North Cascades

SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE NORTH CASCADES

CORRIDORS OF SETTLEMENT: CASCADE RIVER

Leach

Another Cascade River settler was Will Leach. Leach arrived on the Cascade with his brother George in 1884. While George chose a homestead site along the Cascade River, Will selected a site along the Skagit River near present-day Rockport. Later he filed preemption claims along the Cascade River and built a second home about one mile above Mineral Park in 1896. Locally, Leach's Cascade River cabin gained fame when Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot reputedly stayed overnight there in 1897, while on tour of the newly-created Forest Reserve. [42] Unfortunately the flood that year forced Leach to relocate downriver near Lookout Mountain, across from present-day Boulder Creek (T35N R11E, Section 15, Lot 6). Here, he cleared land, built a cabin, farmed, raised cattle, and tried his luck at prospecting. [43] In 1930 he wrote to his nephew Glee Davis from Marblemount saying he would

keep a horse or two up the Cascade and may turn some young stock up early in spring to finish the day. Have got to dig my garden yet up there. I have to pick some more apples hear [sic] yet. I will go up Cascade Thursday morn if the weather looks good and will be gone 4 or 5 days. [44]

Although his name does not appear on the early maps of the area, Will Leach did receive title to his homestead along the Cascade River, on October 10, 1902. A 1941 Metsker Map of Skagit County indicates that Leach also owned 80 acres along the Skagit River (T35N R11E Sections 6 and 7, outside park boundaries), and a total of 74 acres in three separate parcels along the Cascade River. [45] No structures remain from this early settler's efforts.