For those of you who need a quick Torger Peterson 101, he was the man who first settled in Ohop Valley. He wrote a small story about the account in this post.
I got a chance to talk to his great granddaughter this week, Linda Lewis. Along the many pictures and documents he had, this map was hanging on her wall.
Pictured is the 1885 Washington Territory map Torger used to settle in Ohop. You can see his drawings on the map, including a little square around Ohop — or where Ohop will one day be.
Here are his words in 1925 — a little over 35 years after he made his way to Ohop.
“I found the Valley in the summer of 1887 and moved my family out there in April, 1888. At that time it was one of the worst wilderness that it was possible to find, and after we had gotten out some logs and brush so that a wagon could travel, it took us three days to go from Tacoma to my home in the Ohop Valley.
“I remember friends of ours told my wife that I had gone crazy and for her not to go out there, after a while I would get tired and come back. My wife however said she had never found me crazy and laughed at our friends and said she would stay by me.
“After we had cleared up some land, the main thing was to get a road, and the County helped us in this way; for every day we worked gratis, they would give us $2.00 a day for the following day, and this is the way the first road was built into the Ohop Valley and beyond.”
Photos courtesy of Linda Lewis.
Click to enlarge.
Eatonville To Rainier 