North Cascades

SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE NORTH CASCADES

CORRIDORS OF SETTLEMENT: SKAGIT RIVER

McMillan (Ruby Creek Inn, McMillan Ranch)

John McMillan, early settler and miner, n.d.
(Thompson Collection, Washtucna, WA)

The remaining two homesteads along the Skagit River were miles beyond the Davis ranch. They were in extremely remote areas and neither settler ever filed for homestead entry. One of these settlers was John H. McMillan, an eastern Canadian who first came into the region in the mid-1880s. [124] Like other early settlers, McMillan was a miner and packer who was lured to Ruby Creek by rumors of gold. After abandoning claims on the Fraser River, McMillan traveled to Ruby Creek around 1884 with hopes of making his fortune. Unlike most miners in later years who would reach Ruby Creek by following the Skagit east to the Goat Trail, McMillan packed in from Canada because no trail beyond Marblemount existed at this early date. [125] Leaving Fort Hope with his pack horses, McMillan headed south, passing the Whitworth Ranch four miles above the international boundary, and proceeding along the Skagit-Hope miners' trail through dense timber until he reached Ruby Creek. [126] McMillan became one of a number of miners who stayed and settled in the mountains, determined to make a life for himself in the North Cascades.

McMillan's life appears to have been fairly typical of that experienced by most settlers in the North Cascades. During the summer he panned for gold along Ruby Creek, and became quite influential in mining developments there. [127] McMillan supplemented his mineral discoveries with a horsepacking business which he operated simultaneously for many years. Carrying supplies for prospectors, he packed between Fort Hope (in Canada) and Ruby Creek, avoiding the Skagit River canyons and the treacherous Goat Trail. At various times and seasons McMillan worked in a shingle bolt camp near Marblemount (1891), was employed by the USFS clearing trails and fighting fires, and later, in 1918, worked for Seattle City Light on the Skagit River hydroelectric project. [128] During winters at his homestead on Big Beaver Creek, he laid traplines along nearby creeks. When trapping Little Beaver Creek, McMillan stayed in a log cabin he built on the south side of the trail near Perry Creek (between Perry and Stillwell hiker camps today). [129] Beaver and marten were two of the many types of pelts McMillan shipped to furriers in exchange for cash. [130]

McMillan's house at Ruby Creek.
(Callahan Collection, Seattle)

For several years John McMillan also ran a roadhouse, located at the confluence of the Skagit River and Ruby Creek. This roadhouse, known in later years as the Ruby (Creek) Inn, may have been in operation since the onset of the gold rush. It is not known who built it, but McMillan did request a permit for its use as a roadhouse in 1916 from USFS Ranger Tommy Thompson. In this location McMillan could provide services to prospectors heading up Ruby Creek and beyond to the Slate and Canyon Creek mining districts. How many years McMillan ran the roadhouse at Ruby Creek is not known, but Ranger Thompson did visit him there as late as October of 1919. [131] A retired USFS employee of the Skagit District, whose father was a mining and trapping partner of John McMillan, claims that McMillan operated the roadhouse at Ruby Creek before establishing his permanent home along Big Beaver Creek. [132] In the 1898 Davis roadhouse register, however, John McMillan's name is recorded and his home is listed as Beaver Creek. [133]

The McMillan homestead on Big Beaver Creek, known as the McMillan Ranch, was located on the west side of the Skagit River, southwest of the creek. McMillan erected a cabin in a wooded area with a small natural meadow nearby. [134] In this clearing McMillan raised hay for his three pack horses. At various times Frank and Glee Davis came to McMillan's specifically to purchase hay for use at their roadhouse at Cedar Bar, baling it by hand before packing it down on horses. [135] McMillan also built a barn and root cellar and had a garden nearby. In an 1899 report on the Washington Forest Reserve, H.B. Ayres observed that McMillan's ranch was one of the most improved claims on the entire reserve. [136] A later map depicts "McMillens Ranch"' as a complex of four or five structures, one marked "house," and a corral or fenced-in area (perhaps the pasture). [137] For a time, McMillan was known to exchange homesteads periodically with fellow settler Tommy Rowland, who lived across the Skagit River to the east. Rowland had a fairly large hay field located along the river and McMillan often used this hay for his horses and roadhouse operation. [138]

McMillan's grave at his homestead along Big Beaver Creek, 1984.
(Gretchen Luxenberg, NPS)

In his later years McMillan and his wife spent their winters in Marblemount, returning to the Big Beaver ranch each summer. When he died on July 29, 1922, he was on his ranch. Several friends gathered, including Ranger Thompson and fellow miner George Holmes. McMillan was buried two days later, near his cabin.

Remnants of McMillan's homestead cabin or barn, 1984.
(Gretchen Luxenberg, NPS)

Three years after John's death, in 1925, Mrs. McMillan attempted to acquire homestead rights to the ranch, but the USFS rejected her application. [139] The settlement case was closed and the old homestead was used as a guard station by USFS trail crews and packers for many years. Even into the 1930s a former USFS employee recalls picking McMillan's rhubarb which had grown wild. While the USFS utilized the ranch to a degree, several of McMillan's former acquaintances also resided there intermittently, including his partner Miles Garrett (who later married John's widow), miner George Holmes, and Bert Ferguson, a railroad conductor-turned-trapper who came to the upper Skagit ca. 1904 and settled farther up Big Beaver. [140]

Over time, without maintenance, McMillan's ranch deteriorated and the place was all but forgotten. Harsh winters and forest vegetation continue to take their toll on the ranch structures. Although difficult to locate, remnants of the homestead can be seen today. A section of collapsed wood frame building and part of a log structure with saddle-notched corners (house and barn) are extant, as is the leveled site where a root cellar formerly stood. Nearby is the grave of John McMillan himself, intact and marked by a rectangular piece of wood simply inscribed "McMillan." [141]