Lake Ozette and my great aunt Gina's story...

About the middle of September, 1893 my brother Albert Nilsen and I left Seattle for Neah Bay. Here we were to meet Capt. Lonsdale and my husband, Capt Sander Pedersen in the sloop Alert, that was to take us to Lake Ozette or rather to Sand Point on the ocean beach.
We stayed at the hotel on the Indian Reservation at Neah Bay for three days because it was very stormy.  We tried one day to get out but had to turn back as it was blowing too hard to get around Cape Flattery.  We decided to walk the beach to Ozette River.  However there was no plan to stay there so we started for Lake Ozette and came to the Ozette post office where Mr. Palmquist was postmaster at the time.  We were very tired after walking all day (about 21 miles) but Mr. Palmquist and his sister made us very comfortable and we stayed there over night.

The next day we left in a canoe to go to the south west corner of the lake where our home was to be.  During the summer we completed the log cabin but there were no windows or doors in it.  The windows were on the sloop Alert so we had to wait until she arrived before putting them in.  About half-way between Ozette and Swan lived a family named Bakke where we stayed a week. By that time the boat was in and Capt. Pedersen and some other men started packing over the trail from Sandy Point to the lake (about 2 miles).  Packing meant carrying things on their backs as there were no horses or roads.

We got our windows and our cook stove and most of the necessary things and began housekeeping.  The cabin was 14ft by 18ft.  It was divided into two rooms.  One was 12ft by 14ft and the other was 6ft by 14ft and was to be the grocery store.  

The stock in the store was all packed from the beach and at the lake was taken in canoes.  Capt. Pedersen did most of the packing as Capt Lomsdale made trips to Seattle to bring supplies.  For about three years we had this store.  It was the only one at the lake and only groceries were sold.

In 1894 the Swan post office was established and I was appointed post mistress and served until 1899.  the mail came in once a week from Ozette post office.


We lived for about two years in the one room but built on two more rooms at the end of that time.  The lumber for the rooms came from one cedar log wiich split into shakes.  We had the front door for the house brought in from Seattle and we were very proud of our door.  The door of the store was split from a log and most of our furniture was made from material at hand.  No one had anything better so we were all satisfied.

There were quite a few people living at Ozette at this time.  Most of them were single men living on their claims.  There were also a few families but as there were no roads there was not much traveling.

After we had the post office more people cam to Swan for their mail.  There was not very much mail but it helped us keep in touch with the outside world.

Our cabin was about 30 feet from the lake.  in the winter the lake rose so high that we all had to build on high land.  We bought our first cow after having been there nearly a year.  Up to that time we lived on canned milk.  We did not raise anything on the land for the first year as it had to be cleared and everything done by hand.  The trail between the ocean beach and the lake was made by a few settlers going together and donating their work. After we had lived there or about two years we were able to have a garden and we had plenty of milk so everything went along well.

Our daughter Ester was born at Swan the first year we lived there and was nearly five years old when we left.  She seldom saw other children as the people were living so far apart.  There were no doctors out there so we were all thankful if we could keep well.

I had a toothache for a long time and when we heard of a man on the ocean beach who had a pair of forceps, we walked to the mining camp at the beach.  The dental chair was a nail keg and it was placed close to a creek where he could get water if needed.  It was not very easy but I got relief from the toothache finally.  

We were away only three weeks in six years from the place.  I had to go to Seattle to see a doctor.  We came from Seattle to home on a small sailing schooner.  The trip requiring a whole week.

By 1897 or 1898 most of the people had left their homes and gone away as there was no way to make a living.  If we were able to raise anything on the land we could not sell anything.  On April 1, 1899 we left Ozette Lake and it took two days to walk to Clallam Bay where we took a boat back to Seattle.  

In 1935 I last saw Ozette Lake and it took one hour and a half to go by automobile from Clallam Bay to the lake so times have certainly changed.

note from Bob...

Albert Nilsen, Gina's brother is my Grandfather... He helped Sander build the cabin, clear the land, run the store and stayed with the Petersens some of the time.  Sander was a ship captain so had to be away at times for shipping business.

                    Sandy Point and Lake Ozette

Location map 1

Location map 2

                                         

 Location map 3

 Sander and Gina's wedding picture in 1891...  two years before they started their adventure at Lake Ozette...

Sander & aunt Gina with their daughter Ester in Seattle years later...

Sanders, Gina & Ester

Albert Nilsen in the United States Lifesaving Service which was replaced by our current Coast Guard.   He was stationed at Neah Bay and they manned row boats which were called upon regularly to save victims of shipwrecks near Cape Flattery...  Photo taken probably a few years after they left Lake Ozette...

 Albert Nilsen with wife Anne...  in foreground his sister Gina on right and their father Johan Nilsen w/ wife Johanna to the left...

A little about Lake Ozette...

Settlement of Ozette


As many as 130 homestead families called Lake Ozette home in the early 1890s. Schools, a post office, stores and a church sustained the farming community. Life was hard on this remote tip of the country.

For years, the only access to the lake from other communities on the peninsula was by ship to the mouth of the Ozette River or by a a 25-mile trail along the Hoko River from a small settlement at Clallam Bay. Stores, post offices, and schoolhouses were eventually established around the lake.


The promise of free agricultural land brought people to the area surrounding the lake. The majority of homesteaders were of Scandinavian descent. The community was short-lived, however. In 1897 when Ozette Lake was included in the newly created two million acre Olympic Forest Reserve, many settlers left, abandoning their homes and possessions that proved too heavy to transport across the lake. By 1899, very few families remained.

Petroglyphs   near sandy point...

post mark from Swan Post Office in 1900

Timber methods etc...

Felling Trees and Pitchwood

The Indians had the capability to fell trees with fire, and large cedars felled in this manner by the Indians were often made into canoes. Their unique method of felling trees was through burning a cut with hot coals (Magnusson 2000). Immigrants at Ozette Lake and surrounding area followed the Indian method of felling tees. Anders Nylund, of Finnish descent, for example, who came to the Ozette area in 1890, cleared 15 acres by cutting holes at the tree base and dropping in live coals. Bellows were used to keep the fire burning long enough to fall the tree. Nylund planted a fruit orchard, berries, and a big vegetable garden on the cleared land (Petroff 1981). Magnusson (2000:14) refers to the technique of felling trees with fire by both Ozette Indians and Scandanavians as “slash/burning.” According to Magnusson (2000:15) while “the tradition of clearing forest through slash/burning was an ancient practice in Northern Europe, which is commonly referred to as svedjebruk... there do not seem to be any Scandinavian
precedents for felling trees through burning a cut (with hot coals) as was done by Native-Americans in the Pacific Northwest” pointing to their adoption of this technique from the Ozette Indians.
The Makah knew the properties of all the woods of their territory and described the fuelwood properties given to spruce trees in their mythology: “To one they said, you are old, and your heart is dry,
you will make good kindling wood, for your grease has turned hard and will make pitch (kluk-ait-a-biss), your name is Do-ho-bupt, and you shall be the spruce tree, which when it grows old will always makery wood” (Swan 1964:65). Spruce pitchwood provided light for ceremonies conducted in lodges, was used for duck hunting
at night, and could be used as a weapon in warfare (Swan 1964:67). Swan describes its use in hunting sea fowl on foggy nights: “A fire of pitch-wood is built on a platform at one end of the canoe, and by the glare of its light, which seems to blind or attract the birds, the Indian is enabled to get into the midst of a
flock, and spear them at his leisure” (Swan 1964:25). On September 19, 1861, James Swan relays the use of such pitchwood to light Makah war canoes at night and to be used to set fire to the houses of the Elwhas as part of their plan to destroy the village: “Each canoe contained a number of torches made of fagots of
pitchwood, split fine and tied to poles four to five feet long.”
The Makah were so skilled at making and using fire that they used spruce pitchwood in hair seal hunting in pre-contact times, as Maria Parker Pascua (1991:48) vividly describes: “Hair seals live in caves 60 near Ozette; their meat and oil are excellent. A canoe would be dashed in these surf-charged caves, so hunters must swim in. To light the way, they twist their long hair into a topknot and insert spruce sticks, which they ignite like candles with a glowing coal carried in a hinged shell. The light blinds the seals as
the hunters climb up the rocky perches and strike them with clubs carved in their image.” It has already been suggested that the kind of burning practiced by the Ozette people did not have adverse effects on many plant species and, in fact, promoted their productivity. Many wetland plants, for example, have deep rhizomes that are not damaged by low-intensity fires and resprout vigorously after above-ground portions of the plant are burned. This is particularly true for bog cranberries, a plant the Ozette targeted in their burning of the wetlands (Matthews 1992b; Flinn and Wein 1977). After a fire, bog cranberries utilize the nutrients in ash, contributing to their rapid growth. Experiments
show that bog cranberry becomes more abundant in terms of numbers of stems, flowers, and fruits with repeated fires (Flinn 1980; Flinn and Wein 1977). Indian tea is similarly tolerant of fire. It responds to light fires by resprouting from stems. If completely
top-killed, the plant regenerates from root crowns and rhizomes (Gucker 2006; Calmes and Zasada 1982; Parminter 1984). Regeneration is typically rapid (Scotter 1972). Indian tea can survive even severe fires because the rhizomes lie as deep as 50 cm in the soil 

About Sand Point

bits & pieces

Sandy Point looking north

 Clallam Bay... trail route

original document from Gina...

My thoughts:  Hope you enjoyed the story...  immigration and carving out a life was difficult in those days...  but I would take living in that era any day...   hahaha

thanks for visiting...