I can’t remember when I first met Keith Timm Jr. It was likely as a kid at one of the Coal Miners’ picnics typically held at Lake Retreat. They were the highlight of our summers. Free pop and ice cream, foot races for money, penny hunts, swimming, the Russian horse, baseball games, and watching coal miners and truck drivers drink too much.
And then there’s the vague memory of Keith, waiting for the bus at Enumclaw Jr. High (he was five years older than me) barking, “Hey! Aren’t you a Kombol?”
But we really got to know each other in the early 1980s when I took over as Manager of Palmer and hired Keith. He began on the picking table, the usual starting job at a coal mine. At the same time, cousin, Bob Morris was racing boats down the Cedar River, so Keith and I became his crew. Hanging out together we soon became fast friends. Maybe it was just driving around together in a pickup truck. Anyone who rode around with Keith became his friend.
Keith Timm Jr., Rob Krause, Bob Morris, and Bill Kombol, the River Hawk team and boat crew during Cedar River boat races, circa 1980.
A few years later Keith told me he needed a place to stay. He’d been living with his Mom and stepfather at their Black Diamond home. Day after day, Keith complained about how much he detested his step-father, Ray. I don’t know the exact circumstances – some say Ray hit Keith’s Mom, Lorraine. Whatever the cause, Keith proceeded to beat the crap out of Ray. When the Black Diamond Police arrived they dispensed justice the “old-fashioned” way. They told Keith to get out of town for a while.
Back then Lake Sawyer wasn’t part of town, so Keith asked if he could move in with Mom and me. Soon Keith had a new home, but more importantly, someone to wash his clothes and fix his meals. Several weeks into his stay, Mom asked me, “How do you think things are going?” I said, “Pretty good, Keith seems fine.” She replied, “There’s only one thing I can’t figure out – why is my toothbrush always wet?” “So is mine!” I added. Mom promptly bought new toothbrushes for all and wrote Keith’s name on his.
Keith Timm, Jr. and Governor Booth Gardner at the Black Diamond Museum, Nov. 1, 1985.
Keith was very proud of his sobriety. He was an avid A.A. man and could tell you to the day how long he’d been sober. I was still drinking back. One Friday night we went to a hockey game. I got pretty drunk and Keith had to drive me home then put me to bed. For the rest ofmy life, he never let me forget that night. In time I realized Keith’s wisdom, so joined him in temperance. For me, it’s been 32 years, 21 days. It was the second-best decision I’ve ever made and if it wasn’t for Keith I may not have made my best.
St. Patrick’s Day, 1985 – Gary Grant, our King County Councilman was running for re-election and held a fundraiser at the Lake Sawyer Community Club. I asked Keith to be my date. He was reluctant until I told him there’d be free food and pretty girls.
So we tooled over in my pickup and sure enough a pretty girl checked us in. We sat down and ate some food. But, I couldn’t take my eyes off the girl at the welcome table. She looked fairly young. Being the suave guy I was, I wouldn’t dream of walking up and asking her age. So, I had Keith do it for me.
Keith plops out of his seat, lumbers over to her table, and bluntly asks, “How old are you?” With answer in hand, Keith shuffles back and tells me. Well, one political fundraiser led to another, and that to a Fourth of July party, a Volleyball game, and a burning boat. Four years later I asked this pretty girl named Jennifer to marry me. It was the best decision I ever made. And, still happy she didn’t take a fancy to Keith.
Jennifer Grant and Keith Timm Jr. at Cedar River Boat Race day, June 1986.
In 1983, I was best man at Keith’s wedding to Kimberly Vaughan, a small affair in her parents’ home in Burien. The marriage didn’t survive, but Keith was unfazed and confessed, “It sure was fun while it lasted.” At times he drove me crazy. But, like a boomerang, Keith always bounced back usually with a smirk on his face. I’d ask, “What are you grinning about?” He’d snicker as his smile grew wider.
Keith smiling broadly in the Palmer Coking Coal mine office after a full day on the picking table, Dec. 1984. It was a dirty job, but Keith was never afraid of getting dirty.
Keith was famous for borrowing $2 for this or $5 for that, and usually paid you back . . . that is, if you reminded him time and again. For those of you who haven’t been repaid, we’ve filled this glass bowl with dollar bills. If Keith still owes you any money, now is your last chance to settle that debt.
There are so many more fond memories of Keith – like the time we toured the art galleries of Pioneer Square accompanied by a certified art snob – Keith in his stained overalls and plaid shirt surrounded by urbane Seattleites in snappy blazers and fashionable frocks. Or the time I asked him to join me for dinner and a Mariner game at Safeco Field. “Where do you want to eat?” I asked. Without missing a beat, Keith replied, “The Metropolitan Grill” (the most expensive steak house in Seattle). “I’m not taking you to the Metropolitan Grill,” I snarled, “I don’t even take my wife there.” We went to the ball game and out to dinner, but not to the Metropolitan Grill.
Keith kept the ticket stub to our Mariner game. I found it when cleaning out his trailer.
Or how about Keith at Alcoholics Anonymous? He’d normally attended meetings in Grange halls or church basements, but in time grew more adventuresome. Like when he started attending nude A.A. meetings held at a Jacuzzi in Bellevue of all places. Now, that’s a picture to wrap your brain about. “Hello, my name is Keith and I’m an alcoholic” . . . buck-naked in a hot tub.
But, some of my best memories of Keith are just driving around playing old-time music and joining him as we crooned to the stereo. We did it one last time – a few days before he sank into the coma. Two songs we heard that day are those I chose for his video tribute.
Keith holding my nephew, Carter Grant at our Lake Sawyer home, 2010. Keith and Carter shared the same birthday, August 6.
We hadn’t seen Keith for a few days which was unusual because he always came by the mine office for something. Shelley Arnold, my secretary of nearly three decades suggested I check up on him. I drove up to his camp trailer and saw his pickup, so knew he was home. I banged on the door and yelled his name, then made my way through his collection of everything and found him lying on the bed.
Keith was breathing faintly. I shook him, but he was unresponsive, so called 911. The operator took our location and talked me through performing CPR and continued for 10-12 minutes before medics arrived. It wasn’t easy hauling him out of those tight quarters. I followed the aid car to Valley General and checked him into the hospital.
Keith Timm Jr. in coma at Valley General hospital in Renton, May 19, 2017. Great efforts were made by the hospital staff to save his life.
The doctors and nurses hooked him up to a dozen tubes and devices, but Keith’s days were numbered in single digits. I knew he wouldn’t mind me taking his picture, and if he recovered would enjoy seeing all the efforts undertaken to save his life. Oh, what a laugh we would have had over this photo. And an even bigger laugh when I reported about all the pretty nurses who fawned over him night and day. Keith’s grin would be sparkling like the morning sun. Then he was gone.
Keith Byron Timm Jr. was one-of-a-kind and I miss him dearly. He was my buddy and I was his boss. We were best friends.
A celebration of his life was held Friday, June 16, 2017 at the Black Diamond Community Center, where I delivered the above eulogy. His obituary and two photos appear below. – Bill Kombol
Obituary:
Keith Byron Timm Jr., a lifetime resident of Black Diamond, died on May 27, 2017, at Valley General Hospital. He was 68.
Keith graduated from Enumclaw High School in 1966.
He was born on Aug. 6, 1948, to Keith Timm and Lorraine Gibson. He grew up in Black Diamond and graduated in 1966 from Enumclaw High School. At the height of the Vietnam War, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and entered boot camp before receiving a medical discharge. He worked in the paint shops at Pacific Car and Foundry for a number of years, before joining Palmer Coking Coal Co. and later Pacific Coast Coal. He was married in 1983 to Kimberly Vaughan for a short time. He was a former member of the Black Diamond Fire Department and a Thursday regular at the Black Diamond Historical Museum. He loved antique trucks and was particularly proud of his 35-plus years of sobriety.
He is survived by his sister, Donna Elaine (Timm) Snow.
Remembrances can be made to the Black Diamond Historical Society, P.O. Box 232, Black Diamond, Wash. 98010.
Keith faithfully attended the Black Diamond Museum each Thursday, where Museum’s official photographer, Bob Dobson snapped this picture one time. Whenever Keith saw him around town, he’d yell, “Hey Bob, take my picture.”
Before Vern Cole, Lake Sawyer lacked a dam, also known as a weir, to control the level of the lake. Lake Sawyer is the third-largest public lake in King County, Washington.
Over the years, a number of stories were written about the outlet dam controlling the level of Lake Sawyer. Most previous versions were steeped in oral history but light on facts. Many portrayed Vern Cole as a renegade developer and defendant in a lawsuit he lost to Mary Burnett. Quite the opposite is true. It’s time to set the record straight on that dam outlet weir where Covington Creek leaves Lake Sawyer.
Like most lakes of the Puget Sound basin, Lake Sawyer was formed about 10,000 years ago near the end of the last glacial period. Sheets of ice covered the region, reaching heights of 3,000 feet at their thickest. Retreating glaciers carved the landscape as melting ice deposited thick layers of sand and gravel, including areas around Black Diamond. This barren landscape gradually supported primeval forests dominated by Douglas fir. Low areas became ponds and lakes filled with water from meandering creek channels. Lake Sawyer was fed by two: Ravensdale Creek and Rock Creek.
Water leaving the lake naturally gravitated to its lowest point, the Covington Creek channel located midway along the lake’s western shore. By the time white settlers homesteaded Lake Sawyer, that channel was filled with several thousand years of logs, trees, roots, branches, and debris, all of which clogged the natural outlet. Busy beavers no doubt added their contribution to the morass of detritus. The situation remained unchanged until the 1950s.
Aerial photo of the north and west shores of Lake Sawyer in Aug. 1937, the earliest aerial photograph of the area.
During the 1920s, most land surrounding Lake Sawyer was still held by a few large owners, including Oscar Weisart, the Lochow family, the Neukirchen brothers, Lake Sawyer Lumber Co., Northwest Improvement Co., Pacific Coast Coal Co., and the lake’s first family, the Hansons. They later operated Enumclaw’s White River Lumber Co., whose prominence became a defining feature of that town. Carl Hanson’s original 160-acre land grant also boasted the lake’s first home, a log cabin built around 1884.
In 1884, the first cabin was built on Lake Sawyer upon Carl M. Hanson’s 16-acre homestead. This photo dates to 1887. The two girls standing in front are Anna Elizabeth Hanson (age 12 years), Olga Olivia Hanson (10), while standing in the doorway are Ellen Thyra Maria Hanson (8), and Selma Victoria Hanson (6).
By the mid-1930s, many owners began platting their land into small lots. Most are now occupied by lakefront homes. The plat names included Campbell’s Lake Sawyer Campsite; Lochow’s Lake Sawyer Tracts; Lake Sawyer East Shore Tracts; and Lake Sawyer Grove Park (currently the RV resort). However, the biggest of all was approved in 1939 – the North Shore of Lake Sawyer comprising 139 lots stretching from Hanson Point down to and including a two-acre park dedicated to King County (docks #104 to 189). The North Shore Plat was owned by the Hanson, Smith, and Olson families, descendants of Carl Hanson, and contained a low spot that periodically flooded. That area is now referred to as the Boot, owing to its boot-like shape as seen on the plat map. The Hanson family’s summer home (docks #102 & 103) was built in 1926 in the steep-roof, gabled-style of the day, complete with a caretaker’s cottage next door. Both home and cottage still grace Hanson Point, named for that pioneer family. By 1947, the lake hosted 70 families in permanent residences and three times that many with summer homes.
The Hanson family’s 1939 plat map of the North Shore’s 139 lots, with the Boot anticipated as potential lake frontage. The park deeded by the Hanson family is now the public boat launch.
Further south, the area around the outlet channel remained unplatted and owned by the Lochow family. In 1950, Ludwig & Mabel Lochow, William & Marjorie Lochow, together with William & Gladys Gordon, filed the West Shore of Lake Sawyer plat. Their platted tract encompassed 36 acres stretching from the Hanson-donated park (now called Lake Sawyer Boat Launch) all the way south to the present site of the Lake Sawyer RV Resort (docks #191 to 258). New roads were constructed to service the 73 platted lots, including S.E. 298th Street, S.E. 300th Street, S.E. 302nd Street, and 225th Ave. S.E. Lot sizes were restricted to a minimum of 6,000 square feet, but most were between 15,000 and 25,000 square feet. The West Shore plat involved extensive surveying of the outlet channel designated as Covington Creek on the map. Each lot’s frontage on the canal extended to the centerline of the creek.
The Gordon-Lochow 1950 plat map of the West Shore’s 73 lots. The channel was fully surveyed before any dredging took place, most likely in 1951.
However, nature’s ad hoc dam, which governed the lake’s level, remained the same, choked the Covington Creek channel, resulting in periodic episodes of severe flooding. As seen nearby, the Sperry cabin, located near the old Neukirchen mill site, was inundated during the winter floods of 1946. In his August 5, 1952, findings of fact from King County Case No. 443504, Superior Court Judge Ward Roney declared, “the residents and property owners abutting Lake Sawyer have been subjected to severe damage and expense during the past flood seasons.” Roney further ruled “that said Lake constitutes a flood control problem within the meaning of the statutes of the State.”
The north and west shores of Lake Sawyer in 1942, showing a clogged Covington Creek outlet and ponded water in the Boot area.
Judge Roney’s decision grew out of a petition filed in March 1952 by Mary Burnett, Perry B. Love, Wilbert Bombardier, Rebecca Miles, Frank Horne, William Gordon, Hans Sands, Perry J. Love, Leonard Cleaver, Adolph Samuelson, and David Cook, all owners of real property abutting Lake Sawyer. As plaintiffs, the 11 individuals sought a judicial order providing specific proposed relief:
To establish the maximum water level for Lake Sawyer;
To authorize construction of a dam and fish ladders;
To authorize Vern Cole Realty Company, Inc. to install the dam and fish ladder, subject to the approval of King County, Dept. of Fisheries, Dept. of Game, and Supervisor of Hydraulics; and
To authorize the Supervisor of Hydraulics to thereafter regulate and control the maximum water level of the lake.
King County Superior Court Case No. 443504, with Mary Burnett as the first named plaintiff. The March 1952 petition to the court sought a judicial order to fix the level of Lake Sawyer, which led to building the dam and weir later that year.
Named in the action were each and every land and lot owners around the perimeter of Lake Sawyer, with lake frontages of each noted in lineal feet. Contrary to previous accounts, Vern Cole was not a defendant. In fact, he was actually an ally and confidant of lead plaintiff, William Gordon, who owned multiple lots in the just-approved West Shore plat. Vern Cole was described in pleadings as the most competent individual to spearhead efforts for the design and construction of an outlet dam to solve winter flood problems and low summer lake levels. As opposed to the usual formulation where every lot owner paid his or her proportionate share of design and construction costs, the plaintiffs proposed to pay all those considerable expenses.
To gain perspective, we now indulge in some informed speculation guided by known facts, aerial photos, and the resulting landscape. Throughout the Puget Sound region, earthmoving operations significantly altered the course of countless rivers, creeks, lakes, and wetlands. The White River previously flowed into the Green, but was later diverted south to the Puyallup River. Lake Washington once emptied through the Black River into the Duwamish near Tukwila, but was lowered nine feet after the Ship Canal was dug, providing a connection through Lake Union to Shilshole Bay and the Puget Sound. The Cedar River was also rechanneled so it no longer left Lake Washington via the Black and Duwamish Rivers, but through Union Bay and the Chittenden locks in Ballard. Those were but a few of the large projects financed by the government to sculpt local landscapes in pursuit of enhanced waterfront and economic prosperity.
White River was diverted west to the Puyallup in 1906. The Cedar River was re-channeled directly to Lake Washington in 1912. The Black River disappeared when Lake Washington was lowered nine feet, and the lake’s discharge henceforth flowed through the Montlake Cut to Lake Union, then into the locks at Ballard and Puget Sound. See When Coal Was King, May 4, 2021.
At Lake Sawyer, the goals were modest and the means private – flood control plus fixing the lake’s level with a new dam. At the end of World War II, lots of surplus earthmoving equipment, including bulldozers, diesel-powered shovels, and draglines, were put to use in nearby mining operations. In the late 1940s, both Ravensdale and Franklin coal seams were mined for the first time by surface methods, with bulldozers removing overburden while shovels excavated coal into dump trucks. Previously, almost all coal had been mined underground.
A similar form of excavation likely took place in the Covington Creek channel and further north in the Boot, a part of the Hanson family’s North Shore plat. The summer of 1951 is the most likely date for both dredge operations. The Gordon-Lochow West Shore plat was approved in November 1950, and the lawsuit to fix the lake’s hydraulic problems was initiated in early 1952. Interrogatories exchanged between plaintiffs and respondents indicate that Vern Cole Realty was hired by the Gordon-Lochow forces to open the channel. In those same questions and answers, the Gordon-Lochow plaintiffs proposed that Vern Cole construct the dam, spillway, and fish ladder, designed to replace nature’s failing, log-choked outlet. After the channel was cleared, the lake’s summer level would have been far lower, allowing easy excavation of the Boot.
A trial without jury was heard on April 10, 1952, before Judge Roney. Several procedural issues were ruled upon, and the trial continued to May 19 at the King County Courthouse. Plaintiffs were instructed to serve copies of the Judge’s interim order upon all parties. A notice of proceedings was published in the Auburn Globe News for a period of two weeks. A number of prominent Seattle law firms were involved, including Rummens, Griffin & Short, represented by Paul Cressman for the plaintiffs, and Bogle, Bogle & Gates for the respondent, John Nelson, one of the lake’s largest landowners. Plaintiffs and Respondents attended the trial, as did three State Departments – Game, Fisheries, and Hydraulics. King County was named in the lawsuit and served notice, but didn’t appear. Unfortunately, neither the testimony nor the oral proceedings from May 19th were preserved. But the parties must have agreed on most major points, as Judge Roney’s decision mirrored the plaintiff’s requests, and his order seemingly satisfied all the parties, as no appeals were filed.
On August 5, 1952, Judge Roney issued his final ruling, which included Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and a Decree whose decision included the following:
That Covington Creek “is inadequate and incapable of carrying off excess water during flood seasons; that as a result thereof, the residents and property owners abutting Lake Sawyer have been subjected to severe damage and expense during past flood seasons.”
That “a maximum lake level be established to control and regulate the flow of water in Covington Creek; that the maximum water level on Lake Sawyer should not exceed 518.94 feet above mean sea level . . . that level is 16” higher, according to foot measurement, than the visible level of the Lake on the 19th of May, 1952 [and] that such a maximum lake level will not endanger or damage any property abutting the shores of Lake Sawyer.”
“That the Vern Cole Realty Co. . . . has advised the court it will bear the entire construction cost of a dam or spillway to control and regulate the flow of water from Lake Sawyer and through Covington Creek.”
That “Vern Cole has advised the court it is having plans prepared for construction of a suitable dam or spillway” . . . and that said plans be approved by the Departments of Game, Fisheries, and Hydraulics.
That the Department of Hydraulics provide regulation of the dam and spillway following construction.
So what did the lake look like by the end of construction? And how much variance did the lake experience before and after the installation of water control structures in 1952?
The variances experienced in the pre-weir era are not known, but were certainly extreme. Evidence of severe flooding is seen in the Sperry cabin photo, looking west towards the Hanson home built in 1926. Jack Sperry believes that the water level was 38” to 40” (between 3 and 4 feet) above today’s typical level. The lowest pre-weir levels were likely 5 feet below today’s norms, that being the water elevation at the base of the dam. A number of intact stumps from old trees can still be seen below water level, including one between the two islands in front of the RV Resort. It has a white buoy attached. Another stump in front of Eble Point (Dock 12) is about 7 feet below the average level. These trees were probably Oregon ash or another species which can tolerate long periods of inundation. These high and low data points suggest that prior to the dam and weir, Lake Sawyer experienced wide variations in water level, as much as 8 to 10 feet.
The Sperry cabin during winter flooding in 1946. The home on Hanson Point can be seen in the distance, just to the left of the cabin.
Following construction of the weir and dam, the highest recorded water levels in Lake Sawyer occurred in early February 1996. Heavy rains washed out the dike road between Frog Lake and Lake Sawyer, causing a cascade of water to fill the lake and overwhelm the weir. Water levels were measured at 26” over the weir compared to a winter average of 6” above. The lowest recorded water levels occurred in late October 2015 when beaver dams up and down Ravensdale and Rock Creeks cut off almost all surface flow to the lake. Late autumn is also when groundwater flows ebb, contributing to that record low event. On Oct. 28, 2015, the water level was 39” below the weir. Thus, the maximum recorded variance in modern times between these two extremes was 65” or about 5.5 feet. The typical annual variance between the average high and low water is now about 24” or two feet.
The best evidence to further piece this puzzle together is aerial photos from 1937 and 1942 showing conditions before lake alterations, and from 1959, seven years after. In the Boot section of the North Shore plat, the August 1937 photo shows definite farming activities. Yet, the Hanson’s 1939 plat map clearly depicts that same Boot area within the high water line of the lake. A pond in the north end of the Boot can be seen in the winter 1942 photo, where summer field harvesting was practiced five years earlier.
Just as heavy rains facing a clogged Covington Creek channel resulted in severe winter flooding, it’s equally fair to assume that lack of a real dam controlling outflow allowed late summer lake levels to fall precipitously. That would explain why the Boot could be used for farming in 1937, but on the plat map and in the 1942 photo seen as a potential water basin. Oral history holds that the Boot was once dredged, an event surely contemporaneous with the Gordon-Lochow dredging of the outlet channel, which created optimum conditions for summer work. This makes sense given that heavy equipment necessary for one project could easily be redeployed to another. The cleared channel no doubt presented owners with a historic low-water event perfect for carving a future waterfront.
The post-dam era in 1959, seven years after the dredging and construction of a dam at the outlet. The wakes of motor boats can be seen on the lake.
A close-up of the west shore area in 1959 showing the dredged Covington Creek canal, the weir, and increasing development of homes within the West Shore Plat.
Despite a lawsuit just six months earlier, by late September 1952, all was peaches and honey in the neighborhood. The Seattle Times reported, “A 94-foot-long dam has been constructed on Lake Sawyer, near Kent, at the mouth of Covington Creek to establish the lake level and improve property values and fishing. The concrete structure is equipped with five-step fish ladders, which will permit salmon to return to the lake to spawn.” On October 5th, a joint ceremony was hosted by the Lake Sawyer Community Club and Lake Sawyer Garden Club to mark the completion of the dam. That dam and weir still faithfully serve lot owners on Lake Sawyer over 68 years later.
Lake Sawyer weir and dam on Covington Creek, Jan. 1956, a few years after dredging. Photo by Frank Guidettiof Black Diamond
Aerial and plat photo labeling by Oliver Kombol.
Sources:
King County Superior Court Case No. 443504 “In the matter of fixing the level of Lake Sawyer” (1952).
King County Assessor and Department of Transportation aerial photos from 1937 and 1959.
U.S. Army Corps aerial photo from 1942.
King County Recorder – Plats of the North Shore and West Shore of Lake Sawyer.
Metsker’s 1926 and 1936 atlas of King County.
“History of King County” Volume II by C.B. Bagley (1929),
Renton News Record, July 17, 1947 – News of Maple Valley.
Seattle Sunday Times, Sept. 28, 1952 – page 20.
Jack Sperry, lake resident – oral communication.
Bob Edelman, lake resident – email communication, July 9, 2020.
Though characterized as a villain in some early and inaccurate stories about the construction of the Lake Sawyer dam, Vern Cole was one of the driving forces behind designing the weir and creating the stabilized lake level residents enjoy today. Born in 1887 to a pioneer family from Baker, Oregon, they immigrated to Canada when Vern was six-years-old. After discharge from the British Navy, he joined the Vancouver, B.C. Police at age 21 serving as a Constable Patrol Officer. Cole moved to Seattle during World War I and became a salesman for a motorcar company. He was later commissioned as a Washington State Patrol officer. It’s unclear when Cole first pursued real estate as an endeavor, but he ended up running a very successful business known as Vern Cole Realty Co., which specialized in lakefront homes, acreage, and view tracts.
Vern Cole as Patrol Officer in Vancouver, B.C., 1908.
Cole became involved with the Lochow-Gordon plat of the West Shore of Lake Sawyer in the early 1950s. However, at the start of the 1952 legal action by Lochow, Gordon, and others, Vern’s wife of 45 years, Hazel (Downing), died. Perhaps in grief, Cole poured himself into completing the lake’s transformation, which he had helped set in motion. A year later, he remarried a widow, Edna Buckingham Raborn, and the two of them lived on his 105-foot yacht moored at Shilshole Bay, just outside the Ballard Locks. Vern Alexander Cole died in 1970 at age 83. His obituary states he was an active yachtsman and member of the Elks and Masonic bodies.
The Home on Hanson Point
One of the oldest homes on Lake Sawyer was built by the pioneering Hanson family on a peninsula of land that was part of their original homestead claim. The patriarch, Carl M. Hanson, owned a sawmill in his native Sweden before immigrating to the U.S. in 1883, after hearing of Washington’s vast timber tracts. For a year, he cleared land in Seattle before moving to Lake Sawyer, where he filed for ownership of 160 acres under the 1862 Homestead Act. Carl built a log cabin, proved up his claim, and in 1891 was issued a deed personally signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
For several years, Carl and members of the extended family worked at the coal mines in Black Diamond and Franklin before building sawmills, first at Summit (Four Corners) and later at Lake Wilderness. Both were operated in association with his three sons, Axel, Charles, and Frank. The Wilderness mill was owned until 1897, when the family moved operations to Enumclaw following the purchase of the White River Mill. That enterprise was renamed White River Lumber Company and thrived under Hanson family management. Within a decade, the firm employed over 500 men, by far the biggest employer in Enumclaw. The company increased its land holding to 50,000 acres and later initiated a cooperative agreement with Weyerhaeuser. In 1900, Frederick Weyerhaeuser purchased 900,000 acres of timber from railway magnate James J. Hill. The two companies, White River Lumber and Weyerhaeuser, fully merged operations in 1949.
King County Assessor photo taken Dec. 20, 1939. The home still looks remarkably the same.
The Hanson family built this summer home on Lake Sawyer in 1926, and next to it a caretaker’s cottage. In 1939, Rufus Smith and L.G. Olson, grandsons of Carl Hanson, filed a plat named the North Shore of Lake Sawyer. The lake front portion of the family’s 160-acre homestead was platted into 139 lots and included the dedication of the two-acre park now owned by Black Diamond and called Lake Sawyer Boat Launch. Their summer home, which sits on 17 acres (docks #102 & 103), was not part of the plat but remained with the extended Hanson family until 1997, when it was sold to David & Maryanne Tagney Jones for $2.2 million. A recreational guest house was added to the estate in 2007. This December 20, 1939, photo of tax parcel 042106-9001 comes courtesy of the King County Assessor held at the Puget Sound Regional Archives in Eastgate.
This history of the dam was originally published in the Lake Sawyer Community Club Newsletter, Spring 2021. Additional photos have been added to this version.
