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Skagit River JournalThe most in-depth, comprehensive site about the Skagit Covers from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish & BC. An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness |
Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug |
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The First Days of Marblemount
By Dick Buller (transcribed from 50th Anniversary Edition, Concrete Herald, June 21, 1951)
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ABB CLARK PIONEERED UPRIVER WITH
‘TARHEELS’
by Dick Fallis
In the worm,
beckoning days of mid-August I took a long drive upriver to check in at
Clark’s Skagit River Cabins at what I always thought was a part of
Marblemount, though they have a post office address of Rockport.
The place is actually located at what was historically known
as “Bullerville,” and indications are that it may be called that again, when
and if we get caught up with the accomplishments of our past.
No, I did not check in as a guest at the Cabins, though they
looked inviting enough. That will have to wait until calmer days in autumn,
when I can take a few days to explore this part of the “American Alps,” and
spend some time on a cool evening, gathered at a wood fire with people who
have been a part of the history of this region.
It seems that every time I have asked a string of questions
about events “Up-River,” I have been told that I have to talk with Tootsie,
at Clark’s Cabins, where she has assembled a local museum, and has many of
the answers.
Well, Tootsie was easy to find, standing in the middle of the
accommodating restaurant that seems to do quite a business with the locals,
as well as for people passing through. I had planned my visit between meals,
so as not to take her away from a busy time, but Tootsie was busy anyway,
clearing up from the noon meal and making preparations for supper. Besides,
there were a number of people sitting around, enjoying cinnamon rolls, pie
and other goodies with coffee. Further, the electricity had just gone off,
causing great concern as to how the next meal would be prepared.
However, Tootsie did take time off
from her other concerns, poured cups of still-hot coffee, and graciously sat
down with me to answer a few of my questions.
For one thing, I knew that “Skagit Bill” Pressentin had
married a Rona Clark, daughter of Abb Clark, who operated a grocery store at
Rockport. Were those Clarks related to the Clarks of Clark’s Cabins?
The answer was yes. Tootsie had married Rudy Clark, whose
father was Dolph Clark, who had come from North Carolina. Abb Clark, the
father-in-law of Skagit Bill Pressentin, was an uncle of Rudy Clark.
Incidentally, Abb Clark seems to have been one of the
pioneers of that famous group of “Tarheels,” folks who came from North
Carolina to make their homes in the hills and woodlands of the upper Skagit
River country.
Will Jenkins, author of the book “Last Frontier in the North
Cascades,” has much to say about these people and their rich contributions
to Skagit County culture, and makes it very clear that their women ---
particularly the daughters of Abb Clark --- were very prim, proper, and of
very desirable acquaintance.
After all, “Skagit Bill” Pressentin courted and won the hand
of Rona Clark, Abb Clark’s elder daughter, and there is no doubt that she
contributed a great deal to “Skagit Bill’s” well-being, happiness and
growing fame as a man who epitomized the character of the Upper Skagit
region.
Among notes that I have collected is the statement that Rona
Clark’s mother, Hannie Wright, was one of several sisters who had come from
North Carolina to this region of the North Cascades as school teachers,
laboring to bring the lights of education into the make-shift classrooms of
these emerging communities.
Well, Tootsie Clark is also the daughter of Richard Buller,
and granddaughter of the estimable Madame Professor Matilda Clark-Buller, a
pioneer teacher, lecturer, free-thinker and hotel keeper of Marblemount,
Burlington and Seattle, who did much in her own right to bring enlightenment
to the populace.
The place now known as Clark’s Cabins and Restaurant is the
site of old “Bullerville,” the place where the Buller Brothers had their
mill and logging camp, and where many great dances and banquets and
gatherings were held during the early days of Upper-Valley doings.
Tootsie tells me that her children, Judy and Don, now both
grown and with families of their own, are taking a greater interest in
family history, the management of the Cabins, and there seems a very good
chance that “Old Bullerville” may be reborn, as one of the great and
fulfilling attractions of the Upper Skagit County.
Will let you know more as it is revealed.
The Argus 17 September 1997
CHEESE TUBS WERE GOOD FOR A BATH
by Dick Fallis
On Saturday last week,
the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, I managed to break away and head
up the river to Clark's Skagit River Cabins, just this side of Marblemount.
I thought that this might be a good time to ask questions and
get some historical information before the weather warms up any more and the
tourist season gets under way. What I had not realized was that Tootsie Clark
and her gang are very much a part of the greater Marblemount community and are
very active in all the local doings there.
Further, that the bunnies as well as the deer are symbols of
Clark's Skagit River Cabins, there being lots and lots of both species there,
and that bunnies are also a big attraction around the time of Easter.
An Easter egg hunt on the grounds was being readied for
Easter Sunday, and of course, a number of people in the Marblemount area had
elected to have their Easter dinner at the restaurant the Eatery Restaurant,
operated by Tootsie Clark and her family.
But I did get a chance to talk with Tootsie in the midst of
preparations, and also got to meet with her son, Don Clark, who is in the
process of planning for expansion of their approximately 120-acre site, and the
further development of what use to be called Old Bullerville, the mill, logging
camp, farm and ranch of the original Buller Brothers, Carl, Wade and Richard.
Tootsie is the daughter of Richard and Ethel Buller, and it
was with her husband, Rudy Clark, that they developed the plan for Clark's
Cabins, even before the North Cascades-Highway came through with its
encouragement of facilities for tourists.
There was always an allure to the North Cascades, to the
"American Alps" country, accessible through Marblemount, and Tootsie and Rudy
found a ready demand for cabins built originally for mill hands, augmented by
newer cabins, wash and laundry facilities, restaurant services, and camping and
RV places.
Tootsie was mentioning a time when her mother, Ethel Buller,
had hit upon the idea of establishing a cheese factory at the site of Old
Bullerville.
It was the time of the depression, logging was down with no
market for lumber, and the only thing around besides deer and bunny rabbits,
were the cows that had been brought in to graze among the stumps where the trees
had been cut.
Ethel Buller took herself to the State College at Pullman,
where she learned all she could about making cheese and what equipment and
facilities were needed to make it. With this information she headed back to
Bullerville and set up the Glacier View Farm and Cheese Factory.
I didn't find out how long the operation lasted or how
successful it was, though Tootsie mentioned that it was a very good product,
well-regarded in its time.
What did capture my attention was that the factory utilized
flumes of pure mountain spring water, and that vats and tubs had been set up
that could be heated to any desirable temperatures. These were emptied and
scrubbed regularly, and when not being used in the process of cheese making,
could be used as early-day hot tubs, for luxurious bathing and soaking, great
boons to anyone who has been laboring long in the woods or on hot, dusty trails.
To troops of CCC Boys, building access trails for parks and
scenic places, and to the loggers, mill workers and shingle weavers, a hot bath
was a mighty fine idea, preparing for a Saturday night dance.
There is still more story to come!
Argus - April 22, 1998
by Dick Fallis
Last week I was sharing
with you some of the memories of the accommodations at “Old Bullerville,” now
Clark’s Cabins, just this side of Marblemount, as remembered by Tootsie (Buller)
Clark.
Tootsie’s mother Ethel (Mrs. Richard) Buller had operated a
cheese factory at the site of the Buller Brothers lumber mill, which utilized
vats and tanks of pure mountain water that could be heated by boilers for
regular scrubbings and thorough clean-up required.
On Saturday afternoons, when the tanks were routinely
scrubbed out, it was found that the huge tanks and tubs could be used for
soaking and bathing, somewhat like modern hot tubs, or like ancient Chinese or
Roman Baths.
(Bullerville, though as far back in the woods as you could possibly get, was
more cosmopolitan in some ways than you might think.)
Here the women bathed first, which was a rare luxury in those
early days. The usual procedure in pioneer times, when the was tub was lugged
into the cabin, filled with water heated on the kitchen range, was for the
mother to bathe last, in the tepid to cool, grey water left after all the family
had taken their turn.
Here, in the ample, hot tubs of Mrs. Buller’s cheese factory,
the women had space and clean, hot water enough for the most luxurious pleasure
of all, of letting down and thoroughly washing the masses of long hair that were
commonly worn in those days.
Tootsie has bright memories from childhood of watching women
who she had thought of as old, pinched and crabby, coming out of those washing
sessions with their hair as soft and clean and flowing as an angel’s aura, and
more radiant and happy then she had ever seen them before.
In the evening the men would come in by the truck load. The
CCC had camps of men working in places like Bacon Creek, Komo Kulshan, and as
far away as Baker Lake; boys, really, from places like New Jersey and
Pennsylvania; always eager to come in from the woods for social recreation.
Local, and perhaps less colorful men came in from the logging
camps, and they all cleaned up well in the scrubbing tubs, the men more rowdy
and boisterous, where the women had been more silent and serene.
Music for dances in Bullerville at that time was always
provided by “The Three Blind Mice,” a talented trio consisting of Mrs. Patton,
wife of an early settler, on the piano, and two sisters known collectively as
“Wheeler & Glover” on the violin and drums.
“Wheeler & Glover,” besides furnishing lively, foot-stomping
music for local dances, owned, operated and maintained the early iron-wire
telephone line from Concrete to Marblemount, and were frequently out in storm
times in that most rugged country, making repairs and keeping the phone lines
open.
Will Jenkins, in his book “Last Frontier in the North
Cascades,” gives this description: “Either of the sisters could climb a pole
with linesmen’s spurs and safety belt, draped with tools of the trade, and often
did, as their task required. Whenever anyone spoke of them, it was as ‘Wheeler &
Glover,’ for that’s the way they were known on the upper Skagit, like a team
rather than individuals.”
And in Old Bullerville, their music was as legendary as the
women themselves.
Argus - April 29, 1998
Skagit River Resort and Clark's Cabins
In those pages you will learn more about Matilda Clark Buller, who moved to Seattle from Pennsylvania in 1888 with her husband Henry, a Civil War veteran. She was a milliner by trade, designer of special hats for ladies. But her resume would have delighted Buckminster Fuller. She was of German descent, Pennsylvania Dutch in the parlance of those days. Her roots in America went back to the Mayflower and passenger Thomas Clark. Her husband was related to Sir Redford Buller of South African fame.
Most important to early settlers, she was an educator and had the most impressive set of credentials in the county as she taught her own children, those of other settlers and upriver Indians. Up until her marriage she taught for five years in Pennsylvania and earned the title, professor. Like Alex Boyd of Birdsview, she brought intellectual weight to the river settlements. A free-thinker and theosophist, she argued the merits of socialism.
In the late 1890s Matilda and sons Carl and Richard went to the Klondike and established a roadhouse while staking a gold claim. After a squatter tried to steal her property and possessions here, she even started packing a sidearm. After a few years in Seattle (where her husband died in 1903) she returned to Marblemount where she started another roadhouse near Corkindale Creek and eventually established the Glacier View Cheese Factory, which Richard's wife Ethel carried on. Although her husband, Henry, was often an invalid, he and his sons became early entrepreneurs with two sawmills, a veal ranch, a bulb farm with narcissus, daffodils and tulips, a lilac nursery, and a truck farm where he grew garden fresh vegetables that he sold as far away as Seattle's Pike Place Market.
During the Great Depression, the Bullers lost their home place but Richard Buller bought the land around the present Skagit River Resort and he and his sons rebuilt the sawmills here, added a new dance hall and even had a railroad spur put in right to the mill site, which became known as Bullerville. His daughter, Madrene, who we know as Tootsie, was the bookkeeper and she rubbed shoulders with all the pioneers still living and their descendants. In 1953 the last mill burned, and the Skagit River Resort was born with what Tootsie calls the "tarpaper shacks" from the original lumber camp. Clark's Cabins evolved slowly and gained momentum with the opening of the North Cascades Highway in 1972. After an expansion in 1982 and later addition of beautiful American-History theme cabins and the Brookhaven Bed and Breakfast, Skagit River Resort eventually became a touch of heaven for North Cascades travelers.
While visiting Skagit River Resort and Bullerville, please stop and admire the murals at Clark's Eatery that were painted by noted valley artist Don Smith. They chronicle this marvelous pioneer family. You will also see Matilda Buller's flag, which granddaughter Tootsie has preserved.
Finally, don't be surprised if you encounter more bunnies than you can shake a stick at. But you better not be caught shaking any sticks at them. They are the mascots of the place, along with the deer that frequently feed nearby. Tootsie and her late husband, Rudy, went to Friday Harbor years ago to help relieve San Juan Island of its over-population of bunnies and formed their own refuge at Clark's Cabins.
Here are links for more information about the Marblemount area. Please share with us any information, memories and photos that you and your family have.
Glacier Peak Resort and Winery, formerly Skagit River Resort and under new ownership in 2015. They still have a page on their Resort history at this link.
North Cascades Chamber of Commerce for Marblemount-Rockport area, with maps and calendar
Otto Peterson explains how moonshine was marketed in the early days of Marblemount
Upriver section with links to stories about each upriver town.
Tootsie Clark, Biography and obit
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