North Cascades

EARLY IMPRESSIONS: EURO-AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS

EXPLORATIONS

Daniel Chapman Linsley (1870)

The first white explorer to traverse the length of Lake Chelan and enter today's park was Daniel Chapman Linsley, an employee of the Northern Pacific Railroad. [69] Linsley and John A. Tennant alternated between canoes and foot travel in search of a railroad route across the Cascades. Linsley set out from a Wenatchee trading post in July with Tennant and four Indian guides. Traveling up the Columbia River by canoe the party reached the outlet of Lake Chelan in three days. [70] After a three mile portage from the river, the party started up the lake, the Indians in canoes and Linsley and Tennant on foot. They camped near present-day Manson, on the north shore about ten miles from the foot of the lake.

Four days later the party reached the head of the lake. They entered the mouth of the Stehekin River (which they erroneously called the Chelan River) and proceeded upstream. The party camped about seven miles farther upstream, possibly at or near present-day Company Creek. [71] On July 20 the group continued upriver until reaching Agnes Creek, which they believed to be the uppermost navigable point on the river.

Just above this point the stream [Stehekin River] divides into three branches. The largest [Stehekin River] comes from the N.W. and heads near the upper tributaries [Cascade River] which can be nearly reached by canoes from the west. [72]

Linsley had little hope of finding a favorable route via the Stehekin River but was nevertheless compelled to explore every possible route. Consequently, he divided the small party in two, sending Tennant and two Indians up the Stehekin River while he and the remaining two Indians explored Agnes Creek. [73]

After two days of struggling with the difficult terrain along Agnes Creek and inclement weather, Linsley returned to the Stehekin River and rendezvoused with Tennant about four miles downstream. Tennant's route was no more promising than his own and Linsley wrote, "He [Tennant] found the route up the west Fork [Stehekin River] utterly impracticable and . . . returned without going to the summit [Cascade Pass]." [74] Linsley concluded from his exploration of the area that a railroad could be built from the mouth of the Skagit River to the Columbia River by way of Lake Chelan, but that it would be much costlier than the preferred southern route examined earlier.