The Hermit of the Olympics
Deep in the government reservation of the Olympic Mountains, an attorney discovers a man who traded New York city life for a self-built cabin and a library of books.
A hermit, such as fiction deals in, was discovered in the heart of the Olympic mountains by Attorney L. B. Hilbert of Walla Walla, who returned from a fishing trip in that rugged region. The man, known as Le Barr, was a resident of New York City years ago. He now lives in a commodious log cabin he built himself in the foothills. Le Barr is 60 years old; decades ago, after domestic trouble, he left his family in New York, turned to the west, and wandered until he reached the Olympic range. Finding game plentiful, he built a roomy cabin and took up a 160-acre claim, which is now in the heart of the government reservation. He spends his winters with his dogs, reading books and magazines he hikes sixteen miles to retrieve. He describes how, before government rangers were stationed there, whites and Indians killed entire herds of elk as the animals wallowed in the deep snow.
“An incongruity striking my attention was the presence of many late books and magazines carefully placed in rough bookcases.”
Le Barr’s 160-acre claim in what would become the Olympic National Park highlights the complex history of private land use in areas that were later set aside for conservation. Today, the tension between remote, self-reliant living and public land management remains a central theme in the Pacific Northwest’s evolving landscape.
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