One of our Flickr sets is of the Sails & Trails Club. This club organized low-cost recreational outings for adult (mostly working) women in the 1930s and 1940s. We recently acquired a set of photos of club activities, but we don’t know who the women are or where they were. We’re hoping that by putting the photos “out there,” perhaps someone will recognize a mother or aunt and be able to tell us more about the photos. I’m not sure if this is appropriate for your blog or not, but if so, we’d really appreciate your help in getting the word out that the set is there and that we’ re looking for help with identifications.
Sails and Trails Club Flickr Collection
Sails and Trails Club Flickr Collection
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| Possibly at Hyak. Photograph courtesy Dorothy Brekke Sails and Trails Photograph Collection, Seattle Municipal Archives. |
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| Possibly at Hyak. Photograph courtesy Dorothy Brekke Sails and Trails Photograph Collection, Seattle Municipal Archives. |
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| Possibly at Hyak. Photograph courtesy Dorothy Brekke Sails and Trails Photograph Collection, Seattle Municipal Archives. |
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| Possibly at Hyak. Photograph courtesy Dorothy Brekke Sails and Trails Photograph Collection, Seattle Municipal Archives. |
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| Possibly at Hyak. Photograph courtesy Dorothy Brekke Sails and Trails Photograph Collection, Seattle Municipal Archives. |
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| Possibly at Hyak. Photograph courtesy Dorothy Brekke Sails and Trails Photograph Collection, Seattle Municipal Archives. |
Historical photos!
Hyak is probably a good guess. The railroad built a jump there and at Leavenworth to promote winter tourism. In the first picture there is what appears to me to be a snow shed over the tracks in the background.
I love the single pole, yes, that was the style then. I learned to ski on seven foot long wooden skis just like those in the pictue. One foot for every year of age I guess.
Did you know there used to be a ski lift at Paradise on Mount Rainier? They had to take it down in the spring and put it back up in the fall. Somewhere I have a photo of me sking there as a young boy (circa 1954), I will have to look for it.
isn’t hyak called alpental now? or is there alpental and hyak?
The second photo shows the Milwaukee Road RR Hyak sub station, used to convert AC supplied power to 3000v DC for the electric locomotives.
The first photo shows a skier posed on what looks like an abandoned railroad grade. Note the width of the right of way, drainage ditch and the snowshed in the background. Before the Hyak tunnel was completed in 1915, for over 5 years the Milwaukee Road climbed to the present highway summit of Snoqualmie Pass. The original line ran parallel but west of where I-90 does today. Right by the doorsteps of the present Snoqualmie ski lodges. I believe the skiers are on this abandoned grade somewhere above Hyak tunnel.
“CY”- Hyak and Alpental are two separate locations. Alpental west side of the Pass, Hyak base of the east side.
Those skiers are indeed on the old railroad grade above Hyak.
The name Dorothy Brekke seems vaguely familiar. There was a Brekke family who worked for the Milwaukee Road, and were substation operators. She might be directly related.
Some of that abandoned grade is still accessible. If you drive out past the sewage treatment plant. Years ago, one of the Hyak chairs and T-bar upper ends terminated on a visible part of the old pre-tunnel grade. The mud slide has since wiped out part of what could once be seen.
The Milwaukee Road’s Snoqualmie Ski Bowl was very famous, world wide. The cement footings and some rotting boards can still be seen for the ski jumps. I was there once again just last summer and took photos of those artifacts. I have never heard the Milwaukee was involved at Leavenworth, as that was strictly Great Northern RY territory. However, the Milwaukee was involved with the Paradise area at Mount Rainier.
I well recall our skiing at Hyak. Especially at night. We could watch the occasional train passing. When they still were using electric motors to power trains, and there was ice on the catenary, if they hit that ice, it cause a great bright flash and loud snap-bang as power arced across the gap created. The flash was so bright it briefly lit up the whole area.
The Snoqualmie Summit area was originally a railroad yard, pre-tunnel. And that site was first named Laconia.
Many people today don’t even know any of this history.
In the first photo, the skier is definitely standing on the old railroad grade, what was known as the “high line”. It was located on the hillside right through the middle of the Milwaukee’s “Ski Bowl”. I believe the structure behind her, that looks like a snowshed, has to be the ski jump. Maps and photos I have show that it was built right across the old grade in 1936.
Today this is a gravel road that leads to several A-frame chalets up on the hillside. It was abandoned as a railroad line shortly after the Snoqualmie tunnel was opened, January 24, 1915.