In Search of
Evan Morgan's Steam Powered
Motor Launch,
The Legendary Gwen!
by
Wally Lee Parker
(Part One)
Reprint
from the November 2017 issue of
the Clayton / Deer Park Historical Society's
newsletter
the Mortarboard.
(All rights reserved by the author.)
 |
The Gwen,
in the summer of 1905.
According
to documents held by the Loon Lake Historical Society, the Spokesman Review’s
newspaper boys were treated to a day at Morgan’s Park in late July 1905.
The above photograph is reported to be of those boys and that event and appears
to have been taken just off the Pavilion area at Morgan’s Park. This
colorized image was taken from a postcard manufactured by the Inland Printing
Company of Spokane, likely at the request of Evan Morgan, since payment receipts
in the LLHS’s archives indicate Mr. Morgan was having promotional
postcards printed by that company during the 20th
century’s first decade.
|
…
searching for something lost …
For
a number of years, the hull of a large boat has been resting just beneath the
surface of Loon Lake. Local legend
generally identifies it as the remains of Evan Morgan’s steam launch Gwen —
named after Evan and Johanna Morgan’s only daughter, Gwenllian.
We currently don’t know how the Morgan family pronounced
Gwen’s full first name. We do know that
any attempt at a phonetic pronunciation is going to be wrong. The name is derived from the language of Evan
Morgan’s birthplace — Wales — in which the double L is not pronounced the same
as in English. The Welch tongue is
believed to have begun differentiating from its Celtic roots about the time the
Romans abandoned the British Isles. And
over the centuries speakers of what would eventually become English seem to
have lost the ability to make that specific sound, assuming they ever possessed
it, without a lot of guided practice. As
best my poor ears can tell, the double L is pronounced something like fee — as
in Gwen-fee-an — but not quite. For the
sake of any Welch speakers out there, I’m going to leave it at that.
Something
else that appears to raise general disagreement is the exact identity of Loon
Lake’s submerged craft, and how it came to rest where it does. A lot of stories abound. Everyone seems to have a theory, usually
based on one or another of the oral traditions surrounding the craft. But all the various assertions aside, is
there anything that can be demonstrated as fact?
We
have the evidence of the submerged hull.
In early September, two members of the Clayton/Deer Park Historical
Society, using breathing devices, dove on the boat’s remains — making a video
and taking measurements of the still largely intact hull. Adding to that, this past summer the society
began a search for surviving documents contemporary to the craft’s active life. The following article outlines what was
found.
… the
lake …
The blue pool of Loon Lake, as currently seen, is just a
flicker within geologic time. Tens of
millions of years ago the area it occupies was a gathering of foothills
clinging to a spine of the ancient granite mountains rising to the east — with
the rains falling on the west side of those slopes draining into a long-lost
south-flowing river.
That
began to change just over seventeen million years ago. First, wave after wave of melted stone
advanced from the south, infilling all the river valleys in its path,
smothering everything except the highlands and mountain ridges beneath a flood
of liquid basalt. The volcanic hotspots
beneath the crust of eastern Oregon eventually calmed, and these episodic lava
outbursts ended — the final flows occurring approximately six million years
ago.
Beginning
about two and a half million years ago, the Cordilleran ice age brought a
cluster of glaciers crushing down the mountain slopes, each in turn melting
away as the weather moderated, then returning as the ice regained its
grip. At their full extent, the glaciers
blocked regional rivers with massive ice dams, creating temporary lakes. Often reaching the size of inland seas, these
lakes were inevitably drained when the dams collapsed, followed by catastrophic
downstream deluges.
Evidence
suggests this scenario of repeated glacial impoundment and collapse scoured a
vast stretch of Washington State into the scablands and dry coulees seen today.
When,
some ten thousand or so years ago, the climate warmed and the last of the giant
glaciers and their attendant floods disappeared, they left the lower portions
of the tri-county region buried beneath an extensive slurry of flood-carried
sands and gravels. In that slurry was a
shallow basin — a basin where the 1.7 square miles of surface and approximately
100-foot maximum depth of Loon Lake now pools.
That, as least, is how my current understanding suggests the otherwise
serene lake was formed.
After
the ice age’s frigid climate dissipated, forests grew, and the tribes of the
First Nations came. With their arrival,
the area’s human history began.
It
is said that Loon Lake once acted as a winter campground for the region’s
indigenous peoples — specifically the upper band of the Spokane tribe. A loosely delineated border, running roughly
between Deer and Loon Lake, then drawn eastward across the upper portion of
Little Spokane River valley, is believed to represent the northernmost extent
of the Spokane’s tribal territory.
The
tribes surrounding the Spokane’s land were the Kalispell to the northeast, the
Coeur d’Alene to the east, the Palouse to the south, and the Middle Columbia
River Salishans to the west.
According
to the Plateau
Indians
edition of the Smithsonian Institution’s multivolume Handbook of North American Indians, the local tribes used three types
of dwellings, two of which would have been suitable for winter campsites on the
shores of the ice-covered lake. The
usual type was a “conical
semi-subterranean pit house”
roofed with poles covered by tule (bulrush) mats — that according to “Plateau Indians” contributor John Alan Ross, late
Professor of Anthropology, Eastern Washington University. Another long-term structure, this apparently
used in year-round encampments, was described by Professor Ross as a “double-apsidal lodge,” which seems to translate as a
long, rectangular lodge with each end laid out as an outward-curving
semicircle. The roof would be
constructed of leaning and lashed poles, then, once again, roofed with tule
mats.
If there
were winter encampments at Loon Lake in pre-European times — especially those
of either the Colville or Spokane tribes, the society would most certainly want
to see any documents related to such, and in doing so move away from our
primarily Eurocentric view of local history.
As
Professor Ross notes, although first contact between Europeans and the Pacific
Northwest’s interior tribes is assumed to have occurred with the Lewis &
Clark expedition in 1805, the Spokane tribe had already been influenced by
European culture and technology. First
by the arrival of horses. Then by
European trade items exchanged between various tribes ahead of contact by the
European traders themselves. And
negatively by the influx of often fatal old-world diseases. This last is the reason the aboriginal
population within the Spokane tribe’s territory dropped — as stated in the
Smithsonian’s Handbook — from an estimated 1,400 in the
1780s, to just 600 by the time Lewis and Clark crossed the very southeastern
corner of what would become Washington State.
According
to the Loon Lake Loon Association’s spring, 2016 newsletter, The Loon Watch, the lake was named by “Colville Valley pioneer John
Hofstetter”
in 1881. The first permanent European
residence on the lake is believed to have been established at the lake’s north
end in 1883 by Charles H. Arnold — though homestead documents suggest Arnold
most certainly had settled there by 1886 at the latest. More information on the area’s early European
pioneers can be found in society vice-president Peter Coffin’s essay, “The Early Settlement of Loon Lake.”
See the “further
reading”
box at the bottom of this page for directions to that essay.
… the
first known powered launch …
On the 4th
of August 1889, the tracks of D. C. Corbin’s Spokane Falls & Northern
Railway reached the north end of Loon Lake.
Half a year later, on February 18th,
1890, Cyrus F. Mathers platted a town of the same name adjacent to the tracks.
The lake’s
potential as a recreational destination had doubtless been noticed by Mr.
Corbin, among others. As recorded in
Richard F. Steele’s Illustrated
History of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan Counties — published in Spokane in 1904 —
Daniel C. Corbin platted “Loon
Lake Park, July 29, 1891.” The book goes on to note, “This was afterward un-platted and
used alone for park purposes.”
Regarding
the community, Mr. Steele’s 1904 Illustrated History says, “At
Loon Lake, in the southern part of the county, on the Spokane Falls &
Northern Railroad, forty miles from Spokane, is located Stevens County’s summer
resort. The town is a place of about one
hundred inhabitants, has a general store, three hotels and a saloon. The lake, a quarter of a mile distant from
the town, is a beautiful body of water, and since the opening of the railroad
in 1889, it has been an outing spot for thousands. For a number of years, D. C. Corbin, who
built the railroad, owned and operated the park on the bank of the lake as a
kind of picnic grounds. Excursions were
run to this place every summer, and it became a recreation resort for all kinds
and conditions of men, women and children.”
During the
1890s, the Spokane Falls & Northern Railway widely advertised its passenger
service north toward Colville and the Canadian border. A typical example, this from the August 15th, 1893 edition of Spokane’s Northwest Mining Review, under the heading “Loon Lake Excursions,” indicated daily trips from
Spokane to Loon Lake and back were available every day of the week — the usual
$1.50 roundtrip ticket reduced to $1.00 on Sundays. Regarding the Loon Lake resort itself, the ad
noted,
“Fine shades and rambles in the woods, large pavilion, naphtha launch and
sailboats, each capable of accommodating parties of from twelve to sixteen, and
light easy rowing row boats.” Because the train
left Spokane an hour and an half later on Sunday mornings, the ad took care to
note that the “Excursionists” still had, “seven hours at the lake on Sundays.”
Of special
note in the S. F. & N. Ry ad was the above term “naphtha launch.”
Naphtha is a petroleum distillate commonly referred to as white gas, or
even more commonly as Coleman lantern or stove fuel. A unique form of steam engine was developed
in the 1880s — one that used vaporized naphtha rather than vaporized water to
do the work.
Although
conventional steam engines small enough to power small boats existed in the
late 1880s, United States law prohibited their operation without a certified
engineer at the controls. This excluded
most private owners from operating a steam-powered boat. Since the naphtha launches didn’t have
classically described boilers, they weren’t, strictly speaking,
steamboats. This loophole allowed naphtha
launches to be operated without the necessity of a licensed pilot/engineer.
The
naphtha launch’s fuel tank was usually toward the bow. A pipe delivered fuel to the engine, which
was commonly positioned toward the rear of the boat. A hand pump pressurized the fuel diverted to
the engine’s burners. The heat rose
inside a stack containing a spiral monotube of brass or copper. The heat boiled the naphtha diverted to the
monotube into vapor, and said vapor was piped to the engine, usually located
directly below the burners and coil assembly.
The engine, often triple-cylinder, typically used slide valves to
control the flow of vapor through the engine.
Lower pressure on the exhaust side of the engine was obtained by running
the engine’s exhaust pipe out the bottom of the boat, along the keel, and
forward to the fuel tank. During that
run the vaporized naphtha was quickly condensed back to fluid as it lost heat
to the surrounding lake water.
The genius
of this system was well expressed in a volume titled Modern Mechanism: Exhibiting the
Latest Progress in Machines, Motors and the Transmission of Power.
This book, published in 1892, stated “Owing to the small latent heat of evaporation of naphtha …
the loss of heat to the cooling water will be very much less when condensing
naphtha than with steam; but then less heat is given to the naphtha to convert
it to vapor to begin with; so that in the case of naphtha smaller quantities of
heat are being dealt with and larger portions converted into work by greater
pressure during expansion. Hence, for a
given power, machinery of much less weight is required with naphtha than with
steam. With due precautions to avoid
explosion of inflammable vapor, naphtha is found in practice to afford greater
convivence of working, owing to the rapidity with which it evaporates, as well
as its oily nature, enabling it to act as a lubricant to the engine cylinder.”
The small
but still present possibility of the naphtha vapors escaping and igniting,
along with ongoing advances in internal combustion engines, made the era of
naphtha vapor engines rather short.
As noted
in the S. F. & N. Railway’s 1893 ad, the passenger capacity of the launch
and sailboats available at Loon Lake ranged from twelve to sixteen souls. It’s a guess as to how long a naphtha launch
capable of carrying sixteen people might have been, but considering the typical
launch’s generally wider beam, something in the range of 25 feet seems
reasonable.
… Evan
Morgan at Loon Lake …
The information on
hand suggests that Evan Morgan settled on Loon Lake in 1894. Regarding Mr. Morgan’s acquisition
of what would eventually be called Morgan’s Park, 1904’s An Illustrated History of Stevens,
Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan Counties states, “The park is at present owned by Evan Morgan, who purchased
it from Mr. Corbin in 1897. The park now
has all the conveniences and comforts of a modern summer resort, or ‘breathing
place,’ and the location is picturesque and attractive. On the bank of the lake is a spacious
pavilion, where guests are entertained during the summer months, and many
bathing and boat houses, from one of which plies a pretty steam launch. Lining the bank of the park are a number of
handsome summer cottages where people from Spokane and other points pass the
heated term. Many acres of heavily
wooded land are within the limits of the park, especially along the shores of
the lake.”
As for Evan Morgan himself, after his death this obituary
appeared in the November 6th, 1930 edition of the Deer Park Union, under the headline “Evan Morgan Sr. is Heart Failure
Victim,”
and the subheading “Loon
Lake Resident 36 Years.”
“Evan Morgan Sr., pioneer resident
of Loon Lake and owner of Morgan Park, popular Loon Lake summer resort, was
found dead in the street at Loon Lake at 12:30 on Saturday morning (November 1st) by John (last name indecipherable due to poor print/image quality), who was going to his home. He had been seen a short time before and was
worrying over the Halloween pranks of a group of boys, and it is thought that
the excitement reacted on his heart. His
son, Evan Morgan, Jr., called Dr. H. H. Slater, and he pronounced death due to
heart failure, he having been troubled with heart weakness for some years
past. The body was brought to the
Lambert Mortuary here to await funeral arrangements.
“The deceased was one of the most
widely known residents of Stevens County, having come to Loon Lake and settling
on the lakeshore property 36 years ago, and has made his home there
continuously since that time. He
developed the Morgan Park summer resort to its present high state, and it is
now one of the most popular in the northwest.
He was interested in mining and gave much of his time to the development
of the old Loon Lake Copper-Silver property now known as the Maola Copper Mining
Company. He also gave much time to the
development of lakeshore property on Loon Lake, and owned shoreline acreage on
different portions of the lake. Much of
the popularity of the resort is due to his persistent publicity and spirit of
boosting.
“Mr. Morgan was a native of Wales
and was 67 years of age (born
in 1861). He came to Loon Lake in 1894. Surviving him are two sons, Evan, Jr., at
Loon Lake, and Wesley, of Omak, and seven grandchildren. A Brother, David W. Morgan, resides in
Pasadena, California, and there are some other relatives whose addresses are
unknown. His wife and daughter, Gwen,
died several years ago.
“The funeral was held yesterday at 2
p. m. from the Moose Temple at Clayton, that organization having charge, and G.
H. Rice, of the Deer Park Open Door Church, giving the funeral address. Interment was made in the Loon Lake cemetery
beside the bodies of his wife and daughter, in a vault which he had prepared
several years ago as a place of burial.”
Loon
Lake’s celebrated steam launch was named after the above noted Gwen Morgan.
… fate
of the naphtha powered launch …
The July 22nd,
1899 edition of Idaho's Coeur
d’Alene Press
reported, “D.
C. Corbin, the Spokane financer and railroad builder, was a passenger up on the
(sternwheeler) Georgie Oakes, Tuesday. He went up the St. Joe to select campgrounds for an outing. He thinks of bringing his
naphtha launch from Loon Lake to this place.”
We’re
uncertain whether the naphtha launch mentioned above is the same one advertised
for Loon Lake excursions in the August 15th,
1893 edition of Spokane’s Northwest
Mining Review. But the fate of Corbin’s launch is clarified
in the Coeur
d’Alene Press’s July
29th, 1899 edition. “The naphtha launch owned by D. C. Corbin, of Spokane, which
has been on Loon Lake for the past few seasons, was shipped here by rail and is
being looked after by Johnson & Rosen.”
… the
steam launch Fleetwood …
In the
summer of 1900 — and possibly prior — there appears to have been a conventional
steamboat operating on Loon Lake. That,
at least, is what we gather from an article published in August 15th, 1900 edition of the Spokane Daily Chronicle.
Under the headline “Bought
a Steamboat.” It details Evan Morgan’s plan to enlarge and
refit this boat for summer excursions.
The article reads, “Thomas E. Thomas of Marysville,
Mont., and Evan Morgan have purchased from Thomas Wolverton the steamer
Fleetwood on Loon Lake. The boat will be
cut in two and lengthened 15 feet. This
will make her 45 feet overall and will enable her to carry 50 passengers.
“A new 12-horsepower marine engine and boiler will be
purchased immediately. The boat will be
in charge of Mr. Thomas, who carries a first-class engineer’s license, and
everything in connection with the steamer will be No. 1 and up to date. The cushions for the seats will be made of
cork, which can be used as life preservers in case of need. The boat will be used for pleasure only.
“It is the intention of the purchasers to run regular trips
around the lake on excursion days, and during the week to make a tour of the
lake twice a day. A number of campers
who prefer the opposite side of the lake from the pavilion can then enjoy a
steamer ride at streetcar prices. Mail
will be delivered to them at points convenient for a landing.”
While these paragraphs are often
used as evidence that the craft Evan Morgan christened Gwen the very next year
was a reconstruction and enlargement of the Fleetwood, a careful reading of the
following article suggests caution should be applied to that assumption.
… The Gwen
…
The
story of the Gwen’s construction can be found in an article appearing in the
March 30, 1901 edition of the Spokane Daily Chronicle.
The article reads; “A new steamer at Loon Lake, capable
of accommodating 100 passengers, which will make trips around the lake and make
connections with all trains, small wharves placed at different points around
the lake convenient for the campers, improvements in the pavilion, a floating
dining room, new small boats, tables and benches arranged for excursionists, a
cinder path for races; these are some of the improvements which have already
been made or are planned for the convenience of those who intend visiting that
popular lake this summer.
“Evan Morgan, the proprietor of the grounds at the lake, was
in Spokane this week making arrangements for the excursions which are planned
for this summer, and, in speaking of affairs at the lake said:”
The following portion of the
article is supposedly a direct quote from Evan Morgan.
“The season at Loon Lake will open on Decoration Day, May 30,
and I have made the British Benevolent Association (a British-American social group
existent in Spokane at least as of 1910) a proposition for an excursion on that date. The Spokane Turnverein (a German-American social and
Athletic club with a chapter in Spokane at least from 1895) has decided to run an excursion to
the lake June 23, and the Odd Fellows (fraternal organization formed in Spokane Falls in 1880) will take possession of the place
on the Fourth of July. In August, the
Knights of Khorassan (fraternal
organization formed in Spokane in 1900) will be there in force, having arranged for an excussion [SIC] on the 11th
of that month. Besides these already
arranged for, there are several others in mind, which may be arranged for later,
and good entertainment will be provided at all of them.”
Next is the most complete
description of the Gwen known to exist.
Keep in mind that the boat had not been completed at the time the
article appeared, so some changes from the description may have occurred.
“A new steamer, the Gwen, will be in use on the lake this
summer. The boat will be 60 feet long,
with a 12-foot, 2-inch beam. She will be
fitted with a 10-horsepower engine and boiler and will carry 100
passengers. The old launch was about 20
feet long. The gunwales (lip circling the upper edge of the
hull),
stem (the
uprising portion of the keel at the front of the boat) and keel will be of black walnut,
the planking of white pine and the finishing in tamarack. The boat will be decked and have trimmings of
solid brass. It will be in charge of
Fred Kirklin, who is a part owner in it with myself. The boat is now under construction and will
be finished before May 15. On excursion
days the boat will make regular trips and will be at the service of parties.”
It’s of interest to note the
differences between the boat described above and the one intended as a fifteen-foot extension of the 30-foot-long steamer Fleetwood — as detailed some seven
months earlier on page three of Spokane’s Chronicle. Among those
differences is the stated ownership; with Thomas E. Thomas named as part owner
and licensed engineer/pilot of the enlarged Fleetwood, and Fred Kirklin named
as part owner and licensed engineer/pilot of the actually constructed
Gwen. There’s the difference in
horsepower stated for the proposed rebuild of the Fleetwood, 12 horsepower, and
the stated horsepower of the Gwen’s steam engine, 10 horsepower. There’s the difference in the lengths of the
30-foot Fleetwood rebuilt to 45 feet, and the Gwen, with a stated length of 60
feet.
This is not to say the Gwen wasn’t
in fact a rebuild of the earlier Fleetwood.
It’s just to say it seems unlikely that the Gwen’s construction, as
outlined in the 1901 Chronicle, wouldn't have included the fact
that it was a stretched version of the prior boat.
If the Gwen was a completely new
construction, which Evan Morgan’s description seems to imply, one could
legitimately ask what happened to the Fleetwood. And the answer is, we don’t
know. Washington State only began
requiring inspections and licensing of commercial steam and gasoline power
craft operating on inland waterways in 1907.
Looking back at those records, only one craft was registered on Loon
Lake in 1907, and that was the Gwen.
That doesn’t mean the Gwen was the only steam or gasoline powered boat
operating on the lake after registration was required. In Washington State those regulations only
applied to vessels acting as commercial carriers. Private vessels were exempt.
On the other hand, we know D. C.
Corbin moved his private naphtha powered launch from Loon Lake to Lake Coeur
d’Alene in 1899. That would suggest that
it wouldn’t have been impossible to load the Fleetwood on a flatcar and take it
elsewhere — assuming the cost could have been borne.
The Chronicle’s 1901 description of
the Gwen’s construction continues to quote Evan Morgan as saying, “Small wharves are being built
around the lake, and this summer the boat will make regular trips connecting
with all trains. This will be a great
convenience for the campers, as they can tell whether the trains are late or
not. A rate will be made of 12 trips for
a dollar. A feature at the lake this summer
will be the moonlight excursions, which will be run two or three times a week,
in season, with a special rate of 10 cents for campers.
“In anticipation of the sports which will be held at the lake
we have built this winter a fine cinder path, 100 yards long and 30 feet wide
and divided into sections of 25, 50 and 75 yards. We have built a number of tables and benches
and they will be placed in the park for those coming with baskets. We have improved the music stand in the
pavilion and will put it in shape for dancing.
A number of livery boats have been built, making 60 which we now
have. There will be a floating dining
room and a limited number of furnished rooms.”
The above article concluded with
Evan Morgan’s description of some of the more palatial summer cottages under
construction around the lake.
… the
Gwen’s fate …
We do
have one reliable record of the Gwen’s time on Loon Lake — at least the last
ten years of it. In 1907 Washington
State’s legislature passed a steamboat inspection law. The crux of the law stated, “The commissioner of labor shall
annually, or oftener if he has good cause to believe it reasonable, inspect, or
cause to be inspected, every steam vessel or other vessel operated by machinery
engaged in carrying passengers for hire or towing for hire excepting vessels
which are subject to inspection under the laws of the United States.”
Said law became effective on June 8th, 1907.
A legal opinion as to exactly what
the above means was published in Washington State’s Sixth Biennial Report of the Bureau
of Labor Statistics and Factory Inspections, 1907-1908.
According to the Report, the law “had its origin in a public agitation for more rigid
regulations … following several disasters within the borders of the state … notably
the sinking of the steamer Dix, on which occasion a large number of lives were
lost.”
An opinion as to exactly what
constituted the law’s stated “excepting vessels which are subject to inspection under the
laws of the United States”
was provided by the state’s then attorney general, A. J. Falknor. Mr. Falknor wrote that federal jurisdiction
could reasonably be assumed to extend to all “navigable waters that flow from one state into another, and
out of a state into the sea, coastwise, and upon the sea to and from foreign
countries.” That, as suggested by a referenced legal
precedent, would leave all lakes and rivers “completely within the limits of (the) state, without any navigable outlet
to any other state or country,” as not being “within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government.”
Assistant Attorney General Falknor
concluded, “In
this state, therefore,
(the federal) congress
has exclusive jurisdiction over Puget Sound and all of its arms, and all other
navigable waters flowing into the Pacific Ocean but does not have jurisdiction
over any of the inland lakes or rivers of the state which have no navigable
outlet to the sea.”
With that, in the summer of 1907,
state inspections of all the steam powered craft — including gasoline and
naphtha powered vessels — operating on waters under state jurisdiction
began. The results of these yearly
inspections were diligently published in the state’s biennial reports, at least
through 1920.
Taken in July of 1907, the
inspector’s report states only one vessel subject to the commercial passenger
carrying stipulation of the new law was operating on Loon Lake — a situation
that continued through the 1916 season.
The “steam” powered vessel’s name was “Gwen,” its owner “Evan Morgan,” and, in 1907, the duties of its “Master, Pilot, and Engineer” were shared between “Evan Morgan” and “Wesley Morgan.”
It’s likely the Wesley Morgan mentioned was Evan’s eldest son, who would
have turned 18 that summer.
The next year, 1908, the names in
the “Master,
Pilot, and Engineer”
column were “Evan
Morgan”
and “Evan
Morgan, Jr.” The elder Morgan’s second son would have
turned 17 at the beginning of that year.
In 1909, Evan Morgan and Edgar
Becker shared the “Master,
Pilot, and Engineer”
duties. In 1910 it was Evan Morgan and
Arthur Chase.
From 1911 on, Evan Morgan’s name is
not listed in the pilot column — only in the “Owner”
column. Nineteen eleven’s pilot was
Charles Bahm, and the same in 1912.
Harry Smith took over the helm in 1913, with Carlyle Hughes and Chandler
Bluhdorn taking over in 1914.
Nineteen fifteen carries what is
likely a misprint. The only two pilots
licensed for Loon Lake are Jerome E. Wimmer and, once again, Wesley
Morgan. But the motive power of the vessel
they are certified to operate is listed as “gas.” The only vessel listed for Loon Lake that
year is once again the Gwen, and its power is still listed as steam.
The next year, 1916, everything
returns to normal, when pilot, J. Guisleman, is licensed to operate Loon Lake’s
one registered steam vessel, and that vessel is the Gwen.
In 1917’s Biennial Report there is no listing for Loon
Lake. That absence continues through
1920 — the last of the biennial steamship inspection records so far located.
As for what happened, the Eleventh Biennial Report notes, “Loon Lake, once quite a prosperous
body of water for boating, was not included in our inspection this year. The only steamboat on the lake received
serious damage last winter. The caretaker
hauled her out for the winter, failed to drain the bilge off, and when the cold
weather set in the water in the hull froze, bursting the planking from the ribs
and frames and destroying the hull beyond the possibility of repair.”
The
first year since 1907 in which the Gwen wasn’t included in the inspections was
1917 — which, if the above-described boat was in fact the Gwen, would indicate
that it was destroyed during the late fall or early winter of 1916. The only reason I’m uncomfortable stating
that the demolished craft was for certain the Gwen is that the Eleventh Biennial Report doesn’t identify the boat by name,
and we’ve yet to find a second source both describing the destruction and
naming the boat.
I
understand that there’s a strong desire within the community for the impressive
size hull resting beneath the surface of Loon Lake to be identified as the
Gwen. What little dependable data we
have from that era simply can’t support that desire. What it does suggest is that we’ll have to
look elsewhere for an answer to the question of identity. That will be the focus of the second part of
this story.
——— to be
continued ———
Links to the original Mortarboard articles:
