South of Granite Falls, upriver on the Pilchuck (water flows north) is this writer’s grandparent Hemstrom’s homestead of 160 acres. In the 1950s the summer river was wide, holding 20x as much water as today (upriver hillside topsoil has been washed away). Picnic grounds were on the west side of the river; we could take an old native canoe that rested next to the picnic table across the water to 2 cleared fields, originally beaver ponds
surrounded by hazelnut trees. In the 1880s, this writer’s grandfather took 4 trips by foot with his father to pack a disassembled iron stove/oven from the port of Snohomish, 16 miles away. In the summer, a lone Indigenous male, Pilchuck Charlie, would watch the farming and building of blind ditches (covered by split cedar and then soil); in later days he’d stay for the Winter (“with his ancestors”). The soil was acidic, so the crops were very “European,” filled with root vegetables. It was thought that Charlle might have been of the Stillaguamish, rather than of the Snohomish clan, as he would arrive by canoe. Others suggest he was of the Skykomish clan or the N’Quentlamamish. (Granite Falls’ existence is credited to being the place where Natives could portage between the Stillaguamish River (flowing to the sea at Stanwood) and the Pilchuck River (that flows to the sea at Everett). You can check this story by walking the 1-mile trek on Granite Fall’s “Portage Avenue.” Stories abounded as to Pilchuck Charlie sneaking into the grandparents’ tent (early settlers used tents for the 1st few years; the West, post the Civil War and the Gold Rushes, found used tents plentiful). His intrusions were 3-fold. He loved their baked bread and the chance to sleep under the kitchen table next to the stove, it was a warm and safe place. Like Chief Sealth and almost all adult Indigenous males in the 1890s, he did not speak, read, or write English (or Dano-Norwegian, or Swedish …). But it is the 3rd reason for writing this post that is most remembered. It was said he loved to talk, though none understood what he said. He was a lonely, lonely man (as was Ishi, described below).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snohomish_people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granite_Falls,_Washington
https://www.tulaliptv.com/tulalip-remembers-pilchuck-julia-1840-1923/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/156612724/pilchuck_peter-jack
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