LAST WEEK, SEVERAL people asked me where I get my ideas for my column.
Some topics come from my personal interest in history and a love of reading old newspapers and local history books.
Many articles are suggested by family, friends and readers.
However, sometimes columns just happen.
A few weeks ago, I received a call from Beaver Postmaster Maureen “Mo” McGarrett.
She laughed as she told me she was looking for the smartest person in Beaver, and that someone suggested she call me.
It seems she had received correspondence from Katie of the Eastern Washington hamlet of Colbert. She was working on a report for school.
Her topic was Beaver, WA 98305.
The letter had a number of questions for McGarrett to answer.
What do people do in Beaver? How many people live in Beaver? And several others.
But the one that stumped McGarrett was: How did Beaver get its name?
While I am certainly not the smartest person in Beaver, I do like a challenge — and I had been thinking of writing a column on the difference between Beaver and Tyee.
So I told Mo I would see what I could find out.
A memoir of local pioneer Pat Klahn stated that in 1905 two families lived at Tyee, the Hahns and the Lambs. Several other families lived around Lake Pleasant, but their homes were only accessible by boat.
Another document I found said Lake Pleasant was originally Lake Tyee, but was changed by a land developer at some point.
But no mention of the origin of the town of Beaver.
In 1918, the Beaver-Tyee area grew as hundreds of soldiers called the Spruce Division arrived and set up camp at the south end of Lake Pleasant.
The contractor, Siems Carey, represented by H.S. Kerbaugh, was awarded the contract to remove 250 million board feet of spruce.
Lightweight, strong and resilient, spruce was the best wood for manufacturing a new weapon of war — airplanes.
Siems Carey built barracks, a mess hall, offices, a dance hall and post office — and even changed the name of the community to Siems Carey.
The Siems Carey contract made the Clallam County operation the largest single spruce production effort of World War I.
On Nov. 11, 1918, the war ended without a single load of spruce produced.
Although no wood made its way into the war effort, the work done by Spruce Soldiers to build the railroad had an impact on the future of the West End lumber industry.
By 1919, the soldiers were leaving, and the name was changed back.
Although this information was interesting, it did not help answer the question.
Old Beaver is actually down the road from the Beaver post office. At one point, old Beaver had a grocery store, tavern, garage and café and was located just before Beaver Hill.
In 1916, the Beaver School was built, and in 1925 — when the new Quillayute Union High School was going to be built — a second vote of the people was taken to decide if the structure should be constructed in Beaver or Forks.
Forks got the vote.
After asking several old-timers who grew up in Beaver about the name, they did not know the answer.
I sent an e-mail to the Clallam County Historical Society.
The Query Ladies responded with the following answer from a booklet compiled by the late June Robinson titled Why Do They Call It . . .
“BEAVER: A creek was so named because it flowed out of a lake (Beaver Lake) that drains into the creek through a large swamp that was created by a beaver dam many years ago.
“The general area and the community, including the school, were named ‘Beaver’ in the late 19th century.”
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Christi Baron is a longtime West End resident.
She is the office and property manager for Lunsford & Associates real estate in Forks. She and her husband, Howard, live in Forks.
Phone her at 360-374-3141 or 360-374-2244 with items for this column, or e-mail her at hbaron@ centurytel.net.
West End Neighbor appears on this page every other Tuesday.
