Etta May Bennett and Nancy Ann Fisher, the Deer Park area through their eyes in 1970.
DEER PARK PAST AND PRESENT (1970)
This is the land where we live. It is also the land of the pioneers. It is difficult for us to follow or even conceive the rapid transformation which has resulted in the scenes now familiar to us. Many of us can hardly imagine the conditions as they were less than a century ago. There was naught then but a wide prairie surrounded by hills and pine trees. Here and there Indian tepees might be seen with white smoke rising from the center and around them some so-called braves loafing lazily.
Another store was built a few miles distance in 1886 by Mrs. Esther Boerman settlers came from miles around to patronize it because it was the only store selling calico. There were only a few pieces to choose from, so many ladies had dresses of the same material. Supplies were bought wholesale in bulk and weighed out for customers. Coffee was bought in 100 lb. lots and sold for 10 cents a pound. Sugar was 6 lbs. for a quarter.
The first houses were of hand hewn logs. This example can be seen today at Owen's Museum. Not all were as fancy as this one, however.
This was the fourth Wild Rose School built in 1900. The first was built in 1883-84, a small log building. The second also of logs was built in 1888. Jenny Tarbert was the first teacher there. This building burned down and the third school was built in such a rush that classes started before there was any floor, and the pupils sat on pine boards sawed from virgin trees. A row of rough boards like the ones the pupils sat on served for desks. Pitch oozed from both the boards and the blocks to get on the clothes of the pupils and their books. Mischievous boys would put pitch in the girl's hair which hung down their backs in braids. That schoolhouse was used for school, church, and public meetings for years. Then in 1900 this schoolhouse was built and is used as a community center now.
In 1889, a Methodist Episcopal Church was organized by Milton Anderson and this building was erected in 1893, on the present church grounds. It was later struck by lightning and burned.
Here is this very same Church as it stands today on Wild Rose Road and Monroe Roads
They also built a School. The first term in Williams Valley was twenty days in the spring. Most salaries then were $20 a month and the teacher paid for board or boarded a short time in each of the pupils' homes. Each family subscribed a certain amount each year towards the teacher's salary. There were no taxes. Children walked many miles to school, sometimes following fences and trails through the tall timber. Slates and slate pencils were used for writing. The children chewed Tamarack gum when they were allowed the privilege. Water was carried from a creek or spring or from a neighbor's home and all drank from the same dipper.
Many of the pioneers in this area were Norwegian. In 1893 they organized the Trysil Scandinavian Lutheran Congregation to have a place to worship in the tradition and custom that the pioneer settlers were accustomed to in their native countries in Europe. This church was built in 1901 on the Spotted Road, two miles east of Clayton. In 1950 it was moved to Deer Park. It is now called Zion Luthern Church rather than Trysil.
Much improvement can be seen a few years later in 1893. The building on the left was owned by Martin Johnson where it operated as a meat market. It later was purchased by Louis Olson in 1905. He added a line of groceries and enlarged the building. Notice the tree stumps in the street. In a September issue of the Spokane Review in 1893, P. J. Pete Kelly stated, "Deer Park is going ahead in spite of the cry of hard times. Improvements are going on rapidly and the town is fast assuming the air of a metropolitan city. Mind you it is not the growth of a boom, but the steady growth that comes to stay with the country that has the resources to back it."
Many of the first settlers ran sawmills or hauled their logs to a nearby sawmill as they cleared the land. This mill north of Deer Park was typical of the mills that sprang in the area.
Logs were transported in many ways in those days. In winter the loads were pulled on sled runners by the horses.
Virgin timber was being cut and the logs were immense. This one off the Roy Mason farm was too big to go through the circular saws at the Standard Lumber Co. in Deer Park.
What was then the wild man's home ground has become the fertile fields of today has become a modern metropolis and a civilization. The fur traders were the first to come and to Eastern Washington after the explorers and some missionaries. Sometime before the 1860s the military trail was built from Walla Walla to Fort Colville and was the oldest of the pioneer trail. With protection at Fort Colville settlers began to move in. These pioneers built the Cottonwood Road in 1869 going by way of Chewelah, Loon Lake, Deer Park, Chattaroy to what was known as Spokane Bridge later known as Spokane Falls to the west. At the close of 1873 there might have been 100 souls in what is now constituted Spokane County. The Cottonwood Road and branches of it became known as the old Colville Trail. This site is a reminder of that trail.
As years passed, the trail became a road of good quality and was well traveled. This section near the Idaho line was the beginning of the road to Colville. Many early pioneers passed through the Deer Park area over this road when there was nothing here but virgin timber. A few decided to settle and clear the land.
This is the beginning for our story: It was on Wild Rose Prairie that the first known settler, Heny Maxum, came in the spring of 1882. Mrs. Maxum named the prairie Wild Rose because of the many wild roses found blooming there. Only one more family came that year, but in 1883 about 15 more came to the prairie. This is about the time it was opened for homesteading. In the spring of 1884, R.R. Hazard and family arrived on the prarie to start a store. The next year a post office was established in the building. Mr. Hazzard drove a team and wagon to Spokane once a week and brought the mail back with him. The post office was located here until 1904.
You are now seeing the first house of J. A. Prufer who came to Wild Rose in 1888. He hued all the logs for this cabin in one day. He and his wife had just enough money to buy half a window glass. The 40 cents worth of boards for the door had to be carried in on the back of a saddle pony. Then began the long task of clearing. It took ten years and $1400 worth of dynamite to remove the stumps. The necessity of raising a readily saleable crop forced him into the celery business. For forty years Prufer was the "Celery King" of the area. He even had contracts with the large hotels in Spokane for the vegetable.
Times have changed, and little if any celery, is grown on the farm today; but the richness of the land is evident viewing it from here.
Wild Rose Cemetery was established in 1885 when the Little BrownChurch or Evangelic Church was started on these grounds. In was located near the gate in this picture. The first church services were preached by a Reverend Stranton and was held in Joseph Tarbert's woods in 1884.
In 1914 the members built the present church. This picture was taken in its early years but it has changed little since that time. The Church is still in operation and services are held there each Sunday.
Another community grew up in Williams Valley northwest of Wild Rose. This small cemetery reminds us of these early pioneers. At first settlers went to Wild Rose for their mail but ,soon they had a post office of their own.
Another area being settled was about 9 miles north of Wild Rose on Spotted Road. These early settlers, many buried on this hill would go to Hazard for supplies twice a year. The trail was poor do they put notches in the trees to mark the way. These spots on the trees gave Spotted Road its name.
When the Railroad came through the valley in 1889 it brought with it more settlers. One of them was Pete Kelly who built a store where Deer Park is now located. The store was first started in the small quarters at the left until the rest of the building was erected. The family resided upstairs. The area boasted of its beautiful lakes, virgin timber, fertile soil, sparkling streams, excellent fishing and numerous deer and bear.
By contrast, this shows the same view in Deer Park today.
Another mill belonged to William Short and his brother-in-law George Crawford. Mrs. Short ran this fine boarding house for the men who worked in the mill. It was also a community center for the times. The boarding house burned a few years ago. It had stood where the present Minit Market (Levi's). The Mill was located across the tracks north of where the creamery is now located.
This picture of logging is the Spokane Lumber Co. shows a large load the horses pulled. 8000 board feet on a wagon is more than a modern trucks haul today. Notice the poles that are being used as rails for the wagon which aids the horses in carrying such a heavy burden.
"Old Buck" was brought to Deer Park to be used by Short's logging crew just before the turn of the century. "Old Man Shield" ran this steam operated rig. He is the one standing so proudly on top of the platform. Old Buck was driven from Portland. It is said it cut its own road. It weighed 25 tons and could cut down anything in its path.