PORT ANGELES — Back when the now-extinct wolves roamed the forests of the North Olympic Peninsula, hunters received bounties, paid in gold, on the hides they brought to county officials.
They also were paid for proof of having killed cougars, “wild cats” — or bobcats — and coyotes, with pay ranging from $2.40 for bobcats to $5 a piece for wolves and cougars, said historian Alice Alexander.
Records of those transactions from 1905 to sometime in the 1920s or ’30s were written in flowing, often ornate handwriting in large, red bound ledgers that now represent a historical treasure trove of names of places and pioneers.
These “bounty records” — six of them — probably will be donated to the Clallam County Historical Society, Alexander said.
The owner of the ledgers, Jack Glaubert of Sequim, said he just wants them available to the public.
“I want to get them in the appropriate spot,” he said.
Glaubert, who owns Sound Surveyors, paid $100 per book for the collection, which was saved from destruction by the late Harold Sisson.
Sisson, the son of Lower Elwha homesteaders DeWitt Clinton and Nettie E. (Burger) Sisson, was on a committee to clean up county records in the 1940s, Alexander said.
He was working at Camp Hayden at Salt Creek, a county record storage area, and salvaged the bounty records from those destined to be thrown out.
“These books were scheduled for the toss pile,” Alexander said.
“Sisson’s father is in there a number of times, getting cougar,” Glaubert said.
“Harold set them aside because of family connections.”
Sisson mentioned them to Glaubert, who had done surveying work for him. After Sisson’s death at the age of 85 on Feb. 3, 2002, Glaubert purchased them from his estate.
Now, he’d like to see them back in the public domain, so he asked Alexander — a Clallam County historian and author who also writes a monthly column, “Back When,” for the Peninsula Daily News — to find a home for them.
“Most of the homestead families are all in there,” Glaubert said, explaining the importance of the collection.
“There are many old family names, with the original signatures,” said Alexander, who is herself a descendent of an Elwha Valley pioneer family.
“There are a lot of old familiar names — place names like Elwha, Royal, Sequim,” Alexander added.
“Both Elwha and Royal were communities. Now, they aren’t places anymore.”
The historical society’s executive director, Kathy Monds, said she had recently been contacted by Alexander.
She hasn’t seen the records yet, but the description has piqued her interest.
“We do want them, and I let her know that,” Monds said.
“They have names and what people were doing.
“When they have names in them and what people were doing, it’s telling a story.”
Any records donated to the historical society are available for members of the public to examine, Monds said.
“Everything in the research library is there for people who want to come in to look at it,” she said.
For more information about the historical society, based at 933 W. Ninth St., Port Angeles, phone 360-452-2662 .
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
