2015 Almanac

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Page 2 | Almanac 2015

The news you want to know doesn’t always happen on your doorstep.

It happens out in the community. It happens fast and you want to know about it as soon as it does. At the Daily Record, we’re delivering more news in more ways than ever, because we know you want to know.

We’re putting the community in your hands.

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On the cover

Contents Secret spots: Daily Record Almanac 2015

nac lma rd A eco R y Dail 2015

es plac cial in Spe plore ey x to e as Vall it Kitt

Brian Myrick/Daily Record

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Iron Horse B&B

The cover of the 2015 Almanac includes the Iron Horse bed and breakfast, Roslyn’s Jensen Cabin and the Gingko Gem shop in Vantage.

Old train cars make up the rooms of a bed and breakfast in the Upper County.

Ginkgo Gem Shop This small shop in Vantage sells all sorts of goodies, including dinosaurs and petrified wood.

18

Forgotten town Only memories remain of the canyon town once named Roza, Wash.

22

Old YMCA The old YMCA building on Water Street used to hold more than just a pool.

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Roslyn’s first house The Jensen Cabin was built in 1885 in Roslyn and predates the town itself.

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Come for a bed, stay for the breakfast Iron Horse Inn caters to those looking for history with their hospitality

By LAUREN TAKORES staff writer For those who like history with their hospitality, the Iron Horse Inn Bed and Breakfast offers guests a close-up look at the former Milwaukee Railroad stop in South Cle Elum.

Four train caboose suites sit next to the main house, which is a renovated bunkhouse where Milwaukee Railroad crews used to rest. It’s located close by to the Cascade Rail Foundation interpretive trail and the Iron Horse State Park.

Mary and Doug Pittis, former apartment managers on the West Side, bought the bed and breakfast in March 1999 after reading newspaper ads selling the business.

“We remembered that we had actually been in the building a few years prior registering for a cross-country ski and snowshoe event,” Mary Pittis said, “and we remembered all the Milwaukee Railroad memorabilia.”

Pittis’ father worked as a Milwaukee Railroad freight agent.

“He drum(med) up business to fill those boxcars and transport

goods,” she said.

As a salesmen, he signed up agricultural and industrial producers that needed to move large quantities of goods. He was transferred from Iowa to Seattle in the early 1960s, when Mary Pittis was 12 years old.

In the Midwest, the Milwaukee Railroad was considered an agricultural hauler. In Eastern Washington, the railroad hauled “wheat, apples, everything that Washington grows,” Mary Pittis said.

From the West Side, the Milwaukee Railroad hauled lumber and imports from China and Japan.

“They had a strong connection with Pacific Rim companies and big presence in the Port of Tacoma, and the Port of Seattle somewhat, shipping products from the Far East,” she said.

Bed and breakfast Monty and Connie Moore bought the old bunkhouse in 1982 and opened the inn as the Moore House in 1985. It took almost two years to renovate the building.

See Iron Horse, Page 6

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A night at the inn

By LAUREN TAKORES staff writer

fallen asleep in lots of trains, Ithe’vemostly at almost 2 o’clock in morning as I rode home to the Connecticut suburbs after a night out in New York City. I’d hug my purse while I nodded off, defying the bright lights inside the train car, hoping the conductor wouldn’t ask me to take my feet off the seat.

Staying in a caboose suite at the Iron Horse Inn Bed and Breakfast in South Cle Elum was a much more comfortable experience.

I slept in the Northern Pacific caboose, the smallest of the inn’s four caboose suites. The other cabooses are 10 feet larger and have more beds, but the size was perfect for a single person staying one night. The bed took up most of the bedroom area.

In the corner, unplugged, were a microwave and mini-fridge.

A space heater came in handy when temperatures dropped to 20 degrees at night. The caboose featured a bathroom more spacious than at most hotels, with a whirlpool and skylights in the high ceilings of the cupola.

See Night, Page 7

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IRON HORSE Continued from Page 4 “It was a very tired, 70-year-old, industrial-type building when they bought it,” Mary Pittis said.

“It needed new everything: new wiring, all new plumbing, a new chimney, a new roof.”

Connie Moore, a nurse, selected the inn’s wallpaper, made window treatments and bought furniture for the inn’s rooms. Monty Moore worked for the post office. The retired couple now lives in Arizona.

The inn’s eight rooms are named after trainmen who stayed there in the bunkhouse days. There were no private bathrooms when it was a bunkhouse. Today, some rooms share a hallway bathroom, and some rooms have private bathrooms. All that construction and plumbing installation was brand new.

The hallways of the inn are a treasure trove of railroad photos, artifacts and memorabilia collected over time by three sets of innkeepers. Much of the inn’s collection was donated by retirees.

“Once the Cascade Rail Foundation started renovating the depot, that was another magnet for artifacts,” she said.

The Pittises bought the business in 1999 and changed the inn’s name to reflect the times.

“We wanted to speak to those Internet searchers that were looking for railroad-themed accommodations,” she said.

“The Iron Horse State Park was developing at the same time, so we wanted to have that connection (and) associate with that railroad connection,” although the park and the inn are separate entities.

The Moores brought in and renovated cabooses in 1989 and 1990, including the Great Northern caboose and the Milwaukee caboose. They had planned for five caboose cars and installed water hookups for five lots.

In 2002, the Pittises acquired the Northern Pacific caboose, which was being used as an office on commercial property in east Spokane. A couple of years later,

Brian Myrick / Daily Record

The interior of the Northern Pacific caboose car guest suite at the Iron Horse B&B in South Cle Elum features a double bed and jacuzzi tub.

More info What: Iron Horse Inn Bed and Breakfast Where: 526 Marie Ave., South Cle Elum When: Open year-round Reservations: To make reservations, call 1-800-2-2-TWAIN or 509-674-5939, or visit www. ironhorseinnbb.com. they salvaged a caboose that was about to be scrapped in a West Seattle steel railyard. It took six months to renovate that Southern Pacific caboose, but was worth it for the bay window.

Crew changes Milwaukee Railroad was “the third kid on the block,” Mary Pittis said.

See Iron Horse, Page 8

Brian Myrick / Daily Record

Model trains adorn the walls in the dining room at the Iron Horse Inn B&B in South Cle Elum.

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NIGHT Continued from Page 5 Inside the main house are memorabilia and artifacts galore, but the railroad decorations in the caboose just included metal advertising signs and photos of Milwaukee Railroad engineer Gene Lawson, for whom the caboose is named. The cabooses and guest rooms in the main house are named after the railroad men who stayed there.

The caboose did feature one antique; a TV/VCR combo.

But I’m sure most people don’t come expecting big televisions; there’s too much to do The wood and steel outdoors and to explore in the caboose was built in main house.

1921 for Northern Pacific The inn is located along in Renton, according to the Iron Horse State Park, a rails-to-trails park that attracts information found in skiers, snowshoers, hikers and the room. When the rail mountain bikers. I walked service started winding along some of the Cascade down in the 1970s, it Rail Foundation interpretive was stored in Bellingham trail, a walking tour of the and then was moved to South Cle Elum railyard with Spokane in the 1990s. In several historic points labeled with signs, until it got too cold.

January 2002, the Pittises There’s a good view of the inn bought the caboose. In and caboose cars from the June, it was dedicated trail. Other stops include the to Milwaukee Railroad old depot, water tank foundaengineer Gene Lawson. tion, turntable pit, bungalows and the substation.

I also was welcome to explore the upstairs in the main house. There are several rooms with a shared bathroom and rooms with private accommodations. A library houses train books and classic novels, with a friendly trail conductor welcoming guests.

The Moores, the innkeepers who renovated the bunkhouse in the 1980s, lined the hallway walls with large historic photos of the area when it was a working rail stop: men working along snowy mountains and lakeside prairies, city streets and life in Cle Elum as it was 100 years ago.

Glass cabinets display Milwaukee Railroad-minted items donated by local railway workers and purchased from antique stores: patches, belt buckles, buttons, pins, books of matches, postcards, china and silver dishes from dining cars. Large railroad equipment, like signal lights and lanterns, are interspersed among the cabinets and armoires.

Before bed, I chatted with innkeeper Mary Pittis over a cup of tea. She told me how the caboose cars were transported to the inn. The car was separated from the undercarriage and the pieces loaded onto flatbed trucks, then moved by crane to their spots in the caboose yard.

Skylights let the morning in slowly. An invigorating bubble bath in that large tub started the day. Innkeeper and chef Doug Pittis fixed me a delicious vegetarian breakfast of sliced banana, orange and almonds with a cinnamon stick, then blueberry pancakes and hashbrown potatoes, and topped off with orange juice and coffee.

Now if only the Long Island Railroad would add caboose suites and dining cars that serve vegetarian options. ■

Fun facts

Brian Myrick / Daily Record

The interior of the Northern Pacific caboose car guest suite at the Iron Horse B&B in South Cle Elum has a private jacuzzi tub.

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Page 8 | Almanac 2015

IRON HORSE Continued from Page 6 First came the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway. In the late 1800s, they received the western land grants.

“The Milwaukee didn’t have that advantage,” she said.

Established in the Midwest in 1850, the Milwaukee Railroad made its western extension through five mountain ranges from North Dakota to Tacoma in three years, from 1906 to 1909.

The original bunkhouse was finished in 1909. An addition was completed in 1920. To establish itself, the Milwaukee Railroad purchased the land around the Cle Elum depot and it sometimes bought existing, smaller spur lines — secondary tracks used to bring products to larger railheads — and merged them with the Milwaukee.

Every 100 miles, the railroad required the trains stop to allow for crew changes. Cle Elum, 100 miles

west of Othello and 100 miles east of Tacoma, was a division point.

“The train crews had to get off and change, and they either added locomotives to get up and over the pass, or if they were coming from the pass, they took the locomotives off because it was flatter going (east),” she said.

In early days of steam engines, depending on how many cars on train and how heavy load was, crews consisted of an engineer, two firemen, a freight conductor and two to four brakemen. If the train had passenger service, there might also be a separate passenger conductor and crew of stewards, porters and cooks.

Only the freight train crews stayed in the bunkhouse. “(The passenger crew’s) union contracts allowed them to stay on the train,” she said. “They had places to sleep on the train, and they stayed

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The caboose cars at the Iron Horse B&B in South Cle Elum have been made into private suites for guests to enjoy. on longer to offer continuity to passengers.”

The railmen rested in the bunkhouse from six to 12 hours. Six to eight trains, mostly freight, came through a day with crews of four to eight men.

“There was lots of shifting going on all the time,” she said.

Crew changes need to be efficient.

Each railman had a round tag listing his name, hire date and promotion date. As they got off the train and ended their shift, they hung their tags on a large board in the depot, which now hangs above the guestbook at the inn.

“The station agent would know who were the tired trainmen over at the bunkhouse resting,” she said, “and who were the ones that were already rested and ready to go out on the next train.”

The tags told the station agent how much seniority the men had; those higher up on the ladder could rest longer.

One of the trainmen at the depot, or sometimes a kid from town, would go to the bunkhouse and tell the men who was needed and when to be ready for the next train.

Life in the bunkhouse When the men arrived at the bunkhouse, they grabbed a set of sheets and found an empty room.

“The conductors and brakemen slept on one floor, and the engineers and the firemen would sleep on the

other floor,” Mary Pittis said. “A lot of times, they weren’t talking to each other.”

This division fell along job duty lines. The engineer, at the head of the train, kept it on time. The conductor, from his office in the caboose car, kept track of the orders and shipments, but also oversaw safety. The raised cupola on top of the caboose gave the conductor extended vision down the entire line.

In the days of older brakes, each axle on the car had metal gears in the journal box stuffed with oily rags.

Sometimes, if the oil got too dry, the metals would spark and “either set the countryside on fire or set the wooden boxcars on fire,” she said.

If the conductors or brakemen saw a problem, “they would throw the brake or signal to stop the train, which irritated the engineer. So they might not be talking if they had a bad run when they got to the bunkhouse,” she said.

Downstairs, the railmen passed the time in the waiting room. They ate in the depot concession, nicknamed the “beanery.” The inn’s dining room was originally bunk rooms.

“They weren’t suppose to smoke or drink or have women (inside),” she said. “Apparently, though, they didn’t always pay attention to those rules,” she added, laughing.

Mainly the railmen played cards and waited to be called back to work.

In the 1960s or 1970s, the waiting room had coin-op television.

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“There were always a couple guys who never wanted to pay but they wanted to watch TV,” she said, “so they’d kind of hang around and pretend they were going up the stairs. They had this ongoing feud about who was going to put the next quarter in.”

The men received a housing allowance to pay for a housekeeper in the bunkhouse, who cleaned the bathrooms, maintained the linens and towels and swept up.

They “just made sure things weren’t torn apart,” she said.

The bunkhouse fell out of use in the 1970s, when the Milwaukee Railroad began faltering economically and discontinued its western rail line use. ■

Brian Myrick / Daily Record

The interior of the Milwaukee caboose car guest suite at the Iron Horse Inn B&B in South Cle Elum features “cupola” seats that can fold into bunks for children.

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Ginkgo Gem Shop in Vantage has something for everyone

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By NICOLE KLAUSS staff writer

S

tep inside the Ginkgo Gem Shop and you might feel like you've entered Aladdin's cave of wonders.

Gems, crystals and sparkling geodes are displayed on shelves and in cases throughout the store.

Large dinosaur sculptures stand outside of the store, and dinosaurthemed toys and educational items can be found inside.

The Ginkgo Gem Shop is one of Vantage's hidden treasures.

Bill Rose has owned the Ginkgo Gem Shop since 1973, when he purchased it from the previous owner, but he has had a fascination with rocks for much longer.

See Gem Shop, Page 12

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Brian Myrick / Daily Record

Bill Rose, the owner, inspects a piece of rock at the Ginkgo Gem Shop in Vantage. Rose has owned the shop since 1973.

GEM SHOP Continued from Page 11 “I’ve always liked rocks,” Rose said.

“Ever since I was a little kid I was picking up rocks and bringing them home. You have interests, probably some of the same interests from a child. Then things just came right.”

Rather than say he’s worked at the gem shop for 42 years, Rose tells people he’s had years of fun.

“I’ve not made a fortune,” he said.

“I’ve just had fun.”

Rose’s wife, son and daughter also work at the gem shop, which is a family business, he said.

A variety The Ginkgo Gem Shop carries a variety of items including little trees with gems as leaves, meteorites, seashells, butterfly and insect collections, trilobites, fossils of leaves, crystals, gems and arrowheads, among others.

The shop has expanded since Rose took over, and the challenge for him is not going overboard with buying new items.

See Gem Shop, Page 14

Brian Myrick / Daily Record

A selection of dinosaurs on display at the Ginkgo Gem Shop in Vantage.

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GEM SHOP Continued from Page 12 He recently attended the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in Arizona, and will put those new items out for sale.

“We try to have unique stuff,” Rose said. “We try to have the common. We try to have the uncommon and just as many different things as we can. It’s all here for educational purposes as well as for somebody to buy.”

Sometimes the items Rose brings into the store are a hit and other times they don’t sell well.

“That’s kind of hard figuring out what people like and what people don’t like,” he said. “You buy stuff that didn’t work so you don’t buy any more.”

The oldest fossil in the store is about 400 million years old and the most recent (mammoth fossils) dates toward the end of the Pleistocene era (roughly 11,700 to 13,000 years ago).

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The gem shop also has a house collection that is not for sale, which includes a fossil of a seahorse found in Italy that is 12 million years old.

“There’s things in here that I just can’t replace, like the seahorse,” Rose said. “I got that 20 years ago.”

Rose purchases most of his gems polished and ready to sell, but he prepares the petrified wood sold at the shop. He owns a property where he is able to dig up petrified wood that is buried deep in the salt rock. The pieces in front of his store are from that property.

Education A big part of the gem shop’s mission is to educate people. In the spring, school children from schools in the county come to hear Rose talk about fossils and gems.

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Brian Myrick / Daily Record

Large sections of petrified wood stand outside the Ginkgo Gem Shop in Vantage.

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“We try to educate people and kids on rocks and minerals,” Rose said. “We have all kinds of different things. We have fossils. Fossils show what used to be here (worldwide) but isn’t anymore.”

Rose researches the pieces that he sells, so people will usually leave knowing some of the history behind their purchase.

In recent years the gem shop has focused on expanding its children’s section to include items that have real fossils. The kits come with educational material and instructions on how to dig out the fossils.

“It gives them a feel of what it would be like to dig out in an archaeology field,” Rose said.

The kits have been popular.

Rose recalled that one family returned after buying a kit, and purchased all of the remaining kits in the shop.

“They had so much fun digging them out,” he said. ■ Brian Myrick / Daily Record

18th

ABOVE: A mural showing the history of the ginkgo tree adorns a wall at the Ginkgo Gem Shop in Vantage. BELOW: A large section of petrified wood stands outside the Ginkgo Gem Shop.

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Sadie Thayer

The townsite of Roza, Wash., as pictured recently. All that remains are train tracks running through the hills of the once bustling community.

Canyon community vanished after big fire

By MIKE JOHNSTON senior writer

L

ike most everyone driving through the Yakima River Canyon, Sadie Thayer passed by the sagebrush site of the town of Roza many times before 2010 without a thought about its mysterious disappearance.

That's because there's nearly nothing there to be seen, at least from the canyon highway. Driving from Ellensburg on state Route 821, the former townsite is two miles upriver of the Roza Dam, past the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Big Pines Recreation Area.

"Roza is a community like others in Kittitas County's history that

became a thriving little town but then faded away," said Thayer, director of the Kittitas County Historical Museum in Ellensburg, recently. "In Roza's case, it faded away to nothing."

Family roots In early 2010, Thayer was contacted by Sharon McAuliff of the

Tri-Cities area. McAuliff said she was undertaking family genealogy research that included old family photos showing the busy railroad community of Roza.

McAuliff's grandmother took the photos while her family lived and worked at Roza. McAuliff said she wanted to know more about it, and she and her husband, Tom, dug into the mystery.

See Roza, Page 20

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Courtesy Kittitas County Historical Museum

A historic photo shows mills, cabins and other buildings in Roza, Wash. After a fire in 1926, the town faded away into history books.

Museum exhibit planned on towns that are, that were and that were not

By MIKE JOHNSTON senior writer The Kittitas County Historical Museum will unveil an exhibit April 3 on how the communities in Kittitas County, large or small, came about, died out or were planned but never got off the ground.

Museum Director Sadie Thayer and museum Assistant Erika Hinze have researched nearly

70 communities, cities, railroad whistle-stop sites, town plats and villages scattered across the county.

The research includes the vanished townsite of Roza in the Yakima River Canyon, Bristol along state Route 10, and now thriving communities in the county.

The new exhibit will have oldtime photos, text and other features,

including an electronic, interactive map of where the communities are, once were or were planned.

Thayer said the title of the display is “Community Foundings and Incorporations: Kittitas County Towns That Are, Towns That Were, and Towns That Were Not.” Thayer added that a public kick off for the exhibit will be 5-7 p.m. April 3 during the First Friday Art Walk at

the museum.

“There’s so many factors and interesting historical personages connected to all these places around our county, it presents a rich heritage of where our roots came from,” Thayer said.

The museum at 114 E. Third Ave. in downtown Ellensburg is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

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ROZA Continued from Page 18 The couple pinpointed the location of Roza from the old photos (including those from the state archives), a circa-1900 map and Google Earth.

They told Thayer they visited the site in April 2009.

“It was pretty exciting to realize that this was, indeed, the old townsite of Roza,” Sharon McAuliff wrote Thayer. “The valley looks much the same as in the old pictures, the old silica mines are scars on the surface of the hills across the river (east side) from Roza; and, of course, the rock cliffs on the east side of the river are still there.”

From McAuliff’s old, black and white photos, it was clear the community was spread out on a large, alluvial plain that fanned outward toward the west edge of the river from the valley between two canyon ridges. The photos showed the area was closely associated with then Northern Pacific railroad.

“It’s not shown on any modern maps,” Thayer said about the townsite. “People know about Roza as in the Roza Dam, but we don’t usually go any further in asking why it was called Roza.”

History detective Thayer, before 2010, had learned only bits and pieces of information about Roza. She said there’s references to it in Kittitas County’s 1989 centennial history book indicating a Dora Emerson went dancing at Roza and there was a Roza School District No. 49.

McAuliff’s contact with Thayer spurred both into more research.

“Roza was a whistle stop, or a flag station, for the train that only stopped there on a regular basis,” Thayer said. “Having the railroad stop for business was a big factor in the life of any community in the county. It could make or break a town in those days.”

Thayer believes Roza may have begun as a community around spring 1886 when the Northern Pacific’s tracks were completed through the Yakima River Canyon.

Courtesy Kittitas County Historical Museum

The height of silica mining operations in Roza were in the early 1920s. The town had two refining mills, a one-room school house, post office, a laundromat, a general store and houses.

Silica deposits mixed with sandy soil were discovered on the hillsides on the west side of the river. At some point, possibly after 1900, silica mining began, and then took off around 1918-19. Silica is used in the manufacturing of steel, cast iron, glass, ceramics, paper, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and more.

Loads of silica were shuttled over and across the river using a cable and tram-like contraption.

Refining plants on the east side in Roza ground up the material and processed it for bulk shipments by train.

The townsite is only a few miles north of Kittitas County’s border with Yakima County so it’s possible people traveled from surrounding communities to work there.

Thayer’s research indicates the name Roza likely was the name of a wife or daughter of a railroad superintendent or other railway official.

Boom time Thayer said at the height of the

silica mining operations in the early 1920s, Roza had two refining mills, a one-room school house, post office, a laundromat, general store, homes and cabins.

Farmers grew hay and grain nearby and ranchers raised beef cattle. The community’s lifeline was the railroad that brought in supplies, took out silica loads and transported residents and workers.

Thayer said the two main silica mills included one owned by the Great Western Silica Co., which advertised that the more than $100,000 mill was the heart of the second-largest silica operation in the country.

The other was the JapaneseAmerican Silicate Co. plant owned by a Japanese family and later sold to an American-based firm.

The Japanese-American plant either burned or fell into serious disrepair and was dismantled.

The Great Western mill burned to the ground in July 1926. It was never rebuilt, and so far no infor-

mation has been found indicating why it wasn’t.

“The ending of silica processing likely led to the decline of the entire community,” Thayer said.

Records indicate a post office at the general store served Roza from 1904 to 1935. The population was listed as 60 in 1920.

Off the maps Research confirmed the site in 1955 was completely abandoned and in ruins. Anecdotal information indicates residents in surrounding communities may have taken bricks and lumber from the site after it was abandoned.

By the early 1960s Roza as a community had disappeared from new maps.

Thayer said the only visible signs of the small community now are a few low mounds of crumbled bricks and cement blocks with reinforcing iron bars that likely were supports for the refining plants.

Secret Spots

Almanac 2015

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Page 21

Here and there, hidden in tall grass and sagebrush, are the remnants of foundation walls only slightly visible above ground level.

“It was very interesting,” Thayer said about a trip to the site. “To do the research and then see for yourself, on the ground, where this place once stood was exciting. It reminds us that some of our history may be forgotten, or even vanished, but our museums can still remind folks about what was once an important part of the area’s life.”

Getting to the site now by vehicle and then by foot involves a long, circuitous journey; in yesteryear it would have been an even more difficult trip over primitive roads.

“The railroad was really its lifeline; so when the railroad ended its stops there, that probably ended it as a community,” Thayer said. ■

Courtesy Kittitas County Historical Museum

ABOVE: A historic photo of a silica mill’s smokestack pumping smoke into the air. LEFT: Mr. and Mrs. Roberts and their family pose for a photo outside of their store and post office in Roza. BELOW: A silica mill tram on a cable brings silica across the Yakima River.

Page 22 | Almanac 2015

The old YMCA on Water Street has seen its share of uses

Secret Spots

Secret Spots

Almanac 2015

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Page 23

A pool filled with memories

By MICHAEL GALLAGHER assistant editor

T

he list of things downtown Ellensburg used to have includes: ■ A swimming pool.

■ A steam room and sauna.

■ A YMCA. ■ A Catholic Church.

■ A Catholic school.

■ A dance hall.

■ A ladies lounge ■ A basketball court that was home

court for the college men’s basketball team.

■ An Eagles Hall.

Ellensburg had all these things, and they all existed at one point in time in the same building.

The building in question sits on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Water Street. It has most recently housed a couple of restaurants and coffee shop on its lower floor. Its last major tenant was the Eagles Club. Prior to that, it was the home of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church and Catholic school.

But the building started life in 1911 as a YMCA. Central Washington University professor Barry Donahue purchased the building in 2003 after the Eagles decided to move to another location and sell the structure. Since that time Donahue has worked on renovating the building for contemporary uses.

“Mostly I’ve worked on the externals and the mechanical systems,” Donahue said. “I’ve taken care of the roof and the wiring.”

See YMCA, Page 25

Page 24 | Almanac 2015

Secret Spots LEFT: The Ellensburg Bridge Club plays weekly inside the old Catholic school classrooms in the former YMCA building in Ellensburg. BOTTOM LEFT: Mattresses and office chairs pile up in a room that priests used to use during the building’s days as a Catholic school.

BOTTOM RIGHT: An open door leads to a typical room inside the former Ellensburg YMCA building.

Brian Myrick / Daily Record

Secret Spots

YMCA Continued from Page 23

Traces left behind There are places in the building where a person can stand and, without straining the imagination too much, vividly picture all of the past uses.

Starting in the basement, the YMCA pool remains with the sign admonishing users to behave themselves — “No shoving” — is still posted on the wall.

It’s not a large pool by modern standards, but it has a deep end. It was the place many people learned to swim in Ellensburg, and there were scuba diving lessons there as well.

Of all the historic elements in the building that could possibly be rehabilitated, the pool is the one that definitely is not coming back.

“I’m not trying to bring back the original pool,” Donahue said. “Even if it were functional it would be hard to use.”

The dominant feature on the first floor is the large hall. There are remnants that indicate it was used for dances, as well as for church services. If you look up and mentally wipe away the drop ceiling you will see the rafters for the basketball court.

“The college played its basketball games here in the gym,” Donahue said.

Eventually a court was built on campus where the old student union bookstore is located. That structure predated Nicholson Pavilion.

The Eagles bar is on the first floor, and that’s mainly in tact. There is a room off the bar currently in use by the Ellensburg Bridge Club. Along the top of the walls of that room, there is a mural with the faces of children, which were painted when the room was in use as a Catholic school.

The first floor was also the location of the ladies lounge — the one that predated the one on Pine Street, Donahue said.

The land for the YMCA was donated by Ellensburg businessman Sam Pearson. His name is on the Pearson Building, which is location of the Palace Cafe. Donahue said

Almanac 2015

the donation was made contingent on the establishment of a ladies lounge in the building.

“The agreement was it was to be maintained as long as there was a YMCA here,” Donahue said.

In the early days, women could use the pool one day a week. Men were barred on that day.

Community members raised more than $50,000 to build the YMCA building.

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Back to the future St. Andrew’s Catholic Church purchased the building in 1966 and occupied it until 1977. The Fraternal Order of the Eagles purchased the building in 1980.

Donahue’s goal is to restore the building as close as possible to its original condition. In some cases, such as the basement pool and uses that contemporary building codes don’t allow, that isn’t possible, but otherwise the only limiting factor is the money needed for restoration.

Donahue said he has been focused on the mechanical and structural needs, but when he gets to the second floor he’d like to research whether a boarding house style accommodation is possible.

“I think there might be people who like a minimalist setting,” Donahue said. ■

Page 25

enjoy

It’s fun to stay at the Y …

The second-floor is a step back in time to an era when luxury meant a bathroom at the end of the hall and guy could carry his earthly belongings in a knapsack — we’re talking the YMCA before it became the song played to get people out of their seats at sporting events.

Many of the original Y rooms remain in tact, several with the number still on the door. The rooms are so small they would not accommodate the TVs found in many modern American living rooms.

“They’re efficiency apartments,” Donahue said.

The YMCA catered to single men coming into the community to work, it also had a special arrangement with the railroad to house crews.

Donahue said there was a separate entrance for the railroad workers so they wouldn’t track dirt through the main entry.

|

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Page 26 | Almanac 2015

2015

KITTITAS

COUNTY

BUSINESS HERITAGE KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

1908

1909

1911

1923

1928

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HERBERT SNOWDEN INSURANCE

FUNERAL HOME

609 N. Main

925-2002

401 N. Main

925-1414

602 N. Pearl

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426 N. Pine St.

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925-3141

301 E. 3rd

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

1944

1944

1944

1944

1945

Brad & Burke Heating & Air Conditioning

604 W. University Way

410 Gladmar Rd. Thorp

962-9871

964-2474

310 N. Pearl

925-2961

2121 Hwy. 97

933-7050

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KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

1953

1959

1961

1963

1964

Owned & Operated by Joe & Molly Morrow since 1973 University Way & Adler St. I-90 Exit 106

925-5542 925-5442

208 W. Tacoma

925-5539

114 E. 3rd Ave.

925-3778

205 N. Main

925-4151

603 S. Chestnut

962-9841

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN NT Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

1979

1980

1983

1984

1984

All the Pets You Love & Everything They Need

Catlin Electric 1206 S. Canyon Rd.

CATLIE1978BU

Joe Shannon 925-6922

302 N. Pearl

933-3000

Northwest Painting

412 N. Pearl

925-1435

830 Watson Rd.

925-4460

962-2837

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KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

1998

1998

1999

2000

2002 Jon Newton

Consumer voted best pizza chain for 10 years

101 W. 5th

925-1477

205 W. Tacoma Ave.

962-9282

Windermere Real Estate/Cle Elum

208 W. 9th Ave. Suite 6

933-4324

312 N. Ruby

925-9866

807 W. First Street, Cle Elum

(206)

550-0822

Secret Spots

Almanac 2015

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN NT Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

1852

1887

1892

1896

1906

104 E. 4th Ave.

925-4191

502 E. 1st Cle Elum

674-2530

323 N. Main

925-2327

4th & Main

925-9828

501 E. 1st Cle Elum

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Page 27

674-2233

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

1932

1934

1936

1936

1937

“The little Bank with the big circle of friends”

101 W. University Way

925-3000

710 W. 8th Ave.

925-2827

211 S. Main

925-3777

106 W. Third

925-4044

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KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

1945

1946

1946

1950

1950

Furniture & Appliance Inc. www.shawsfurnitureandappliance.com

920 E. 1st Cle Elum

674-2430

512 N. Pearl

925-1475

810 E. University Way Certified Public Accountants

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925-2833

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN NT Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

1972

1972

1976

1977

1978

Boitano Construction

Home of the Goodey Gallery

309 N. Pearl

962-2934

Building in Kittitas County 206 W. Tacoma

925-3007

509-925-2260

111 W. 6th Ave.

925-2505

600 N. Main

925-3176

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

1984

1986

1987

1993

1995 Pregnancy Center of Kittitas County Free Pregnancy Tests • Caring • Confidential www.CareNetEllensburg.org

508 N. Main

925-6991

724 E. University Way

962-2679

500 W. Third

925-5397

611 S. Chestnut Ste B

962-5000

111 E. 4th

925-2273

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

KIIT TIT TAS CO OUN T Y

2006

2007

2009

2012

2014

Jerry Lael

2301 W. Dolarway Suite 5

962-8800

801 S. Ruby

962-8008

706 E. University Way 933-1400

306 S. Main

925-2253

611 S. Chestnut Ste D

(800)

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Page 28 | Almanac 2015

Historic log cabin once owned by a prospector

BY LAUREN TAKORES staff writer

T

he oldest building in Roslyn is a single room, dirt floor log cabin that predates the city itself.

Built in 1885, the Jensen Cabin originally belonged to Nez "Cayuse" Jensen, an early prospector and one of the first coal exporters. It sits on the corner of Second Street and Utah Avenue among modern homes.

Janine Brodine, chairwoman of Roslyn's Planning and Historical Preservation Commission, said the cabin is much admired in town, and that there are no other examples of homes from Roslyn's pre-incorporation days.

The city acquired the cabin in 1995 when the cabin heavily sloped to the side, sinking and rotting, and restored the exterior in 2001.

According to Daily Record archives, the cabin's logs were dismantled and numbered, and rotting logs were replaced. An addition to the back was removed before the cabin was reassembled and placed on a new cement foundation.

Brian Myrick / Daily Record Courtesy Ellensburg Public Library

ABOVE: The Jensen Cabin photographed in the present day in Roslyn.

BELOW: A historic photograph of the Jensen Cabin from the 1920s. A sign sits on top of the cabin that reads “First House Built in Roslyn, 1885.�

Secret Spots

Secret Spots

Almanac 2015

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Page 29

The interior wasn't touched, however, and today the cabin is kept locked since the inside is not renovated or safe. The city's public works department maintains the grounds.

The cabin fits in fine with Roslyn's building exterior aesthetics.

"We want economic vitality, but to have an older feel," Brodine said.

Roslyn is one of the few municipalities that has a combined planning and historical commission, she said. A solid set of codes protect historical features; the entire downtown footprint is a historic district.

The Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation provides a lot of training support, grants and access to a database of neighborhoods.

Finding coal Although Jensen's cabin still stands, his history can be found only in a few local history volumes in the Roslyn Library.

The best account of Jensen's contribution to Roslyn can be found in the library's heavily creased and thumbed-through copy of "Spawn of Coal Dust: History of Roslyn 1886-1955." Old time residents and their descendants assembled the book in 1955 from their own family histories and memories through the History Committee of Operation Uplift, a community development program.

Upper County communities were still wilderness in the 1880s. Only a dozen documented miners lived in the Cle Elum-Roslyn area. The mines were newly discovered and plentiful, ready for the huge immigrant pioneer influx at the turn of the 20th century.

Searching for coal veins was hit-ormiss. A prospecting party declared in 1881 there was "a total absence" of coal in the area, according to "Spawn of Coal Dust."

In 1883, two East Coast prospectors who knew good coal when they saw it settled in what's now Cle Elum.

George Virden and William Branan opened the first coal deposit to mining in what became the No. 3 mine in Ronald. By late 1883, prospectors had made 13 claims along four welldefined veins throughout the Upper County.

Mining was a free-for-all before the rail company arrived in 1886. Miners picked coal with hand tools then hauled carts out of the mines.

See Cabin, Page 30

Brian Myrick / Daily Record

ABOVE: Faintly etched into wood on the cabin a sign reads, “Oldest house in Roslyn.” BELOW: The Jensen Cabin is unsafe for people to enter and the grounds are maintained by the city’s public works department.

Secret Spots

Page 30 | Almanac 2015

CABIN Continued from Page 29 The more coal you mined, the more money you made.

Jensen's cabin Jensen was one of the first coal exporters, along with Virden. With his coal sacks loaded, Jensen made trips every two weeks beginning in June 1884 to supply blacksmiths in Ellensburg. That same year, the rich Roslyn coal vein in Smith Creek Canyon was discovered.

Daily Record archives describe Jensen's cabin as typical for the times, built by Jensen and the teenage sons of local homesteaders Harry and Howard Masterson with hand-split shakes and uniformly sized logs.

In 1886, the Northern Pacific Railway Company arrived. Railroad prospectors located several good spots for mines that summer.

Northern Pacific established a rail stop in Cle Elum in August 1886.

The same year, the city of Roslyn formed and was incorporated into Washington, which was still on its way to statehood.

With the railroad came a new way to export coal; hundreds of tons of coal, not just one wagon load every two weeks. Whether Jensen continued to mine and deliver coal is unknown.

His early years also are a mystery, but his name, Nez "Cayuse" Jensen, offers clues. The Nez Perce and Cayuse are Native American tribes indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, and Jensen is a last name shared by several Roslyn families with Norwegian roots. Could he have been born to a Native American mother and a Norwegian immigrant father? No one seemed to remember in 1955.

When Northern Pacific took over mining operations, officials determined the cabin was on company-owned land and sold the cabin to Augusta Burr, Roslyn's first appointed town clerk, in 1897.

The cabin had several owners through the decades.

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The interior of the Jensen Cabin has remained untouched, and is closed to the public due to safety concerns. In 1995 the cabin was sold to the city of Roslyn so its future could be secured.

Secret Spots In 1995, Cle Elum-Roslyn High School math teacher Jim Miller, who had a house across the street, sold the cabin to the city to ensure the cabin was saved.

Legend and fact Local attorney Dave Browitt grew up hearing stories about Roslyn history. But what he’s heard about the cabin is conflicting, he said.

Jensen’s name is associated with the cabin, he said, but exactly how and why it was built remains unknown; the first mention of the cabin as a historic reminder was so long after it was built, many details are lost.

“People in Roslyn always looked at it is as the oldest house in Roslyn still existing,” he said.

While he agrees the story of Jensen’s life is spotty, he disagrees with the theory that he was part Native American, part Norwegian, and said Nez

Almanac 2015

could have been a nickname for Neil or another Scandinavian name, or be a reference to horses.

Browitt’s grandfather’s uncle and aunt at one time owned the house next to the cabin.

He said his relatives rented out the cabin as a private residence.

“The last time I knew of anybody living in there was the ‘70s or little later,” he said.

Inside, the cabin once had a floor made of board and batten, and an addition on its back side made out of 1x12s, which was torn down during the 2001 renovation.

Browitt was on the Roslyn City Council at the time of the city’s purchase of the cabin.

At the time, he said, there was “loose talk about moving the cabin from the site to another location, and thoughts about what to use the cabin for since it’s not downtown.”

For now, the cabin sits boarded up and waiting. ■

|

Page 31

Brian Myrick / Daily Record

Logs that make up the Jensen Cabin in Roslyn interlock on a corner of the structure.

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Page 32 | Almanac 2015

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