The Engineer Who Found Stevens Pass Drowned in the Columbia

WATERVILLE, May 21.—Special.—Word was received this morning of the drowning of C.F.B. Haskell, W.A. Barton and Mrs. Powell, wife of Mr. Haskell’s associate in the conduct of the government survey of the Columbia River. The accident occurred last evening at a point on the river a short distance below the mouth of the Methow.

The three came to the river above Ellensburg and undertook to row from Ellensburg to a government steamer in a skiff. The boat was caught in a whirlpool and drawn under. Mrs. Powell was thrown out and the men clung to the boat. In a few minutes the boat was again drawn under and the men disappeared. The current carried Mrs. Powell near shore, but before assistance could reach her she disappeared. Several persons witnessed the catastrophe, but were unable to render aid. All the persons drowned were from Wenatchee.

WENATCHEE, May 21.—Special.—Mr. Barton was a pioneer resident of the Wenatchee valley. He was engaged with Mr. Haskell’s crew on the river work. Mr. Barton leaves a wife and two little children, who are now with friends in town. Mrs. R. Powell was brought to Wenatchee a bride just one year ago, and has since resided here, loved by all who met her. The blow comes doubly hard on Mrs. Barcroft, mother of Mrs. Powell and mother-in-law of Mr. Barton.

Business in Wenatchee is at a standstill. The icy waters of the Columbia are closely watched for the missing people. The entire town is in mourning. None of the bodies have been recovered yet, and there is small hope that they ever will.

C.F.B. Haskell did much in the exploration of the Cascade range, and was the discoverer of Stevens Pass, through which the Great Northern cuts its way westward to Puget Sound. It is to such men as Mr. Haskell that the chief credit for the building of the great highway of commerce belongs, though he was always slow to claim it, and talked of it as though it were an ordinary performance. The history of the discovery of the pass is interesting, especially at this time, when the discoverer has passed from this earth.

Chief Engineer E.H. Beckler and his assistant, John F. Stevens, spent much time exploring the Cascade mountains for the purpose of locating a short feasible route, with satisfactory grades and short tunnels. Many of the known passes were visited, and in nearly all this work C.F.B. Haskell was employed, being recognized as a competent engineer and a hardy mountaineer. Mr. Stevens had spent much time in the known passes when his attention was called by Mr. Beckler to a fact which he had already noticed—the lack of information in regard to the mountain streams and passes to the south of Cady Pass. Mr. Haskell was then started up Nason Creek, a branch of the Wenatchee, with instructions to explore the mountains at and near its source. Accompanied by one packer and carrying provisions and blankets on his back, he went up this stream. No trail led up the valley, and there was no sign that any human being, white or Indian, had ever penetrated the forest which bordered it.

It was one day in July or August, 1889, that he and his companion stood on the summit of the range, and, looking to the south, saw a gap in the line of jagged peaks where the heads of two canyons were divided by only a narrow ridge, one of them on the east and the other on the west. They descended to the spot, and, after satisfying himself that it was a practical pass for a railroad, Mr. Haskell carved the name “Stevens Pass” on a tree which stood exactly on the divide, as a tribute to his immediate superior. But they did not yet know where the valley to the west led, so they started to trace it down, blazing a trail as they went. They saw not a sign that a human being had ever been there. There was not an ax mark on a tree nor the embers of a campfire. After they had reached a point where Berlin station now is, they found a beaver dam stretching into the river, a broad, rushing mountain stream, along which their path lay, populated, seemingly, of 100 beavers. This of itself was pretty good evidence that no man had traveled that valley before. The first settlement they reached was Index, where they learned that the river had been trailed down the south fork of the Skykomish. There they took to a canoe and went down to Seattle.

Mr. Haskell reported his discovery, and a thorough investigation of the route was ordered, with the result that it was found to be the best crossing of the mountains, with the lowest pass, shortest tunnel, best grades and shortest distance. Mr. Beckler and Mr. Stevens went up Nason Creek and over the pass on horseback on October 9, 1889, following a trail which had been cut by their own men, and came down by the same route as Mr. Haskell. A survey was begun through the Cascades in the same month, and by November the preliminary line was practically established throughout. After the completion of the railroad Mr. Haskell settled on a ranch near Wenatchee, and at the time of his death he had nearly completed work on the Columbia River for the government. He leaves a wife and child.