History at a Glance

In her book "Long, Long Ago in Skokomish Valley," written in 1965, Emma Richert included a chapter on transportation. In the very early days in Skokomish Valley, transportation consisted of horse-drawn wagons or buggies, or riding horseback. By 1893, bicycles were coming into popular use. In 1897, Barber Wehnes rode her bicycle from Shelton to visit the Will Hunters in the Valley in an hour and a half - a "nice record," according to the Journal.

Emma remembered the crookedness, the narrowness and the muddiness of Skokomish Valley roads. They twisted among the stumps and trees and meandered over private property - Valley people, only half-jokingly, called them cow trails. Road maintenance consisted of hauling rocks from the riverbed to fill in the mudholes. Until the new fill became firmed in with the mud, it only made it more difficult for the horses pulling wagons.

By midsummer of 1905, George Simpson, at Potlatch, had acquired an automobile, as had Dr. Wells in Shelton. Whenever Dr. Wells visited a patient in the Valley, there was a mad scramble to the window to watch his car go by. "One time we were in the process of churning and my mother had just opened the churn to see whether the butter had sufficiently collected. Returning to the churn from the window, she forgot about the loosened top and started turning the handle again. Buttermilk and butter splattered far and wide. But the car had been such fun to see that we didn't cry over spilt milk."

In July 1907, Journal correspondent J. G. Mohrweis of Upper Skokomish mentioned a petition regarding good roads "where an auto can run safely at a good speed, for it will be but a short time before autos will be owned not only for pleasure but practical utility." But the following year he was still making 50-mile round trips on a bicycle.

In about 1910, Mr. Mohrweis bought a one-cylinder REO, "its labored chugs so reluctant that you both feared and hoped for each next one. All of us, children and grownups alike, were most eager to ride, and he was generous but could take only one or two at a time in the tiny one-seater. In order to get it up the steepest hill out of the Valley, he frequently had to give it a pull with a horse. One time it ran out of water in the cooling system and Mr. Mohrweis carried water in his hat from a hole nearby to continue on his way to town."

Emma's father, Teofil, bought a second-hand Carter at about the same time. "It was opulent-looking with its roomy leather-upholstered seats and fine brass fixtures. But it was too low-slung for deeply rutted roads which were too narrow to permit straddling, and it did not have enough power to take the Eells Hill Road to town." Later, Teofil became enamored with a motorized buggy in the Sears catalog. It had high, hard rubber-tired wheels; everything designed especially for the farmer handicapped by very rough roads. "My mother was sure it was no good, and in her fear that he would squander treasured savings accumulated so laboriously, she reasoned and pleaded and wept, but to no avail. The marvel arrived via boat, and my father went to bring his beloved home. But it was a heartless, traitorous siren and broke down long before reaching the Valley. Much correspondence followed; new parts came, which of course involved more money. Now and then that buggy ran a few miles almost satisfactorily, with its frightening, ear-shattering explosiveness, but not one trip was made without trouble and only a few times was any destination reached.

"As time went on, with his practical and inventive bent, my father made use of most of that Sears buggy. One portion metamorphosed into a handy slicer of rutabagas for feeding the cows at milking time. From the wheels and other parts he contrived an efficient time- and labor-saving fertilizer spreader."

The Richerts having demonstrated what not to do, their Valley neighbors profited by buying Fords, then fairly well-perfected, which were coming into the market at about $600. "Around 1917, we also got a good trusty Model T. This time my mother was very happy. That first Ford was a real joy in spite of its draftiness from the side curtains bulging and flapping in the wind no matter how tightly fastened, not to mention the small blizzard blowing up through the floor boards. Now the whole family could go anywhere, even to Tacoma for a lot of dental work (we had fallen for a "painless" advertisement), with reasonable assurance of getting home again without car troubles."

■ Jan Parker is a researcher for the Mason County Historical Museum. She can be reached at [email protected]. Membership in the Mason County Historical Society is $25 per year. For a limited time, new members will receive a free copy of the book "Shelton, the First Century Plus Ten."