IHS Winter 2009 Newsletter

Meetings: Monthly except December, second Tuesdays at the museum, 7:00 p.m.
Contacts: David Cameron, President; Bill Cross, Treasurer Newsletter: David Cameron, editor; David Meier, circulation.

Index Historical Society

P.O. Box 299
Index, WA 98256

A member of the League of Snohomish
County Heritage Organizations

Winter 2009 Newsletter

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Lowlight of the Year

At approximately 2:00 A.M. on January 2, 2009 our venerable Red Men’s Hall fell victim to the winter’s very heavy snows. The roof gave way, blowing out the front wall and demolishing the interior. With no chance of repairing it, the town ordered the owners to clean up their hazard. All that was salvaged were close to two dozen floor joists. These 26′ long 2x12s were donated to the historical society by the demolition company, which loaded and hauled them over to the museum. From there a small crew of volunteers lugged the heavy timbers through the snow from the street for storage behind our building. Remarked secretary Bob Hubbard the next day, “I think I’m two inches shorter!”

We would appreciate your thoughts on how best to utilize the wood in a way befitting the heritage of the hall. The pieces are of fine grained old growth fir, generally intact, and rough sawn without too many nails, splits, or cracked ends.

The century old hall was on the National Register of Historic Places, but that designation provides no protection should the property owner decide to ignore or wreck it. After decades of use by the International Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) and Red Men, maintenance of the popular community gathering place was more than the Daughters of Pocahontas, the Red Men’s women’s auxiliary, could support. Title was turned over to the Everett Red Men’s branch for $1.00. In 1999 the Everett group decided to sell the property. When they approached the town their asking price was well over $100,000, far more than we could afford. Without consulting us, they settled for $20,000 in a deal with a son of one of their board members. His announced intention was to raze the building and place an RV on the site. Without needed roof repairs, nature took it down. Co incidentally, the board member died just days before that happened.

Of Additional Concern: The Bush House Hotel, 1898-?

Another absentee landowner continues to allow the historic Bush House to deteriorate and concern town officials that it might also collapse or be burned. Abandoned for a decade, this winter’s snow broke its second floor outside walkway before being cleared off, a tricky job. Difficulties have arisen for everyone attempting to purchase it, and at present the hapless building appears to be off the market. Vandalism, weather, and invasive plants all continue to cause further decay. The business was a mainstay of the local economy and a popular attraction for tourists, as well as a community social center.

There Are Major Highlights as Well!

Topping the good news is the successful purchase of the W.B. Foresters’ property on Heybrook Ridge across from town. With cooperation between the company and our Friends of Heybrook Ridge, assisted by The Cascade Land Conservancy and the Snohomish County Council led by councilman Dave Somers, the land will become the county’s newest park (and only one in this area). Congratulations to everyone concerned! This was a major focus of historical society members for the last two years. In conjunction with the county parks department the Friends now are focusing on the tasks of interpretation, trail building, and environmental education projects to make the ridge a major asset to our community. In October the biggest town party in recent memory celebrated its success.

Another key piece of land preservation was creation of the Wild Sky Wilderness Area late this spring. The 106,000 acre National Forest designation was strongly supported by the community as well as Senator Patty Murray and Representative Rick Larsen. A celebratory dedication was held across the river from town for a long process which again involved a number of our members and townsfolk.

Two summer events also were memorable, the annual Index Arts Festival in August and the Fourth of July parade and potluck in the park. The latter was so much fun the parade kept going down to the far end of town and back, no one wanting to quit despite the threat of rain. In a small town with Mayor Bruce Albert leading, you can get away with things like that! Despite three attempts to have a flood in the fall, we also escaped with no serious damage, and only a few small structures failed in the December/January snow. For that, we are thankful.

News from Our Neighbors

Winner of the 2008 Malstrom Award for an outstanding contribution to county history was the Stanwood Area Historical Society for its innovative collaboration with the SnoIsle Library system. Together they had the community and students read and discuss Thomas Mullen’s novel The Last Town on Earth, set in our county during the turbulent year of 1918. Skykomish celebrates its centennial this year and will be having two new paperback books available. One by Nancy Cleveland and Anne Sekor is a very interesting collection of memories of the town and its surroundings, and the second (due out this spring) features photos of the upper Skykomish Valley, including some of early Index, by Warren Carlson. Check their website, www.skykomishhistoricalsociety.org. We cooperated on all these projects and expect to have both Sky books for sale in our museum shop.

From the journals of R.F. “Frank” Niles: 1899 — Establishing The Index Miner

“Index was then having a big mining boom and [Charles] Gorham decided about the middle of July to start a paper there. I went up to work for him – he was not a printer. We built the shops, doing a large part of the work ourselves. We had the shop in front with a kitchen and bedroom at the rear. Both of us had done some backing and cooking was no problem. The shop was across the railroad track from the main part of town. The track was on a grade about four feet high and shop was level with the track. A sidewalk was later built on the shop level though the street was not graded. The rear of our lot ran to the North Fork of the Skykomish river. The only roads were one to a quarry a mile west of town and one running to Galena, a ghost town from a former boom. Only a hotel remained and this was abandoned and went to ruin later. Another ghost town was Mineral City, four miles from Galena up Silver Creek. It had once boasted a newspaper, an assay office and other business houses. Now all were deserted and going to ruin.

Index was in the throes of a wild mining boom. The town was crowded with prospectors, men working on some of the mines being opened up and the usual riff-raff and promoters and grafters. Sleeping accommodations were hard to find. The one hotel had men sleeping in the hallways and wherever there was a chance to lie down. There was one small lodging house where we secured a room while building the shop. The town was over run by hoboes traveling the Great Northern. Some time after the shop was opened I had an experience with hoboes that gave me a bad few minutes. Just [indecipherable] dark, I was working with my back to one wall, the side wall of the building at my right and type rack in front, the space being about three by six feet. Two husky hoboes came in and asked for money to buy bread. We had some blocks of wood that I had sawed from a large log at the back of the shop and I told them I would give them some money if they would split the blocks. They refused because they had two partners and had some meat they wanted to cook, and it was raining and getting dark. I fully expected them to jump me, and I would not hope to attract any attention from people on the other side of the railroad and we had the only building near the track on our side at that time. The men left, but I expected them back with their two companions. I immediately got a revolver and placed it under the case in front of me, but they did not come back.” (To be continued.)

Memberships: New and Renewals

Please join us for our year’s news and activities! We appreciate your interest and support in helping increase our knowledge and materials relating to our past. In addition to your membership, we especially need photos, printed materials, and artifacts which are from the 1930s to the present for our collection. As with most historical museums in the Pacific Northwest, we are strong on the early years and have much less from our own times, because those things are much more likely to be around us and familiar. Twenty years from now, though, these will be the “good old days”!