This is a follow up post to a picture of the Antlers Hotel at Lake Cushman. The story starts with a young man named Russell Homan. He was the son of a very rich railroad magnate named Gilson Homan. The senior Homan was partners with Jay Gould who, if you remember your history, was the king of railroads. In 1893 Russell Homan visited and fell in love with the Lake Cushman area. He immediately started construction on a cabin on the lake. Teaming up with a close friend by the name of Stanley Hopper, who was a frequent visitor to the lake, They started construction of the lodge in 1898. The Initial budget was $ 10,000 for construction. Now Hopper was no slouch to finances either as he was the heir to the Singer Sewing Machine Company. The two men enjoyed each others company and enjoyed hunting, fishing, and whiskey. I could not find any other reference as to how long the partnership lasted. Construction was completed in 1899 and the partners shipped in another $ 9000 in furnishings. The lodge opened in August of that year with a huge turnout of the east coast’s finest, due to the two men’s connection to the moneyed people of that time. Daily room rates were $2.50 a day, a tidy sum for that time. This is where my personal connection comes in. Holman wanted a hunting and fishing camp up on the South Fork of the Skokomish River. By crossing over Cushman Ridge and dropping down near Browns Creek he established a camp complete with cabins on what is now known as Homan’s Flat. This area is only accessible by foot now but was a popular camping spot in the Sixty’s and Seventy’s. I believe the road washed out in the Ninety’s. It was a beautiful area of small brooks and huge moss covered Maple trees. While visiting the area in the mid Sixty’s my family discovered an old dump that had been uncovered by some recent logging activity. We were bottle collecting nuts at the time and spent the next month or two of our weekends digging out the treasure. It appears that Holman and his hunting parties were not quite teetotalers . We dug over 500 bottles inscribed Dr. Hostetters Stomach Bitters. These were advertised as medicine at the time but contained over 80% liquor. In addition they must of had a fondness for marmalade. We uncovered over 200 crockery jars of a very expensive imported marmalade made in England. Now remember all of this had to be transported over trails by horse or mule from Lake Cushman. I have posted some pictures of these items. Homan maintained this camp until 1905 when the Federal Reserve Forest came into being and the land became National Forest. He also went on to manage the day to day operations of the Antler Hotel until 1914 when he leased it out but maintained ownership. In 1922 Tacoma City Light offered him $3000 dollars as part of their Immanent Domain prior to building the Dam. Holman held out wanting $19000 and finally settled in court for $17000. He ended up building a cabin on the opposite side of the lake using some lumber he salvaged from the lodge. He died in 1930 and is believed to be buried at the Union Cemetery. It is an amazing story when you stop to think of all the materials that were shipped from the east coast and finally being unloaded at the Hoodsport dock. From there by wagon over primitive roads to the heart of Mason County. The final resting place of Russell Homan findagrave/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=47508366
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 03:52:11 +0000
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