The Columbia River: Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its CommerceLyman, William Denison
History
The Columbia River: Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its Commerce
Lyman, William Denison
Columbia River; Columbia River -- Description and travel; Columbia River -- History
A few months later there came a mighty Chinook, the warm wind of the
Cascades, which strips the peaks of snow within a day, transforms the
creeks into raging torrents, and sends floods down every dry gulch. The
night after the wind began to blow the old miner came to George's cabin,
and in the intense darkness of the cloudy night they listened to the
hurtling of the storm and the roar of the rapidly growing river. About
midnight there came suddenly a succession of rifle shots near at hand, and
in a few minutes a thunder and roar of water beyond anything that they had
heard. Rushing out they saw that the water was already surrounding the
cabin and they had to run in the darkness for their lives. Stumbling among
the rocks they reached at last land high enough for safety, while the
floods went tearing by. With the first light they looked out to see that
the cabin had gone adrift, but sadder to tell, they soon found Harry,
mangled, tortured, at the point of death, just strong enough to tell them
that from his situation he had seen that a fearful flood was coming and he
was trying to save George. But he had fallen in the darkness and crashed
upon the rocks, and even in his suffering he had fired his rifle as a
warning, hoping that it might be heard and save, and so it did. And the
faithful fellow died content. "We tell the tale as it was told us." But
the poor old wreck of a cabin took on something of a new significance as
it leaned up against the rocks, while the restless river sobbed and
frothed about it.
[Illustration: Doubtful Lake, Cascade Range, Washington, near Lake Chelan.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.]
There is great strife among the Chelan people as to which is the grander
section, the Stehekin or Railroad Creek. As a matter of fact, both are so
superlatively magnificent that whichever place one is in, that he thinks
the finer. But there is one feature of the case, and this is that the
grandest part of Railroad Creek is seldom visited. Few have ever been to
Glacier Lake, North Star Park, and Cloudy Pass, at the extreme head of
the creek, and these are the central features of the scenery. They are
about twenty-five miles from Lake Chelan, and the road and trail are
mainly good, so that the journey to the head of the creek and return can
be made very comfortably in four days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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