Forum Index > Pacific NW History > Anyone ever see (or have)old photos of the Snow Lake cabin?
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RichP
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PostSat Apr 15, 2017 6:54 am 
Great sleuthing there, puzzlr. That Pio Panieri collection has lots of other cool pics of the Roslyn and Cle Elum area as well as the Italian family in the 1930's and 40's. Mom emigrated from Venice to live in Roslyn. That must be a great story!

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sarbar
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PostSat Apr 15, 2017 9:09 am 
That is a gorgeous photo!

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puzzlr
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PostSat Apr 15, 2017 10:07 pm 
RichP wrote:
That Pio Panieri collection has lots of other cool pics
Yeah -- it's a real gold mine. Pio was quite the climber, and visited Chair Peak, Alta Mountain, Goldmyer and other spots. A bonus is that he must have labelled his photos carefully because there are exact dates associated with them -- that is rare.

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Bernardo
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PostMon Apr 17, 2017 5:25 pm 
Very interesting. Thanks for posting. Interesting chimney. Is that common anywhere?

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puzzlr
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PostFri Jul 20, 2018 9:51 pm 
I came across an article from the Seattle Times supplement about the period just before the land was sold to the Forest Service. It has a lot of history about the cabin and the people that owned it. I'd link to the article, but it's not in the online archive -- probably because it was in an insert. So to keep it available I'll post it here with attribution. One of the new tidbits "The timbers in the cabin deteriorated and the cabin collapsed in the heavy snows of 1950." It was completed in 1936 and looks pretty sturdy but it only lasted 14 years. I guess that's an indication of how hard the winters are on structures in the mountains. No wonder all the shelters are gone. From the Seattle Times, November 26, 1967
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Effort Made To Keep Snow Lake A Wilderness Snow Lake glistened in the morning sun on a late summer day. Its surface mirrored the deep-blue sky over the Cascades, but gentle ripples broke up the reflection of the surrounding jagged rock peaks with their patches of snow, still remaining from winter. A man camping on the lakeshore swept his gaze over the grandeur of the scene — ragged Chair Peak and Kaleetan Peak and their lesser companions, the lake nestled against the steep mountainsides, the stands of mountain hemlock and silver fir. It was a familiar sight for the camper. familiar over many years. He had first hiked over the 5 1/2 mile trail to Snow Lake from Snoqualmie Pass Summit as a teenager, and he had returned countless times. "Snow Lake is the only thing I know that has not changed in 30 years"' the man said. "I only wish it could remain just this way." This same wish is held by untold numbers of others who have hiked into Snow Lake over the past half-century. Forest Service officials say they also want to keep Snow Lake a wilderness beauty spot. Yet there is the threat of change. There is the possibility of private developments, a lodge perhaps and even an aerial cable car over the divide from Source Lake, at the head of the valley of the South Fork of the Snoqualmie. No one is more aware of this possibility than the man who stood on the shore and wished it would never change. He is a Seattle stockbroker, Addison E. (Ad) Fenton. He knows Snow Lake perhaps more intimately than anyone else because he and a nephew own 229 acres there, including the choice northern and eastern shoreland. Snow Lake over the years has been the scene of thousands of overnight hikes by Boy Scout troops. It is known by countless fishermen, mountaineers and hikers. It is on the preferred alternate route of the Cascade Crest Trail from Snoqualmie Pass to the Dutch Miller Gap country. The lake is one of the recommended offerings in the guide book, "100 Hikes in Western Washington." The lake is relatively large, 159 acres. At 4,016-feet elevation, it often remains frozen until midsummer. The trail from the pass to Source Lake is not too taxing, but it then rises sharply to the divide, then drops quickly to Snow Lake. Most hikers would agree that the spectacular views are well worth the required huffing and puffing. "I always say it is the most beautiful lake in the world," Fenton says. "It is my standard for comparison. I have seen some other lakes almost as beautiful but none that is its equal." Few who camp at the well-used campsites along the northeast lake shore realize they are on private property. The Forest Service's Recreation Guide for the North Bend ranger district advises that the best campsites are on the northeast shore, then adds that the entire north shore is privately owned and campers should stay somewhere else. Fenton is used to having uninvited guests camp on his property. He especially is happy to have Scouts camp there. He often camps among them, and they never know he is their willing host. "We don't tell people it's our property," Fenton says, "unless we get to talking and they ask." Often campers stay in and around the concrete-and-rock foundation of an old cabin — the remains of a cabin built by Fenton's father, Aldrich W. Fenton, who died a year ago. Aldrich Fenton was the son of Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Fenton, Seattle pioneers. His mother, Zilpha Eames Fenton. was one of the city's first teachers. Aldrich spent his life in the woods as a timber cruiser. At one time he was chief state timber cruiser. "Dad first became interested in Snow Lake because of a picture postcard," Fenton says. The card, showing a photograph of Snow Lake, once was a popular seller. "Dad and my brother, John, and I hiked in and camped at the lake." Fenton relates. "Dad knew the Northern Pacific Railway owned the shore property under a land grant. He made the railway an offer for the property in 1932. The N. P. in those depression days apparently was glad to get some cash, and they sold it to Dad." The father and his sons began at once to build the cabin, using pack horses to bring in building materials and felling trees for timbers. Two men were hired to help. One claimed experience in building fireplaces, but the Fentons later had cause to doubt it. "That fireplace always smoked," Fenton says. The cabin, finally completed in 1936, had two stories and an attic. It could sleep 24 on 12 three-quarter-size beds. "We always had a tremendous gang of kids at the cabin," Fenton says. Countless times they carried 50-pound packs of supplies in from the pass — mostly canned goods in those days before lightweight, dried food. Once they lugged a small rowboat over the trail. A hoodlum broke into the cabin later and bored a hundred holes in it. But the overwhelming majority of persons who hiked into the lake were "good guys," Fenton says. He adds: "Dad met some of his best friends at the lake." One family the Fentons met at Snow Lake were the Franz Zallingers. Zallinger, who died in 1962, was one of the Pacific Northwest's best-known muralists and artists. An Austrian, he was taken prisoner while fighting in Russia in World War I. He was sent to Siberia, where he met his wife, daughter of a Polish engineer. The family came to Seattle from China in 1923. Zallinger's wife and their children, Rudolph and Wanda, now Mrs. Thomas Wells of Seattle, also were painters. They would hike into Snow Lake with their easels and paint. A painting of the cabin, done on the spot by Rudy when he was 17, now hangs in Fenton's office in the IBM Building. A larger painting of Snow Lake by Franz Zallinger hangs in Fenton's Bainbridge Island home. Rudy went on to Yale University, where he became artist-in-residence at the Peabody Museum of Natural History. He also painted the Great Fire mural at the Seattle Museum of History and Industry. The Fenton brothers served in World War II, John in the Air Force and Ad in the Navy. John, a 30-mission B-17 pilot over Europe, remained in the Air Force. He was killed, at 28, in the crash of a trainer plane in 1948. It is his son, John Gregory, 20, who inherited the Snow Lake property with Ad Fenton. "Dad never went up to Snow Lake again after John's death," Fenton says. The timbers in the cabin deteriorated and the cabin collapsed in the heavy snows of 1950. Ad and his wife meanwhile were rearing four daughters, Christie, now 19; Dana, 16, Barbara, 13, and Janet, 6. Fenton got back to Snow Lake whenever he could. He hoped he would be able to build another cabin there, ferrying in prefabricated parts by helicopter. "Taxes on the property were ridiculously low," Fenton says. "Many years they were only $10 to $20. Last year they had risen only to $78." The Forest Service, eager to get the choice tract in public ownership, had made approaches to the elder Fenton, but they could not agree on a price. The Forest Sendee owns the other land aimund the lake. Recently Fenton turned down a handsome offer from some wealthy Everett men who wanted to build chalets there to which they could commute by helicopter. A developer made another feeler. Across the divide, Alpental's large scale resort development is under way in the upper South Fork valley. "I always figured," Fenton said as he stood on the lakeshore on that late-summer day, "that this would become part of a national park, to be kept just the way it is." But the government's proposals for a North Cascades national park and recreation area do not extend to Snoqualmie Pass. The Forest Service recently approached Fenton in renewed efforts to acquire the Fenton property. "We, too," says Laurence O. Barrett, Snoqualmie National Forest supervisor, "want it to remain wilderness. The only improvement we would envision is sanitary facilities." The government's Land and Water Conservation Fund, utilizing proceeds from Golden Eagle passports, entrance fees and motorboat-fuel taxes, now makes some money available for buying recreational land. There are matters of appraisals, agreements and shifting of priorities before the Forest Service could attempt to secure the land. "Let's hope we can work something out," Barrett says, nodding at a photograph of Snow Lake hanging on his office wall in downtown Seattle. The Forest Service, he said, hopes that generations more of Boy Scouts and others who love the mountains will be able to camp at Snow Lake, with its natural beauties unscarred by man. Jack Hauptli, a Seattle Times staff member. writes a camping column during the summer.

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Bernardo
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PostSun Jul 22, 2018 6:59 pm 
Interesting read, thanks for posting. The article even discuses the chinney issue and confirms it wasn't a good design. Interesesting also how WWII reached into such a beautiful place and affected the lives of the cabin owners. Finally, the article reads like a promotion to maximize the sale price. Sounds like it worked to all our benefit.

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Forum Index > Pacific NW History > Anyone ever see (or have)old photos of the Snow Lake cabin?
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