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$3.00 The Publication of Wenatchee Museum Vol. 35, No. 2 & Cultural Center Summer 2019 Photo by Welcome Sauer, courtesy of the Sauer Family courtesy Sauer, Welcome by Photo

The Sauer Family of the Upper Wenatchee Valley Wenatchee Valley From the Director Sauer Family Settles in Upper Valley Keni Sturgeon M w U w S w E w U w M by Chris Rader & Cultural Center This edition of The Confluence highlights Most day hikers living in or visiting the Leavenworth Holdrege, Nebraska. There they grew wheat and lived “Inspiring dynamic connections to the unique the Sauer family’s history in the Upper area are familiar with the popular three-mile trail in a large farmhouse. Peter was interested in real estate heritage of the Wenatchee Valley” Wenatchee Valley. Undoubtedly, this history known as Sauer’s . Who were the Sauers, and investments, and when he heard from an attorney 127 S. Mission Street, Wenatchee, WA 98801 was passed down over the years, and was what was the family’s impact on the Leavenworth and friend that Everett, , was an up-and-coming (509) 888-6240 v www.wenatcheevalleymuseum.org valued and expanded by each new generation. Peshastin communities? community with many possibilities, he decided to Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A family’s history goes beyond names, dates The story begins with Peter Sauer and his second move his family there. With Theodore Roosevelt as U.S. First Fridays: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., free admission and locations, and the value of gathering, wife, Mary. Peter was born to German immigrants in President, the West had its appeal. Member saving and sharing family histories is a key Keokuk County, , on April 15, 1857. He married his By this time (1905) there were eight Sauer children: American Alliance of Museums element in preserving our community’s American Association for State and Local History first wife, Augusta, also a German immigrant, in 1882. Helen, George, Henry, Phillip, Leonard, Minnie, Mary Cascade Loop Association collective heritage. Collecting your own Their daughter Helen was born the following year, but and Welcome. Two other boys, Peter and Page, had Great Northern Railway Historical Association family’s history is important for a number of reasons. Augusta died five months later. Peter married Augusta’s died as infants in Nebraska. Sister Eva rounded out the Museum Store Association Knowing, recording, preserving and sharing family histories National Trust for Historic Preservation younger sister, Mary Berg, in 1885 and they raised Helen family in 1907. benefits individuals, families and communities. Family history Upper Columbia Museum Association along with the 10 children they would eventually have The Sauers loaded their belongings into two train is more than charts, family trees, census data, and birthdates; it Washington Museum Association together. cars, household goods in one and horses in another, and Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society is a powerful antidote for some of the adverse life experiences Mary had been born in Germany, coming to the rode the Union Pacific through Wyoming and Idaho Wenatchee Downtown Association we face today, giving us a deeper understanding of who we are Wenatchee Rotary Club United States with her parents at age five. She only to Puget . Peter bought land on Everett’s Ebey and motivating us to be more connected to future generations. Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce attended school through the second grade but her Island. It is not clear whether he farmed this land or Forming relationships with family—past, present, and children eventually helped her improve her reading and merely intended to sell it at a profit. The land was often “Linking the Past to the Future” future—helps fill an innate human need, that of belonging writing skills. “When she was staying with us, when I inundated with , however, and the family’s horses and connection. The relationships we form with others can be Board of Trustees was in grade school (in the 1930s), she’d be sitting there died in a . Peter hadn’t managed to strike it rich in incredibly durable, not only with people in our present, but with Linda Haglund President in the rocking chair reading my book, or any Everett and wanted to find a drier , so he moved Lorna Klemanski Vice President people from our past. The more we discover about our past, the book I had,” granddaughter Dolores Sauer Dahl said Kathleen McNalty Secretary greater a connection we feel to our ancestors. As we record our the family to Leavenworth in 1908. (Helen returned to recently. Along with her love of learning, Mary was Lisa Dahlgreen Treasurer own history, we create an opportunity for future generations to Holdrege and married Sam Schrock.) Don Gurnard Past President industrious and cheerful. Dahl described her as “warm connect with us when we are gone. Sauers colonize Leavenworth and Peshastin Lyle Markhart of Wenatchee Liaison and loving; tall, straight, healthy and a delight to be Chuck Johnson City of East Wenatchee Liaison Learning the history of our family helps us gain a better around.” Leavenworth had earned a reputation as a rather Dennis Johnson, Marco Mejia, Lisa Parks, understanding of the challenges they faced, and can inspire Paul Parmley, Andy Petro, Eliot Scull Five children were born to Peter and Mary Sauer wild town. Incorporated in 1892 with the completion of greater compassion for their flaws and mistakes. This can translate Ex-Officio Members in Iowa before they moved in 1895 from Iowa to the Great Northern Railway line between Seattle and St. Wenatchee Mayor Frank Kuntz to our other relationships, helping us to better understand that Paul, Minn., it was the headquarters East Wenatchee Mayor Steve Lacy we all face hardships. Remembering that, in the context of others’ of the railroad’s Cascade Division Wenatchee City Council: Jim Bailey, Ruth Esparza, weaknesses, allows us to be better employees, managers, spouses, – which included the roughest part Linda Herald, Keith Huffaker, Mark Kulaas, Mike Poirier parents, children, siblings, and human beings. of the route, through Stevens Pass. East Wenatchee City Council: Jerrilea Crawford, Tim Detering, Finally, family records impact generations to come. Family Matthew Hepner, Shayne Magdoff, Harry Raab, John Sterk Seven railroad tracks bisected the history keeps memories alive and gives each generation an town (replaced by U.S. Highway 2 in Museum Staff idea of who they are and where they came from. Genealogical Keni Sturgeon Executive Director the late 1920s when the tracks were organizations, such as the Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society Linda Davis Bookkeeper rerouted up Chumstick ). (WAGS), museum collections, like those at the Wenatchee Valley Brennan Gleason Facilities/Exhibits Assistant Most of Leavenworth’s early-day Anna Holman Curator of Education and Programs Museum, and county archives are wonderful places to begin residents were single men, working Kasey Koski Curator of Exhibits exploring your family’s history, or to continue to expand on Kristin Lodge Development/Communications Director either for the railroad or the large your family’s story. Debbie Sawyer Education/Volunteer Specialist Lamb-Davis lumber mill. Saloons Jill Sheets Education/Volunteer Specialist outnumbered churches; “ladies Ashley Sinner Outreach/Public Relations Coordinator of Contents Anna Spencer Administrative Coordinator of the night” operated thriving Giorgio Tayé Facilities Coordinator Editor: Chris Rader businesses; and fights, some of Marriah Thornock Deputy Director them fatal, were common. However, Melanie Wachholder Curator of Collections Peter and Mary Sauer Family...... 3 Adam Walker MakerSpace Coordinator the character of the town gradually The Confluence is published for members of the Wenatchee Val- Welcome and Celia Sauer Family...... 6 mellowed as families like the Sauers ley Museum Association. All rights reserved. Nothing may be George and Bud Sauer in Peshastin...... 13 moved in. reprinted in whole or in part without written permission of the Peter bought some farmland north publisher. Publisher: Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Cover: Leonard, left, and Gary Sauer display their catch of Courtesy of the Sauer Family Courtesy Center; (509) 888-6240; [email protected]. Editor: Chris Rader, mountain trout from somewhere in the Icicle Valley near Leav- of town, off Railroad Avenue (now [email protected]. enworth. In the 1940s the individual daily limit was 20 fish. Sauer family in 1906, front from left: Peter, Welcome (in white), George, Mary, Ski Hill Drive), where he planted young Mary. Back: Minnie, Philip, Helen, Henry, Annie Kessel, Leonard. potatoes and apple trees. The younger Confluence 2 Summer 2019 The Confluence 3 Summer 2019 children attended Sauer daughters were sociable Leavenworth and Winthrop national fish hatcheries. Leavenworth schools. Peter and Mary Sauer lived with their younger He was then sent to Hoover in Nevada and Grand Older boys George, children in a small house on Cascade Street, a short Dam, finishing his career in Quincy with the Henry and Leonard walk from the apple ranch. Granddaughter Dolores Columbia Basin () Project. William and Eva found outside jobs and, Dahl noted that it must have been a comedown from had one son, , born in 1934. In 1971, after William at his insistence, gave the large farmhouse they’d had in Nebraska. Peter’s died, Eva lived in a retirement community in Sequim, their earnings to Peter. orchard did not do well and potatoes (tended by hand) then an apartment in Cashmere. She moved to East Welcome was the only were not a lucrative cash crop. After giving up ranching Wenatchee to live with Glen and his wife Barbara for son permitted to finish he invested in a few land speculations but none was several years before entering a convalescent center high school. As each successful. where she died in 1995. Glen worked as a Foremost young man turned 21, Daughters Minnie Mae and Mary made friends with milkman and at the Alcoa aluminum plant in Malaga; Peter gave him $500 other Leavenworth young people. They attended parties, he and Barb also had a cherry orchard. After patriarch Peter Sauer died, in 1926, his wife and sent him out on his Chamber of Commerce of Leavenworth Courtesy went on hayrides and sleigh rides, rode horses, and own. This was Leavenworth’s Front Street around the time the Sauers arrived in 1908. explored mountain trails like most Upper Valley teens Mary stayed in Leavenworth for a few more years until Son Phillip, who had after Eva’s wedding. Mary then moved to Edmonds Among the students he was “popular and highly and youth of that era. Sometimes they were included in been born with a heart malfunction, died at age 16. to live with her daughter Mary and husband Willard thought of.”1 In February 1913 Leonard became ill and, outings with their older brother Henry. Leonard found work in Leavenworth’s downtown drug Wamsley, renting her Leavenworth house to the as the illness progressed, word was sent to his parents in One of Henry’s friends, Willard Wamsley, was a fine store. He was bright, though he had never graduated Leavenworth High School principal. He would hand- Leavenworth. By the time Peter and Mary reached Seattle carpenter. He built some homes in the Leavenworth area from high school, and the pharmacist encouraged him deliver his monthly rent check of $12 to Welcome Sauer, by train, their son had contracted spinal meningitis and and worked on a large building project in Okanogan to pursue a career in medicine – so he enrolled in the who mailed it to the Wamsleys to help with Grandma died. He was 21. around 1915. Young Mary Sauer, who graduated from college of pharmacy at the University of Washington. Mary’s care. The older Mary died in 1958 and her In 1913 George Sauer married Dorothy Jefferson, Leavenworth High School in 1915 or 1916, caught his daughter Mary died in 1984. another Iowa girl whose parents had recently moved eye. The Leavenworth Echo noted on Nov. 3, 1916, that The Welcome Sauers in Leavenworth and George The Sauer Family of the Upper Wenatchee Valley to Leavenworth. She was proud to say that she was a he was “putting the finishing touches on a snug five- Sauers in Peshastin became well integrated within their direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson. The couple lived room residence with all the conveniences” on Poplar HelenHelen 1883-1962 1883-1962 communities. Read on for more about these second- m. Samuel Schrock for three years in British Columbia before settling in Street, off today’s Ski Hill Drive. “Wedding bells will m. Samuel Schrock generation pioneer families! Peshastin, just a few miles from their two families. (See ring in December,” the reporter predicted. Willard and GeorgeGeorge 1887-1962 1887-1962 story, page 13.) George and his brother Henry planted a Mary actually married in June 1917, a few months after ENDNOTES ** m.m. Dorothy Dorothy Jefferson Jefferson 20-acre apple orchard east of town, and George opened Henry’s second wedding. They moved to Edmonds, 1. Wenatchee Daily World, March 7, 1913. the Peshastin Garage. Wash., in 1928 and sold their Leavenworth home to 2. Leavenworth Echo, Nov. 10, 1916. HenryHenry 1889-1956 1889-1956 Henry had married Edna Maston in 1912. They lived Welcome Sauer. The Wamsleys raised five children in a SOURCES m. Edna, d. 1912 m. Edna, d. 1912 large, two-story house with two staircases. Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society library: Obituaries m.m. Ada Ada Cline Cline 1917 1917 in Peshastin for about a year until she, eight months pregnant, became ill and moved back to her parents’ Minnie, born in 1894 and two years older than Mary, Leavenworth Echo, Feb. 23, 1917; Aug. 23, 1918. did not finish high school with her Leavenworth class. PhillipPhillip 1891-1908 1891-1908 home in Leavenworth to be nearer a doctor. Her baby, Wenatchee World, March 16, 1971. Edna, was born Dec. 21 but mother Edna died four days The 1910 census shows her living with her stepsister’s Wesley Sauer Peter Sauer Peter Sauer Leonard 1892-1913 later. Henry continued to care for his young daughter but family in Nebraska, but she must have come back to Dolores Sauer Dahl 1857-1926 Leonard 1892-1913 1857-1926 managed to find some time to attend parties with other Leavenworth the following year for a short time. Her Barbara Golden Minnie 1894-1985 Mary Berg Minnie 1894-1985 young people and to hunt for game. The Leavenworth younger brother, Welcome, persuaded her to join him in Mary Berg m. Arthur Soderholm 1863-1958 m. Arthur Soderholm his senior year. They graduated together in 1921. Minnie 1863-1958 Echo noted: returned to Holdrege and married Arthur Soderholm. Mary 1896-1984 J.I. Brownlow, W.A. Brownlow, Henry Sauer and W. Mary 1896-1984 The couple farmed and raised five children. Minnie m. Willard Walmsley 1917 Wamsley left for Eagle Creek the first of the week where m. Willard Walmsley 1917 died in 1985 at 100 years old – alert, singing hymns and they will spend several days hunting. The hunters informed quoting Scripture with all of her children around her Peter 1898-1899 several of their friends that they would not return without Peter 1898-1899 several of the most ferocious animals. However, we trust (according to her niece Dolores Dahl). Welcome Friend 1903-1975 Minnie and they will not bring them in alive.2 Welcome Friend Sauer, born in 1903, was five years * m.Welcome Celia Knowles Friend 1909-1973 1903-1975 old when the family moved to Leavenworth. In his teen Welcome Sauer m. Celia Knowles 1909-1973 * Henry married Ada Cline, daughter of Great Northern years he worked with his father on the potato farm and graduated from Page 1905-1905 engineer W.A. Cline, February 1917. The couple raised orchard, missing school in the fall to help with harvest Leavenworth High Page 1905-1905 three daughters, including Edna. They moved to but still graduating third in his class. His story is a School together Eva 1907-1995 Omak in 1922 and Henry went to work for the Biles & in 1921. m. Bill Golden fascinating one that begins on page 6. Eva 1907-1995 Coleman Lumber Company. He became superintendent, The youngest Sauer, Eva, was born in 1907. m. Bill Golden overseeing several hundred employees who respected * see separate story After graduating from Leavenworth High School him greatly. He remained at the mill for 32 years before she married William Golden on Dec. 11, 1931. He

* see separate story of the Sauer Family Courtesy All of Peter and Mary Sauer’s children were born retiring and moving with Ada to their summer home on became a construction inspector for the U.S. Bureau before the family moved to Leavenworth in 1908. All of Peter and Mary Sauer’s children were born Lake Osoyoos, in Oroville. He died in 1956. of Reclamation, working with crews building the before the family moved to LeavenworthThe Confluence in 1908. 4 Summer 2019 The Confluence 5 Summer 2019 to the Icicle and ford it.”1 This was more difficult to do The girl’s name was Celia Knowles. She had left Welcome and Celia Were Mountain People in a touring car than on a horse, so Welcome made his home at 13 and supported herself by housekeeping and by Chris Rader deliveries in two segments: up East Leavenworth Road cooking for a family in Eugene, Oregon. She attended to Icicle Creek, then back to town and up the west side high school there through her junior year, then moved According to Sauer family lore, parents Peter and paid $90 a month. of the creek to the end of the Icicle Road (just four miles, to Leavenworth to live with her older sister, Hazel. The Mary didn’t get around to naming their ninth child right In June of 1925 at that time). A wooden bridge was built in 1927 and his sister’s husband, Howard Halstead, managed the drug away. The Holdrege, Nebraska, couple had already he took a job as a job became easier. store and they lived in an apartment above it. Celia took come up with six boys’ names, including namesake fire lookout with “I will never forget that first day of trying to learn to care of their children and occasionally worked at the Peter, by the time their seventh son was born on Jan. the Forest Service. drive a car for the first time, and also the routine of a new store. 25, 1903, so they just called him “Pet.” Later that year, He was assigned to job,” he later told neighbor Dorothy Stemm. “No driver’s Welcome eventually spoke to her and a romance during harvest time, a man (whose name may have Tumwater Moun- license was necessary at that time. Much of the mail in blossomed. He was thrilled to learn that she loved the been Mr. Welcome or Mr. Friend) came to the Sauers’ tain, high above the other areas of the county was still being delivered as much as he did, and was handy with a farm in search of work. He was hired for the rest of the Leavenworth; by horse and buggy.”2 Once, on a snowy day in 1927, his fishing pole. They were married on March 3, 1928. season. After he had left, Peter remarked, “That man was this was the last Model T just wasn’t up to the task of delivering the mail. Welcome and Celia purchased a home on Poplar a welcome friend!” The family liked the sound of that year that lookout “The car wouldn’t budge in the two-feet-deep snow, so I Street that had been built by Willard Wamsley, husband phrase and Welcome Friend Sauer got his permanent was staffed, being slung the mail bag on my shoulders and hiked the nine- of Welcome’s sister Mary. The newlyweds furnished name. replaced by a mile Icicle Loop route on foot,” Sauer told Stemm. it before leaving by train for a honeymoon in Everett. Welcome’s brother Peter had died a few years earlier. higher one on

Photo by Welcome Sauer, courtesy of the Sauer Family courtesy Sauer, Welcome by Photo He recalled another winter incident. “Most families When they returned, they prepared to move into the His nearest brother, Leonard, was 10 years older, but Icicle the Welcome Sauer worked the Tum- came into town with their horse-drawn cutters. The roads house but found that someone – a well-meaning relative, Welcome’s sisters Minnie and Mary (and Eva, born in following year. On water Lookout in 1925. His son were so narrow that the Model T couldn’t get by the no doubt, never to be discovered – had gone into the 1907) were closer to his age and played with him. The quiet days when Gary was the lookout on Icicle Ridge sleigh unless a turnout was shoveled in the snowbank. house and changed all the furniture around. Celia was family moved to Everett, Wash., in 1905 and then to not reporting on (above) 35 years later. I rammed my car into the tall snowbank to let the cutter disturbed by this but took it in stride. Leavenworth in 1908 when Welcome was five. a forest fire, he pass. The driver waved merrily and drove into town, Welcome and Celia’s niece, the late Ione Sauer As a boy, and throughout his life, Welcome loved must have enjoyed seeing wildlife such as eagles, deer, leaving me to shovel out my own car from the snow.” Springer, said the couple had a very happy marriage the mountains. His family arrived in Leavenworth the coyotes, bears, cougars and mountain goats. Welcome had to learn where and were seldom apart “She year the Wenatchee National Forest was established. First rural mail carrier each postal patron lived. Some did anything and everything Headquartered in Leavenworth and extending from the On one of his days off from the lookout, Welcome people painted their names on for Uncle Welcome. She may Columbia at Wenatchee westward to the summit took the civil service exam for a new mail route that was their mailboxes; others preferred not have been a spotless house- of Stevens Pass, and from Naches north to Chelan, the being established to serve the rural areas of Leavenworth anonymity and just painted their keeper; it wasn’t dirty or filthy diverse forest included high, glaciated alpine peaks; lush and Peshastin. He passed the exam and was appointed boxes different colors. Like his or anything, but she would be valleys of old-growth forest; dry shrub-steppe foothills; to the carrier position in December 1925. He only had German-born mother, Welcome outside with the garden…. She’d and thousands of lakes. This country was paradise to work three days a week and was paid $78 a month, had a pleasant, outgoing per- rather help Uncle Welcome for anyone who enjoyed fishing, hunting, mountain considered a handsome wage at the time. Best of all, the sonality and the ability to make a fence, plant a garden, climbing and camping – like Welcome Friend Sauer. delivery schedule for Route #1 gave him plenty of time make lifelong friends. He often weed a garden” than stay Welcome accompanied his older brothers on fishing to fish and hunt. engaged in cheerful conversation indoors cleaning or cooking. and hunting trips and became hooked on mountain Welcome had to purchase a car, a used Model T with his postal customers. At Ione said Celia was a good cook; adventures. With friends or on his own he explored Ford, and learn to drive. On his first day at work the some point his hours were she didn’t need recipes and had Tumwater Ridge, just behind his family’s home, and Leavenworth postmaster and assistant stood on the increased, and Peshastin Creek a knack for putting together a Icicle Ridge a short distance away (south of the railroad sidewalk laughing as the young man coaxed his vehicle and the Peshastin North Road meal using the ingredients on tracks that bisected the town). Between that granite into action. Welcome’s work day started at 7 a.m. after were added to his postal loop. hand, rather than make a trip to ridge and the tall Stuart Range was the beautiful Icicle the mail train had dropped off the Leavenworth mail He carried mail for nearly 50 the grocery store.3 Creek (also known as Icicle River), fed by snowmelt and bags. He helped sort, and then loaded his car with the years and was known to virtually hundreds of high lakes north and south of the creek. Plenty of fish and game mail for residents of Cascade Orchards (as Icicle Valley everyone in Leavenworth and This drainage became Welcome’s lifelong playground. Welcome and Celia spent was called) and East Leavenworth Road, both areas Peshastin. Though he preferred being outdoors, Welcome was south of town and the Wenatchee River. much of their free time in the a good student. He graduated third in his Leavenworth Falls for Celia Having started in December, Welcome probably Icicle Valley. Sometimes, early in High School class in 1921, despite missing some school encountered snow and plenty of mud right away as he One day in 1927 Welcome the morning before he started his each fall to help harvest his family’s apples, potatoes eased into his new job. He had a Ruckstell axle installed was shopping at the Wheeler postal route, they would drive and other crops. Starting at age 15, he worked during on his open touring car to facilitate deep-snow driving. Drug Store in downtown to the end of Icicle Road (where summer vacations at the Great Northern (formerly Leavenworth when he spied an Dude Brown kept horses and This added two gears and allowed him to drive in of the Sauer Family Courtesy Lamb-Davis) Lumber Company in Leavenworth for compound low; often, in winter, his entire route was attractive young sales clerk. He ran a guided packing service for 40 cents an hour. He continued at the mill full-time driven in low gear. didn’t introduce himself, but Puget Sound mountaineers; this after high school and was promoted to assistant sales There was no bridge across Icicle Creek at the time. told his older brother George he area is now called Icicle Island). manager at age 21. He worked six days a week and was Welcome and Celia embark on their honeymoon. In fact, the new rural route job description read, “Go was going to marry her. Welcome would drop Celia off The Confluence 6 Summer 2019 The Confluence 7 Summer 2019 them through the winter. “Only once lake someone had told him about, high above Indian in 40 years has Welcome Sauer missed Creek and the Napeequa River in the bagging his deer on Icicle Ridge,” watershed: Dorothy Stemm wrote in 1960.5 I found that the lake drained into the North Fork of the Not to be left behind, Celia learned White River, a rough turbulent lying in a narrow to use a rifle as well. “She loved to be in precipitous gorge through which as yet the Forest Service the mountains,” her daughter Dolores had not built a trail … I was greatly shocked to note the recently reminisced. “She’d hike up morning sun just rising over the highest peak on the range, the Icicle, shoot and dress a deer, hike a spire reaching into the sky about 7,500 feet. Nothing back home and get Welcome to go get much to do but head for this peak. The first mile was it.” covered with mountain laurel and, as the bush grows on “I admire Celia for her creativity, a downhill slant, it is almost impossible to make your way ingenuity, strength, determination and through it. Then as you gain elevation the terrain suddenly generosity,” observed her grandson changes and you come onto numerous high cliffs, Wes Sauer. “How many women were many of which are absolutely impassible, and you have to fishing and hunting in the back country detour around them…. Here I stop to rest and, looking far below, I can see the White

Photo by Welcome Sauer, courtesy of the Sauer Family courtesy Sauer, Welcome by Photo in the 1930s and ‘40s? We have records Celia Sauer, with two fishing rods, poses by “Beany’s Cabin” on the Snow of the places where she shot deer. The River winding its way on down to Lake Wenatchee. It is truly Lakes trail leading to the Enchantment Mountains. list includes lots of locations around a White River as the water, coming down from its source Leavenworth over several decades.” from the melting and running over the glacial silt with their gear, and then run his route. She would haul Welcome Sauer was a good writer; his many letters deposited thousands of years ago, is almost the color of their tent, sleeping bag, cookware and fishing tackle to a are considered literary masterpieces by family members. milk… On reaching the summit I sat down for one last look camping spot. After finishing work, Welcome would join He chronicled many happy days spent alone or with and to take a picture of this beautiful mountain gem, which

Celia for a pleasant afternoon and evening (or weekend) family in the high country around Leavenworth. One lies there for the most part unseen by human eyes, cradled of the Sauer Family courtesy Sauer, Welcome by Photo of fishing, huckleberry picking and camping. by the spires of God’s majestic mountain tops…. entry from 1941 described a solo trip to try and find a Celia stands in a snow field above Schaefer Lake, in the The couple made a long backpacking trip up the Welcome was one of several intrepid Leavenworth Icicle that historian Edson Dow later described in an Chiwawa drainage. She and her family often used snow men who occasionally accompanied employees of to keep their fish fresh on the way home. undated Seattle newspaper column: the state fishery agency on treks to stock some ofthe Welcome and Celia, shortly after they were married, pristine high lakes with trout. They carried five-gallon Sauer children also loved the outdoors backpacked into the Icicle from Dude Brown’s camp, past metal cans filled with water and about a thousand one- Welcome and Celia passed their love of the mountains the Chatter Creek Guard Station, up Frosty Creek to lakes inch fish, approximately a 50-pound weight, to these along to their children. The family of four (later five) Mary and Margaret, and back down. They then swung lakes – uphill, scaling cliffs, often with no established spent a lot of time fishing, hiking and camping together. up Doughgod Creek to Doelle Lakes. Doelle Lakes drain trails to follow. A few years later, after the fish had had a Leonard learned to hunt before he was 10 years old. He into the Icicle but lie near the headwaters of White Pine chance to grow and reproduce, Welcome and his family made his parents proud during deer season 1941, as The Creek. would return and easily catch their limits of foot-long Leavenworth Echo reported: The next day they went over the hog’s back to Chain cutthroats, brookies or rainbows. The Welcome Sauer family is about the “huntinest” family Lakes, then down the switchback trail to the meadow lake in this community. Welcome called Grass Lake. From Grass Lake they swung back and and Mrs. Sauer have been went over to Square Lake, and then from Square to Leland getting their bucks regularly Lake. for the past several years and At that time Leland Lake had no campgrounds and all the Saturday their 10-year-old son, fish in the lake were over a foot in size. They caught their Leonard, showed both mother limit – which in those days was 25 – backpacked to the and dad up by killing a big buck Chatter Creek Guard Station, and on out to home.4 in the snow high on Icicle ridge. By the time the Great was felt in the The buck was a giant 5-pointer, Wenatchee Valley, Welcome and Celia had two children. with a magnificent spread, and Dolores was born April 20, 1929, and Leonard came weighed 275 pounds dressed. along on Nov. 25, 1930. The family never felt poor, It is the biggest buck killed by however, since Welcome had a steady job with the post the Sauer family and naturally office and they always had plenty to eat. They raised young Leonard is a tickled kid to chickens, sometimes selling eggs to a Leavenworth hold the family record for size. Photo by Celia Sauer, courtesy of the Sauer Family courtesy Celia Sauer, by Photo bakery or trading them for credit at Koontz’s grocery. He was accompanied by his dad Photo by Celia Sauer, courtesy of the Sauer Family courtesy Celia Sauer, by Photo They canned their homegrown fruits and vegetables, Welcome Sauer balances his two-year-old daughter, and mother on the hunt and he Leonard, 10, displays the antlers of a buck he shot on Icicle Ridge as his dad looks on. caught lots of mountain trout, and had venison to sustain Dolores, on his hand. admits that he suffered a slight The Confluence 8 Summer 2019 The Confluence 9 Summer 2019 Leavenworth to be shipped by rail to winter pastures or fishing and camping and traveling, before slaughterhouses. Dolores spotted a nearby sheepherder her death in 2014. with his flock and became nervous. “You don’t have With his trail-building experience, to worry about him!” Celia told her. The sheepherder Leonard improved an animal trail and old came over to them, carrying a shortwave radio. He told logging road through the woods to the ridge the Sauers the good news that the war in Japan – the above his property. This new three-mile finale of World War II – was over. trail, starting from the road, traversed Sauer Gary Sauer’s early years were also filled with property before entering national forest land adventures in the Icicle Valley and the high lakes, and terminating at a point with a beautiful including numerous hiking, fishing and hunting trips view of the , including with his family. “We’d leave the car, still pitch black Peak and other high mountains above the dark,” he told his son Wes c. 2012. “Dad would drive up Lake Wenatchee and Icicle drainages. He the Icicle Road and leave me and Mom out on the road; contacted Forest Service personnel in 1994 we’d have a flashlight. Dad would go back down to the to invite the public to come park along the post office and do his route. Mom and I, we’d goup road, enter his property and walk the trail to the mountain. She’d shoot a deer and take Dad up the what he called Sauer’s Mountain. This has next day to pack it out.” These mountain experiences become a popular hiking trail, especially early in the season before higher-elevation

shaped his later life as well. Gary, too, worked as a of the Sauer Family Courtesy Forest Service fire lookout (on Icicle Ridge) and became trails are clear of snow. Leonard Sauer posts a sign honoring his father on a tree along the route From his early youth, Gary Sauer loved a hobbyist nature photographer, sailplane pilot, and of the Sauer’s Mountain trail outside of Peshastin in 1995. lifelong hunter and fisherman. animals. He cared for the family rabbits and became university graduates (Eric a Rhodes Scholar). chickens and was active in the local 4-H Club from age Children become fine citizens Dolores later became a part-time teacher. eight to 18. He received numerous awards for raising Welcome and Celia appreciated education and Leonard Sauer graduated from Leavenworth High and judging livestock, including calves and pigs. As a encouraged their three children to succeed in school. School in 1949. During the 1950s, when attending sophomore at Leavenworth High School he won the They all did well. Like her father, Dolores showed college, he worked summers building trails for the state 4-H community relations contest; the following an aptitude with words. One piece she wrote, called Forest Service in his beloved Cascade Mountains near year he won a trip to the national 4-H Club Congress “Mountain Poem,” describes walking across a log, home. He worked on the Boulder Pass trail leading from in Chicago, where he was honored for “telling the 4-H Photo by Welcome Sauer, courtesy of the Sauer Family courtesy Sauer, Welcome by Photo observing ants working their way to a nest, and climbing the White River into the Napeequa Valley, “the steep story.” Dolores, Gary and Leonard Sauer pose in their Easter a steep trail up a mountain. part” of the Stuart Lake trail past the Colchuck-Stuart Gary graduated in 1960. He moved to Richland and best c. 1944. Onward, upward, finally breaking out into the open. junction, and the Fourth of July trail leading from Icicle was hired as a mail carrier. (A letter from his father, The snow-covered side of a steep peak, at its base a clear Canyon to Icicle Ridge.7 Leavenworth mail carrier Welcome Sauer, may have attack of buck fever, missing several times before he hit a blue lake. After college he married and taught high school helped him get the job.) Gary then carried mail in vital spot. The head, a beauty, will be mounted as a lasting Icy stream flowing out back in the evergreen trees, the industrial arts, primarily wood shop and mechanical Wenatchee for more than 25 years. He also ran a very 6 memento of Leonard’s hunting prowess. perfect spot to put our tent. drawing, in Richland for 20 Celia was born with a bad heart valve, and as she got The remains of a stone fire pit. years. He also worked as a older her doctor told her to limit her activities. She really Breathing deeply of the fresh, sharp, cool, clean air… mail carrier before returning wanted a third child, and was happy when she became The deafening silence, broken only by the trickle of the to the Wenatchee Valley. He pregnant again in 1941. Her doctor recommended she stream and his first wife, Judy, had stay in bed toward the end of her pregnancy. Welcome flowing across the meadow and downward to cross the three children: Heidi, Joe and hired a housekeeper and took good care of Celia. Their river we so carefully crossed. Welcome. He married again son Gary was born healthy on April 23, 1942. In addition to enjoying learning and being smart in (Sue) and had two more Celia didn’t give up on her mountain trips, despite school, Dolores was popular. She participated in many children, Steve and Debbie, her weakening heart. The family obtained two horses, school activities, including acting in class plays. She was and helped raise stepsons Fleeta and Pharaoh, so she could ride instead of hike chosen as the princess to represent Leavenworth in the Dave, Gregg and Robert. In long distances. In late summer 1945 she and Dolores, 1946 Apple Blossom Festival. There were 28 graduates the 1980s he bought property who was 16, took a five-day horse camping trip together. in her 1946 class and she was one of three girls who adjacent to national forest With gear packed behind their saddles they rode the went on to college. She met Wesley “Bing” Dahl, a land in Anderson Canyon, horses up Highway 2 toward Stevens Pass. Before the WWII veteran, at Washington State University and outside Peshastin, where he summit they turned left (south) and followed trails over they were married in 1948. She kept her promise to her lived with his third wife, Jean, Icicle Ridge into the Icicle drainage, camping and fishing father and did graduate. Bing spent 37 years as a high and raised a small orchard. in a few lakes along the way. school counselor and basketball coach. Dolores opted to Leonard and Jean very much of the Sauer Family courtesy Sauer, Welcome by Photo In those days, large flocks of sheep grazed in the concentrate on homemaking and caring for their four enjoyed his retirement years, Celia and young Gary Sauer ride horses at Frosty Pass to camp and fish in lakes Mary mountains all summer before being herded down to children, Eric, Ellen, LeAnn and Chris, all of whom and Margaret. The Confluence 10 Summer 2019 The Confluence 11 Summer 2019 Cascade Mountains. In one of his hand- written letters, Welcome called the Peshastin Sauers Were Great Mechanics mountains around Leavenworth “truly a by Chris Rader country God so loved, He literally piled it Of the seven surviving children of Peter and Mary up in heaps.” Welcome Lake is named after Sauer, who moved to Leavenworth in 1908, George was him, and Leonard Lake after his son; both the one who settled a few miles down the road in the alpine lakes were first planted with fish by small village of Peshastin. George Sauer was drawn their namesakes who inspired family and to mechanics at an early age and made his living as friends to cherish this beautiful landscape. proprietor of the Peshastin Garage – eventually passing ENDNOTES along his talent and the business to his son, Bud. 1. Pat Morris, “Along the Wenatchee,” Born in 1887, George first started working around Leavenworth Echo, Nov. 17, 2010. engines as a boy in Nebraska, where his father had a 2. Dorothy Stemm, “Welcome, ‘Welcome,’ They wheat farm that used a steam-powered thresher. George Courtesy of the Sauer Family Courtesy Say to Sauer,” Wenatchee Daily World, Feb. 18, brought water to the horses and the threshing crew as a 1960. young lad, and then learned to operate the machine. Gary Sauer displays two ribbons he won for showing his 4-H pigs. 3. Wes Sauer interview of Ione Springer, 2013. In 1913 George met Dorothy Jefferson, who had come successful business as a beekeeper, supplying beehives 4. Edson Dow, “The Outdoor Sportsman,” date unknown. to Leavenworth that year with her parents from Clinton, for pollination to orchardists throughout Chelan and of the Sauer Family Courtesy 5. Stemm, op. cit. Iowa. She was 18 and he was 26. They married later that Douglas counties. After retiring from the post office he 6. Leavenworth Echo, Oct. 17, 1941. year and moved to Stave Falls, B.C., where he worked as Mary and Peter Sauer stand in the Peshastin orchard designed and built outdoor fish ponds. Gary and his 7. Cashmere Valley Record, April 13, 1994. a mechanic for the British Columbia Electrical Company. (also below) operated by their sons George and Henry in first wife, Betty McGregor, had three children: Wesley, 8. Wenatchee World, Aug. 13, 2014. They returned to Washington in 1917 and settled in the late 1910s and 1920s. Scott and Charlene. 9. Ibid. Peshastin. George and his brother Henry purchased a Gary learned to fly gliders at Fancher Field in East SOURCES 20-acre parcel of land east of the Peshastin Bridge and Wenatchee, “exploring the topography of familiar Dolores Dahl, many e-mails and conversations with Wes planted an apple orchard. The orchard never amounted high lakes and trails from the perspective of a soaring Sauer. to much, so they pulled out the trees and ran cattle on 8 eagle.” Once he flew his sailplane, carrying oxygen, Dolores Dahl, e-mails with Chris Rader, 2019. the land for a few years before selling the property. to the dizzying height of 19,200 feet; this earned him Gary Sauer, recorded conversation with Wes Sauer, c. 2012. During this time, George was earning a reputation an amateur glider pilot achievement award in the “Peshastin man builds trail,”Cashmere Valley Record, April 13, as a blacksmith and mechanic. He enrolled in a 1979 Northwest Regional Soaring Championships. He 1994. correspondence course for machinists, after responding also took up paragliding, climbing to high Cascades Wes Sauer, e-mails and conversations with Chris Rader, 2019. to an advertisement on the back of a matchbook, and cliffs and then floating gently over the valley before Wenatchee World, June 3, 1999; May 19, 2008; Nov. 9, 2008; opened the Peshastin Garage in 1926. Bud was born a descending to the base of the mountain. On one of these Dec. 30, 2009; May 24, 2018. year later.

trips he fulfilled a childhood dream of flying home from Bud (whose real name was also George) was George Museum #005-48-1 Valley Wenatchee a mountain lake with a backpack full of fish. Gary was well known in the local square dancing and Dorothy’s fourth child, joining community, active in the Buds and Blossoms club Dorothy, born in 1916; Georgene and attending state square dance festivals. He died (“Jean”), born in 1921; and Ione, of complications related to Parkinson’s disease on born in 1924. As the only boy in the July 1, 2014. His obituary noted, “We celebrate Gary family, he was proud to say that for his loving sweetness, generosity, fun-loving and he was “severely spoiled” by his adventuresome nature, and the stories he told us beloved older sisters.1 9 throughout his life.” Upper Wenatchee Valley his- Celia Sauer died Feb. 19, 1973, and Welcome two years torian Fred Pflugrath recalled that later on Aug. 20, 1975. The couple had been members of George and Dorothy lived behind Leavenworth’s Community United Methodist Church the garage. “They were among and cherished their Christian faith. In his eulogy at the founding fathers of Peshastin Welcome’s funeral, Pastor Richard Sprague noted: “He and its German Congregational loved life religiously, thankfully and appreciatively. In Church,” he said. “Dorothy taught his broad smile could be read an appreciation of the Sunday school and I think she

entire universe, reflected in the beauty of some new of the Sauer Family Courtesy played the organ.” Later, daughter Courtesy of the Sauer Family Courtesy growth or some little natural phenomenon.” Ione also taught Sunday school at In the 1920s the Sauer ranch was located north of Saunders Road in the center Welcome and Celia considered themselves blessed Welcome Sauer delivered mail in the Upper Valley for that church, across the street from of this west-looking photo, near the bend in the Wenatchee River winding past to have spent so many of their days in their beloved nearly 50 years. today’s Peshastin Library. Peshastin (center right). The Confluence 12 Summer 2019 The Confluence 13 Summer 2019 Pflugrath said George Sauer was the last blacksmith athlete in school and remained a sports fan the rest of his in Chelan County. “He made parts for sprayers, tractors, life, rarely missing a Peshastin High School basketball anything mechanical. You could hear him pounding game and sometimes taking his toolbox along in case a from the depot, a quarter mile away.” Then George school bus had problems. went into welding, along with automotive mechanics. Ione and Charlie Springer had three sons: Charles “I think George was recognized as the best mechanic (“Chip”), Robert and Donny. After Charlie died in 1978, and repair person for logging trucks and orchard Robert and Donny took over his share of the garage. Bud’s equipment in the valley,” his niece Dolores Sauer Dahl son Tony took his place when Bud retired. This third said recently. She and her cousins, boys and girls alike, generation continued the Sauer legacy at the business enjoyed many hiking and fishing trips together in the (though eventually renaming it Springer Brothers Gar- Cascades, and had happy times at Sauer family holiday age) with auto mechanics, tractor and orchard equipment dinners laughing, playing games and eating leftovers. World of The Wenatchee Courtesy repair, and welding at the shop or on orchard sites. Like his father, Bud had an early interest in mechanics. ENDNOTES He hung out at the Peshastin Garage, observing and Bud Sauer drives his little red car down a street in 1. Wenatchee World, March 27, 2014. helping his dad and learning to operate machinery. Peshastin. 2. Sam Willsey, speaking at Bud Sauer’s memorial service, April 5, 2014. George built a little red car that he taught young Bud patterned after a photograph of a Case 1920 model he to drive. 3. Warren Hills, speaking at Bud Sauer’s memorial service, clipped from a magazine. He made most of the parts April 5, 2014. Around 1940, when Bud was 12 years old, his parents by hand including levers, wheels, water tank and and sisters drove up to Lake Wenatchee by Cougar for SOURCES coal bunker. The 64-inch-long model weighed about Dolores Sauer Dahl a picnic. With his dad’s permission, Bud drove his little 500 pounds and had a steam pressure of 125 pounds. Fred Pflugrath red car through Leavenworth, up Tumwater Canyon to George shared it at a convention of the Steam Fiends Joe Sauer (son of Leonard) the lake for the picnic, and then back home. In Tumwater Association, of which he was a member. It is now on Wes Sauer Canyon a state trooper pulled him over. He looked display at the Cashmere Museum. and looked, and didn’t believe what he was seeing. Like his father, Bud was technically skilled Finally he asked one question: “Who is your father?!” and curious as to how things worked. He earned Bud drove on home. The next day, the trooper came by a reputation as “a man of character and integrity” the garage where George and Bud were working, and who had many friends and was highly esteemed by read George the riot act. “That thing doesn’t have any all, according to his friend Warren Hills. fenders, any lights, windshield wipers; it’s not legal!” He was frugal but also generous. He’d be working on Courtesy of the Sauer Family Courtesy George nodded his head solemnly, because he’d taught a car and a friend would drive up and interrupt him. his son to respect authority. After the state patrolman “Hey, my car’s got a weird knock” or whatever. Bud From left, George Sauer, Homer English and Welcome left, Bud was waiting for his punishment. All he got was would listen to it, fix it if he could. “Don’t worry about Sauer stand in front of the Willys Overland that Welcome a wink and a smile.2 paying me, I’ll get you twice next time” but never did. He used when delivering mail, c. 1930. After graduating from Peshastin High School in didn’t always charge people, either, like the occasional 1947, Bud began working single woman with kids. He had a hard time saying no to fulltime at his father’s machine people, including loaning his tools.3 and automotive shop. All of his sisters were married by then: Bud married Lovetta Willsey in 1958. They had three sons: George R. (“Skip”), Tony and Joe, all of After retirement, George Sauer built this model thresher with Dorothy to Ernest Springer, working steam engine. It may be seen at the Cashmere Museum. Jean to Jack Merz, and Ione whom helped out at the garage. Bud had been an to Charlie Springer (Ernest’s brother). When not working, The Confluence is indebted to Wes Sauer for Bud spent time with his friends making available the photographs contained hunting, fishing and bowling in this issue. Welcome and Celia Sauer of in Leavenworth. Leavenworth shot many photos between 1927 In 1956 Bud and Charlie and 1972, creating a visual autobiography of their purchased the Peshastin Garage lives together (including scenes of ski jumping, from George. George continued historic plane landings, the Alpine Lakes area and to tinker with mechanics as a sites of interest from a ‘round-the-world trip). A hobby. He spent some 2,000 photo exhibit is planned in coming months, in Courtesy of the Sauer Family Courtesy hours building a working cooperation with the Upper Valley Museum at Leavenworth. For more information, visit http:// George Sauer had a lifelong interest in automobiles and machinery. Here he poses in model of a steam engine for a World of The Wenatchee Courtesy wessauer.com. a Model T Speedster. threshing machine, which he Bud Sauer Ione Sauer Springer The Confluence 14 Summer 2019 The Confluence 15 Summer 2019 Nonprofit Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center U.S. POSTAGE 127 S. Mission Street Wenatchee, WA 98801-3039 PAID Permit No. 422 Wenatchee, WA 98801

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Museum members: If you move, please inform the museum of your new address. Call (509) 888-6240 or e-mail [email protected].

Coming Up at the Wenatchee Valley Museum

Grand Coulee Geology Tour, Saturday, June 1 First Friday Reception,Friday, June 7 Downtown Wenatchee Walking Tour, Saturday, June 8 Super Summer Adventures, Nine sessions Mondays thru Thursdays, June 17-August 22 Pipe Organ 100th Anniversary Concert and Silent Film, Sunday, June 30, featuring Dennis James First Friday Reception, Friday, July 5 Wenatchee to Leavenworth Geology Tour, Saturday, July 13 First Friday Reception,Friday, August 2 Blossom Days Remembered: 100 Years of Festival, exhib- First Friday Reception,Friday, September 6 ited through mid-September Railroad History Tour, Saturday, September 7

wenatcheevalleymuseum.org (509) 888-6240