QUITE A FEW people commented about the January photo from the past but only a few of them recognized the cabins as belonging to the Log Cabin Resort.
The photo was taken in the winter sometime between 1943 and 1957 at the Log Cabin Resort on the east end of Lake Crescent.
Carl and Myrtle Hansen bought the property in 1943.
Myrtle died sometime after 1951 and Carl married Isabel Secor.
There were eight cabins and a store remaining in 1943.
The cabins were along the lake.
The Hansens lived in one of the old cabins while they made plans to build a new lodge.
The lodge was completed in 1957.
Hansen moved a few more rustic cabins from Ovingtons Resort around the lake when Ovingtons closed.
He loaded the cabins aboard his barge and moved them in the dead of night.
The cabins he moved were the ones in the photo.
He added several A-frame cabins with kitchenettes and bathrooms in 1962-63, where the original cabins were when they first came.
He made other changes to the resort, including adding a boat house.
In 1951, Hansen sold his property rights to Olympic National Park and became a park concessionaire.
His son, Ken, helped with the lodge, which had a nice restaurant and store that sold supplies to the campers.
In 1976, the Hansens gave up their lease.
Ted Sullivan, husband of Beverly Hansen Sullivan, wrote that the cabins seen in the photo have to be the cabins that were acquired from the old Ovingtons Resort on the north side of Lake Crescent.
In 1952, Hansen brought these cabins across the lake on a barge.
Sullivan said, “My wife, Beverly Hansen, remembered riding on one of the barge trips and having her dad put her ashore.”
Beverly Sullivan said that she and Ted were married in the 1940s and they stayed at the resort while her dad and mom went on a trip.
Sheryl Slack shared her memories of living and working at the resort.
Her parents, Ken and Marge Hansen, often spent part of the winters there with their children, Kristi Meek, Ron Hansen and Sheryl, while Carl and Isabel went south.
Slack had her first job when she 9.
She stocked the store, made beds and helped clean the cabins, along with her grandma Isabel and Betty Barnes (a long-time employee).
Slack said they stayed in the new apartments that were attached to the resort.
She was 17 when the resort sold.
Jane Rhoads Childers wrote that she had lots of memories from the 1950s and 1960s when her family, Dusty and Happy Rhoads, and the Snydal family stayed for up to five days in the original log cabins during opening days of fishing season.
“Usually it was raining, and I can still sense the smell inside of a wood fire heating up the inside.
“We used those large chunks of ice in the coolers and cast iron skillets on the stove.
“At night the lantern sat on the kitchen table while our parents socialized and we played board games.
“First thing in the morning our dads got up to fish for those Beardsleys, and we kids put on those puffy orange life jackets and walked to the rock shelf out front of the lodge to catch our own limits.
“Carl and Isabel, owners of the resort, were the best.
“Having my birthday in the log cabin with a cake made by Isabel were fond memories that I hold on to today.
“I can still picture my dad pushing me out in a row boat tied to a tree with log rope, teaching me how to row myself in at an early age.
“There were times when we would just go out to the lake to see what my dad called, ‘God’s Country,’ ” Childers wrote.
My husband and I stayed in No. 8 several years ago with two of our grandchildren.
We commented when we left that the next time we came we would get one on the other side of the road that had bathrooms and kitchenettes.
Ted Bedford wrote he thought the cabins dated back to the 1920s.
He said that he had spent many enjoyable summers on the lake and mostly day use at the resort.
He also said that he and his wife, Pam, rented rustic cabin No. 7 last September.
The cabin was very dated but clean.
The day they departed he told the lady cleaning in rustic cabin No. 8, that he intended to rent that cabin next summer because it offered a better view of the lake.
Her reply was, “I don’t think so; they will tear down these old cabins in just a few weeks.”
Sure enough the resort closed for the winter a week later.
All the cabins in the mystery photo were torn down later in the fall of 2017.
They are currently working on replacing them with a series of log cabins on the same site.
Ted said, “Hopefully they will be ready for me to rent one during the summer of 2018.”
Dottie Hopkins, Norman Gallacci, Harold Edgington, Jerry Weiler and Paul Lotzgesell all wrote that they thought the cabins were either the old Olympic Hot Springs or the Sol Duc cabins.
An article in the Peninsula Daily News on Oct. 16, 2017 states that new guest cabins will be available when Olympic National Park’s Log Cabin Resort at Lake Crescent opens for the season in May.
“The park awarded a $2,220,924 construction contract to Advanced Technology Construction of Tacoma to replace eight guest cabins and construct a new manager’s residence at Log Cabin Resort … the new cabins will be constructed from log cabin kits … two of the cabins will meet national guidelines for persons with disabilities.
“A trail compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act and the Architectural Barriers Act will connect the cabins with primary activities at the resort … four of the cabins will have kitchenettes … future plans include a new wastewater treatment plant.
“Aramark Corp. was awarded a 10-year concession contract to operate Log Cabin Resort in October 2013. In the contract the park committed to replacing the eight guest cabins and manager’s residence,” the article concludes.
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Alice Alexander is a Clallam County historian, author, and a descendent of an Elwha Valley pioneer family. She is a recipient of a 2014 Clallam County Heritage Awards. She can be reached at bretches1942@gmail.com.
Alice’s Clallam history column appears the first Sunday of every month, alternating with Linnea Patrick’s Jefferson County history column on the third Sunday of the month.
February picture from the past Do you remember this downtown store? Do you know what it is now? If so write to Alice Alexander, 204 W. Fourth St.. Apt 14, Port Angeles, WA 98362 and share your memories. You can email her at bretches1942@gmail.com also, and she will use your comments in her March 4 column. Comments need to be received by Feb. 18.
