SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING WHERE I LIVE

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Clear Lake Washington

Clear Lake is a nice little town with a nice lake which also is a County Park. I have (at an earlier time) posted pictures of Kylee riding her horse out and about at and in Clear Lake.
Population today is 942


Some of the finest timber in the world covered the mountain foothills adjacent to Clear Lake. There were fir, cedar, hemlock, spruce, white pine, larch, and deciduous trees. Although there were settlers in the area as early as 1877, it was not until 1891 that the community of Clear Lake began to grow. In that year, a shingle mill was built followed by a number of other businesses to support a growing population. By December, 1899, there were several hotels, a meat market, a telephone company, a community church, and a school building among others. In 1906, the population had grown to 350 people. Clear Lake was a logging town with logging camps sprawled throughout the area. Fifty million feet of logs could be stored in Clear Lake while awaiting mill operations. At least a 1,000 people lived there around 1915 plus another 500 or 500 in camps around the outskirts of the town. By 1925, the mill, heart of the town, failed and brought down many Clear Lake businesses with it. Today, the town is a ghost of its former self.



3 comments:

George said...

We have towns with similar stories here in the mountains of Tennessee.

Lowell said...

This is a story written in many places across our land. Nice to see that while it is a "ghost of its former self," it is not a ghost town!

Russell said...

Love these photos!! The combines that harvest peas are incredible. So many good photos!

I will be back when I have a bit more time to really look these over. Thanks for letting me know about these!!

Being from Iowa I can really relate to these farm photos!