North Cascades

EARLY IMPRESSIONS: EURO-AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS

SURVEYS

Cryderman Party (1900)

One of the last attempts to locate a route through the North Cascades was actually a railroad survey conducted in 1900. A party for the Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad (B.B. & B.C.R.R.) completed a reconnaissance over Hannegan Pass and east to and over Whatcom Pass. This party essentially retraced the route followed by the Austin-Lyle party seven years earlier. Between August 23 and September 7, J.J. Cryderman led six men from Whatcom, mapping, photographing, and recording his observations of both natural and cultural features and activities in the region.

Traveling by railroad and then wagon road, the men reached the end of the road at Shuksan, a small mining town along the north fork of the Nooksack River. [128] Continuing with horses, the party traveled east, heading up and over Hannegan Pass and into today's park. Cryderman noted that:

On the east side of Hannegan Pass there is considerable timber . . . Indications of minerals are good mostly as on the west side of the Pass, gold and copper. However owing to the present inaccessible location of the country, few [mineral] locations have been made and practically no work has been done. In the matter of reaching the country, there is now a fair county road to Shuksan, then a fair pack trail, though in need of repair, 8 1/2 miles up Ruth Creek or to the end of the old State Trail and from the latter point a poor horse trail over Hannegan Pass and down the Chilliwhack [sic] to the mouth of Copper Creek. . . . Horses have been taken from here to Whatcom Pass and to the mouth of Indian Creek, but it was when the River was low and the bed of the Chilliwhack was used for much of the distance. From Whatcom Pass there is no trail until within two miles of the mouth of Big Beaver creek, where there is one from McMillan's ranch [early homestead] on the Skagit River. [129]

After the party completed their reconnaissance and returned to Whatcom, Cryderman wrote a final report for J.J. Donovan, General Superintendent of the B.B. & B.C.R.R. Cryderman believed that the route he followed was the best and only feasible route through these mountains. He added that his work verified the 1893 findings of the State Road Commission and that should a road be built following this proposed route, it would be the most scenic one within the United States:

From the time [the road] reached the head of Ruth Creek to Beaver Pass . . . there is a succession of unequaled views. There are still mountain goats and numerous bear in the mountains and fine fishing in the creeks on the Chilliwhack [sic] side and abundant picturesque peaks for the mountain climber to struggle with. We saw enormous quantities of huckleberries of extra size and flavor and on Big Beaver where swamps are marked on the map, is a series of cranberry marshes, the berries being the high bush variety and the swamps being red with fruit. [130]

Despite Cryderman's efforts no railroad line was built.