EDITOR’S NOTE: Exactly 120 years ago this week, five men set out to cross the Olympic Mountains — and in doing so opened up the frontiers of the North Olympic Peninsula to America and the world.
But their five-month wintry trek was anything but a walk in the woods.
Port Angeles writer-researcher John Kendall begins a three-part series on the Press Expedition.
By John Kendall
For Peninsula Daily News
On either Dec. 8 or 9, 1889 (accounts conflict), 120 years ago, the steamer Evangel arrived in Port Angeles.
“We were all thankful when we pulled alongside the wharf and found ourselves at Angeles under the shadow of the mountains we have undertaken to explore,” wrote James H. Christie, who would lead four other men into land possibly unseen by anyone before — the interior of the Olympic Peninsula.
The group was sponsored by a now-long-forgotten newspaper, the Seattle Press, which would print the group’s account the following July.
Shortly before Washington became a state, the Press reported an interview with the new governor, Elisha P. Ferry, on Oct. 3, 1889.
“Washington has her great unknown land like the interior of Africa,” Ferry said.
“The country shut in by the Olympic Mountains, which includes an area of 2,500 square miles, has never to the positive knowledge of old residents of the territory, been trodden by the foot of man, white or Indian. . . .
“There is a fine opportunity for some of the hardy citizens of the [Puget] Sound to acquire fame by unveiling the mystery which was the land encircled by the snow capped Olympic range.”
So the challenge was issued and reprinted in newspapers throughout the Northwest.
“Then started a steady stream of enquires into this office,” the Press reported.
“Some men had been all over the district mentioned, but when interviewed closely, they were willing to confess that they had not been in the immense district lying between the Quiniault [sic] and Quillayute rivers and the Olympics and the ocean.”
A letter arrives
On Nov. 6, the Press received a letter from North Yakima.
“From your article upon the Olympics, I judge that we are both interested in then unveiling of the mystery which at present exists regarding the Olympic country,” Christie wrote.
“My interest, aroused by the fact that the mountains have not been as yet penetrated by white men and an ambition to accomplish what others may have failed in, backed by an inherent love of adventure, caused me to form the resolution to penetrate the depths of the unknown range.
“It is now my intention to act upon the resolution by entering the mountains next month.”
Why embark so soon?
Author Carsten Lien noted that “the Olympics were the focus of substantial publicity at this time, and at least two other expeditions had as their goal the exploration of the Olympic Mountains.”
Unknown to what would be known as the Press Expedition, it would be “a winter that turned out to be one of the worst on record,” according to Lien.
The expedition forms
Christie headed for Seattle with three others; two more were hired in Seattle.
Christie, 35, a Scotsman with three years experience in the Canadian Arctic, was the leader, and Capt. Charles Adams Barnes, 30, a former officer in the Revenue Service and a mountain explorer, was the topographer of the party.
Their journals would be the basis for the Press’ account.
Three others completed the expedition: John H. Crumback, 33, a cowboy, hunter and Indian fighter; John W. Sims, 28, a Boer War veteran; and Christopher O. Hayes, 22, a cowboy from the Yakima Valley.
Horace B. Runnals accompanied the group part way up the Elwha, then left because of a family emergency.
When the group arrived in Port Angeles, the mayor, Norman Smith, was ready to offer advice.
He had been part of Lt. Joseph Patrick O’Neil’s first expedition into the Olympics in 1885, when the group left Port Angeles and proceeded south to what is now the Hurricane Hill area before returning to Port Angeles.
Smith warned of the winter weather, but Christie insisted the group wanted to be into the interior by the spring runoff.
Then there was the ton of supplies — how would they be carried?
Christie planned to build a boat and go up a river.
That river, Smith suggested, should be the Elwha, which he assured Christie was navigable for at least 30 miles and would lead to the interior.
So the group headed west for the Elwha, setting up camp four miles upriver.
A wagon bought the supplies — lumber along with two mules and four dogs to an empty cabin a mile from the river.
A trail had to be blazed to the Elwha, and on Christmas Day it snowed, so it became easier to transport supplies via sled.
The group began to build the boat — with green wood, now frozen stiff. Fires were built to thaw the wood for the 30-foot, flat-bottomed craft.
When launched on Dec. 31, its sides took water “like a thirsty fish.”
So it was beached with a tarp over it to keep out the snow. For two weeks, fires blazed under it so sap would run out.
On Jan. 13, it was watertight.
THURSDAY: A chilly trek up the Elwha River in search of the great divide.
