North Cascades

EARLY IMPRESSIONS: EURO-AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS

EXPLORATIONS

Klement Party (1877)

The next expedition to penetrate the wilds of the North Cascades came in 1877. A party of prospectors, consisting of Otto Klement, Jack Rowley, Frank Scott, Charles Van Pressentin, John Duncan, John Sutter and one or two Indian guides traveled up the Skagit River in shovel-nose canoes in hopes of making their way east to the Methow River valley, where gold had been discovered. These men made the second confirmed crossing of Cascade Pass by Euro-Americans (Alexander Ross being the first in 1814). [75] No contemporary account of this specific journey appears to exist; however, Otto Klement vividly recounted the journey years later in his "Early Skagit Recollections" written in 1935.

According to Klement, the seven-man party traveled two days up the Skagit River before reaching its confluence with the Cascade River. At this point they began their eastward hike over the mountains. With sixty-pound packs on their backs and rifles in place, the party set out along an old Indian trail:

After five days of weary plodding we reached the summit of the Cascade River pass, and a more enchanting scene our eyes had never before gazed upon. Mountains piled upon mountains stretching away in every direction, presenting the most startling scene imaginable. A silence pervaded the scene that was oppressive, except on occasion when an avalanche of thousands of tons of ice, snow and rocks, breaking from their anchorage in a higher altitude, poured down the mountain side into some dark invisible cavern below. [76]

After spending the night on the mountain summit the group made their descent the next day following an Indian trail. This trail led them to a point overlooking Doubtful Lake, which Klement named Spirit Lake:

This pool figures among the most picturesque scenes we had encountered thus far. The water of the lake was a deep indigo blue. On the south side a perpendicular wall arose from the water's edge to a height of hundreds of feet with a high mountain above it [Sahale or Boston Peak]. . . [77]

As they continued their descent into the Stehekin valley, Klement noted that "the scene here had undergone a marked transformation." The vegetation on the west slope of the mountains, primarily fir, hemlock, and cedar, had been replaced by "scattering pine trees." [78] By the following day the party had reached the outlet of the Stehekin River. The party spent the next two days recreating and fishing in Lake Chelan while Klement and fellow traveler Joe Seaam sought to replenish their provisions, traveling downlake in canoes found at the head of the lake. Supposedly these canoes were owned and kept hidden by Skagit Indians who frequently crossed Cascade Pass as a trade route. [79] Upon Klement's return the group of prospectors worked their way to the unnamed tributary of the Methow River within two days. Not finding an ounce of gold, the men returned, retracing their steps over Cascade Pass and down the Cascade River. [80]