Writing the Book on History:
Local author publishes volume on a century in the Sky

WARREN CARLSON hadn’t intended to write a book about the history of the upper Skykomish Valley, but an editor from history publisher Arcadia wanted a book, so he agreed to do it. The result is 126-page volume rich in photopgraphs and historical detail. Author Warren Carlson, (right) and Skykomish Historical Society collections manager Bob Kelly pored for hours over old photos, agonizing over the choices. Eventually they chose 200 photos for the book. Photo by Pat Carlson

BY POLLY KEARY, EDITOR

The drive from Skykomish to Leavenworth today is a stretch between outposts, a traverse of the wilderness. It wasn’t always so.

In fact, that stretch used to pass through more towns than did the lower stretches of the pass. Travelers there would encounter, within a few miles of each other, the towns of Nippon, Corea, Tye, Alvin, Madison, Berne and Scenic, the latter home to a resort built around a hot springs. Only a dedicated hiker can discover what remains of the towns themselves. And only a dedicated historian could find what remained of the histories of those towns. Until now, that is.

This month, one such dedicated historian by the name of Warren Carlson has published “Upper Skykomish Valley” as part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series, making the pictures and stories of the last century-and-a-quarter of the upper valley immediately available to anyone.

Arcadia looked for an author

Carlson, who lives in Olympia now but who attended his last two years of high school in Skykomish and married Pat Henry Gallagher, a girl with long roots in the Sky Valley, has been the communications director for the Skykomish Historical Society for quite some time, but never considered writing a book. But then Arcadia Publishing, which has published thousands of slim volumes of American history, approached the society’s collection manager to do a book.

The collection manager is the foremost authority on the Wellington disaster, a catastrophic avalanche that wiped out two trains and killed 96 above Skykomish in 1910, and Arcadia wanted a book on the topic.

The colleciton manager wasn’t interested, but he knew that Carlson had a degree in journalism and had once edited and partly authored a book called “Silver Schoolbells” about international schools abroad. So he ran it by Carlson. Carlson last August signed a contract to do the book and got to work.

Putting the book together

“Since August, I worked on it nearly every day,” said Carlson last week. He and Bob Kelly, the collections manager, began to pore over hundreds of photos of the early Sky Valley, selecting the ones that best elucidated the area’s history. They also explored the special collection at the University of Washington, the Museum of History and Industry and other museums and collections to find old photos of mining and timber.

Carlson then took all the photos chosen, wrote detailed captions for each, which make up the bulk of the book. Following an introduction that lays out the early history and sketches the outline of the rest of the history of the valley, the book is divided into decades, beginning in 1890, and each chapter is begun by a one-page exposition of the main points of the decade.


What emerges is the story of a headlong rush to make money, a lot of money, by pushing a railroad across the mountains to the coast.

The history of the Sky

Once the railroad was underway, 10,000 years of history took a very abrupt turn for the Skykomish Valley. Within months, busy towns complete with bars, laundries, hotels and restaurants emerged to serve thousands of railroad workers; in the vanished town of Martin Creek, the Cascade Saloon advertised its rates as the cheapest in town.

With the railroad came mines, and Index sprang up nearly overnight along with rumors of ore strikes nearby. For a time, the eyes of the country were on the Sky Valley as the railroad pushed through to the coast, opening fortunes to people who could take advantage of new markets.

In 1910, the eyes of the entire world turned to the Sky Valley in horror, following the avalanche disaster that hurled two trapped trains into a chasm and crushed them beneath tons of snow. It was the deadliest avalanche disaster in American history and nearly the worst train disaster as well. In the following decades, the book outlines the rise of the timber industry, the decline of mining and the emergence of the valley as it is today.

The outcome

Writing the book, Carlson at times was struck by his responsibility as the historian telling the story of the valley. “People will read it and believe what I said, whether it happened or not,” he said. He also struggled to condense an enormous amount of information into the short captions and pages that Arcadia prefers for the format of their books.

“The story of John Maloney (possibly the valley’s most influential early citizen) should have gotten a sidebar all by itself,” he said.

But in the end, the 126-page volume turned out to be an easily digested, very visual and informative guide the history of the upper Sky Valley, and it was published at an auspicious time; the town of Skykomish is celebrating its centennial this year.

At the centennial festivities June 5, 6 and 7, Carlson will sign copies of the book; those who want one sooner can find them at some local retailers, online or through Arcadia Publishing at www.arcadiapublishing.com. The books can also be ordered from the Skykomish Historical Society, care of Dorothy Beck, P.O. Box 66, Baring WA, 98224. Members of the historical society pay only $21.99 for the book, everyone else pays $24, and nine dollars of eacgh sale goes to the historical society.

That’s a real blessing, said Carlson. “Lord knows a struggling historical society can use every nine dollars it can get,” he said. That way the history of the valley will always be available for anyone who wants to look.


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