WITH ALL THE recent roadwork around Lake Crescent, West-Enders have found themselves grumbling and complaining about delays and dust as they make their trips to Port Angeles.

When compared with what earlier residents of this end of Clallam County had to endure to get to the big city, it is still a piece of cake — even with the delays and the dust.

The first piece of the puzzle that would eventually connect Forks with the rest of the world was the completion of the Olympic Highway on the south side of Lake Crescent around 1922.

Prior to completion of this road, travelers booked passage on one of Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet vessels.

After disembarking near Pysht, a long road/trail awaited. Once in Sappho, one could go on to Forks.

For a few years, from 1913 to 1922, ferries carried travelers on Lake Crescent.

The first, The Betty Earles, was used primarily to bring passengers to Michael Earles’ Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort.

After the resort burned down, several other passenger-only ferries serviced travelers.

As automobiles became more popular, the ferry Marjory began ferrying cars. She held seven autos and 50 passengers.

The largest and last car ferry was Storm King. She held 21 autos and 150 passengers.

Rates one-way were 75 cents for autos and 15 cents for passengers — kind of pricey for 1922.

If one was wishing to travel south from Forks in the early 1900s, it was not easy.

There was a puncheon road, and crossing of rivers almost certainly meant a ride in a canoe.

So it was also in 1922 that work began on a highway south.

In the spring of that year, crews began chunking out the right of way with steam donkeys.

Steel and cement were hauled in for the Bogachiel and Hoh River bridges.

Unstable wet ground and huge trees made for slow going.

Finally, in August 1931, the Olympic Loop was completed.

On Aug. 26 and 27, a caravan of an estimated 6,000 cars left Port Angeles.

Washington Gov. Roland H. Hartley, British Columbia Premier Simon Fraser Tolmie, Native American chiefs and pioneer settlers all took part.

New bridges at Bear Creek and the Sol Duc had dedications and ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

Stopping in Forks at 11 a.m., the entourage enjoyed a “frontier dinner” provided by the Forks Chamber of Commerce.

The caravan continued south and the Nolan Creek bridge was dedicated.

At 2 p.m. they arrived at Kalaloch, where a huge celebration continued through the next day with dancing, games and contests.

Highway workers had finally encircled the farthest northwest body of land in the United States with a $10 million highway project.

It skirted a great body of virgin timberlands and an entire mountain range.

But while it was called a highway, there was a lot of gravel and dust — it was quite awhile before the road surface was blacktopped.

The Olympic Loop in its final form represented years of work during which time sections of road were pushed through forest wilderness, across bogs and over raging rivers and streams, which offered up some of the most difficult obstacles ever faced by Western highway builders.

As the Great Depression deepened, road construction projects expanded to provide “relief” to the unemployed. To cover the cost, the state issued its first road bonds in 1933.

A newspaper reporter dramatically wrote in an article at the time that “road boosters of half a century and pioneers with the joy of vanished isolation written on their weather-beaten faces joined in, lauding the new highway.”

Also, it is a nice drive when there is no road construction.

———————————

Christi Baron is a longtime West End resident who is the office and property manager for Lunsford & Associates real estate and lives with her husband, Howard, in Forks.

Phone her at 360-374-3141 or 360-374-2244 with items for this column, or e-mail her at hbaron@centurytel.net.

West End Neighbor appears on this page every other Tuesday.