Ancestry Magazine

My husband and I live in the remote Methow Valley in the north Cascade Mountains in eastern Washington. It wasn’t until the autumn of 2000 that phone lines were brought to the valley. Before then, members of the community used the pay phone in Carlton (a ten-minute drive) or went down to the ”phone barn,” where a community phone was set up. Once the phone lines were installed, I went to work putting together the first Libby Creek phone book.

In all, thirty-one residences were listed in the book, which included names, phone numbers, number of miles up the creek to each driveway, postal addresses, and services. Everyone appreciated the directory, and a few people suggested to me that the next edition should focus on the rich history associated with Libby Creek.

With that idea in mind, I began my research, traveling over the mountains to the county seat of Okanogan, going to the county assessor’s office, getting maps and parcel numbers, researching private land on the creek and the improvements the owners had made, then going to the local title company and poring over the land records. It was exciting when I would come across an original document or copy of a home steader’s claim. I researched each parcel, going back to the original homesteader and moving forward to the current owners.

The project took most of the winter. I sent out letters to each resident family, asking for any known history about their homes and the original settlers. I also asked the owners what improvements they had made to their property. My plan was to write a short paragraph on the history of each home, and include some comments on what the current owners had done. I discovered a volume of historical information–both about my own home and the homes of my neighbors.

My home is the original Martin Backhoop homestead cabin. Martin was a German emigrant who came to the United States in 1894 at the age of twenty-six. He traveled on the Normannia, a 500-foot passenger ship bound for New York. He arrived in the Methow Valley a few years later, homesteaded 145 acres up Libby Creek, and built a one-room log cabin and barn that are still standing.

I learned about the rich history of the valley and some of the original buildings in the area. I learned where the Libby Creek schoolhouse had stood when it was built in 1893, and where it was moved to and still stands today. I also learned where the Libby Post Office once stood.

Many people in the community provided details that gave flavor to the lifestyle of times long past. I learned who had built the first apple shed and when it burned down, where the 100-year-old apricot tree stands that still bears fruit, where the old stage route was, where a Civil War veteran lived, and where trapper Les Phillips lived. I even learned where a gold mine was dug in the 1920s. Apparently two men hauled out only a wheelbarrow of ore from it.

I heard stories that provided details of some of the valley’s unique settlers. I learned who built the Libby Creek school and church, who hauled a meat locker to Libby Creek with a wharf rat in it, who built the phone barn in 1953, and who brought electricity up th e creek.

Many events occurred on the creek, and the stories were not lost to me. I learned how a group of pioneer men hiked up to Libby Lake to create a dam for irrigation purposes and then built a cabin, a blacksmith shop, and a small sawmill.

The history section of the phone book began after the phone listings. I added a page that listed the dates of all the original dwellings. I also included a photo of the two-story Libby loghouse with the family standing outside, and an early photo of actress Stella Stevens, who had lived in the valley for a brief period. Just for fun, I placed a photo of the original Libby cabin inside the front cover.

Of course, I got a lot more history out of the project than would fit in my small phone book. I am now collaborating with a local historian on a complete book about Libby Creek’s history. Perhaps the most appropriate conclusion to the book will be the story of how we finally got telephone lines in Libby Creek in 2000!

Wendy Snook is a retired health-care practitioner who lives with her husband, Bill, on a 100-year-old homestead in the Methow Valley. She enjoys writing about historical events and interviewing seniors to capture their memories.