North Cascades

SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE NORTH CASCADES

CORRIDORS OF SETTLEMENT: CASCADE RIVER

Landre (Gilbert's Cabin)

Gilbert's cabin, ca. 1943.
(NOCA-Sedro Woolley photo file)

The only early settler along the Cascade drainage whose property falls within today's park boundaries was not a homesteader in the true sense of the word. Gilbert Landre (also incorrectly spelled Landry, Landrum, and Lander) was a French-Canadian miner who came up the Cascade River in search of minerals about 1888. Never filing a homestead claim, he cleared a small area of land along the North Fork of the Cascade River, and erected a small log cabin with a fireplace. [46] Landre was known to have some mining claims in nearby Boston Basin, and he also hunted and trapped and was a skilled axman. His ability with this tool is evident in the second and larger cabin he constructed, which remains standing today.

Cedar logs for this cabin were hand-hewn, possibly as early as 1892. By spring of the next year, the cabin walls were halfway up when an unpredicted avalanche leveled Landre's work. Undaunted by this common backcountry occurrence, Landre began again and had his new home in order the following year, 1894. For. the next decade and well after his death in 1905, Gilbert's cabin (as it was and is known today) became a familiar and appreciated stopping place for prospectors and other travelers heading into the North Cascades. [47] It was used as early as 1895 by the Washington State Road Commissioners who "stored with Gilbert Landre, at head of Cascade River Skagit County: 2 Cross-cut saws, 2 Bake Pans, 1 Brush Scythe, 1 Cook Stove, 6 Steel Crow Bars, 1 Logging Jack, 1 Portable B.S. Forge, 27 Steel Drills, 1 Wash Tub and Board." [48] USFS Ranger Tommy Thompson mentioned his use of the cabin numerous times between 1916 and the 1930s. [49]

Gilbert's second cabin, originally one and a half stories in height, two bays wide, and capped with a wood-shingled or shaked gable roof, measures 18" x 25' and was constructed with materials available on-site. Landre cut enormous trees for the cabin -- many of the planked wall logs are more than 20" wide -- and stumps are still visible nearby. The unique quality of the cabin lies in its construction: Landre used dove-tail notches in laying the logs, and it is the only log cabin of that type within the park complex. The interior consisted of one large room with a full space above, reached by stairs at the rear of the cabin. Bunk beds were built in, a large cache box was kept downstairs, and Landre had even devised a flume system which carried refuse from the cabin out to a nearby creek. [50]

After Landre's death, years of neglect caused the cabin to deteriorate. Not until the 1940s were repair efforts attempted, when a group of interested local citizens rallied to restore the cabin. With assistance from the USFS, they sought to preserve the cabin as a historic site. USFS employee Blacky Burns helped get work underway; John Dayo, another USFS employee, recalled the roof being replaced at this time, only to be destroyed the following year by a snow slide. [51] Apparently in the 1950s foundation logs and floor joists were replaced, but this work marked the last effort to revive Gilbert's cabin. In 1984, a field-check of the site revealed that four walls of the cabin are standing, pierced with door and window openings; the roof beams lie alongside the structure's north wall and remnants of a wood-framed outbuilding are extant nearby. [52] Nearly hidden from view by the forest vegetation, this cabin, once called a "woodsman's work of art," stands as a quiet reminder of early efforts to inhabit and tame this unknown region. [53]