E.. County Road Oak

D. Soap Creek Bridge

Bob Zybach: Okay, we've just crossed over Soap Creek and there's a road now and before there used to be bridge here.

Charlie Olson: There used to be a bridge here and it was quite wide and it would float in the winter time.

Bob Zybach: A floating bridge.

Charlie Olson: It would float [but it wasn't supposed to].

Bob Zybach: Was that even when you were a little kid, they had the floating bridge?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: So when the water would come up through here and then there'd be a floating bridge?

Charlie Olson: Yeah. The water would come up here until you couldn't cross.

Bob Zybach: Who built it?

Charlie Olson: Huh?

Bob Zybach: Who built the bridge?

Charlie Olson: I don't know.

Bob Zybach: Do you recall any family living through here or anything like that?

Charlie Olson: No, no families lived here. But Matthews had this forty acres up here above Sulphur Springs.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Let's go on to Sulphur Springs from here.

E. County Road Oak

Bob Zybach: We're looking. . . these fir trees around the oak weren't here, and just the oak were here.

Charlie Olson: That was the only thing here.

Bob Zybach: No other trees?

Charlie Olson: No other trees.

Bob Zybach: And what did the county road do at this point?

Charlie Olson: The county road went just beyond that. It stopped probably where that mailbox is.

Bob Zybach: Okay, this was the end of the county road, right here.

Charlie Olson: This was the end of the county road right here. There was a barn right in here.

Bob Zybach: Okay, off to the left of the mailbox was a barn?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: About how far off?

Charlie Olson: Well, just far out enough so that you'd miss it when you drive up here.

Bob Zybach: So the barn. . . whose barn was it?

Charlie Olson: We have no idea.

Bob Zybach: It was an old barn when you were a kid?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: So there was an old barn here about 1900, it was real old then?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: And this was the end of the counry road at this point?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Angela Sondenaa: [ANGELA] Was the barn on this side of the creek?

Charlie Olson: Yeah, oh, yeah.

Bob Zybach: Maybe 50 or 100 feet from us?

Charlie Olson: Right at the edge of the road.

Bob Zybach: Oh, right at the edge of the road. Maybe on this little flat here we can see? Maybe by that state refuge sign? That yellow sign, can you see that?

Charlie Olson: Pretty close to there.

Bob Zybach: And so was there a circular turn at the end of the county road around this oak here?

Charlie Olson: No, you couldn't drive around it, but it was open on the other side. It was on this side of that oak.

Bob Zybach: And so this was a landmark kind of, this marked the end of the road. Did the oak have a name, or did this road have a name?

Charlie Olson: It was just the county road, I don't know of any name. They didn't have them named in those days.

Bob Zybach: Okay, all these roads beyond this point here are. . . were private roads?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Was that barn used for anything?

Charlie Olson: That was all open in there.

Bob Zybach: This whole area down here to Sulphur Springs?

Charlie Olson: That whole area was open, it was just a big open area, and campers would come in

Charlie Olson: here. Tents, put up tents, and up in right in there somewhere was a hotel.

Bob Zybach: And that's. . . I'm interested in finding out about that. But from this point here, how long was that barn there?

Charlie Olson: How long did it stay there?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

Charlie Olson: I have no idea when they tore it down and when it disappeared because I wasn't here at the time when that happened.

Bob Zybach: So it was after you left?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: So that barn was there for twenty or thirty years, did people camp out in it or. . . use it for anything?

Charlie Olson: Originally, apparently somebody had used it. They didn't use it when I knew anything about it. It was too old then. And this hotel up here was old then. And this had been a camp ground, they'd bring their own tents up here when they camped here. And I don't know if I told you about that big tree that they had . . . that they had cut up from both sides of the creek. There was big tree just a little ways from this hotel. They had cut it up for wood on that far side of the creek and they had cut it up for wood on this side. But it set right across the creek there and it was rotten, when I was a kid it was rotten. But walking across that widened it on top, you know, so it was easy to walk across. One night during the night there was a big noise and a guy got up and took a 30-30 with him and went out and there was something big over there and it was dark and he couldn't tell what it was. And he took a shot at it. And it didn't move so he went back in. I don't know if he came out of the hotel or if he came out of a tent because I didn't see this, but I . . . the people told about it you know. In the morning, they found that the log had broke and fell in the creek and this chunk of it was setting up there on that side and he had just seen that chunk, it was dark, and he just aimed and shot.

Bob Zybach: So this was before you were born maybe, that that happened? it was an old story?

Charlie Olson: It happened while I was here. While I lived here. That happened while I was right here.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Charlie Olson: We lived right across the hill here.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and this is the area we want to try to get familiar where the houses were and what people did and look at the places where people lived like the Bakers and your family.

Charlie Olson: Bakers didn't live up here and my family didn't either. Bakers lived down there right across from where Cooks lived. And we lived over on the other side of this ridge. We could see the mountains there, but you can't see it here.

Bob Zybach: So we'd go in from maybe another road?

Charlie Olson: The county road that stopped here . . . this is something that the people wouldn't be able to find right now. The county road was on the other side over here, it flipped. And it came over to the ridge here and it went right up the ridge.

Bob Zybach: Right up this ridge to our right here was the old county road.

Charlie Olson: It went right up that ridge, and up through where it hit our home and it went through our home and went down on the other side to Kings Valley.

Bob Zybach: So Kings Valley is just up and over. . . and that road isn't there anymore?

Charlie Olson: No, it's pretty hard to find it. I don't know whether I could find it all along but I know I can find it in places because where the road would be and the wheel tracks wagon wheel tracks, the seed, the fir seed, there would be nothing but stumps now but there were trees then of course, they'd start right in the wheel rut and we can find it probably by seeing where there'd be a bunch of wheel tracks with stumps probably about that far apart and straight. But there'd be no need of going up there because it goes right up the ridge and goes through our 160 acres of ground and goes out on the other side where it's called the Longfellow place.

Bob Zybach: Okay, let me write that down, I haven't heard of Longfellows before.

Charlie Olson: And down to Kings Valley.

Bob Zybach: Okay, at this end here then, while we're on this spur, I wasn't sure how these roads went, but we can go up here to Sulphur Springs, maybe get a drink of water and kind of look around here and then start back down the other road system there.

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Do you remember any orchards or any other trees other than this one to our left in this area here?