Final Submittal An Interpretive History of the Elwha River Valley and the Legacy of Hydropower on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula by Paul Sadin, Project Historian Dawn Vogel, Research Historian Project Manager Heather Lee Miller, Associate Historian Historical Research Associates 1904 Third Avenue, Suite 240 Seattle, WA 98101 Submitted to National Park Service Olympic National Park 600 East Park Avenue Port Angeles, WA 98362 January 2011 This page left intentionally blank. Table of Contents Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... xi Selected Chronology of Events: Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams, 1855-2009 ......................... xiii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 The Power of the Elwha ............................................................................................................................ 4 Chapter 1 The Power of the Elwha River ....................................................................................... 9 The Klallam People of the North Peninsula ............................................................................................ 10 European Contact .................................................................................................................................... 21 Homesteading in the Elwha Valley ......................................................................................................... 23 Olympic Forest Reserve .......................................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 2 Elwha Dam Construction Powers Industrial and Community Growth, 1900–1914 .... 45 Thomas Aldwell and Elwha River Power ............................................................................................... 47 Elwha Dam Construction ..................................................................................................................... 61 Foundation Blowout and Aftermath........................................................................................................ 72 Initial Impact of Elwha Dam Construction........................................................................................... 77 The Hatchery Agreement ..................................................................................................................... 79 Chapter 3 Transformations: A River, a Tribe, a City .................................................................. 87 The Industrial Growth of Port Angeles ................................................................................................... 88 Pulp and Paper Mills, 1918–1929 ........................................................................................................... 95 More Power from the Elwha ................................................................................................................... 99 Port Angeles and the Great Depression, 1929–1945............................................................................. 119 Life on the Elwha River ........................................................................................................................ 128 Elwha Valley Recreation ...................................................................................................................... 134 The Power of Place: The Elwha River and the Elwha Klallam ............................................................ 160 Chapter 4 Power Politics: The Environmental Era Arrives and Challenges to the Dams Begin, 1968–2008................................................................................................................................... 167 The Elwha Klallam Tribe’s Challenge to Relicensing .......................................................................... 176 Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act ........................................................................ 196 Local Resistance to Dam Removal ....................................................................................................... 203 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 219 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 227 Appendices Catalogue of Photographs and Graphics Identified for use in Publication .................... Appendix A [FINAL] Balances of Power Historical Research Associates, Inc. i List of Figures Figure 1. Map of the Elwha River watershed on the north side of the Olympic Peninsula. The vast majority of the watershed lies within Olympic National Park. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .... 3 Figure 2. Aerial view of (top to bottom) Lake Mills, Glines Canyon Dam and power plant, and the Elwha River, n.d. Photograph by Jet Lowe. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ............................................ 5 Figure 3. Construction workers hanging from a revolving crane in the early phase of building Glines Canyon Dam, ca. 1926–1927. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, ONP ref. no. 2010.200.086. ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Figure 4. Elwha River. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .................................................................... 10 Figure 5. Map showing the mouth of the Elwha River, Freshwater Bay, and the location of the Elwha Klallam village, 1908. Courtesy of Olympic National Park Archives. ................................................ 12 Figure 6. Fragment of an almost 3,000-year-old basket, made of roots and limbs, found by visitors to Olympic National Park, n.d. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ...................................................... 15 Figure 7. Example of a culturally modified tree. This scarred cedar was found in the Tongass National Forest of southeastern Alaska, 2009. Photograph by Eric Carlson, Historical Research Associates, Inc. ........................................................................................................................................................ 16 Figure 8. Hand-colored postcard depicting the Elwha Canyon, prior to dam construction. Photograph by P. C. Nailer and Co., Port Angeles, Wash. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ................................ 18 Figure 9. Underwater view of swimming salmon. Photograph by National Park Service. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ........................................................................................................................ 20 Figure 10. Salmon eggs in stream gravel. Photograph by National Park Service. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. ....................................................................................................................................... 20 Figure 11. Hand-colored image of black and white photograph showing Glines Canyon and footbridge across Elwha River prior to dam construction, ca. 1900. Courtesy of Olympic National Park. .......... 23 Figure 12. Affidavit containing the statements of two Clallam County residents testifying that Marcellus Huntoon made sufficient improvements to his homestead to obtain title to the land, June 2, 1873. The document indicates that Huntoon settled on the parcel on December 25, 1861, and moved into his permanent “log dwelling house” on approximately February 25, 1862. Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration. ................................................................................................................ 25 Figure 13. Humes Ranch along the Elwha River, 1918. New residents quickly realized what Klallam tribal members had long known—the soil-rich bottomlands where the Elwha River’s previous floods had deposited mud and debris were the best locations for settlement and raising crops. The terrain was also flatter than on steep slopes farther away from the river. Courtesy of Lyman R. Humes Collection, Olympic National Park. Ref. no. .......................................................................................................... 27 Figure 14. Dodger and Norma Bender in front of their home on the Elwha River. Photograph by Gary Wagner. Courtesy of Alice Alexander. ................................................................................................ 28 Figure 15. “Doc” A. Ludden’s Geyser Apiary Co. in the Elwha Valley, ca. 1914. Courtesy of the Bert Kellogg Collection of the North Olympic Library System. ................................................................. 30 Figure 16. Elwha Valley homesteaders Will Humes, Orlin Burdick, and Grant Humes at the Humes Ranch cabin, 1905. Photograph by Frank Pearson. Courtesy of Gerry Humes Collection, Olympic National Park. ....................................................................................................................................... 32 Figure 17. Humes Ranch Cabin, interior, n.d. Courtesy of Clallam County Historical Society, ref. no. 988.64.24. ............................................................................................................................................