In Search of Loon Lake's Drowned Boat - Loon Lake, Washington: Part One.

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 20^th 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 4^th 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 18^th, 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 15^th, 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 6^th, 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 1^st) 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 22^nd, 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 15^th, 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 29^th, 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 15^th, 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 11^th 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 8^th, 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:

http://cdphs.org/uploads/3/4/2/0/34204235/newsletter_115__web_.pdf

http://cdphs.org/uploads/3/4/2/0/34204235/newsletter_116__web__1_.pdf