HBT Photo Album PA1 √ Jim2-Jack 1930s-1940s (pics and text)
• Click on the (+) bullet point at left
• View each album page without text by clicking on any one of highlighted links below,
e.g. page HBT_PA_02
• Open and view the text associated with each of the album pictures on each page by clicking on the (+) bullet point symbol at left of each line below. This opens up a block of text. Close this text when you are ready to open text for a different page.
• View this album's text and pictures together online by first setting up this text outline format web page window to fill the left third , or less, of your monitor viewing area. Leave it open. Click on any of the page links below, which should open a second web window for viewing the album pictures. Set this new window size to fill the right two thirds of your monitor viewing space. Navigate over this right window using the right and bottom border controls to find individual pictures on the page. When you select a new page link, you will replace the page in the right-window.
• There is hidden text throughout this document. Watch for bullet points with (+) inside. To maintain viewing contact with the entire album, this album contains compressed bullet points with (+) sign inside, which should be clicked-on for more detail. When all text is shown, uncompressed (-), a minus sign is in the bullet point. See for example HBT_PA_07, where pictures A and D contain compressed text.
•  Photo Album 1 is 20 pages plus cover
• An earlier, very partial version of this outline format web presentation is available elsewhere .

https://truher.net/gene/HBT/PA1/HBT-PA1-wComment.html

From there or from the links below, you can also preview the album pages, full screen, without text, using only the web page BACK function. But you can do that much better from this page. So use this alternative page only if you can't operate this page. Let me know of any problems.

I don't know when I got this album. Because mother has added my wife Nancy's picture on the cover, I may have received the album directly from mother HBT. Perhaps I got the album from JWT2 a couple years ago.
• album page HBT_PA1_00 cover
• These pictures are from the album cover, page 00, a composite in time from different eras.

Picture A. Mother HBT sometime after she had been working as a permanent Pasadena Elementary Schools teacher. This was probably about 1952.

Picture B Mother Helen Truher with her two sons, Jim and Jack. Mother was making a connection for me about our two generations with this album page.

Picture C. Nancy Truher with our children Nate and Joel as toddlers about 1970.

Picture D. Grandmother Kathryn Burke. I think I remember the day when my mother prepared her own mother for this picture by a professional photographer.

Picture E. Father JWT1, probably about 1952
• album page HBT_PA1_01
• 
picture A. The house that dad build on a corner of his father's property on Riverton Heights land - north and in the flight path of, the Seattle-Tacoma airport. This is where Jack learned to walk.

Jim (JWT2) wrote to Jack (JBT) in February-November 2001:
•  The property (originally 5 acres) actually begins on North side of 135th St. about 5 doors West of Military Road. There are 3 homes on the property along 135th with the 3rd one have been built between the original grandparents house and the house Dad built. On the rear (North) of the property there is now a grade school.

The location of the two houses I just sent is in South West Seattle in an area called Riverton Heights. It is in the 3000 block of 135th St a hundred yards or so East of Military Road.

Jim3 took these photos Friday while I visited him recently. The house that built was about 1/2 its present size when we lived there. Dad hand dug a basement under his parents house in return for the 1/4 acre on which he built our small house. The grand parents property was 5 acres surrounded by fields and trees.

• 
picture B. The house at 245 Hillside Road that JWT1 and HBT built beginning about 1958, when Jack was away at Stanford. Michael was home at South Pasadena High School mostly and participated in the planning, and likely some considerable helping out.

•  picture C. The house of Milo Burke in Beverly Hills. Milo had made a lot of money as founder of a specialty steel company during world war II, after this Milo put his fortune into a home portable air fan manufacturing venture which failed as a business. Milo lost the Beverly Hills home, and died without anything. (open this item for more information!)
• Jack Truher recalls visiting this home about 1948. Milo lived here with his 2nd (or 3rd?) wife, Bonita. My mother, Helen Burke Truher, often said that "Milo had various women in his life, but he was madly in love with Bonita". 

Bonita was a Greto Garbo sort of figure, quite unlike the Burkes or the Truhers, projecting an air of Hollywood glamor and makeup, and fancy things. She was also given to depression, and may have been drug dependent. She would often go incognito for months. In summer of 1958 , she lived alone, or perhaps with her two daughters by Milo, at Lake Arrowhead in a house presumably financed by Milo, which address I knew from HBT. I drove by to gawk, but did not stop. It was simple structure, not so pretentious as the Bel Air house.

The grounds were substantial, at least two acres. The property had it's own running spring coming from a hillside, spilling a few gallons per minute cool water over a three foot retainer dam. I don't recall the date of our visit, but it was not winter. It was a warm day. I recall - summer. There was nothing to do for Jack or Jim on the day of this visit but to tour the grounds. The setting was of unimaginable extravagance.

Milo had made a lot of money through work managing and then owning a small steel foundry, making small orders of special alloys, in Los Angeles region during WWII. He bought this house with that money, and put the rest into a business venture, making home ventilation fans. These were floor mounted propeller fans that were featured stores with the novelty that, when air flow was pointed from floor to ceiling of a room, a balloon would dance stably near the ceiling. This business failed; Milo lost nearly everything, and sold the house. My impression was that Milo & Bonita lived in the Bel Air house from about 1948 - 1953.

Next I heard about Milo was perhaps 1962, that he had started a small company near the Johnson Space Center, making ceramic items for NASA. Milo complained that his few employees there were also NASA workers, and they only knew very expensive ways to do things. He said, "they always wrap a ten dollar bill around every part." This little company bid and won the contract for my SLAC's high radiation environment, vacuum feed-thru electrical connectors, many of which are still in place and working fine. With no comparable manufacturers, these connectors were regarded as irreplaceable.

While I was the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, about 1963, Milo asked me (through mother) to make some contacts at LLNL for similar contract work. I told him that most of this work was classified, and I had no way to investigate the issue for him. Milo complained about the difficulty of penetrating the security shrouds.

About 1966, on a visit to Pasadena, mother told me about Milo's next little company, also making electrical connectors which used ceramic seals in a radiation environment. This was a very small operation.

Mother wrote me shortly after Milo had died during a stopover visit to her home in South Pasadena. He fell over to the floor of a heart attack. Mother was distressed that her arthritis was so advanced that she was not able to give him artificial respiration on the floor.
• album page HBT_PA1_02
• 
picture A.
Caption is "Hotel Oakland" in the 1930s. Perhaps this is a photo of one of JWT1's trip to Berkeley playing basketball. Perhaps it was a trip of Helen and Jim Truher. Jack never heard any other explanation of what this photo was about.

picture B. JWT at what looks like fraternity row at USC, probably the Phi Sigma Kappa house of which he was President for a time.

picture C. JWT1 basketball photo of USC

picture D: JWT1 in suit

picture E: Unidentifed co-ed, probably at UCLA. Does not look like HBT.

picture F: scene of UCLA campus, where mother HBT was member of first graduating class.
• album page HBT_PA1_03
• 
picture A: Milo Burke, brother of Helen Burke.

picture B: Jim Truher at USC about 1931. Notice standard Truher arms are too long for standard sweaters.

picture C: Helen Burke about 1931 in nice street scene. Helen and Jim seem to be taking pictures of each other.

picture D: Aunt Marie Murphy of Gresham, Oregon is at left in the 1930s. Aunt Marie was the wife of Kate Murphy Burke's brother. Their home in Gresham was a regular stopping off point as the Truher's traveled back and forth from Seattle to Los Angeles in the late 1930s and early 1940s. At center is Aunt Marie's geeky son, Danny, probably in high school. Woman at right is unrecognized.

picture E: Kate Murphy Burke, mother of Helen Burke Truher in mid-1930s, est.

picture F. Kate Murphy Burke with her son, Leo (Glen) about 1936, est.

picture G. Unrecognized scene of two women and a child picking fruit from a tree
• album page HBT_PA1_04
• 
picture A.
Look carefully at pictures A & C together. Picture C is grandmother Kate Burke's House in Los Angeles, so Picture A may be the back side of that house. Aunt Marie Murphy appears to be the seated woman (as is best seen on the original copy, but would also be clear on high res copy of this page). The woman picking tomatoes may be Helen Burke Truher, who had a particular fondness for tomatoes.

JWT2 doesn't thing that Picture A is behind Kate's Burke's LA house. Instead he suggests: "This may be mother's Torrance house that I have never seen; the roof line isi not consistent with Kate Burke's 73rd Street house"

picture B. Edna Burke and Milo Burke, Helen Burke's siblings, are shown together, probably at Kate Murphy Burke's home of the same era.

picture C. Kate Murphy Burke's home while Helen Burke was in college and until mid to late 1940s.

picture D. Helen Burke Truher dressed up in gloves, looking a bit pigeon-toed (inherited by son, Jack). The dog is Kate Burke's Chi-Wa-Wa, a breed she kept so long as she lived at the East L.A. house.

picture E. This dog belonged to Helen Burke Truher before and during her early marriage to Jim Truher. The house in background is probably where they lived as newly weds, a guess made likely because of it's simple rustic (cheap) state, and because we never heard a word about the location.

picture F. Kate Burke with an unidentified woman on what appears to be a shopping trip?
• album page HBT_PA1_05
•  picture A. Jim Truher with lake scene at background. The context of this page suggests that most nature scenes are of Scenic in the Cascades.

picture B. Helen Burke Truher with unidentified woman with river in background.

picture C. Helen Burke Truher with her dog. The pants that Helen and Jim are wearing might be for horseback riding, though we never heard of this activity. Maybe for snake protection?

picture D. Helen's dog.

picture E. River scene shows children and dog with two unidentified women.
•  picture F1. There are two stories associated with this picture in the course of this NoteBook preparation. The most likely location of the shack photo was at Berne, (Washington State), not at Sauvies Island (near Portland) as Jim2 has recently reconstructed (just below). The reason that Jack feels confident that picture F is at Berne is from the first page, with accompanying photo page, of the the text description that my mother HBT left us with on Jim2's early life. This story runs some 28 pages, and will hopefully be made available online as well. The picture there, while copied many times, is clearly the same Picture F shack. Mother's contextual story clearly connects this shack with the period of her late pregnancy with Jim2 at Berne, and with the legendarily dynamite blasted tree stump that flew a hundred yards over a roadway to position itself as back porch of dad's new shack.

Berne is located on the same rail line as the
more often discussed Scenic . Berne is on the Eastern side of the "Old Cascade Tunnel" built about 1900, while Scenic is on the Eastern side of that tunnel. There was a New Cascade Tunnel as well.

same URL:
http://www.northwestrailfan.com/scenic.htm

The web page just cited makes connections with several of the locations often referenced in Truher family Lore. Scenic and Berne are on the same rail line which led August Truher from Minnesota to the Tacoma station and with his family to nearby Kent, Washington. On the Eastern side of the Cascades through the same railroad mountain pass is Wenatchee. Skykomish is on the line.

So Jim2's story below, of another smaller shack at Sauvies Island belongs therefore in a different year, when Jim was starting school at five years old. A more appropriate location in this NoteBook for Jim2's recollections will be found in due course.
•  picture F2. Helen Burke Truher left us a record of this early period, which I have converted to text with OCR (optical character recognition). Here are the first three pages of her HBTxt_JWT2 (where *** indicates page separation of original).

======================================================
James Wilder Truher Jr. - as remembered by his mother ~ 1980

July 4, 1934 through December 10, 1934 - THE MOUNTAIN CABIN

You, and I arrived by train to meet your father at Berne, Washington, where your father had spent three days building a little house (a shack really) of three rooms. He was employed by Coyle Construction Company as a superintendent of highway construction. There was no place for me to live (with you) so he built this little place of three tiny rooms -- the first was his office, the second was our living/dining room and the third was our bedroom (just big enough for a double bunk (you and I slept on ,the top bunk), and some orange crates to use as a dresser of sorts. Outside in the woods was the needed toilet. Also outside were beautiful woods and a delightful mountain stream. The house was built across the highway from two tents in which two of your Dad's foremen lived with their wives. A half mile or so down the road was the big camp for the workmen -- about 100 of them who worked, at that time, for 50 cents an hour.

Your grandmother visited us during the summer for a few days and as I think of it now she must have worried about the circumstances in which: her baby daughter was living, but she never complained. She enjoyed the beauty of the surroundings and so did I. Really, it was a very pleasant summer. We had a little excitement one day when they were blasting tree trunks for the new highway, and bur little house could have been destroyed. One huge trunk (about 4 feet in diameter) was blown under the back door of our bedroom. From then on, I had a back porch.

But the big excitement carne early in November when we awakened to see a beautiful white world. Snow on every branch of the evergreens, snow and ice on the road, snow on the rocks of the stream. I ,was very excited, but your Dad was worried, and with good reason, it turned out.

The highway to the coast and to the east was closed and the train, couldn't get through. I Learned later that the two women across the highway began boiling water as soon as they got up, just in case you should decide to arrive a month early. But I wasn't a bit worried -- I just enjoyed that snow. But that night there were avalanches all around us and the stream became a river. We stayed up a long time while Dad went out every hour to measure the rise of the river just in case
we needed to get on higher ground. But the river went down before morning. And by noon the next day the train carne through. And you know who was on it -- you and your mother.

One of the women across the road had a sister named Nell Barber who had 6 kids (aged 2 to 20) and lived in Seattle. Arrangements were made for me to stay in Nell's house and pay board until Jim came home from the construction job. I missed your Dad a lot at that time, but there was a lot of distraction with the Barber family. They were very good to you and me.

***

On December 9, your Dad finished the work at Berne for that year. He loaded our car on a big truck, but again couldn't get to the coast over the shortest route. We had to go a couple of hundred miles out of the way to get to Seattle. I had started into labor before he arrived at the Barber family place, so they took me to Providence Hospital that day (the 9th of December). However, my labor pains were spasmodic so I went to sleep. I had pains off and on the next day, and you were born about midnight. You weighed 7 pounds and 5 ounces and had. a strong pair of lungs. The doctor had to make an instrument delivery (it was Johnny Marcks fault -- really the nurses fault) so your lip was cut and your head was kind of pointed. These things disappeared (the cut and the point) in a couple of days.

Your Dad and I were delighted with our new little son. In fact, your Dad was so excited the night you were born that he called my mother and told her that the baby was 7 feet 5 inches and weighed 20 pounds. Your grandmother and grandfather Truher and May were at the hospital when you were born. You, of course, were the first grandchild in that family and they were almost excited as your dad .

December 10, 1934 through April, 1935 -- SEATTLE APARTMENT

On December 11 and some days following, I was in a state of euphoria because I sincerely felt that I had participated in a miracle. Here was this healthy, strong, cute little boy brand new to the world. I was in a room in PROVIDENCE HOSPITAL and my roommate was Helen Marcks. In those days mothers and babies stayed in the hospital two weeks, so you and I and Helen and Johnny Marcks got well acquainted.

While we were there, Dad scoured Seattle looking for a furnished apartment which we could afford. He found one at
1616 E. Howell on the third floor. I'll never forget going horne from the hospital. I carried you until we got ready to go in the apartment house and then your Dad carried you for the first time. He was so very, very careful of you that I had to smile, but I couldn't let him see me smile because he was so earnest and obviously felt such a sense of responsibility.
I had a hard time walking up all those stairs (no elevators) because I had a lot of stitches and was all bent over. It was a nice enough apartment and we kept you in our bedroom (the only one) .

The four months or so we spent there were pleasant and uneventful after the first couple of weeks. You and I had problems those first two weeks because my doctor insisted that I should nurse you *** and I was anxious to be a good mother. However, you cried and yelled and acted as if you were hungry all the time. The doctor had us buy a baby scale and weigh you before and after feeding and the quantity of fluid was sufficient so the doctor said I must be exaggerating and to let you cry -- it was good for your lungs. But I didn't believe it after a while and went to the drug store and got a baby formula to supplement your feeding and after that you were fine.

Somewhere in March or April we had word that Bob Erskire and three or four other fraternity brothers of your Dad's were coming to Seattle en route home from playing basketball in Japan. The first we knew any more about it was about 8:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning when a lady from downstairs came up and told us there were a bunch of guys down there yelling "Truher! Truher! Truher!" So they got acquainted with you and spent the day with us. The reason this was a big event for me was that I didn't know anyone in Seattle except Nell Barber (You and I lived with her before you were born) and your grandparents and Mike and Minerva McDermott and Mike McDermott Jr. who was about 3 years old.

You were baptized in the church in Renton, Washington, with your Aunt May and Uncle Louis as godparents. Your grandparents and parents also attended. I dont think you cried, but maybe a little.

Your Dad did all your laundry because the tubs were in the basement four floors down. I remember Mike McDermott looking down his nose and saying that was "women's work", but your dad was helping you and me the way he has done all his life.

This apartment was on Capital Hill and grocery shopping was nearby. We never had money to have a baby sitter or go anywhere except drive to your grandparents so you had a great deal of attention from parents and grandparents. I used to take you in your baby carriage over to see Minerva McDermott and past Volunteer Park to see Nell Barber -- but that was only when it wasn't raining, which in those months was very, very rare.

By the time we moved you were about four months old and weighed somewhere around 16 pounds. I took you to a pediatrician regularly and he said you were in perfect health. You had grown about 6 inches, and were beginning to get sore gums because you got your first tooth at five and half months after we moved. You were sweet and good natured and fun to play with. I talked to you a lot and you seemed to try to talk back.
•  picture F3. Brother Jim wrote, "this is the one room shack that dad built on Sauvies Island, although it looks slightly larger than I remember. The thumbnail picture below is the house that dad built in a day at Sauvies Island. Dad standing with an unidentified woman. What I do remember is the privy outside, the porch was the stump of a tree about the size of the felled tree in the photo, a room divider made of a rope and blanket, and starting school a short distance away in a 2 room school house with 4 grades in each room, eating a real mud pie with sugar given to me by two mean little girls."

image

www.truher.net/gene/HBT/PA1/HBT_PA1_05web.jpg

Other of Jim's report follow:

From: "James W. Truher"
Subject: "House" where Jack and I lived summer/fall in 1940.
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 19:26:25 -0700

"I started 1st grade in a 2 room school house while
living in this shack with Jack and parents. Sauvies Island then was reachable only by a 3 car, 150 yard ferry ride. Sauvies is a few miles N/W of Portland on the edge of the Columbia River. The porch was a tree stump and the toilet was an outside hole in the ground with a shed built around it behind the house. My memory is that Dad built this in a day, it was one room inside divided by a blanket hung from a clothes line inside."
==========================================================

Sent: Friday, October 18, 2002 4:51 PM
Subject: Jim & Helen Truher family, on road jobs

"Jim is looking for some scenes from Scenic, the mountain areas near Seattle when our dad was a highway superintendent for a small, contractor name Coyle (more eventually explained later in this book).

Jack adds here: From this album, PA1, here are the most likely pages I could find set the Scenic:
PA1_12 (A-E; not F), PA1-16 A, PA1_17 (A; less B), PA1_18 (all; less B & C)."

Brother Jim found a map which
includes Silverton, Scenic, and Wenatchee (upper left in sequence to lower right on map). All of these place were major stopping points on the tour of Truher family adventures from 1934 - 1941.

same url: https://truher.net/gene/HBT/PA1/SilvertonScenic-Wenatchee-uL-Lr.png
•  picture G. Another unidentified woman in unidentified location.
• album page HBT_PA1_06
• 
picture A. Snowy view of JWT1 unknown location, probably at Scenic.

picture B. Snow bound river scene, same location. Brother Jim says: "I recall mom saying this photo is of the Scenic River. There is a river like this along the road up to Scenic. The road does go East through the mountains and MAY even now is BE closed AT TIMES during the Winter months. The road that does close for sure is the 410/123 road complex through the mountains by Mt Rainier. I drove it a few years ago until I came to the point where signs said “Road Closed till late spring” 

picture C. Helen Burke Truher, thin tummy with her dog and unknown woman.

picture D. Jimmie (JWT2) has arrived, we know, from Providence Hospital in Seattle, which is either the same building as named Maynard Hospital where Jack was born.

picture E. Jimmie looking alert at about 6 months old.

picture F. Mother Helen Truher with Jimmie at a less than a month old.
• album page HBT_PA1_07
• 
picture A. HBT's sister Edna Burke with her mother, Kate Burke, at porch of Kate's home in south-central-west Los Angeles on West 73rd Street (see map) between Van Ness St. and Western Ave in Los Angeles, near Figueroa. Boy is Bobbie Burke, Milo's son by his first wife.
•  Clarified by JTW2: "The house is the second one West of Gramercy on the North side of 73rd. In 2005 the house is in a rough district, but not the worst gangland. I drove by 6 mos ago. The property is newly painted, blue I think, well cared for with lots of black kids out in the neighborhood."

Jack asks: "
Did you ever hear the story of how they wound up with this 73rd street house? Mother (born Dec 23, 1910) went to high school in Monrovia. They all moved to LA not long before mother was ready to start high school. Her father died when she was 14. So far as I knew, nobody had any money for anything. Mother's father died of heart trouble inTorrance at age 60. They must have moved pretty quick from Torrance to Monrovia where mother went to high school.  

Jim responds: "They moved into a house on Foothill Boulevard in Monrovia when mom started high school and Grandma Burke moved to 73rd St. when mom was at UCLA. Don’t know how they paid for it, but there was the farm and much older brothers that may have helped."


• 
picture B. Jimmie (JWT2) walking at about one year old in the backyard of Kate Burke's home.

picture C. Jimmie with characteristic enthusiasm, also at just over one year old.
•  picture D. Jimmie at over two years old with his father, and two men. The man at left is Jack Coyle, dad's (JWT1's) construction company owner and boss for much of the era. The other man could be his son or, by appearance, his younger brother. JWT2 confirmed this independently after checking this picture online. Jack Coyle, and perhaps the other man, were killed on a bid trip to Alaska, ending my father's business relationship with that company, and the little company itself. I don't know what the work was in Alaska. It may have been the Great Alaska Highway , "built as a military road between 1942-44." It may be that Jack's parents' peculiar early compromise which named JBT as John Truher, but nicknamed as Jack Truher, was motivated by the respect appreciation that father JWT1 had for Jack Coyle. Emotional ties were not easy for my father to express. The name, John, was traceable to my mother's uncle John Burke. Michael Barrett Truher was named for my grandmother Helen Barrett (Nellie) Truher.

same link:
http://www.explorenorth.com/library/roads/alcan-signs.html
•  The name of the small construction company was, Coyle Construction, after the owner. JWT1 worked for this small company as road construction superintendent and paymaster for perhaps 3 years, one of his most interesting work experiences. The relationship only ended when the company owner-manager and one or two others of his family were killed in small plane accident in Alaska. This trip was for bidding on a highway job there, perhaps the great Alaska highway. JWT1 was invited but chose not to go, thinking the flying plans too dangerous. [This is general story as repeated by HBT and JWT1.]
• 
picture E. JWT2 at about 18 months old, looking out a side, main floor, entrance of what I believe was the big house of August Truher on Queen Ann Hill in Seattle. JWT2 agrees that this is the old Queen Ann Hill victorian house. Jim told Jack in 2002 that this house had been demolished, along with many of its kind, to make room for multiples.

picture F. JWT2 at about 18 months old with his parents, on a different expedition. Father JWT1 appears thinner and less muscular than most other early pictures. JWT2 believes this photo may have been taken at the Riverton Heights home of grandparents before JWT1 built house there.
• album page HBT_PA1_08
• 
picture A. Seated on grass, from left to right, grandmother Nellie Truher, JWT1's sister, May Truher, JWT2 pulling on shirt of JWT1's brother Lewis Truher, and August Truher. Scene is probably set in the back yard of August and Nellie Truher in their new house at 3115 South 153rd Street, Riverton Heights, Seattle.
• The property (originally 5 acres) actually begins on North side of 135th St. about 5 doors West of Military Road. JWT2 continues by email in 2001, there are 3 homes on the property along 135th with the 3rd one have been built between the original grandparents house and the house Dad built. On the rear (North) of the property there is now a grade school.

This paragraph is from an email exchange of JBT/JWT2 on July 4, 2001: "From about 1935-1940, August and Nellie lived at a 2 story property within steps of a tiny house my dad built on August's property including the tiny house at 3115 South 135 Street, Riverton Heights in 1937. August owned about 5 acres there, then only had his house and the little one my dad built for us. The little house was sold about 1945, and probably the larger house about the same time. This Riverton Heights location is now in the flight path, very near, and just north of the main Seattle-Tacoma Airport. The little house is still there, but it has been added-onto so it is more than twice the size my father built originally." JWT2 and JWT3 have seen within the last couple of years, the little house that he and I lived in in Riverton Heights. Additions have doubled its size.

JWT2 wrote me on Nov 25, 2001: "Dad hand dug a basement under his parents' house in return for the 1/4 acre on which he built our small house. The grand parents property was 5 acres surrounded by fields and trees."

I don't have records or knowledge of August and Nellie's residence after about 1945. Somewhere in Seattle until Nellie died; then August moved briefly to Altadena and then to Hawaii where he died with his oldest daughter.

•  picture B. JWT1, August, and Lewis Truher. Note that Lewis appears to be dressed Greyhound Bus company uniform cloths. Lewis was manager of Greyhound station when in died.

picture C. JWT1, Nellie, August, May, Lewis Truher. My guess is that Helen Burke Truher took these pictures of family on August's Riverton Heights property.

picture D. Helen Nelson with Jimmie (JWT2), and Helen Truher. Not clear where this is. JWT2 said recently (2005) that he thinks this scene is probably in eastern or central Washington State.

picture E and F. Jimmie (JWT2) in same location of picture D.
• album page HBT_PA1_09
• 
picture A. Unknown scene. JWT2 says eastern Washington State, maybe Winnatchee.

picture B. JWT2 about age 2 with JWT1 in snow, probably Seattle in 1936. Jack not on scene yet.

picture C. JWT1 family probably at August Truher's home in Riverton Heights on day of light snow.

picture D. Jimmie (JWT1) featured as much loved first child of parents. Helen Truher was a super mom enthusiast about her children. Few reservations. No looking back. Great pride. Serious endeavor. Jack learned never to underestimate the determination of a healthy woman in midst of child-bearing.
• album page HBT_PA1_10
• 
picture A,B,C. Jimmie with proud mom, Helen Truher, and grand mother Nellie Truher. There were emerging tensions between Helen and Nellie. Nellie was very much the German traditionalist. Helen was tried of being broke and wanted to work part time to make some money. Big tension.

picture D. Riverside Motel has no place in my recollection of any mention. Jack wasn't born yet.

picture D. JW1, JWT2, August Truher appears to be same snow scene at Riverton Heights property, 1936.
• album page HBT_PA1_11
• 
picture A. JWT1 and Johnny Marcks, unknown location.

picture B. JWT1,2 perhaps at Scenic.

picture C. Edna Nasby, Helen Truher, and grandmother Kate Burke in Springtime visit (notice flowers), with JWT1 (wheelbarrow). Helen may show some evidence of early pregnancy (Jack).

picture D.` JWT2 with unknown child, perhaps a Marcks sibling. Guess here is that this is from a visit by Marcks family (more in later pictures).
• album page HBT_PA1_12
• 
Picture A & C. Edna Burke Nasby (Helen's sister) with grandmother Kate Burke at Scenic. JWT1 appears to be more about 3.5 years old. PIctures surely taken by Helen Burke Truher.

Picture B, D, E. JWT2 with unknown mother and baby. Perhaps at Scenic, though many such work camp locations must have been used. This woman was likely an important companion for Helen to get this much album space.
•  Picture E. HBT's sorority sister, Mona, with an unknown woman and baby, with JWT2 standing at age 3.5. (more text at (+))
• Mona was unusual in that she had inherited money and was relatively rich even in college, so she had time and money to travel. Mona became schizophrenic in later life, though she was able to live at home for many years in a fancy Pasadena house, first with her parents and later alone. The last time, Jack saw her was on Morada place about 1947, when she was running around, calling out delusionally, on the street. She had to be subdued, perhaps by police. In later life, I have her in a picture with other elderly friends of my mother.
•  picture F. "Yosemite our camp July 1936". Jack is persuaded this is our grandmother, Kate Burke, in photo taken by Edna returning from visit to Washington State in the car of picture C on this page.
• Edna was always an enthusiastic traveler. The big smile of presumed Kate is uncharacteristic of how we knew her as elderly. It seems a younger person - but the dress, the hair style, the body are otherwise so close to the other pictures here, it must be Kate. Yes, look at the accentuated collar of the dress, an unusual feature. It appears also in picture C. so thanks Grandma Burke, for that big smile. We can even see the high toothy smile and basic facial lines of her daughter, Helen. What was she laughing about. No matter, Edna had a sense of irony, appreciation for something silly. Edna was a school teacher too, and a good one. In her later years, she was off with Don on various trips: Egypt, Europe. Until his asthma got the best of him. When Edna died, mother Helen shared none of it with me. I wrote Don Nasby a letter about 1962, shortly before he died. He wrote back. We saw a lot of Don as Edna visited with Helen often. We got used to them. Don was always quiet, calm, thoughtful, unpretentious. A really pleasant fellow. He taught me that men don't have to be gorillas, which I might have concluded if I extrapolated only from JWT1's at his worst.
• album page HBT_PA1_13
•  Picture C. Uncle Dan Murphy with his sister, our grandmother Kate Murphy Burke at Uncle Dan's Gresham, Oregon home.
• Kate Burke was probably visiting her brother on way to see her daughter's family in Seattle. Uncle Dan Murphy had owned one of the many hotel-tavern's in Chicago catering to the Irish immigrants there, until he and Aunt Marie move to Gresham, perhaps in 1920s? Jack recalls visiting a small professional center for a half-dozen physicians or dentists. Uncle Dan was a small scale, commercial property developer, among whatever else he did. Uncle Dan's house was, comfortable with a basement where Jim & I stacked fire wood one memorable day. There was an upstairs bedroom, wherein son Danny Murphy had a 1930s style phonograph that played mostly pop songs of the day.
•  Picture D. Brother Jim thinks this is himself with grandmother Burke and mother Helen at Silverton , in Snohomish County , Washington State. Note the steep hill in background.
•  North Cascades of Washington
The Northern Cascades are possibly the most rugged mountains in North America.  The mountains are among the youngest on the continent, permeated with glaciers and snowfields.  Because of the ubiquitous presence of ice, naturally, there are waterfalls around.  The region's glacial greatly accentuates where and how tall the region's waterfalls occur.  Glacial cirques, hanging valleys, glacial headwalls and paternoster lake valleys are extremely common in this region.  The majority of the regions waterfalls occur because of these geologic features, and because these features often create expansive exposures of rock, the waterfalls of this region tend to be quite tall; many stretching to over 1000 feet or more. This region is bordered on the west by Puget Sound (the San Juan Islands are included in this section), on the south by the Skykomish Watershed divide, on the east by Highway 97, and on the north by the Canadian border.
• The Silverton web page welcome to tourists today warns:

Welcome to Silverton

"Founded in the 1890's as a mining town, Silverton is on a partially paved, partially unpaved backroad, that is not for the faint of heart or those afraid of heights as it has steep dropoffs, but for those willing to make the ride you will not be disappointed. This road goes right through the Boulder River Wilderness, you will find mostly homes in Silverton and a campground for the local schools."

Indeed Jack as a three year old can remember father JWT1 driving much too fast down steep hills on hairpin turns, with mother screaming in the front seat. Based on my limited experience, her screaming appeared to be not without merit. Life in the Truher family in those days was not always calm or reassuring.

Father JWT kept a striking photo of a rushing mountain river, which I think he identified as the Snohomish River. I may be remembering another native Indian name for the River. Dad very much enjoyed being in this rugged country, but he often cautioned, "you have to have something to do when you get there." Not being a fisherman, a hiker, or otherwise into diversionary relaxation, his enjoyment with mother in later trips north to his place of origin was limited mostly to frantic
touring by auto.
• album page HBT_PA1_14
• album page HBT_PA1_15
•  Picture A. Mother Helen Truher happy with arrival of Jack. Now things get serious.
•  Picture B. Jack resting.
•  Picture C. Jimmie pleased with toy in hand.
•  Picture D. Jack at weeks old with mother, dad, and brother Jimmie.
•  Picture E. Jack is getting started right by pulling Jimmie's ear, being supervised by mother.
•  Picture F. John Marcks with JWT1
standing over their younger brothers. When Jack was a training officer at Ford Ord in 1961, my young Marcks age peer here (name forgot) was an enlisted man. Mother had stayed in touch with the Marcks family, and asked me to introduce myself to the soldier, which I did. Older brother John (Jim's cohort) became a lawyer in Portland, if I recall.
• The Marcks family came into contact with the Truher family in Seattle because Helen became friends with Mrs. Marcks in the maternity war in the Providence Hospital, Seattle, where JWT2 was born. Helen wasn't otherwise well connected, and Mrs. Marcks appeared to be an educated woman, enthusiastic about her children.

Helen and Mrs. Marcks stayed in touch over the years, visiting each others homes in a recreational sort of way. Mr. Marcks was owner-operator of his own sizable bakery somewhere in greater Portland. Or perhaps it was also in Gresham(?)

Jack recalls visiting the Marcks family home on a trip with parents. I don't know if Jim Jr was with us. Perhaps he was in college. This home was adjacent to a large public garden, comparable to the one in La Canada, California. We walked through the gardens and back to the Marcks home.
We toured the Marcks bakery at least on two different trips. I recall being impressed by the copious insects, flies, feeding on the pastries, cakes, and bread. It was a completely outrageous health problem, which went on for years.

The Marcks bakery, from mother's reports, was very successful in the 1940s, but ran into unionization, labor struggles. Mr. Marcks became bitterly anti-union. His business suffered and was liquidated, I think.



• album page HBT_PA1_16
•  Picture A. Scenic

Picture B & E. Grandmother Kate Burke holding baby Jack, with two other young mothers and their babies. Seems a strange coincidence, so many babies of identical age in such a small community.

Brother Jim writes, "The house we lived in at Scenic was built long before we moved in. It was two stories – the second story was really an attic for sleeping. It was the house that had a bear on the back porch raiding the ice box. "

Picture C. Grandmother Burke with baby Jack and 3 year old Jimmie.

Picture D. Jimmie is 2nd from left, but no other Truher-Burke family here. The woman at left appears elsewhere in this album (yet to search).

Picture E & B. Identical picture. Perhaps Helen was making this album from copies, and didn't notice.
• album page HBT_PA1_17
•  Picture A. Kate Burke centered between the two windows. JWT2 may be just to our left of Kate.

Picture B. Jimmie Truher with John Marcks on Sauvies Island (per JWT2, 2005).
• album page HBT_PA1_18
•  Picture A. JWT1 (smoking pipe) & JWT2, on what appears to be a morning jaunt.

Picture B. Helen Truher and Jimmie are inside the car. The house behind car is August and Nellie Truher's Riverton Heights home. This is a pretty nice house for a 1940 working man, the result of August's nearly four decades as a railroad conductor. Close inspection of the film photograph indicates the man standing beside the car is not JWT1. Perhaps it is Mr. Coyle again, looking very business-like.

Picture C. Jimmie and Jack standing beside the new family 1941 Chevrolet sedan. Jack remembers riding in this car, to include the long journey to LA.

Picture D. Baby Jack Truher behind with another of same age being held by unidentified woman. The woman is not Helen Marcks, who can be found on this album, picture 19C.
• JBT would not know the first name of Helen Marcks, nor how how to spell the second name. But Jack has a copy of HBT's personal address book, which JWT1 copied after HBT death. From that copied photo is most likely that Helen Marcks remarried to become Helen Hood of 3255 S W Evergreen Lane, Portland, Oregon 97201 (1-503-223-1049 Jack called - disconnected 2005). Also possible that this Helen Marcks-Hood was daughter of the mother, but Jack thinks this is unlikely.

The copy that dad made of this address book is worth comment. This was after mother died. I thought the book was perhaps 26 pages, as the alphabet. I asked dad to make me a copy of that book, thinking he would just copy a couple dozen pages and mail it to me.

When the copy arrived I saw it was a carefully created duplicate of a more elaborate original than I expected. Dad's copy for me was in a red loose leaf binder of many pages which stack to 5/8th of an inch thick. Each page is cut to about 5" x 9" with punched holes. He had to have copied each page, cute each page three times for size, punched the pages with three holes. He added dividers for each letter. The letter "M" is 28 pages. It was an enormous job.

Dad never acted as if this response was remarkable, nor did I. I thanked him.
•  Picture E. Jack's guess is that this is JWT2 overlooking creekside workman on Sauvies Island. There appears to be a larger river in background, reinforcing the guess that this is watery Sauvies Island near Portland.

Picture F. JWT2 with unidentified girl.

Picture G. Baby Jack, likely in mother HBT's arms.

Picture H. JWT2 pulling wagon with child of woman who recurrently appears in this album.
• album page HBT_PA1_19
•  Picture A. Jimmie with Helen Truher.

Picture B. Rear entrance and backyard of father JWT1's first serious home building project, the little Riverton Heights house.

Picture C. Two pairs of boys with mothers. Babies Michael Marcks and Jackie Truher, with 3 years olds John Marcks and JWT2 Truher.

Picture D. JWT2 with unknown child. Looks like Silverton, Jim or Scenic?

Picture E. Marcks and Truher boys with young pair at about 6-8 months, almost walking.

Picture F. JWT2 at age 3.

Picture G. New babies Jack at left, William Marcks at right, held by our mothers.
• More of the Helen Truher - Helen Marcks connection. Our mother Helen Truher felt very isolated as a young mother, and somewhat berated by her grandmother Nellie Truher for being too uppity, i.e. think about working for money.

In child-birth with JWT2, Helen Truher's Seattle Providence Hospital room-mate was Helen Marcks, a chatty and bright and enthusiastic new mother who would live in Portland, with the Marcks bakery in Gresham (I think), where Uncle Dan and Aunt Marie lives.. So these young women were likely both to have cohort children and to live near each other at times. Lots to share.

Add dad's obsession with driving to Seattle, and the nice stopping point in Portland, and a long term relationship was facilitated for many years.

I've looked on the web for Marcks names in Portland. There are some, but no relatives or descendants as yet.
• album page HBT_PA1_20
•  Picture A. Baby Jack with brother Jim.

Picture B. unknown woman

Picture C. unknown man with baby girl.

Picture D. Farmland in Wenatchee perhaps.

Picture E. JWT2

Picture F. Helen and Jimmie Truher. Woman may be grandmother Kate Burke; not clear.

Picture G. Jackie at perhaps 3 months old with Jimmie standing guard.

Picture H. Perhaps the Scenic Rail yard. A couple years ago, I found this Scenic Railroad scene which I labeled and remember as from a website about Scenic. Also notice that the building at left of this Scenic Railroad depot has a sign which ends in "enic". We may assume that elements of the Truher family used this train regularly, as did Truher visitors. Comparing this Picture G with the URL of this paragraph shows the same steep hills.

same URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~truher/genealogy/burke/KathrynMurphyBurke/ScenicWashStateRail.jpg
 August Truher's Elgin Pocket Watch came into possession of JWT1 and then JWT2. Jim found early 1900s catalog ; this from his email as follows:

"I have our GF Truher’s 19-jewel Elgin gold pocket watch that was made in 1912 (I think based on a number on the movement) and used when he was a railroad conductor. It still works like a fine pocket watch should. It is displayed in a glass bell on the top of my dresser and is shown as the center watch in the photo below. The warranty is no good anymore since it expired after 20 years. There are several etched indications of maintenance activities on the inside of the back cover that easily screws off."

same URL https://truher.net/gene/HBT/PA1/ElginRailroadWatch-AugustTruher.jpg

Elgin URL
http://elginwatches.org/scans/sales_catalogs/1917_Oskamp-Nolting/m_pg_E3.html
• virtual page Silverton
• Brother Jim believes he recognizes some of the photos in this album as from Silverton, which Jim remembers, but I do not. So I had to find another HBT album in the house for a better picture of Silverton. Here's what we have around the house and on the web.

From: "JBT"
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 1:06 PM
Subject: Silverton

"Jim, as you asked, I found a Silverton, Washington State
photo . It's not in this album, but I've put a copy here anyway"

same url:
https://truher.net/gene/HBT/PA1/Silverton_BigFourInnColor.jpg
• The Big Four Inn was home to the wandering Truher family at Silverton was on the lowlands below Mount Rainier. JWT2 adds that Big Four Inn was on a gentle downhill slope of Mount Rainer. The Inn burned down in 1946.

From: "James W. Truher"
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 13:46:30 -0700

The Big Four Inn was on the road that went through Silverton. And Yea! That little rickety swaying wooden bridge across the river scared the hell out of me and made me afraid of high places until I was in my 40s!!!!

same URL
https://truher.net/gene/HBT/PA1/Silverton_BigFourInnColor.jpg

James W. Truher "Great stuff, pictures that I don't recall seeing
. I have visited Silverton in recent years to see if what I remember is accurate. The population is now 25 (I recall hearing from mom that is was 50+ when we were there) and I believe there is a photo somewhere that includes most of the women and children who lived there in the late 30’s. "
this addendum: January 23, 2004
• Brother Jim found a map which includes Silverton, Scenic, and Wenatchee (upper left in sequence to lower right on map). All of these place were major stopping points on the tour of Truher family adventures from 1934 - 1941.

same url: https://truher.net/gene/HBT/PA1/SilvertonScenic-Wenatchee-uL-Lr.png
• No Phone Service Still for Silverton, Washington

email from JWT2 on 2002m0922

The below was written in May 1999, about 60 years after we lived there!

A recent New York Times article reminds us that in America some communities still don't have telephone service, and won't have, until some basic economic principles change or some corporations have a change of heart.

Less than 65 miles from Seattle, the high tech capitol of the Northwest, tiny Silverton, Washington, sits in the shadow of high mountains and low ambition. No phone service or 911, just a police radio to call for help. That is, when the people who have the police radio are home to work it. Too expensive for a teleco to run a cable. Too costly for a wireless link.

How many other communities in America are like this? Many people throughout the west are off the electrical grid and the PSTN deliberately, since they build houses where no utility lines exist. But that's a different thing than a town, no matter how small, having never had phone service at all.

http://www.privateline.com/Newsletters/PLNews4b.html
• Still -- No phone service at Silverton in 2001
Thursday, November 29, 2001


By <mailto:mikelewis@seattlepi.com >

MIKE LEWIS

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER


This 2001 story is available online, complete with graphics.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/48616_phones29.shtml

SILVERTON -- Invariably the question comes. While buying cassette tapes at Radio Shack or applying for a credit card. When writing a check for two weeks' worth of groceries after a 20-mile drive to the store or when meeting a new friend.

image

Diane Boyd knows it will be asked, so sometimes she lies.

"How do you tell people you don't have a phone number?" she wondered, smiling. "They always look at you funny, like you are from another planet. So sometimes I just make one up."

For 13 years, Boyd has wanted a phone number. She just can't have one -- yet. Neither can the 50 other residents of Silverton, a former silver and copper mining village surrounded by the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

In one of the most-wired states in the nation, a place where Internet access is considered a Gates-given right, Silverton remains one of the largest communities in the state -- and one of a few in the country -- without phone service.

No cell phones. No Internet. Not even a late-night wrong number.

But with a little luck, a fast snowmelt and a willing Seattle company, residents next summer will get the opportunity to screen calls from relatives, enjoy dinnertime interruptions and download e-mail spam.

They'll also be able to call 911, check on their families, look for jobs and, finally, stop lying to the counter help in electronics stores.

"It isn't asking too much," said Boyd, a U.S. Forest Service employee who lives here year round. "You see these commercials with some company bragging about Internet access in Katmandu, and I can't even make a call from Silverton, Washington."

Bob Shirley, a telecommunications analyst for the state's Utilities and Transportation Commission who has helped other remote Washington towns without phone service find willing companies, secure financing and run lines, called the situation, "unusual."


image
 
Gulf War veteran Jay Murray places a flag near the driveway to his family's home in Silverton. The town is scheduled to receive phone service next summer. Paul Joseph Brown / Seattle Post-Intelligencer



<
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/photos/photo.asp?PhotoID=7405

Click for larger photo


And even though the state and federal governments have programs to encourage "universal access," some towns still fall through the cracks.

"That is what has happened with Silverton," Shirley said. "It you are in a world without telephones, I guess it wouldn't be a big deal, but here it makes you a bit of an odd ball."

That oddball status could soon end.

Joel Eisenberg, founder of Seattle-based International Telecom LTD, learned about Silverton's plight and founded Beaver Creek Telephone Co.

A project too small to interest the large carriers in Washington's $3 billion phone market, Beaver Creek is small enough to want the low profit in spending roughly $1 million to run a fiber-optic cable from Silverton into the nearest phone line, a GTE cable that ends at a Verlot pay phone 11 miles west of town.

For Boyd and the 20 or so full-time residents of Silverton, the $50 monthly bill can't come soon enough.

She and her husband, Denny, run the town's telecommunications link to the outside world: a Forest Service emergency phone that sits in a corner of their enclosed porch.

If the Boyds aren't home when someone's house catches on fire or when one of the thousands of motorists who pass by on the Mountain Loop Highway breaks down, the only other options are the 20-minute serpentine drive to the nearest pay phone or a 4,500-foot hike up Mount Forgotten, where, legend has it, a cell phone can find a signal on a clear day.

"The radio has gotten us this far," she said of what has passed for an emergency phone for decades. "But I don't think anyone is going to miss it much. It's a long time coming."

'Two longs and a short'

Founded in the folds of Silver Gulch in August of 1891, Silverton boomed over the next two years with 300 residents, a post office, two general stores, a saloon and a printing office.

But by 1911, Silverton began to fade. From 300 to 200 residents, then 150 over the next 20 years. The post office closed. So did the hotel and one of the stores.

As more and more dial tones hummed across the rest of the nation, Silverton residents remained free of outside phone contact. So did much of rural America.

In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Communications Act to put an affordable phone in every home. American Telephone & Telegraph was allowed to charge expensive long-distance rates to help bring low-cost local phone service to the masses.

It worked. In 1934, one third of American homes had a phone. By 1980, 90 percent did. In a way, Silverton joined the forward march, thanks to Clarence Murray, its resident tinkerer. A master machinist who hand-built precision oceanographic measuring instruments, Murray was the town handyman and de facto mayor.

Murray, who bought the first in what would be a series of rustic homes along Highway 92 and the Stillaguamish River, wanted residents to be able to reach each other without the required hike between homes.

So he installed an Army surplus, hand-crank party-line phone system, similar to those found in many small towns then. Except this one lacked outside contact.

When she moved to town in 1983, Diane Boyd's Silverton phone still worked. With old party lines, every phone is wired to the next. You only answered it, she explained, when you heard your ring (except for eavesdropping, of course).

"Two longs and a short," she said, recalling hers. A continual ring meant an emergency, and everyone picked up.

But in a self-contained party-line system, when one phone goes down they all do. Silverton's system hasn't worked for a decade. Then, as now, anything serious meant also using the emergency radio and contact with Robe, Verlot or Granite Falls.

As the nation became increasingly connected in the late 1980s, Silverton slid backward.

Deregulation hurt -- and helped

When the breakup of AT&T began in 1983, the seven regional companies created didn't have the large pot of long-distance money to wire up remote places.

Moreover, the ensuing free market competition removed the incentive to build a low-profit project for a handful of people, so much of the work to wire remote towns stopped.

In 1996, Congress responded and set up the universal access fund, which essentially repays the cost of running phone lines to remote places, allowing companies to keep the profit from the ongoing service fees.

Because these places generally have fewer than 100 customers, many of the large companies, such as nearby GTE, didn't want to bother.

Washington phone regulators solicited bids anyway and even looked at the possibility of forcing companies to accept the Silverton project, and projects for Hobart near Issaquah and Stehekin on Lake Chelan.

Eventually, phone companies did step forward, and many communities are expected to have phones within a year or two. In Silverton, Brett Boyd, Diane's son, says he'll believe in phone service when he hears it.

He points to Beaver Creek, which successfully bid for the rights in 1999, but has delayed the project a couple of times.

And Boyd and others worry a little that the 80-acre town will change with the phone service. Property values will rise. The lack of phones and outside electricity -- many homeowners have their own generators and propane heat -- kept away big-money vacation homes from the narrow valley, where coho salmon spawn in the river next to the highway and granite peaks dominate the vertical horizon like skyscrapers.

"There is a little concern," said Brett Boyd. "But the benefits outweigh that."

So one more lonely winter to go for Silverton.

The coming snow and inability to chat at a distance makes the town and valley so lonely and isolated that in decades past, emergency radio operators used to all get on air Saturday nights for sing-alongs.

Phones have silenced the other towns' radios. And today's sheriff's deputies don't sing.

The Boyds, the Murrays and others can't wait for radio silence here, too. Diane wants to call family first. So does Denny. Brett laughed and said he'd finally be able to call in sick.

Silverton will get its first pay phone, too. Soon after -- its first jammed coin slot.


P-I reporter Mike Lewis can be reached at 206-448-8140 or <
mailto:mikelewis@seattlepi.com >mikelewis@seattlepi.com

• Jack Looks up Google on "Big Four Inn" & "Washington" on google:

Mountain Loop Highway a golden gateway to hiking

same url: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/4931_hike09.shtml


Big Four Inn,
An Exclusive Hide-Away

Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest - Darrington Ranger District

http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/about/drd.shtml

First known as Trout's Marsh homestead, Big Four Mountain lured the industrious Rucker brothers to cash in on the exquisite scenery and construct an elaborate 50-room, three-story hotel in 1920. Tennis courts, a nine-hole golf course, and an artificial lake completed the grand scene for thousands of guests who arrived by railroad every summer. Today, only the chimney and sidewalks remain of the Inn, which burned to the ground in September 1949. However, the meadow, beaver ponds, and picnic area still attract thousands of recreationists who wish to enjoy the history and outstanding scenery that tempted the Rucker brothers many years ago.