauthorized buildings within the naval reservation, but did not explain the reasons for the 

action. Beyers posted eviction notices on the 36 structures then standing, and planned to “torch” 

them when the fire hazard level was low.102 A local newspaper reporter interviewed Harry 

Sampson, an Elwha Klallam who had lived in his shack on Ediz Hook for thirty years. Another 

Elwha Klallam, Port Angeles Bob, had lived in the same home before that. Sampson told the 

reporter, “I don’t know where we’ll go or what we’ll do.”103 However, in 1935, a federal land 

agent observed nine Elwha Klallam families (a total of 22 people) were still living in 

“dilapidated make-shift shacks” on Ediz Hook.104 The difficult living conditions prompted tribal 

members such as Sam Ulmer, and officials in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), to seek a 

solution. 

 102 “Shacks Doomed: Torch Will Be Applied to 36 Small Cabins,” Daily News (Port Angeles), September 17, 

1929. 

103 “Shacks Doomed.” 

104 Wren, “Statement Concerning the Project,” Clallam Project [No. 1], 2 
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Figure 98. Lighthouse on Ediz Hook. Photograph by Clifford B. Ellis. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. [PA_EdizHookLight.TIF] 

 Observing in the early 1930s what he called the “poverty and destitution of Clallam [sic] 

Indians for whom no reservation was ever set apart,” O. C. Upchurch, superintendent of the 

BIA’s Tulalip Indian Agency, which had nominal oversight of the Elwha Klallam from the 

1920s through the 1940s, recommended that the government buy farmland near the mouth of the 

Elwha River for some of the displaced Elwha Klallam families to settle, under the terms of the 

Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.105 Between 1936 and 1939, BIA land agents purchased small 

parcels of private farmland and cutover forest on either side of the Elwha River, eventually 

accumulating a total of 353 acres to restore to the tribe. Fittingly, the acquired parcels included 

the site of a former Klallam village. George Wren, the government land agent in charge of the 
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land purchases, recorded the presence of an “Indian burial ground with approximately fifty 

graves.”106

 Another farm parcel was the former location of Camp DYB. The camp’s cabins, lookout 

tower, and common building remained standing and in good order, leading the land agent to 

suggest that they were “an excellent set up for a community meeting site” for the tribe.107 He also 

noted that the slough that ran along one edge of the property was a salmon spawning area. 

 Once the government completed the purchases, a committee of Elwha Klallam tribal 

members helped select fourteen families to move onto the acquired acreage. The families 

organized themselves as the Elwha Valley Indian Community Association.108 The association 

was able to apply for and receive federal government loans to purchase farm equipment, seeds, 

and livestock. BIA agents made similar purchases of land for the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe 

across Hood Canal on the Kitsap Peninsula. Congress established the Port Gamble Indian 

Reservation in 1938. Congress, however, did not declare the Elwha Klallam land a federal 

reservation, in part because of local fears that “the status of fishing in the Elwha River would be 

 105 O. C. Upchurch, Superintendent, Tulalip Indian Agency, to T. W. Wheat, Land Field Agent, Sacramento 

Indian Agency, December 16, 1935, Folder: Clallam Projects 1, 2, 3 (Tulalip) 1 of 2, Box 217, Jurisdiction Files of 

the Realty Branch and Predecessors, PAO, NARA. Note the standard BIA spelling of “Clallam” at the time. 

106 George Wren, Assistant Land Negotiator, Office of Indian Affairs, “Statement Concerning the Project,” 

Clallam Project Unit No. 2, April 22, 1936, Folder: Clallam Projects 1, 2, 3 (Tulalip) 1 of 2, Box 217, Jurisdiction 

Files of the Realty Branch and Predecessors, PAO, NARA. Note that this 1936 “Statement” is a different document 

than the one Wren submitted in 1935. 

107 Department of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, “Offer to Sell Lands to the United States,” Clallam 

Project Unit No. 2, Tract No. 10, April 22, 1936, Folder: Clallam Projects 1, 2, 3 (Tulalip) 1 of 2, Box 217, 

Jurisdiction Files of the Realty Branch and Predecessors, PAO, NARA. 

108 Homer Morrison, “A Clallam Community: A Study of the Rehabilitation Program of the Clallam Indians in 

the Valley of the Lower Elwha in Clallam County, Washington,” June 6, 1939, 5-8, Folder 12: Clallam 

Rehabilitation Program, 1939, Box 1, Johnson Elwha Sources, ONPA, 5, 18–19. 
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changed.”109 Land agent Wren wrote that the other landowners in the valley had opposed the 

purchases because the Elwha Klallam were viewed as “unwelcome neighbors.”110

 Once settled on their restored tribal lands, the Elwha Klallam utilized many of the same fishcatching techniques that their ancestors had honed to near perfection. At high tide during the 

spring Chinook run, Indians “gaffed” salmon at a ford roughly a half-mile upstream from the 

river mouth. Tribal fishers tied a gaff hook to a “long thin fir pole . . . . They would just let the 

pole swim down with the current and if they felt something they would yank.”111 Tribal members 

and families felt a strong sense of individual ownership for their favorite fishing holes along the 

river, and gave a name to each of them. 

 But as the diminishing habitat depleted the number of wild Elwha salmon, in the case of 

some species to virtual extinction, social and political pressures began to squeeze the tribe out of 

their traditional fishing grounds and practices, as more groups—sport and commercial fishermen, 

salmon derby promoters, and recreational anglers—competed for a dwindling resource. Elwha 

Klallam fishers also had to outfox fish and game agents simply to set their lines or nets. Earlier 

U.S. Supreme Court decisions had affirmed the fishing treaty rights of all Indian tribes in the 

state of Washington. But in 1916, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that tribes did not 

have the right to fish in their “usual and accustomed places.”112 From that time on, state Fish and 

Game officials aggressively prohibited any off-reservation fishing without a state license. Of 

course, this outcome was particularly debilitating for the Elwha Klallam because they had no 

 109 Wren, “Statement Concerning the Project,” Clallam Project Unit No. 2, 2; and Johnson, “Historic 

Assessment of Elwha River Fisheries,” 198. 

110 Quote from Wren, “Statement Concerning the Project,” 2. 

111 Goin interview, 2. 

112 Cesar Marino, “History of Western Washington since 1846,” in Handbook of North American Indians, ed. 

William Sturtevant, vol. 7, Northwest Coast, ed. Wayne Suttles (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1990), 

175–76. 
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reservation. When they were caught, some individual tribal members were beaten up, others 

were regularly arrested. 

 In order to avoid detection and arrest, tribal members turned to fishing at night or in difficultto-access locations. Robert Elofson remembered that as a youth, when he and his cousins went 

fishing, they would climb down the steep bluffs to the river, some 200 to 300 feet below his 

house, because it was a location “where nobody else could get to [us].”113 He also recalled that 

when Elwha Klallam Indians went gaffing salmon in a tributary of the Elwha, they kept “a 

lookout for game wardens” because many of the fishermen were afraid of being arrested and 

thrown in jail.114 Dick Goin, too, recalled how his father sometimes joined tribal members 

fishing by moonlight for king salmon near the mouth of the river, likewise trying to avoid 

detection. 

 In December 1952, a local Fish and Game agent detained a group of Elwha Klallam he found 

gaffing salmon. To plead their case, they traveled to Seattle and petitioned State Fish 

Commission director Robert Schoettler for the right to catch and smoke Elwha “dog” (chum) 

salmon for their personal use, a practice they had engaged in for decades. Schoettler refused, 

contending that the Elwha River “does not border any Indian reservation land grant or 

allotment.”115 Instead of complying with the petitioners’ request, he told the area inspector to 

keep his department “apprised of any irregularities with respect to Indian fishing . . . in order that 

 113 Robert Elofson, oral history interview by Paul Sadin, October 20, 2009, Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation, 

Port Angeles, Washington, audio recording and transcript, ONPA, 1. 

114 R. Elofson interview, 1. 

115 Robert Schoettler to Lt. Charles Hall, December 4, 1952, Unnamed Folder, Box 1, Johnson Elwha Sources, 

ONPA. 
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we have the opportunity to review the possible charges under which such an arrest will be 

made.”116 

 Similar political and legal battles raged between tribes and state agents throughout Western 

Washington in the late 1950s and 1960s that featured overt protests such as “fish-ins,” more 

arrests, and additional lawsuits filed against the state. The Elwha Klallam and most other 

Western Washington tribes struggled to find power and strength in traditional sources, including 

the land, rivers, and coastal waters that had always sustained them.117 In the 1960s, the tribes 

found a new source of power—political action—that sustained them in their efforts to improve 

their lives and communities. In 1968, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe gained federal recognition 

as a tribal entity, and a reservation encompassing the tribal land purchased thirty years earlier. 

 Thus, as the 1960s came to a close, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe had made progress in 

regaining some of its lost political power and legal rights. In the decade that followed, a new 

political and economic landscape would emerge on the Olympic Peninsula. As the regional 

economy began to falter in response to nationwide changes in the timber industry, the continued 

long dominance of the hydropower and timber industries was no longer assured. At the same 

time, the American environmental movement increased public awareness regarding threats to the 

local and global environment, and began to raise questions about the value of dams that 

interfered with natural systems. These circumstances began to alter the balance of power 

regarding the dams on the Elwha River in the decades that followed. 

 116 Schoettler to Hall. 

117 For more information on the tribal fishing rights battles of the 1950s through 1970s, see Charles Wilkinson, 

Messages from Frank’s Landing: A Story of Salmon, Treaties, and the Indian Way (Seattle: University of 

Washington Press, 2000); Fay Cohen, Treaties on Trial: Continuing Controversy over Northwest Indian Fishing 

Rights (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986); and Mary Isely et al., Uncommon Controversy: Fishing 

Rights of the Muckleshoot, Puyallup, and Nisqually Indians (Seattle: American Friends Service Committee, 1967). 
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Chapter 4 

Power Politics: 

The Environmental Era Arrives and Challenges to the Dams 

Begin, 1968–2008 

It was a bit of a shock when I got the telephone call from the two representatives telling me . . . 

that the Congress of the United States was going to draft legislation to purchase the projects and 

remove them from the river.

Orville Campbell, former facility manager, Elwha dams 

 For a half-century, Crown Zellerbach ran the Elwha dams and power plants with almost 

complete impunity when it came to meeting their power requirements. During that period, the 

Port Angeles business community, labor organizations, and local officials gave their full support 

to the company’s operations, which supplied wood products for the nation and much-needed 

jobs, trade, and economic recognition for the city. As former Crown Zellerbach hydropower 

manager Orville Campbell said, “The company had used the dams for some 50 years . . . there 

was no reason to believe FERC [Federal Energy Regulation Commission] wouldn’t give us 

another 50.”1

 Outright removal of the dams seemed an even more outlandish and unlikely 

scenario. As Campbell later admitted, “In the beginning and through much of the [licensing] 

process, I couldn't even imagine that the movement [for removal] would be successful.”2

Similarly, when asked if tribal members discussed dam removal as a possibility when they first 

decided to challenge the FERC licensing in the 1970s, tribal member Robert Elofson said they 

did, but few took it seriously.3 Yet when Crown Zellerbach applied to FERC to license the Elwha 

 1

 Adam Burke, “River of Dreams,” High County News (September 24, 2001), on-line version, 

http://www.hcn.org/issues/211/10739 (accessed November 30, 2009). 

2

 Orville Campbell, quoted in Adam Burke, “Hydro[power] Had No Friends,” High County News, September 

24, 2001, http://www.hcn.org/issues/211/10751 (accessed November 30, 2009). 

3

 R. Elofson interview, 4. 
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Dam in 1968 and to relicense Glines Canyon Dam in 1973, they found that the political and 

economic atmosphere had changed dramatically. 

 In the first half of the twentieth century, hydroelectric dams were the icon of American 

technological expertise. By the 1970s, however, environmental activists made dams the symbols 

of the country’s ecological degradation, primarily because the structures altered river ecosystems 

and the reservoirs inundated large areas valued for aesthetic and recreational pursuits. Campbell 

could see, “in the late 70s and through the 80s that hydropower in the United States had a very 

bad image.”4 Perceptions of anadromous fish species also changed. The federal government 

began to treat salmon and steelhead as species valued for their central place in marine, riparian, 

and terrestrial ecosystems and in the cultural lives of Pacific Northwest Indian tribes, who had 

obtained both physical and spiritual sustenance from the salmon for thousands of years. 

Figure 99. Aerial view of Port Angeles, looking south, 1960. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of 

the North Olympic Library System. [PTAN VIEW – 012.jpg] 

 4

 Orville Campbell, interview by Jacilee Wray, April 6, 2010, transcript, 9. 
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 Meanwhile, Crown Zellerbach could see that hard times lay ahead for the Pacific Northwest 

timber and wood products industries. Dwindling stands of old-growth trees, more stringent 

environmental regulations, and competition from more efficient mills in the southeastern United 

States threatened the future of the region’s timber companies and the livelihood of Olympic 

Peninsula loggers. These factors, coupled with rising freight costs, decreased the profitability of 

the pulp and paper industry. In Port Angeles, the Fibreboard Company mill was the first casualty 

of the timber industry slump, closing on the last day of 1970.5

 The poor prospects of the Pacific Northwest timber and pulp industries eventually prompted 

Crown Zellerbach to sell the Port Angeles mill and the two Elwha dams to the James River 

Corporation in 1985. Three years later, in 1988, Daishowa America purchased the Port Angeles 

mill from James River, after James River discovered it was not going to profit from a mill that 

produced paper for city directories. However, James River maintained its ownership of the dams 

because, by then, the company had become embroiled in the dam relicensing process. While 

relicensing and dam removal issues were being debated, Daishowa modernized operations at the 

mill, keeping the Port Angeles plant competitive into the twenty-first century.6

 5

 Martin, Port Angeles, 133; and Oldham, “Port Angeles.” 

6

 Nippon Paper Industries USA Company, the current owner of the mill, merged with Daishowa America in 

2003. “Port Angeles Paper Mill at 90: Its Legacy Mirrors Ups, Downs, of Community,” Peninsula Daily News, 

December 12, 2010. 
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Figure 100. Nippon Paper (former Crown Zellerbach/James River) mill in Port Angeles, n.d. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park. [10Elwha_Dori.34 of – 32.jpg] 

 Crown Zellerbach, and subsequently, James River, ran into unexpected hurdles when they 

applied to license the Elwha Dam and relicense the Glines Canyon Dam. The companies applied 

for FERC licensing in the midst of what became known as the “environmental era” of the late 

1960s and 1970s. During that time, Congress introduced sweeping new federal laws aimed at 

protecting and restoring the health of America’s river, lake, forest, and mountain ecosystems. 

One of the most significant pieces of legislation was the National Environmental Policy Act of 

1969 (NEPA), which required federal government agencies to assess the potential damage any 

project might have on natural and cultural resources. The new law also required federal agencies 

to involve the public in the decision-making process. These events bore important ramifications 

for the future of the Elwha River dams. 
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PORT ANGELES, 1960s 

Chamber of Commerce publications in the early 1960s promoted the “Vacationland” theme, and 

began to advertise recreation as the city’s biggest attraction. Promotional brochures still lauded 

the industrial opportunities in Port Angeles, but chamber of commerce members pushed that 

topic to the back pages. The trend continued into the 1970s and beyond, as city leaders looked to 

recreational tourism to replace the local jobs and boost the regional economy when the mills 

began to close. 

Figure 101. Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce promotional brochure, ca. 1960. Courtesy of University 

of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, UW29171. [UW29171z.tif] 
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Promotional pitch from the 1961 Port Angeles: Vacationland:

Port Angeles today is a proud city blessed with an abundance of natural beauty. 

With a turn of the head, one looks from snow-capped mountains to saltwater 

beaches. Port Angeles is not only a city of breathtaking beauty, but is strategically 

located at the heart of one of the country’s finest vacation areas—aptly described 

by many as “America’s Last Frontier.” Looking southward, the towering rugged 

Olympic Mountains overlook the city. These mountains, and the 1,400 square 

miles of area which comprise the Olympic National Park, furnish vacationers with 

a multitude of recreation activities to choose from. The magnificent rain forest, 

wildlife, glaciers, lakes streams, and hundreds of miles of trails maintained by the 

National Park Service are yours to use and enjoy. To the north the Strait of Juan 

de Fuca serves as a highway of water running relentlessly past Port Angeles’ front 

door. Miles of fine beaches, excellent salmon fishing and all the water-borne 

activities imaginable are always ready for you.7

Figure 102. Port Angeles Vacationland brochure, 1961. Courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, 

Special Collections, UW29157. [UW29157z.tif] 

 7

 Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Port Angeles: Vacationland, brochure (Port Angeles: Chamber of 

Commerce, n.d.). 
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Figure 103. The Port Angeles Salmon Derby was a regional attraction until restrictions on commercial 

and sport fishing brought the festival to end in 1995. Salmon Derby activities on Ediz Hook, ca. 1970. 

Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. [PTAN ACTV – 026.jpg] 

 The 1970s also witnessed increased cultural and economic opportunities for historically 

marginalized groups, including American Indians. State and federal courts began to address long 

ignored tribal claims and Indian rights. The conflict between Western Washington tribes and the 

State Department of Fisheries over Indian fishing treaty rights escalated into a series of arrests, 

protests, and lawsuits in the 1960s, finally culminating in the landmark court case U.S. v. 

Washington.

8

 In 1974, District Judge George Boldt ruled in U.S. v. Washington that the 1854–

 8 U.S. v. State of Washington, 384 F. Supp. 312 (U.S. Dist. 1974), Civ. No. 9213. 
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1855 treaty rights of Washington tribes, including the Elwha Klallam, entitled them to take onehalf of each year’s salmon harvest in the state.9

 The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the ruling—

known as the Boldt Decision—in 1979.10 The decision surprised state officials, the Puget Sound 

commercial fishing industry, and sport anglers in Washington. Boldt also decreed that the 

Western Washington tribes should share, with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 

in the management and conservation of Puget Sound salmon fisheries.11 The Boldt ruling created 

a new paradigm that would take years of adjustment by all parties involved with the state’s 

fisheries. 

 On paper, the Boldt Decision would have seemed to present the Elwha Klallam with a means 

to boost their subsistence fishing and tribal economy. However, just as the state recognized their 

treaty-secured rights to take salmon, the salmon runs themselves were almost gone. Robert 

Elofson remarked, “When I was younger there were still quite a few kings and coho in the river 

in the sixties. But by the mid to late seventies . . . the number had dwindled so much that the 

state felt that it had to put in the rearing channel for the Chinook, to preserve [them].”12 Indeed, 

by the 1970s, any knowledgeable observer could see that the anadromous fish runs were dying 

out.13

 In an attempt to halt the decline, both the tribe and the state of Washington introduced 

artificial methods to keep fish reproducing. The state of Washington built and began operating a 

“rearing channel” for Chinook salmon in 1976, raising juveniles in the Dungeness River hatchery 

 9 U.S. v. State of Washington, 384 F. Supp. 312 (U.S. Dist. 1974), Civ. No. 9213. 

10 Washington et al. v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Association et al., 443 U.S. 658 

(1979), Case No. 77-983. 

11 Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, “Tribal Harvest Statistics, 1970–1997,” 

http://www.nwifc.wa.gov/fishmgmt/thstats (accessed May 27, 2004). 

12 R. Elofson interview, 3. 
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and transporting them to the Elwha for release in the rearing channel on the former Sampson 

homestead. When they reached the appropriate age, the Chinook swam into the Elwha River and 

out into the strait, years later returning to the rearing channel to spawn. However, the state 

experienced only limited success with the rearing channel. Robert Elofson, who served as the 

tribal biologist for a time, reported that the facility did not return enough Chinook to reach 

“harvestable numbers.”14 Two years later, the tribe began constructing a salmon hatchery to try 

to maintain viable coho salmon and steelhead runs. The tribal facility was not completely 

successful either, although the Elwha Klallam hatchery did provide the tribe with a yearly 

harvest of coho and steelhead. 

 Nonetheless, the combination of a tribal hatchery, state rearing channel, and the remaining 

spawning runs of non-hatchery fish produced enough anadromous fish for the Elwha Klallam to 

restart tribal fishing in the late 1970s. Tribal member Patty Elofson recalled how she became a 

“river fisherman” after coming back to the reservation from college. She recalled coming home 

and challenging her cousins: “Hey guys, you know if you’re making so many thousand a day, I 

can do that. I’m just as strong as you are or close. I didn’t want to make nets for you; I wanted to 

make a net for me. So then they taught us.”15 Patty Elofson was not alone in her endeavor, and 

the Elwha Klallam became “a tribe that had a lot of women fishermen.”16 But the conditions for 

the fish were not improving. Regardless of the Boldt Decision and the salmon hatcheries, there 

was little chance of restoring the river and the native salmon runs while the Elwha dams blocked 

the passage of salmon upstream and the flow of sediment downstream. 

 13 Goin interview, 4–5. 

14 R. Elofson interview, 4. 

15 P. Elofson interview, 2. 

16 P. Elofson interview, 2. 
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Figure 104. Bluffs and Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation at the mouth of the Elwha River, n.d. 

Photograph by Robert Lundahl. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [Elwha_mouth2Lundahl.jpg] 

The Elwha Klallam Tribe’s Challenge to Relicensing 

 Plummeting salmon populations, and an even more essential issue, the safety of the Elwha 

Dam, finally prompted the tribe to challenge the legitimacy of FERC to relicense the dams 

operation on the river. Robert Elofson, who became the tribe’s Elwha River Restoration Project 

director, said the tribe “first challenged the relicensing of the dam because of the safety issues of 

the dams and we wanted to make sure that the reservation was safe.”17 The tribe argued that the 

dam should be “capable of withstanding . . . at least a 7.5 earthquake,” which geologists had 

 17 R. Elofson interview, 5. 
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determined could occur roughly once every 25 to 75 years in that area.18 The tribe hired engineer 

Mike Watson to determine the extent of the risk posed by the dam. Watson found that even 

without an earthquake, the Elwha Dam posed a significant potential safety hazard for the tribe. 

Watson calculated that a “twenty-five year storm” could do enough damage to the dam to topple 

a portion of the edifice and send a highly destructive “bore wave” down the valley and through 

the reservation.19

Figure 105. High water flow at the Elwha Dam, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[highwaterlwr.jpg] 

 By November 1979, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe began to advocate dam removal, 

primarily due to new studies that heightened the tribe’s safety concerns about the Elwha Dam. 

 18 R. Elofson interview, 5; and Linda Lawrance Noson, Anthony Qamar, and Gerald W. Thorsen, “Washington 

State Earthquake Hazards,” Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources Information Circular 85 (1988), 

http://www.pnsn.org/INFO_GENERAL/NQT/when_and_where.html (accessed November 30, 2009). 
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As though to remind them of the risks of living downstream from an unlicensed dam, in late 

October that year, a surge of water from the dam damaged the boats and fishing gear of tribal 

members, and threatened to inundate the tribe’s hatchery, although the latter ultimately escaped 

flooding. The flood hazard posed by the Elwha Dam and the reservation’s location on the 

floodplain at the mouth of the river also made the tribe ineligible for federal Department of 

Housing and Urban Development housing grants, which the tribe desperately needed at the time 

to provide the opportunity for more families to live on the reservation. In addition to these safety 

concerns, Charlie Rich, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s business manager, said that the tribe 

wanted to see the salmon runs restored, either through fish ladders or dam removal, asking, 

“What’s more important to the people—the dam, or all the fish that the Elwha River could 

possibly accommodate for the citizens of the Northwest?”20 The Elwha Klallam became the first 

group to go on record in favor of dam removal when, in January 1986, the tribe filed a motion 

for intervention in the FERC proceedings. Four months later, a coalition of four environmental 

organizations—Friends of the Earth, the Sierra Club, the Seattle Audubon Society, and Olympic 

Park Associates followed suit and filed a motion for intervener status with FERC.21 In November 

1986, FERC granted intervener status to the tribe, the four environmental groups, and the 

National Marine Fisheries Service.22

 19 Russell Busch, oral history interview by Paul Sadin, November 17, 2009, Seattle, Washington, audio 

recording and transcript, ONPA, 2. 

20 Victoria Scott, “Longtime Controversy: Troubled Waters on the Elwha,” PLACE Chronicle, November 11, 

1979, provided by Jacilee Wray, ONP. Note: all news articles cited in this chapter were provided by Jacilee Wray, 

ONP. 

21 Greg Johnston, “Plans Mulled to Restore Famed Elwha Chinook Run,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 14, 

1986. 

22 Department of the Interior, Department of Commerce, and Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribe, Elwha Report, 

158. 
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Figure 106. Face of the Glines Canyon Dam, 1995. Photograph by Jet Lowe. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. [HHWA130B8-1.jpg] 

 Popular sentiment in Port Angeles ran against dam removal. Former Crown 

Zellerbach/Nippon hydroelectric supervisor Joe Michalczik remembered that in Port Angeles 

prior to the 1990s, “nobody really saw the dams as a problem.”23 Most residents worried that 

taking out the dams would eventually chase Crown Zellerbach, the city’s primary employer, out 

 23 Michalczik interview, 7. 
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of Port Angeles. Even those willing to entertain the idea of dam removal as an option still 

emphasized the need to consider Crown Zellerbach’s needs. One resident suggested, “The 

solution must be one that does not severely jeopardize the financial viability of the mill, but one 

that solves this serious problem for the well-being of all.”24 Port Angeles officials and residents 

also worried that dam removal would taint their supply of clean drinking water from the Elwha 

River. 

Figure 107. Peninsula Daily News headline, August 10, 1990. [19900810_pdn.jpg] 

 Very few local residents were willing to argue strongly for dam removal, although a small 

number of area anglers, recreation enthusiasts, and community activists formed a group to 

discuss how they could thoughtfully support Elwha River restoration. Dick Goin recalled that the 

group began to discuss the problems on the Elwha River after the FERC-licensing process was 

underway in the 1970s. The group was a successor to previous Port Angeles hunting and fishing 

clubs including the Pogey Club, and prior to that, the local chapter of the Isaac Walton League.25

Group members were aware of the problems the dams presented, though few if any entertained 

the (then) radical notion of removing them. Goin explained, “I never knew a time when people 

didn’t say, the fish should be above the dam. . . . But nobody said, ‘well we need to blow [the 

dams] out so we have the fish.’”26 The group eventually allied with a coalition of regional 

environmental organizations, such as Friends of the Earth, in supporting river restoration and, if 

necessary, dam removal. As a whole, the group generally kept their work on Elwha restoration 

 24 Lu Carlson, “A Solution for a Dam Problem,” Port Angeles Daily News, September 30, 1986. 

25 Goin interview, 12. 
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issues, which included presentations to other city groups such as the local grange, “low key” 

because there was a “strong constituency there that was against it.”27

DAM OPERATORS 

The debate over relicensing and possibly removing the two dams went on for three decades. 

During that time, a few solitary Crown Zellerbach or James River employees kept the dams and 

powerplants in operation. While environmental and political changes shifted public notions about 

hydropower, their tasks and routines were little different than the jobs the first dam operators 

started after the first dam was finished. Because the design and construction of the Glines 

Canyon Dam and power plant allowed them to be operated remotely from the Elwha Dam, few 

staff members were needed to run the dams and power systems. The crew on each shift consisted 

of two dam operators—one at each dam—with one maintenance staff member serving both 

facilities. The dam supervisor spent time at both sites as well as in the company office in Port 

Angeles. From there, former Crown Zellerbach/Nippon hydroelectric supervisor Joe Michalczik 

explained, they handled the task of monitoring “right around 26 or 27 miles of 69,000-volt 

transmission line.”28 Typically, the Glines Canyon operator lived in the company’s residence onsite. Operators and maintenance personnel for Elwha Dam lived in Port Angeles or another 

nearby town and commuted to work, but at least one of the operators was at the dam around the 

clock. 

 26 Goin interview, 12 

27 Goin interview, 13. 

28 Joe Michalczik, interview with Paul Sadin and Dawn Vogel, August 28, 2009, transcript, 9. 
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Figure 108. Powerhouse control room, Elwha Dam, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[DSCN2494.JPG] 

Dam operators had to deal with tedium, interrupted by routine safety and maintenance checks. 

For instance, once an hour, operators had to log in and also call Bonneville Power 

Administration to confirm that the dams were on-line. Although the operation was mostly 

automated, the jobs could still be very demanding. At least one operator had to be at the controls 

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in case an emergency should arise. Dangers were present as well. 

The long catwalk descending from the top of the canyon to the control room at Elwha Dam was 

slippery from spray and rain any time of the year, but it was particularly hazardous when winter 

ice or snow covered it. There were also numerous stairwells to go up and down inside the 

facility. On one occasion, one of the team tripped and fell off the stairs. Because he was working 
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alone, as usual, the man “lay there kind of semi-unconscious for a very long time until he got his 

marbles together.”29 Of course, the workers also had to remain aware that they were always 

surrounded by extremely high voltage electrical lines, which led to a severe accident on at least 

one occasion. 

Figure 109. Control panels at the Elwha Dam, 2005. Photograph by Betsy Carlson. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. [Elwha Dam Control Panels.jpg] 

Juan Macias was a Crown Zellerbach/James River mill employee until 1984, when he obtained a 

promotion to work with the dam operator team as one of the maintenance staff. Macias recalled 

that the maintenance job required him to be a “jack of all trades.” He explained: “I became a 

 29 Juan Macias, telephone interview by Paul Sadin, February 8, 2010, transcript, 3. 
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lineman, and I became a plumber, and an electrician . . . we had 36 miles of transmission line to 

keep up. And brushing, [so] I became a logger. And replacing insulators and wiring for the 

electricity to travel on. And maintaining the dams.”30 The biggest maintenance task arrived when 

Glines Dam was shut down for two to three weeks each year to perform safety checks, replace 

worn parts, repack the pumps with grease, etc. Maintenance staff performed the same tasks at 

Elwha Dam, but because the plant contained four generators, Elwha Dam remained in operation 

while the cleaning and replacement work was done one generator at a time. 

Macias was later promoted to operator at the Elwha Dam, where he learned firsthand the dangers 

of the job. In April 1995, he was performing a “switching” operation, which transfers the 

electrical current from one part of the powerhouse to another. Macias recalled he was in the 

process of switching the current from one transformer (using a wooden “hot stick” designated for 

that task), and then, “all that I remember was this ball of fire coming after me. The next thing I 

knew somebody found me and I was laying about twenty feet away and I was burnt from my 

shoulders on up.”31 A maintenance crew that happened to be working upstairs that day heard the 

explosion, which knocked out the lights in the facility, and then went looking for Macias. They 

found him “fifteen or twenty feet away from the switch cell” that he had been working on. 

Macias doesn’t remember whether he tried to run away from the cell or whether the blast from 

6,900 volts of electricity had knocked him clear across the room. Emergency responders brought 

him to the local hospital, but the next day he went to the regional burn center at Harborview 

Hospital in Seattle, where he spent the next two to three weeks receiving burn treatments. It was 

more than six months before he went back to work at the dam, and he was understandably 

 30 Macias interview, 6. 

31 Macias interview, 6. 
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nervous around the switching cells. Macias did return to work full-time and remained a dam 

operator until his retirement in 2005.32

Figure 110. Generators at the Elwha Dam, 2005. Photograph by Betsy Carlson. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. [Elwha Dam Generator Equipment.jpg] 

Regardless of the era and the political changes that shaped the future of the dams, the company’s 

(whether it was Crown Zellerbach or James River) dam operators were a constant, though 

usually unnoticed, presence on the Elwha River. They shared with each other “a lot of pride” in 

their jobs. Several dam operators became lifelong residents of the Elwha Valley, such as Claude 

Homer, the hydroelectric supervisor who worked and lived at the Elwha Dam site for 42 years 

 32 Macias interview, 7-9. 
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until he retired in the early 1970s. Michalczik commented, “I think that the people that worked 

out there [at the dams] loved their work.”33 

 Outside Port Angeles, environmentalists tried to build support for river restoration and dam 

removal, although the tactics of the various organizations differed. The coalition of 

environmental groups worked slowly to build an educational effort regarding dam removal from 

the Elwha River. Some of the leading “enviros” in the Pacific Northwest saw a twofold benefit to 

Elwha dam removal. In addition to restoring salmon runs and river habitat, pulling out the Elwha 

dams and their associated structures presented the prospect of restoring wilderness status to the 

upper Elwha Valley.34 Once the dams and impounded lakes were gone, the watershed would 

become eligible for designation as federal wilderness, which offered another layer of 

preservation to land within a national park. 

 33 Michalczik interview, 10. 

34 Shawn Cantrell, oral history interview by Paul Sadin, December 2, 2009, Seattle, Washington, transcript, 4. 

When interviewed for this history, Cantrell was Executive Director of the Seattle Audubon Society. 
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Figure 111. Jamie Valadez talking to teachers at the Elwha River, July 2005. Photograph by Betty 

Carlson. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [J.Valadez talking to teachers at Elwha 7.05 

bcarlsonphoto.jpg] 

 But even within the regional environmental community, the idea of promoting dam removal 

initially sounded outlandish or even “crazy.” Many environmentalists responded with an attitude 

that Shawn Cantrell, at the time Elwha River project director for Friends of the Earth, describes 

as, “You’re making us, as a community, look too extreme . . . . Why waste time and energy and 

resources on a campaign like this when it’s going to hurt our image and be unsuccessful.”35

Nonetheless, Friends of the Earth, Seattle Audubon, Olympic Park Associates, and the Cascade 

chapter of the Sierra Club eventually joined in the dam removal campaign, and began by 

 35 Cantrell interview, 4. 
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launching a public-relations effort to educate and convince other local environmental groups, 

local politicians, and media outlets that Elwha dam removal was a viable strategy and thus a 

worthwhile cause. 

Figure 112. Bald eagles feed extensively on dying salmon and steelhead during the spawning runs, n.d. 

Photograph by Scott Church. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [eagle02 copy Scott Church.jpg] 

 Other environmentalists took a more aggressive approach. The radical environmental group 

Earth First! organized demonstrations in the Port Angeles area, and claimed responsibility for an 
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unknown artist who painted a crack down the Elwha Dam in September 1987.36 An Earth First! 

member attending a June 1987 demonstration in Port Angeles said that the Elwha had “been 

dammed up too long . . . . It’s a real insult to nature.”37 Earth First! also verbally attacked the 

NPS, stating “the Park Service should not be waffling. . . . It should be advocating removal of the 

(Glines Canyon) dam.”38

Figure 113. “Unknown Earth First! artist paints ‘crack’ on Elwha Dam.” Newspaper headline from the 

Peninsula Daily News, September 3, 1987. [19870903_pdn.jpg] 

 Indeed, at that juncture in the restoration campaign, the NPS did not yet advocate for dam 

removal, while it worked to clarify the agency’s position regarding the dams and the salmon runs 

on the Elwha. Even though Congress had already enacted laws in the 1890s to protect wildlife in 

the earliest national parks, that protection did not extend to fish. For more than a half-century, 

the NPS encouraged fishing as a significant visitor use, while stocking streams and lakes far and 

wide with fingerling trout and other fish species, many of them non-native. In the 1930s, NPS 

staff began stocking the lakes and streams within the national monument and the practice 

continued after Congress established Olympic National Park. A local news account revealed that 

close to 300,000 fingerling trout were planted within the park in 1940. The reporter credited the 

 36 “Environmentalist Wants Dam Removed,” Forks Forum, July 15, 1987; Lorraine Maris, “Environmental 

Group Pursues Dam Removal,” Forks Forum, August 5, 1987; “Earth First! Calls for Elwha Dams’ Removal,” 

Peninsula Daily News, August 11, 1987; and Kevin Dolan, “Unknown Earth First! Artist Paints ‘Crack’ on Elwha 

Dam,” Peninsula Daily News, September 3, 1987. 

37 Kevin Dolan, “Elwha Dams Not Needed, Earth First! Group Says,” Peninsula Daily News, June 29, 1987. 

38 Lee Moriwaki, “Relicensing Opposed for Dam in Olympic Park,” Seattle Times, July 16, 1988. 
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park for “realizing the importance of good fishing as a tourist attraction.”39 Not until the 1960s 

did the NPS begin to initiate policies to stop stocking exotic species and preserve native fish.40

Park officials finally halted all fish stocking within ONP in 1975, and resource management staff 

began developing plans for native fish recovery programs.41

 In the 1980s, however, the NPS began to take a new view of native fish and fish habitat. At 

ONP, new policies emphasized restoring “wild (not hatchery) anadromous fish to the Park’s 

rivers.”42 For the Elwha River, the park wanted to re-establish the mix of aquatic species in the 

river prior to dam construction.43 Biologists and fisheries managers began to determine how they 

might move spawning salmon past the dams as they swam upstream. Biologists also released a 

number of juvenile salmon above the dams to study fish mortality and return rates after juveniles 

made their downstream passage through the reservoirs, spillways, or turbines. The NPS and U.S. 

Fish and Wildlife Service conducted studies in the mid-1980s, which showed that during 

downstream migration, a substantial number of salmon and steelhead smolts died of internal 

injuries from the plunge over the spillways. In addition, certain species and sizes of smolts never 

made it through the reservoir on their way downstream. Survival rates varied for different 

 39 “Fish Planted in Waters of Park,” Port Angeles Evening News, April 19, 1941. 

40 Richard West Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History (New Haven, Conn.: Yale 

University Press, 1997), 123–26, 163–64. 

41 Hal Rothman, “An American Eden: An Administrative History of Olympic National Park,” final report, 2006, 

189-90, electronic file provided by Jacilee Wray, ONP. 

42 Charles Gowan, Kurt Stephenson, and Leonard Shabman, “The Role of Ecosystem Valuation in 

Environmental Decision Making: Hydropower Relicensing and Dam Removal on the Elwha River,” Ecological 

Economics 56 (April 2006): 511. 

43 Greg Johnston, “Historic Fish Effort in the Upper Elwha,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 7, 1983; and 

see also Don Paxson, “Project May Return Salmon to the Elwha,” Port Angeles Daily News, April 25, 1983. 
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species and different conditions, but the downstream mortality ran as high as 45 percent for 

Chinook salmon and 29 percent for coho.44

Figure 114. Drawing of anadromous fish species formerly found in the Elwha River, with map showing 

their potential habitat after restoration of river is completed. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[fish_maps_composite.jpg] 

 

 In late 1986, with some of these new studies in hand, the NPS, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, 

Washington Department of Game, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Marine 

Fisheries Service combined forces to form a group called the Joint Fisheries and Wildlife 

Agencies (JFWA). The JFWA petitioned FERC and James River Company to conduct additional 

 44 Brian Winter and Patrick Crain, “Making the Case for Ecosystem Restoration by Dam Removal in the Elwha 

River, Washington,” Northwest Science 82 (2008): 17–18. 
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studies to determine what was needed to reestablish the native Elwha salmon runs above the 

dams.45 The JFWA wanted all possible strategies for river restoration analyzed, including the 

possibility of dam removal. But FERC was not prepared to consider a step so drastic.46 As some 

of these discussions gained media coverage, even mentioning dam removal as a remote 

possibility made the Elwha dams a thorny subject for public officials in the state. 

 In early 1989, however, Washington Representative Al Swift took a substantial political risk 

by backing JFWA’s requests and pushing arduously for an Elwha River study that would include 

dam removal as an option. He continued to advocate against dam removal but explained to his 

constituents—most of them solidly opposed to removal—that a neutral, comprehensive study of 

the Elwha problem was essential. He warned them that without a full-fledged study, the city and 

Daishowa/James River would face “lawsuits of the kind that environmentalists have been 

winning frequently.”47 In a private meeting between the two companies, Swift was more blunt. 

He told them, “Look, if you’re going to try to stonewall against a study of dam removal, you’re 

going to lose.”48

 By the late 1980s, the NPS, additional members of Washington’s Congressional delegation, 

and an increasing number of recreational anglers began to look at dam removal as a viable option 

for restoring the river. Olympic National Park officials realized that they had a “unique 

combination of players and circumstances” that made removal of the Elwha Dams possible.” 49

Because one of the dams was inside a national park, it raised “a very legitimate question about 

whether there was any authority for it to be there.” And the Elwha River watershed, except for 

 45 Gowan, Stephenson, and Shabman, “The Role of Ecosystem Valuation,” 512–13. 

46 Gowan, Stephenson, and Shabman, “The Role of Ecosystem Valuation,” 511, 513. 

47 “Mill Owners Get ‘Dose of Reality’ on Fate of Elwha Dams,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, n.d. [January 1989]. 

48 “Mill Owners Get ‘Dose of Reality.’” 
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the 11 miles below Glines Canyon Dam, remained intact and protected from future despoliation 

because it was within the national park. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe had an ancestral claim 

on the river and a reservation at its mouth, with treaty rights that mandated an intact fishery and 

healthy habitat. All of these factors made removal of two large dams and restoration of a river 

more “doable” than might be the case elsewhere in the country.50 The park superintendents 

during the key years of the licensing and removal debate, Robert Chandler (1983–1989) and 

Maureen Finnerty (1990–1994), saw that they had the chance to achieve something special. They 

had “the opportunity to restore a significant ecosystem in a major national park and that had 

never been done.”51

 By the early 1990s, a formidable alliance of government agencies, environmental groups, the 

Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, recreational fishing organizations, and members of Washington’s 

congressional delegation united behind the dam removal effort. One participant compared the 

regular meetings of this diverse collection of partners to working with an octopus, because it was 

difficult to get “all of these arms . . . coordinated around a central theme.”52 Yet all of the arms 

gave additional strength to dam removal advocates. There were many “players from the different 

viewpoints that could push in places that other people couldn’t.”53

 A mounting tally of scientific studies confirmed that dam removal was the best option to 

bring back healthy Elwha River fish runs. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe had received federal 

funding of approximately $500,000 a year in the early 1990s that they used to hire engineering 

 49 Harris, “Groups Split on Elwha Dam.” 

50 Cat Hawkins-Hoffman, oral history interview by Paul Sadin, October 20, 2009, Olympic National Park, Port 

Angeles, Washington, transcript, 2–3. 

51 Maureen Finnerty, telephone interview by Paul Sadin, October 26, 2009, transcript, 2. 

52 Hawkins-Hoffman interview, 2. 

53 Hawkins-Hoffman interview, 9. 
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firms, hydrologists, and biologists to perform the studies necessary to demonstrate the need for 

Elwha dam removal.54 The studies went far in supporting the political campaign and legislative 

action aimed at dam removal that emerged in 1992. 

 Throughout the first two decades of the licensing process and dam removal debate, the 

owners of the dams, Crown Zellerbach and James River Corporation, and mill owner Daishowa 

America Corporation, were opposed to dam removal. Because of the complexities and unknowns 

of the relicensing process, the agreement for the purchase of the James River properties was 

arranged so that James River remained owner of the dams and Daishowa “would operate and 

maintain them and receive all the benefits as if they owned them.”55As the licensing process 

dragged on and the debate over dam removal moved to the forefront in the early 1990s, the 

companies kept their positions flexible rather than deeply entrenched. Campbell explained that 

James River ownership could see that increasing federal regulations and other costs had created a 

situation where “a manufacturing company can no longer afford to own,” a hydroelectric project. 

The company’s main concern was “to keep the mill viable. Keep it profitable. And if there was 

another way to do that, they were willing to listen.”56

 When local and regional media outlets began reporting that dam removal had become a real 

possibility, the news set off alarm bells among some city officials and residents.57 The Port 

Angeles City Council submitted a letter to the Department of the Interior expressing their 

skepticism about dam removal, which they believed could be economically “devastating” for 

 54 R. Elofson interview, 5. 

55 Campbell interview, 6. 

56 Campbell interview, 9. 

57 Don Hamilton, “Federal Report Offers Dam-Removal Option,” Portland Oregonian, February 26, 1991; Bill 

Dietrich, “Federal Agency Backs Removal of Elwha Dams,” Seattle Times, February 27, 1991; and “Study Eases 

Price Tag on Dam Removal,” Peninsula Daily News, February 28, 1991. 
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Port Angeles.58 Opponents of dam removal in Port Angeles and on the north peninsula began to 

raise their voices. They generally made three principal arguments for keeping the dams in place. 

They did not believe dam removal would bring back the salmon runs, they suggested that the 

increased sediment in the river would ruin the city’s water supply, and they contested that the 

loss of cheap electricity from Elwha hydropower would eventually push Daishowa to close the 

mill, costing the city its major employer.59

Figure 115. The mouth of the Elwha River, 1994. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[Elwhamouth1994DOECL A0241_mr[1].jpg] 

 58 “Future of Dams a Concern to PA,” Peninsula Daily News, March 20, 1991. 

59 Cantrell interview, 14. 
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Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act 

 Dam removal advocates gained their strongest political support to date when powerful 

members of Congress, including New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley and Washington Senator 

Brock Adams, began to consider legislation that would pave the way for Elwha dam removal. 

Adams, Bradley, Swift, and Washington Representative John Miller began to construct the 

framework and language of a bill they would introduce to the 92nd Congress. Much to the 

surprise of the other supporters of the proposed legislation, Adams introduced an Elwha bill to 

the Senate in April 1992, sooner than his allies expected.60 Adams and Bradley became the 

official sponsors of the Senate bill in April, and Swift introduced the companion bill in the 

House. 

 Congressional committees and their staff members began to shape the bill’s language, and a 

period of “intense negotiations” began between the various groups and organizations involved 

with the river and the dams. Cantrell remembered engaging in what he called “shuttle 

diplomacy” between representatives of the tribe, city, James River/Daishowa, agencies, and 

environmental groups, trying to find points of compromise among them.61 Daishowa announced 

that the proposed bill was “fair and commended the federal lawmakers who introduced the 

bill.”62 A key selling point for the company was the intent to have BPA deliver power to the mill 

“at a cost comparable to what the company would pay if the dams stayed in place.”63 The city of 

Port Angeles, however, disliked the initial draft of the legislation, mainly due to a land dispute 

with the tribe. In addition, city officials continued their insistence on a replacement water supply 

 60 Cantrell interview, 12. 

61 Cantrell interview, 12. 

62 “Daishowa Likes Bill to Oust Dams,” Peninsula Daily News, April 5, 1992. 

63 “Daishowa Likes Bill to Oust Dams.” 
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system.64 The land dispute involved a section in an early version of the legislation that would 

have transferred one-third of the government’s property on Ediz Hook to the Lower Elwha 

Klallam Tribe. The tribe and the city eventually compromised on this portion of the legislation, 

wherein the city obtained the land and agreed to lease a small parcel to the tribe. Negotiations 

such as this one between the city and the tribe were part of the “shuttle diplomacy” carried out 

among the different stakeholders. By September, the central players—the dam owners, tribe, 

leaders of the environmental coalition, and federal agencies—had sculpted a bill that all “felt was 

acceptable.”65

 64 “Some Query PA’s Stance on Dam Cuts,” Peninsula Daily News, June 2, 1992; “PA Digs In over Hook,” 

Peninsula Daily News, June 17, 1992; “PA Still Unhappy with Hook Plan,” Peninsula Daily News, June 26, 1992; 

“PA Plan Makes Room for Indians on Hook,” Peninsula Daily News, July 1, 1992; and “City, Tribe Approve Pact 

on Ediz Hook Land Use,” Peninsula Daily News, August 5, 1992. 

65 Cantrell interview, 12. 
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Figure 116. Ediz Hook, with Nippon Mill at bottom of picture, n.d. Washington Department of Ecology 

photograph. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [EdizHook.jpg] 

 Congressional hearings on the Bradley/Adams bill helped build further support for the 

legislation, and also gave the Elwha Klallam tribal members the opportunity to tell the country 

how much the river meant to them and what a significant impact the dams had had on their lives 

and culture. A number of tribal members traveled to Washington, D.C., to testify, including tribal 

elder Beatrice Charles, who told Elwha Klallam tribal attorney Russell Busch, “I’ve been waiting 

all my life to tell this story.” Busch recalled that during the committee hearing, “everybody 

stopped” to listen to her account of stories handed down through the generations describing the 

Elwha River prior to the dams.66

 66 Busch interview, 7. 
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Figure 117. Elwha Klallam tribal members Bea Charles and Adeline Smith, with the Elwha River in the 

background, n.d. Photograph by Jacilee Wray. [Bea and AdelineImage26.jpg] 
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POWER POLITICS 

After nearly two decades of discussion and debate over the fate of the Elwha dams, the final 

decision on the critical Elwha River Restoration legislation came down to the proverbial “smokefilled room” negotiation during the last few hours the bill could be enacted. While Bradley and 

Adams were the named sponsors of the bill and had put in the most legwork to move the bill 

through Congress, Washington Representative Al Swift’s political maneuvering saved it at the 

so-called eleventh hour. The bill had strong support in both the Senate and the House but it still 

had to pass through the House Energy Committee, where longtime chair, Michigan Congressman 

John Dingell, had on multiple occasions expressed serious doubts about the bill’s wisdom. One 

participant in shaping the bill said Dingell is “like a powerhouse and he knows how to play 

power politics and he doesn’t mess around.”67 When the time came for the committee to decide 

on the remaining bills before them on the final day of the 92nd Congress, Dingell reiterated his 

qualms about the Elwha Restoration bill and declared it dead for that session. At that point, 

Swift, who had served on the committee with Dingell for many years, requested a private 

meeting with Dingell. According to witnesses, they left the committee meeting, went into a 

separate room, and “positioned one of the staffers at the door to keep everybody else out.”68

What ensued was a brief but vociferous deliberation between the two, their argument audible to 

everyone standing out in the hallway. When they emerged, Dingell had changed his mind and 

reopened discussion of the bill, thus allowing the committee to sign off on the bill’s passage.69

 67 Cantrell, 13. 

68 Hawkins-Hoffman interview, 8. 

69 Cantrell interview, 13. In separate interviews, Cantrell, Busch, and Hawkins-Hoffman all gave similar 

descriptions of this important exchange. 
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As Orville Campbell said to news reporters the following day, “it was miraculous that it got 

through the Congress during the 11th hour given the changes that had to be made.”70 A little over 

two weeks later, on October 24, 1992, President George H. W. Bush signed into law P.L. 102-

495, the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act. 

Figure 118. Representative Al Swift on a trip to Olympic National Park in 1985. Courtesy of Al Swift 

Congressional Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University [234.3 

Olympic Nat'l Park citation.tif]. 

 As soon as President Bush signed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act, 

celebrations and sighs of relief broke out among the dam removal proponents. Carla Elofson, 

tribal chairwoman at the time, wrote that “the signing of the bill this week is the culmination of a 

 70 Logan Harris, “Dam Bill Prompts Praise, Anger,” Peninsula Daily News, October 9, 1992. 
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struggle for many years to restore the Elwha River.”71 Although the legislation was carefully 

worded so that it did not explicitly call for the removal of the two Elwha dams, it laid the 

groundwork necessary to accomplish that task. Cantrell said, “We thought we won . . . and the 

process was basically done.”72 Unforeseen at the time, however, were two enormous hurdles that 

still had to be overcome. 

Figure 119. Aerial photograph of the lower portion and mouth of the Elwha River, location of the Lower 

Elwha Klallam Reservation, 1994. Courtesy of Dick Goin. [Goin11-rotatedandcropped.tif] 

 71 Logan Harris, “S’Klallams Laud Move to Kill Elwha Dams,” Peninsula Daily News, October 30, 1992. 

72 Cantrell interview, 14. 
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Local Resistance to Dam Removal 

 When the Elwha Restoration Act passed, Port Angeles city manager Jeff Pomeranz said that 

the two main issues for the city—water supply and inexpensive electricity to keep the mill 

running—were satisfactorily supported in the law.73 But in fact, most of the local communities 

on the Olympic Peninsula—including Port Angeles—did not support the bill. Many Port Angeles 

residents opposed dam removal, and some resented “outsider” politicians and government bodies 

telling them how to take care of their own backyard. One local group, the Olympic Peninsula 

Economic Research Association, was opposed to dam removal throughout the debate. Donald 

Rudolph, chairman of the association, said, “with electrical energy a known shortage we are 

being faced with, we can’t understand why we would be taking out power dams that could 

produce more power at very little expense. Our personal position is that fish won’t come back to 

any great levels, anyway.”74 Another Port Angeles resident said, “I have yet to talk to anyone 

who favors dam removal.”75

Figure 120. “Proposal to remove Elwha dams finds community sharply divided.” Newspaper headline 

from the Daily World (Aberdeen), August 16, 1990. [19900816_aberdeendailyworld.jpg] 

 73 “Bush Signs Elwha Bill,” Peninsula Daily News, October 26, 1992. 

74 Harris, “Dam Bill Prompts Praise, Anger.” 

75 Ed Tuttle, “Few Favor Dam Removal,” Peninsula Daily News, January 13, 1993. The letters section of the 

Peninsula Daily News featured letters to the editor from both sides of the argument, with the majority expressing 

opposition to dam removal, for many months after Bush signed this piece of legislation. See, for example, Del 

Graham, “Sewage Outfalls and Dams,” Peninsula Daily News, January 31, 1993; Ralph Koester, “Dam Removal 

Hurts Fish,” Peninsula Daily News, February 23, 1993; David and Phyllis Childs, “Dam-Removal Plan Silly,” 

Peninsula Daily News, May 12, 1993; A. H. Roush, “Dam Removal Foolish,” Peninsula Daily News, May 20, 1993; 

Edwin R. Johnson, “Take Out Dams,” Peninsula Daily News, June 10, 1993; and Donald E. Rudolph, “Leave Elwha 

Dams Alone,” Peninsula Daily News, June 30, 1993. 
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 Passage of PL 102-495 seemed to galvanize opposition to dam removal in the Port Angeles 

area. In Campbell’s words, “After the Elwha Act was signed into law there was a kind of a 

backlash within the community.”76 Most locals were already smarting from a federal court 

injunction that had shut down logging operations in the peninsula’s national forests because of 

threats to the habitat of northern spotted owls. The judicial order struck a severe blow to the 

already troubled Olympic Peninsula timber industry. As more loggers lost their jobs and more 

mills closed, the hue and cry on the peninsula became, “We are the endangered species.”77 Joe 

Michalczik, Daishowa dam supervisor and local resident at the time, observed that most of his 

neighbors viewed the removal program as another example of “the federal government trying to 

take over.”78

 76 Campbell interview, 12. 

77 Cantrell interview, 15. 

78 Michalczik interview, 7. 
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Figure 121. Lake Mills, above the Glines Canyon Dam, May 25, 2005. Courtesy of Olympic National 

Park. [Elwha May 25,2005 NPS.jpg] 

 Opponents of dam removal became more active. A group of local citizens formed an 

organization called Rescue Elwha Area Lakes, or REAL. Their goal was to either prevent or 

slow the removal of the dams in an effort to protect Mills and Aldwell lakes and to prevent 

federal takeover of the projects and property. The group asserted that about 75 percent of the 

local residents they had talked to agreed that the dams should remain intact. Donald Rudolph 

said about the organization, “we’ll do whatever we can to save those beautiful lakes.”79 The 

presence of trumpeter swans, which were proposed for listing as a threatened species (they were 

 79 David Noonan, “Citizen Group Wants to Save Elwha Dams,” Peninsula Daily News, October 8, 1993. 
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never listed), on Lake Aldwell gave some residents hope that the lakes would need to be 

preserved as a habitat for these birds.80

Figure 122. Lake Aldwell, above the Elwha Dam, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. 

[8Elwha_Betsy.46 of – 27.jpg] 

Figure 123. Seattle Times newspaper headline, March 30, 1990, following the release of a General 

Accounting Office report on the Elwha Dams. The report concluded that FERC did not have the authority 

to relicense the Glines Canyon Dam. [19900330_seattletimes.jpg] 

 Another citizen’s group in Port Angeles, the Citizens Advisory Committee, worked hard to 

keep the dam removal debate civil and to help educate the community about every side of the 

 80 B. L. Adamire, “Trumpeter Swans on Lake,” Peninsula Daily News, December 7, 1993; and Marvin 

... continued on next page 
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issue. Composed of the “leaders, movers and shakers” of the Port Angeles business, civic, and 

social organizations, the advisory committee included the mayor, county commissioner, and 

other present and former city officials. The committee held public meetings, gave presentations 

to different groups, and tried to determine the best policy position for the community at large. 

According to Campbell, 

the people that were on that advisory committee spent one hell of a lot of time, 

personal time, reading documents and listening to the stake holders make their 

presentations and then studying the results afterwards. They, I think as a group 

reached the same conclusion in the end that the companies did. That there is no 

other option. You can rant and rave all day long about it’s a bad idea to remove 

the dams, but in fact they’re going to come out. . . . I think that it could be said 

that over time, over a long period of time, the whole community came to 

understand the Elwha dam issue the same as the advisory committee did. Nobody 

got the concentration of information over a six or eight-month period of time that 

this committee did but over a long period of time they did absorb a lot of 

information about the issues.”81

 As the debate continued, the groundwork for dam removal continued to move forward. The 

next critical task was the completion of the environmental impact statement (EIS) process for the 

Elwha Restoration project. One of the most important pieces of environmental legislation from 

the 1970s, NEPA, mandated that any construction or alterations on federal lands (or on private 

land funded by a federal agency) must go through an environmental review process. The EIS 

process involved investigating a number of possible alternatives, in this case ranging from no 

action to complete dam removal. Between 1991 and 1996, two separate EIS reports were issued, 

revised, and completed. For each of them, there was a public comment period and a series of 

public meetings held in Port Angeles and other locations around the peninsula. Almost every 

meeting was crowded with dam removal advocates, removal opponents, and undecided 

 

Chastain, “The Attack on the Elwha,” Sequim Citizen News, January 28, 1994. 

81 Campbell interview, 15-16. 
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participants who came to learn more. Some of the public meetings drew upward of 200 people, 

and for the final EIS alone, the NPS received over 600 written comments.82 In the end, the EIS 

process determined that dam removal was the only solution that could restore Elwha River fish 

runs, and emphasized that other steps, such as installing fish passages or removing only one of 

the dams, would not be sufficient measures.83

ENDANGERED SPECIES 

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 proved to be one of the strongest statutes of the 

environmental law passed during that era of new federal regulatory power. It signaled that 

preventing extinction and protecting biodiversity had become major goals of natural resource 

policy at the national level.84 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National 

Marine Fisheries Service identified animals and plants as threatened if populations had dropped 

so low that they appeared likely to become endangered. The term endangered applied to species 

that appeared in danger of becoming extinct. Called the “pit bull of environmental law,” the ESA 

established a set of regulations preventing the harvesting, possession, sale, and delivery of 

threatened and endangered species. It also required the appropriate agencies, including the NPS, 

to develop a plan to recover animal populations listed as threatened or endangered. For the first 

 82 “Elwha Dams Meetings Set,” Peninsula Daily News, October 14, 1994; “Plan Backs Elwha Dam Removal,” 

Peninsula Daily News, October 19, 1994; “Elwha Dams Should Go, Park Study Says,” Peninsula Daily News, July 

28, 1995; “185 Attend Dam Meeting,” Peninsula Daily News, May 23, 1996; and “Dams Must Go to Save Salmon, 

Park Study Says,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 28, 1995. 

83 “Park Finishes Plan for Dam Removal,” Peninsula Daily News, February 19, 1996; “Dams Must Go, Park 

Says,” Peninsula Daily News, March 5, 1996; and “Elwha Draft EIS Has Been Released,” Forks Forum, May 8, 

1996. 

84 Howard P. Brokaw, ed., Wildlife and America: Contributions to an Understanding of American Wildlife and 

its Conservation (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1978); and Robert Paehlke, ed. Conservation and Environmentalism: An 

Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. (n.p.: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1995). 
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time, natural resource managers in the public and private sectors had a federal mandate to give 

high priority to endangered species and their habitat requirements.85

Figure 124. Map showing the historic runs of Chinook salmon up the Elwha River. Courtesy of Olympic 

National Park. [ChartRestoredChinook.jpg] 

ESA regulations played a part in the debate over the fate of the dams on the Elwha River. The 

final EIS for the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration plan determined that the 

short-term impact from dam removal had the potential to disturb the habitat of a number of 

endangered or threatened species, including spotted owls, marbled murrelets, and bald eagles. 

Construction during dam removal might also threaten the recovery of some salmon and steelhead 

 85 Brokaw, ed., Wildlife and America; and Paehlke, ed. Conservation and Environmentalism. 
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runs. But the EIS found that in the long run, the restoration of a healthier river ecosystem via 

dam removal would improve essential habitat and enhance the recovery of these species.86 Three 

species found in the Elwha River—Puget Sound Chinook, Puget Sound steelhead, and Coastal 

Puget Sound bull trout—have since then been listed as threatened. Fish and Wildlife Service 

scientists put Puget Sound Chinook salmon on the ESA’s threatened species list on March 24, 

1999. In November 1999, the USFWS listed all bull trout populations, which includes the 

Coastal-Puget Sound bull trout that spawns in the Elwha River, throughout the lower 48 states as 

a federally threatened species. Puget Sound steelhead went on the threatened list in May 2007. 

The Elwha River is within the ESA-designated “critical habitat” area necessary for the full 

recovery of these species. 

Figure 125. Bull trout, n.d.. Photograph by Dave Zelenka. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [New 

photos to add\bulltrout.jpg] 

 86 Rothman, “American Eden,” 199-200. 
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 In October 1994, Daishowa America announced that keeping the dams would cost the 

company more money than removing them. If the dams were removed, the company reasoned, 

the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act guaranteed the mill could obtain BPA 

power at the standard industrial rate. Conversely, if the dams stayed and could not be relicensed, 

then the company would be forced to buy BPA power at the full load rate.87 In May 1995, the 

dam owner, James River Corporation, also threw its support behind dam removal. Campbell, in 

his role as spokesperson for the company, explained, “we need to press forward with a solution” 

and suggested that dam removal would allow for a “winning situation.”88

Figure 126. Upper Elwha River watershed, in Olympic National Park, above Glines Canyon Dam, n.d. 

Photograph by Robert Lundahl. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [upper_watershed.jpg] 

 87 David Noonan, “Mill Wants Dams Out,” Peninsula Daily News, October 25, 1994. 

88 Mike Dawson, “Elwha Dams Owner, Environmentalists Unite,” Peninsula Daily News, May 18, 1995. 
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 There was a last impediment to dam removal that was purely political. The November 1994 

election gave the Republican Party a majority in both houses of Congress, which dealt a severe 

blow to the progress of the Elwha dam removal program. Although the Restoration Act put the 

decision making about dam removal in the hands of the Secretary of the Interior, Congress held 

the authority for appropriating the money to pay for the immense cost of restoration and dam 

removal. The election strengthened the political base of Washington Senator Slade Gorton, long 

opposed to removal. The new Republican majority in the Senate made Gorton, the party’s senior 

member on the committee, the chair of the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee, which 

controlled all funding for the Elwha project. Having obtained a more powerful seat at the table, 

Gorton raised new arguments against Elwha dam removal, suggesting that it would set a 

precedent clearing the path for removal of the hydropower dams on the Snake River. Gorton’s 

tactics created further delays in obtaining dam removal funding. 
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Figure 127. Editorial cartoon, from the Columbian (Vancouver, Wash.), March 20, 1996. 

[19960320_columbian.jpg] 

Figure 128. Editorial cartoon lampooning Washington Senator Slade Gorton, from the Seattle PostIntelligencer, ca. 1996. [1996_seattlepi.jpg] 
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 During this period, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt assumed a key role in sustaining 

the campaign to get the dams removed. Soon after President William Jefferson Clinton appointed 

him to the Interior post, Babbitt called Elwha dam removal one of the top priorities of the 

Clinton administration. On an August 1997 visit to the Elwha River dam sites, Babbitt 

proclaimed the valley a “wondrous place” and urged all parties to “reason together” and 

compromise if necessary, to restore the river and save the salmon runs.89 Babbitt hoped that his 

long and respectful working relationship with Gorton would help bring the Interior Department 

and Congress into a satisfactory agreement on the Elwha Dams. But in October 1998, Gorton, 

claiming that the administration “made it clear to me . . . that they didn’t want to work with me, 

that they wanted to be able to remove any Northwest dam they chose,” killed the legislation for 

Elwha dam removal appropriations.90

 89 “Babbitt Ready to Deal on Elwha Dams,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 8, 1997. 

90 “Gorton Denies Elwha Funding,” Peninsula Daily News, October 16, 1998. 
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Figure 129. Brian Winter, NPS fisheries biologist and Elwha Project Coordinator, on the bank of the 

Elwha River giving talk to a group of dignitaries that includes (from left to right) Congressman Norm 

Dicks, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, ONP Superintendent David Morris, Lower Elwha Klallam 

Tribe Chair Frances Charles (back to the camera), and Congressman Jay Inslee, August 1997. Courtesy of 

Olympic National Park Archives. [allriver.jpg] 

 In the end, the Elwha process, like the river in its free-flowing days, took an unpredictable 

and dramatic change of course. An altered political landscape in Washington State swept Gorton 

out of office and helped clear the path to full funding of dam removal, river restoration, and a 

new city water system. With many of the previous hurdles out of the way, the NPS, Fort James 

Paper Company (successor of the James River Corporation), and Daishowa America met in early 

1999 to negotiate the purchase of the two Elwha River dams at a cost of $29.5 million. A year 

later, the Department of the Interior completed the purchase of the dams. At the start of the new 
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millennium, the Elwha River had a new lease on life. In summer 2004, the NPS, the city of Port 

Angeles, and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe met to create a Memorandum of Understanding 

detailing each party’s responsibilities for water mitigation facilities and fish restoration planning. 

The task of restoring the river would require cooperation between these three entities, and the 

Memorandum of Understanding helped set this process in motion.91

Figure 130. Restoration of the Elwha River ecosystem will benefit many different species. Fishers were 

reintroduced to the Olympic Peninsula in 2008, including several in the Elwha Valley. Photograph by 

John Jacobson. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [Jacobson fisher photo.JPG] 

 After more than three decades of protests, debate, and negotiation, the NPS will begin 

removal of the Elwha dams in 2011.92 For the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, the outcome of the 

 91 “Olympic National Park, FY04 Superintendent’s Report,” 1, Folder: Superintendent’s Annual Report 2004, 

Box Superintendent’s Annual Report, OLYM-443, ONPA. 

92 As of this writing, the NPS would begin tearing down the dams in Fall 2011. 
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Historical Research Associates, Inc. 217 

dam removal campaign has meant hope for a better future, as well as, “a great deal of pride in the 

fact that we’ve worked on it for so long and we are being successful.”93 For former and current 

staff at Olympic National Park and for environmental groups, the final decision gave them the 

satisfaction of “helping to restore a major ecosystem in a National Park.”94 In Port Angeles, the 

mill remains open while the building anticipation regarding dam removal has created more 

interest in the area. But many community members still have doubts or a wait-and-see attitude 

about the wisdom of tearing down the dams. Finally, for the river and salmon, dam removal 

means a chance at a new life. 

 93 R. Elofson interview, 8. 

94 Finnerty interview, 6. 
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Figure 131. Artistic rendering showing Glines Canyon before (above) and after (below) dam removal. 

Courtesy of Olympic National Park. [glinestrans_edit.jpg] 
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Conclusion 

 Hydroelectric dams, with their massive concrete walls, giant turbines, and immense 

productive capacity, suggest power and permanence. This explains why a Port Angeles 

newspaper reporter could confidently proclaim, at the completion of the Elwha Dam in 1913, 

“there is no question but that the Elwha is harnessed at last and forever.”1

 The remark speaks 

volumes about an era when most Americans believed that the nation’s expanding technological 

prowess would eventually control and manipulate the natural world in order to suit the demands 

of society. Similarly, when Elwha homesteader Grant Humes watched the river water backing up 

behind the new Glines Canyon Dam in 1927, he spoke of, “landmarks of past years that are soon 

to disappear from view, forever.”2

 Technological progress and the alteration of natural processes 

for power production seemed inevitable and enduring. 

 But progress can take many shapes. In the early twentieth century, residents and civic leaders 

in Port Angeles saw a bright future in Elwha River hydroelectric power that brought the city new 

industries, jobs, and significance in the regional economy. Progress meant a growing city with 

plentiful work and social opportunities. The two dams powered the growth of the pulp and paper 

industry that remained the city’s primary employer for more than 80 years. But with the dams 

came enormous costs. The Elwha Klallam people saw some of their homes destroyed, their 

sacred sites flooded, and their economic livelihood virtually wiped out. Because the dams 

blocked salmon and steelhead from reaching their upstream spawning grounds, fewer fish 

 1

 “Elwha Harnessed for the Last Time,” Port Angeles Olympic-Leader, November 7, 1913. 

2

 Grant Humes to Will Humes, April 19, 1927, Folder 59: Humes Correspondence, Box 1, Johnson Elwha 

Sources, ONPA. 
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Historical Research Associates, Inc. 220 

returned to the Elwha each year and some runs died out completely. The Elwha Klallam and 

others who depended on the Elwha fisheries for work or to put food on the table experienced the 

costs inherent to the new technology. 

 In 1913, Port Angeles news reporters and their readers could not imagine that just a century 

later the river would again flow freely. During the course of those one hundred years, the balance 

of power and the definition of progress had gradually shifted. Greater scientific understanding of 

ecosystems, growing public and political emphasis on protecting threatened species and their 

habitat, and the realities of a swiftly changing regional economy led many people to revise their 

thinking about the benefits and costs of the Elwha dams. By the late twentieth century, progress 

still meant creating jobs, encouraging civic growth, and fostering healthy lives on the Olympic 

Peninsula. But progress also entailed sustaining healthy natural systems, restoring salmon runs, 

and returning to the Elwha Klallam some of their traditional lands and legal rights. Entering the 

twenty-first century, dam removal and Elwha River restoration were about to become the cutting 

edge of scientific progress. 

 “Big” will certainly be the adjective most frequently associated with the Elwha Dam removal 

and river restoration. As this book went to press in 2011, the Elwha project was about to become 

the biggest dam removal venture in the nation’s history. The work to prepare, deconstruct, and 

haul away the dams and the operations involved in the restoration—a total of more than 40 major 

NPS projects—will also make the Elwha River endeavor one of, if not the, biggest construction 

project in the history of the national parks.3

 3

 Olympic National Park, “Elwha River Restoration: Natural Wonders Never Cease,” NPS Digest, December 

10, 2010, http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=9897. 
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Figure 132. NPS scientist Dr. Jerry Freilich and volunteer backcountry ranger Dr. Dick Vancalcar take a 

sample of the macroinvertebrate community that dwells in the bottom of the Elwha River, 2006. 

Photograph by Vicki Vancalcar. Courtesy of Jeff Duda, USGS. [Duda_photo1.JPG] 

 The numbers and statistics regarding Elwha Dam removal are big as well. Researchers are 

suggesting that the river restoration has the potential to increase salmon populations from the 

current level of approximately 3,000 fish per year to as many as 400,000 salmon swimming up 

the Elwha River annually. Meanwhile, scientists see the Elwha project as one of the biggest 

opportunities they will ever have to study the possibilities and problems involved in restoring an 

entire ecosystem. An Olympic National Park botanist sees the coming dam removal as a giant 

classroom in which to study natural and human-aided revegetation of the areas that were 

inundated. He remarked, “This is the first time anyone’s tried anything like this. The scale is 
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Historical Research Associates, Inc. 222 

unprecedented.”4 Similarly, a USFS hydrologist explained that he could not think of any other 

river experiment on the scale of the Elwha Dam removal project, which was going to become “a 

natural laboratory unlike any other.”5

 Scientists began their preparation work for dam removal far in advance of any preconstruction tasks. In order to determine the impact dam removal has on the Elwha River 

ecosystem, researchers had to first measure the status of the river’s biologic populations and 

levels of water flows and sediment transport as they existed prior to dam removal. Scientists 

from numerous federal, state, and local organizations—including the Lower Elwha Klallam 

Tribe—conducted surveys and collected samples of the existing biologic organisms and 

hydrologic patterns in the Elwha River, Clearwater Bay, and Strait of Juan de Fuca. Their data 

and findings established a baseline of the pre-removal environmental conditions in the Elwha 

area.6

 When dam removal begins, researchers will be able to measure the changes against the 

baseline information. Most experts considered this research opportunity an essential aspect of the 

entire dam removal project. As one scientist put it, the government has the responsibility to show 

whether dam removal is producing the changes many expect the process to provide. Because 

Elwha River Restoration will be larger than any other environmental recovery effort of this type, 

it will be essential to show whether the project worked. If restoration of the Elwha River 

ecosystem and salmon runs is deemed successful, the Elwha project will become the template for 

future restoration work in other watersheds. However, scientists involved in the project also 

point out, “if salmon restoration is unsuccessful under these conditions, the implication for all 

 4

 “Elwha River’s Coming Dam Removal Has Scientists Flooded with Unknowns,” Seattle Times, July 30, 2010. 

5

 “Elwha River’s Coming Dam Removal Has Scientists Flooded with Unknowns.” 

6

 For a summary of pre-dam removal scientific research, see Jeffrey J. Duda, Jerry E. Freilich, and Edward G. 

Schreiner, “Baseline Studies in the Elwha River Ecosystem Prior to Dam Removal: Introduction to the Special 

Issue,” Northwest Science 82 (Special Issue, 2008): 1-12. 
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Historical Research Associates, Inc. 223 

other Pacific Northwest rivers are dire.”7 The research that began as a much as a decade ago and 

that will continue several decades hence should provide the answers to that question in all its 

complexity. 

Figure 133. Fisheries staff from the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and students from Peninsula College in 

Port Angeles deploy a seine net in the Elwha River estuary as part of a juvenile salmon study, 2006. 

Photograph by Pat Shafroth. Courtesy of Jeff Duda, USGS. [Duda_photo4.JPG] 

 Despite the importance of scientific research to the project outcomes, the Elwha River 

Restoration Act did not provide funding for this type of survey and collection work now 

underway. To compensate for the lack of central funding source, scientists of various agencies 

 7

 Elwha Research Consortium [ERC], “Elwha Research Consortium: Facilitating and Supporting Elwha 

Ecosystem Research,” Elwha Watershed Information Resource, http://www.elwhainfo.org/research-andscience/elwha-research-consortium. 
[FINAL] Balances of Power 

Historical Research Associates, Inc. 224 

came together in a grass-roots effort to form the Elwha Research Consortium (ERC), described 

as “a strategic partnership between governmental agencies, research educational institutions, and 

community groups focused on understanding the social and ecological effects of dam removal 

and restoration activities in the Elwha River watershed.”8

 The Consortium’s first important step 

was obtaining more than $1 million in research grants from the National Science Foundation, 

enabling them to implement many of their studies. But the group’s mission goes beyond the 

important research tasks. The ERC’s “long-term program of research and education” includes 

sharing their information and findings with educators, community members, environmental 

organizations, Elwha Klallam tribal members, and area legislators.9

 They also plan to create 

environmental education and community outreach programs that can be implemented in the 

school system and through organizations such as Olympic Park Institute. 

 8

 Quote from ERC, “Elwha Research Consortium: Facilitating and Supporting Elwha Ecosystem Research.” 

Description of ERC creation from Jeff Duda, USGS Western Fisheries Research Center, Seattle, Washington, 

personal communication with authors, December 21, 2010. 

9

 ERC, “Elwha Research Consortium: Facilitating and Supporting Elwha Ecosystem Research.” 
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Historical Research Associates, Inc. 225 

Figure 134. Aerial photograph of the sediment-built delta behind the Glines Canyon Dam on Lake Mills. 

Image taken just following completion of the first pre-removal construction tasks—carving a channel 

through the delta and the removal of the glade of alder trees covering it—at the dam site. September 2010. 

Photograph by Tom Roorda. Courtesy of Tom Roorda, NTI. [Roorda_IMG_5242.JPG] 
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Historical Research Associates, Inc. 226 

 In the eyes of the current news media and much of the general public, the big event on the 

Elwha River will be the demolition of the dams. Dam removal work will draw an audience to the 

Elwha and in the national news media. To the casual observer, the visual drama of seeing the 

dams disappear may obscure many of the complex stories that have already transpired and will 

continue to unfold in the Elwha Valley. It might be hard for some to see beyond the construction 

dust and surging river that more than three decades of often-contentious debate—engaging the 

attention of local, regional, and national organizations—went into making the dam removal 

decision. But the history of the Elwha River, the Elwha Valley, and the human communities 

connected to them is much more complex than any single event—even an event as dramatic as 

demolishing a dam—can represent. 

 When the dams come out in 2011-2012, the demolition work will mark the end of more than 

four decades of struggle, debate, and study aiming at restoring the river and the salmon runs. At 

the outset, the Elwha dams and power plants were simply a means to an end. The power 

companies, cities, and investors involved in building the dams wanted personal financial gain, 

regional industrial growth, local job creation, civic recognition, and other benefits from the 

Elwha power projects. Likewise, Elwha dam removal is not an end in itself. It is a means to 

begin restoration of a river ecosystem, reestablishment of threatened anadromous fish species, 

and return of certain tribal rights and claims. Dam removal may seem to be the end of one story, 

but it is really just the beginning of another. A new lease on life for salmon and steelhead, a new 

window for scientists to study ecological restoration on a giant scale, and a return to beginnings 

for the Elwha Klallam people, who will see their creation site and former village sites re-emerge 

from the reservoir silt and their livelihoods once based on salmon fishing restored to them. 
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Historical Research Associates, Inc. 227 

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Winds of Change. 
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Appendix A 

Catalogue of Photographs and Graphics Used 

in this Manuscript 
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This page left intentionally blank. 
Fig. Description Owner Location Ref. No. FileN

1 Map of the Elwha River Watershed ONP ONP n.a ElwhaW2 Aerial view of (top to bottom) Lake Mills, Glines Canyon Dam and 

power plant, and the Elwha River, n.d.

ONP ONP HHWA

3 Construction workers hanging from a revolving crane in the early 

phase of building Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-1927

CCHS CCHS 2010.200.086 201020

4 Elwha River ONP ONP elwha_5

Map showing the mouth of the Elwha River, Freshwater Bay, and the location of the Elwha Klallam village, 1908 ONP ONP t2858.t

6

Fragment of an almost 3,000-year-old basket, found by visitors to Olympic National Park, n.d. ONP ONP 10.20a

7 Example of a culturally modified tree. HRA HRA n/a HRA_D8

Hand-colored postcard depicting the Elwha Canyon, prior to dam construction. ONP ONP POL00

9 Underwater view of swimming salmon. ONP ONP Salmon

10 Salmon eggs in stream gravel. ONP ONP

Salmong

11

Hand-colored image of black and white photograph showing Glines Canyon and footbridge across Elwha River prior to dam construction, ca. 1900. ONP ONP elwha_

12

Patent certificate granted to Marcellus Huntoon, June 5, 1873.

NARA not applicable

13 Humes Ranch, 1918. ONP Lyman R. Humes Collection, ONP OLYM114 Dodger and Norma Bender in front of their home.

Alice Alexander Alice Alexander n/a krouse 

15

"Doc" A. Ludden's Geyser Apiary Co. in the Elwha Valley, ca. 1914. NOLS NOLS ELWA BLDX 027 ELWA 

16

Elwha Valley homesteaders Will Humes, Orlin Burdick, and Grant Humes at the Humes Ranch cabin, 1905. ONP Gerry Humes Collection, ONP Humes

17 Humes Ranch Cabin, interior, n.d. CCHS CCHS CCHS PP# 

988.64.24

On ord

18

Hunter John homesteaded on the Elwha River in 1880, photo ca. 1915. Kennet Photo

Beatrice Charles Jacilee Wray, electronic files. n/a

1915 Homes

19 Interior view of cannery. NOLS NOLS PTAN BLDN 015 PTAN 20

First swimming pool at Olympic Hot Springs, prior to construction of a concrete pool, ca. 1910. NOLS NOLS ELWA ACTV 001 ELWA 

21 Bridge across the Elwha River, prior to 1910. ONP ONP Image322

Map of Port Angeles, showing locations of Ediz Hook, platted downtown area, Puget Sound Cooperative Colony, and the Elwha River (far left), 1891. NOLS NOLS n/a SNV30

23

Unidentified tribal members camped on Hollywood Beach at the foot of Lincoln Street, ca. 1900. NOLS NOLS INDN ACTV 002 INDN A

24 Front Street, looking to the north, ca. 1888. NOLS NOLS PTAN BLDX 064 PTAN 25 Front Street, looking to the north, ca. 1889. NOLS NOLS PTAN BLDX 053 PTAN 

Ref. No. = PastPerfect reference number, negative number, image number, and other identifiers given to image by repository
Fig. Description Owner Location Ref. No. FileN

26 Front Street, looking to the northwest, ca. 1890. NOLS NOLS PTAN BLDX 008 PTAN 27

View from harbor looking south to Port Angeles waterfront, showing piers and buildings along Front Street, ca. 1893. ONP

OLYM-632, Box 3, Folder Port Angeles History

RotatioPA_Ba

28

The Port Angeles business district, looking east down Valley Street, in 1891. NOLS NOLS PTAN BLDX 011 PTAN 

29

Panoramic view of Port Angeles after the Townsite Reserve was opened, 1897. NOLS NOLS PTAN VIEW 008 PTAN V

30

Interior view of the first electric light plant in Port Angeles, located on Cherry Hill. NOLS NOLS PTAN BLDN 002 PTAN 

31

Decorated car participating in a Sequim, Washington, parade, 1910. ONP

OLYM-632, Box 3, Folder History of Clallam Co. Sequim

32 Elwha Dam in the earliest stages of construction, ca. 1910. ONP ONP HHWA33 Elwha Dam construction, ca. 1910-1911. ONP ONP Image434 Elwha Dam construction, ca. 1910-1911. ONP ONP Image435

Early stages of construction of the Elwha Dam spillway and powerhouse, looking upstream, ca. 1911. CCHS CCHS 2010.200.145 201020

36 Construction of the powerhouse at the Elwha Dam, ca. 1910-11. CCHS CCHS 2010.200.147 20102037

Scaffolding and unstable hillside during early phase of Elwha Dam construction. CCHS CCHS 2010.200.064 201020

38

"Fatal Accident at Elwha Power Plant." Newspaper headline from the Port Angeles Tribune Times , March 8, 1912. n/a n/a n/a 191203

39 Elwha Dam construction, ca. 1910-1911. ONP ONP Image340 Workers at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-1927. ONP

OLYM-437, Box 1, Folder 7, Glines & Lower Elwha Dams

HAER_r4.tif

41

Scaffolding at the nearly complete Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1927. CCHS CCHS 2010.200.082 201020

42

Historic American Engineering Record sketch of Elwha River Hydroelectric System, 1910-1927. HAER Drawing WA-130. ONP

OLYM-437, Box 3, Elwha & Glines Dams HABS/HAER Archive Files, Folder HAER Drawings

HAER_emsket

43

Elwha Dam powerhouse, showing damage from the 1912 foundation blowout. ONP ONP

Elwha 1912.jp

44 Engineering drawing of the Elwha Dam. ONP ONP Elwha 45 Lake Aldwell, behind the Elwha Dam, August 1946. CCHS CCHS 2010.200.041 20102046

"River de Front," Front Street in Port Angeles under water during regrade sluicing operations, June 1914. ONP ONP

RotatioPA_Riv

47

Dedication of the Clallam County Courthouse, located at Fourth and Lincoln Streets in Port Angeles, June 14, 1915. NOLS NOLS PTAN BLDX 090 PTAN 

48 First passenger train to leave Port Angeles, July 21, 1914 ONP ONP

PA_1sttif

49 Laurel Street, looking north, 1916. NOLS NOLS PTAN BLDX 025 PTAN 50

Jack Pike, on the left, and unknown companion by cedar tree along Elwha River, 1930. ONP ONP FIS004

51

The Puget Sound Co-operative Colony's lumber mill at the north 

end of Chambers Street, 1888. NOLS NOLS CLNY MILL 002 CLNY 

Ref. No. = PastPerfect reference number, negative number, image number, and other identifiers given to image by repository
Fig. Description Owner Location Ref. No. FileN

52

Filion Lumber Mill and men outside the mill during building construction, Port Angeles, 1893. NOLS NOLS LOGG MILL 002 loggmil

53 Earles' Mill, also known as the "Big Mill," ca. 1914. ONP

OLYM-632, Box 3, Folder Port Angeles History

RotatioHAER_ricMill0

54

The U.S. Spruce Corporation Mill, located at the motuh of Ennis Creek, ca. 1918. NOLS NOLS PTAN MILL 002 PTAN 

55 Construction of Washington Pulp and Paper Company mill, 

August 7, 1920.

ONP ONP PA_WA

920-rot

56 Aerial view of the Elwha Dam, showing power plant annex, 1922 ONP ONP Walsh#57 Interior of the Elwha Dam power plant, showing the no. 3 

generator, ca. 1922.

ONP OLYM-437, Box 1, Folder 23, Photographs 

Rod Slemmons

HAER_sWP&P

58 Thomas Aldwell and other company and city leaders at Glines 

Canyon Dam construction site. Aldwell is the fourth from the left, wearing long overcoat, ca. 1926.

ONP OLYM-437, Box 1, Folder 23, Photographs 

Rod Slemmons

HAER_sWP&P

59 Engineering drawing of Glines Canyon Dam. ONP ONP Glines 60 Crew digging bypass tunnel at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-

1927.

ONP OLYM-437, Box 1, Folder 7, Glines & Lower 

Elwha Dams

HAER_r1.tif

61 Construction of intake at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-1927. ONP OLYM-437, Box 1, Folder Historic Photos HAER_

monsE

62 Diversion tunnel at Glines Canyon Dam, June 15, [1927]. CCHS CCHS 2010.200.135 20102063 Construction of a cofferdam at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-

1927.

CCHS CCHS 2010.200.089 201020

64 Glines Canyon Dam bunk houses, ca. 1926-1927. CCHS CCHS 2010.200.144 20102065 Cooks for work crews at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-1927. ONP ONP NPSElw66 Cement chute at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-1927. CCHS CCHS 2010.200.059 20102067 Workers at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-1927. ONP OLYM-437, Box 1, Folder 7, Glines & Lower 

Elwha Dams

HAER_r3.tif

68 Overview of near complete Glines Canyon Dam, showing (left to 

right) upper portion of dam structure, water pouring from spillway, surge tank, section of penstock, and power plant, ca. 1927.

ONP ONP Glines 

1.jpg

69 Air compressors at Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926-1927. CCHS CCHS 2010.200.070 20102070 The Elwha River, June 1926. ONP ONP 3137_271 Papermaking machine inside Washington Pulp and Paper 

Company's mill, ca. 1923.

UW University of Washington Libraries, Special 

Collections Division, Asahel Curtis Photo Co. Collection

PH Coll 482, CUR1477

CUR14

72 Washington Pulp and Paper Company mill, September 29, 1923. NOLS NOLS PTAN MILL 063 PTAN M73 Crown Zellerbach baseball team photo, n.d. CCHS CCHS CCHS PP# 

986.86.98

On ord

74 Port Angeles Salmon Club headquarters, 1937. NOLS NOLS PTAN ACTV 021 PTAN A75 Salmon Derby Clubhouse on Ediz Hook, ca. 1940. NOLS NOLS PTAN ACTV 024 PTAN A

Ref. No. = PastPerfect reference number, negative number, image number, and other identifiers given to image by repository
Fig. Description Owner Location Ref. No. FileN

76 Boats in Port Angeles harbor, n.d. ONP ONP Fishing77 Group of children at Elwha Forest Camp, July 1938. ONP ONP REC0778 Pioneer picnic, 1962 NOLS NOLS PTAN ACTV 031 PTAN A79 Dick Goin's wife, Marie Goin, holding a 44-pound salmon caught 

in Freshwater Bay, 1960s.

Dick Goin Dick Goin n/a Goin7.t

80 Taken near the Elwha Ranger Station, USFS photoJune 1926 ONP ONP REC085

81 Old Elwha Ranger Station, n.d. ONP ONP 3001.jp82 Jim Byrne, ranger in the Olympic National Park on the Elwha in 

the 1930s and 1940s.

Bernie Byrne

Bernie Byrne n/a Byrne_

83 Fishing in the Elwha River, July 1936. ONP ONP REC0984 Dick Goin and his son holding 53 lb. fish, and two smaller fish 

caught in Freshwater Bay, 1963.

Dick Goin Dick Goin n/a Goin8.t

85 Barracks at Camp Elwha CCC camp. Bernie 

Byrne

Bernie Byrne BYR001.076 Byrne_

Camp.j

86 Clearing for Highway 101, along the southern edge of Lake 

Crescent.

ONP ONP 3205_H

about owest of 

87 Elwha Resort Service Station and members of the Ormbreck 

family, ca. 1929.

ONP ONP Elwha 

88 Map of loop highway around the Olympic Peninsula. UW University of Washington Libraries, Special 

Collections

PAM0044 Olympi

89 Thelma and Gudrum, pictured here, were nieces of John 

Ormbreck, owner of the Elwha Resort, 1924.

ONP OLYM-500, Elwha Resort Documentation, 

Folder Elwha Resort Photographs

ElwhaR_girls.ti

90 Local residents in a Ford automobile in the Elwha Valley, n.d. NOLS NOLS ELWA VEHC 001 ELWA 91 Elwha River sign, 1950. ONP ONP OLYM392 Advertisement for Olympic Hot Springs in the upper Elwha 

Valley.

ONP ONP CAH00

93 Olympic Hot Springs lodge. NOLS NOLS ELWA BLDX 001 ELWA 94 Olympic Hot Springs swimming pool. NOLS NOLS ELWA BLDX 002 ELWA 95 Olympic Hot Springs brochure cover. UW University of Washington Libraries, Special 

Collections

PAM0042 

96 Camp DYB, "A Real Camp for Real Boys," pamphlet cover. NARA National Archives and Records 

Administration-Pacific Alaska Region, Seattle, Wash.

not applicable RG 75, 

image 

97 Aerial view of Camp DYB campus, ca. 1924. NARA National Archives and Records 

Administration-Pacific Alaska Region, Seattle, Wash.

not applicable RG 75, 

image croppe

98 Lighthouse on Ediz Hook. ONP OLYM-632, Box 3, Folder Port Angeles 

History

PA_Ed

99 Aerial view of Port Angeles, looking south, 1960. NOLS NOLS PTAN VIEW 012 PTAN V

100 Nippon Paper (former Crown Zellerbach/James River) mill in Port 

Angeles, n.d.

ONP ONP 10Elwh

32.jpg

Ref. No. = PastPerfect reference number, negative number, image number, and other identifiers given to image by repository
Fig. Description Owner Location Ref. No. FileN

101 Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce promotional brochure, ca. 

1960.

UW University of Washington Libraries, Special 

Collections

UW29171 UW291

102 Port Angeles Vacationland brochune, 1961. UW University of Washington Libraries, Special 

Collections

UW29157 UW291

103 Salmon Derby activities on Ediz Hook, ca. 1970. NOLS NOLS PTAN ACTV 026 PTAN A104 Bluffs and Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation at the mouth of the 

Elwha River, n.d.

ONP ONP Elwha_

pg

105 High water flow at the Elwha Dam, n.d. ONP ONP highwa106 Face of the Glines Canyon Dam, 1995. ONP ONP HHWA107 "Dam can't hold back removal talks." Newspaper headline from 

the Peninsula Daily News , August 10, 1990.

n/a n/a n/a 199008

108 Powerhouse control room, Elwha Dam, n.d. ONP ONP DSCN2109 Control panels at the Elwha Dam, 2005. ONP ONP Elwha 

Panels

110 Generators at the Elwha Dam, 2005. ONP ONP Elwha 

Equipm

111 Jamie Valadez talking to teachers at the Elwha River, July 2005. ONP ONP J.Valad

teachebcarlso

112 Bald eagles feed extensively on dying salmon and steelhead 

during the spawning runs, n.d.

ONP ONP eagle0

Church

113 "Unknown Earth First! artist paints 'crack' on Elwha Dam." 

Newspaper headline from the Peninsula Daily News, September 

3, 1987.

n/a n/a n/a 198709

114 Drawing of anadromous fish species formerly found in the Elwha 

River, with map showing their potential habitat after restoration of river is completed.

ONP ONP fish_ma

g

115 The mouth of the Elwha River, 1994. ONP ONP Elwham

L A024

116 Ediz Hook, with Nippon Mill at bottom of picture, n.d. ONP ONP EdizHo117 Elwha Klallam tribal members Bea Charles and Adeline Smith, 

with the Elwha River in the background, n.d.

Jacilee Wray

Jacilee Wray n/a Bea an

Adeline

118 Representative Al Swift on a trip to Olympic National Park in 

1985.

WWU Al Swift Congressional Papers, Center for 

Pacific Northwest Studies, Western Washington University

Not applicable 234.3 O

Park ci

119 Aerial photograph of the lower portion and mouth of the Elwha 

River, location of the Elwha Klallam Reservation, 1994.

Dick Goin Dick Goin n/a Goin11

rotated

120 Newspaper headline from the Daily World (Aberdeen), August 

16, 1990.

n/a n/a n/a 199008

yworld.

121 Lake Mills, above the Glines Canyon Dam, May 25, 2005. ONP ONP Elwha 

NPS.jp

121 Lake Aldwell, above the Elwha Dam, n.d. ONP ONP 8Elwha

27.jpg

123 "U.S. report puts dams closer to razers' edge. Newspaper 

headline from the Seattle Times , March 30, 1990.

n/a n/a n/a 199003

jpg 

Ref. No. = PastPerfect reference number, negative number, image number, and other identifiers given to image by repository
Fig. Description Owner Location Ref. No. FileN

124 Map showing the historic runs of Chinook salmon up the Elwha 

River.

ONP ONP ChartR

pg

125 Bull trout, n.d. ONP ONP bulltrou126 Upper Elwha River watershed, in Olympic National Park, above 

Glines Canyon Dam, n.d.

ONP ONP upper_

127 Editorial cartoon, from the Columbian (Vancouver, Wash.), 

March 20, 1996.

n/a n/a n/a 199603

g 

128 Editorial cartoon lampooning Washington Senator Slade Gorton, 

from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer , ca. 1996.

n/a n/a n/a 1996_s

129 Brian Winter, NPS fisheries biologist and Elwha Project 

Coordinator, on the bank of the Elwha River giving talk to a group of dignitaries that includes Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt (in middle of group with blue jacket), ONP officials, and Elwha Klallam tribal members, August 1997.

ONP ONP allriver

130 Restoration of the Elwha River ecosystem will benefit many 

different species. Fishers were reintroduced to the Olympic Peninsula in 2008, including several in the Elwha Valley.

ONP ONP Jacobs

photo.j

131 Glines Canyon before and after images. ONP ONP n/a glinestr

Ref. No. = PastPerfect reference number, negative number, image number, and other identifiers given to image by repository