North Cascades

SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE NORTH CASCADES

CORRIDORS OF SETTLEMENT: SKAGIT RIVER

Younkin

Map showing Younkin 's roadhouse complex at Bacon Creek (T36N,R12E,Sec.21)
Tracing from Skagit River Railway: Rockport to Power Camp Map 1920-21

By the first decade of the twentieth century the Bacon Creek area had become the home of F.M. (Marion) Younkin (or Younkins?) who operated a roadhouse for many years in that vicinity (T36N R11E, Section 21). Located along the Skagit to the east of Bacon Creek, Younkin applied for and received a homestead entry patent in 1910. [79] The roadhouse was open by 1917 when Mrs. Lucinda Davis visited there. [80] On a ca. 1920 railway map of the Skagit River, Younkin's property included a 24' x 26' dwelling, separate garage, a 24' x 36' barn, chicken house, pen, and one unidentified outbuilding (root house?). Miners and other travelers no doubt stopped at this roadhouse on their way up to the mountains, receiving lodging, fresh vegetables, meat, and other supplies before continuing toward the mines.

It is not known how long the roadhouse business operated, or when Younkin left the area. In 1936 USFS Ranger Tommy Thompson mentioned going up to Bacon Creek to pick up the government burros at Wilson's ranch. [81] Whether this ranch and the old roadhouse were one and the same is unclear. On a 1936 Mt. Baker National Forest map Younkin's site had become Bacon Creek Lodge. Over the years, neglect and abandonment caused the old wood frame structure to deteriorate. The front porch was removed and not long thereafter, the remainder of the building was demolished by its owner in the 1970s. [82]

Dora and possibly Grace Younkin at Bacon Creek, n.d.
(Callahan Collection, Seattle)