Pioneer History of the Trout Lake Valley
The Trout Lake valley was a summer home for Yakama and Klickitat Indians for thousands of years. Travelling to the huckleberry fields, they camped in the valley to fish and to gather tule reeds that grew in the lake. The first Euro-Americans to visit Trout Lake were following Indian trails. The first visitor we have record of is John Work, a Hudson’s Bay Company clerk who was traveling from The Dalles to Fort Vancouver in May of 1830. He hired several Indians from The Dalles to guide him on an inland route, to avoid high water on the Columbia, and this route passed through the Trout Lake valley.
George McClellan, who later became known for his service as Commanding General of the Union Army in the Civil War, traveled parts of this same trail in 1853, while seeking a route for a transcontinental railroad. He camped on Cave Creek in the southwestern part of the valley. We can only imagine how the future of the valley would have changed had this railroad been built here.
This early Indian trail passed directly by the Ice Cave, and by the 1860’s ice was being transported by packhorse to the The Dalles.
The Camas Prairie area, (now known as Glenwood), was settled in the 1870’s, and some of the settlers who lived there brought their horses to the Trout Lake valley to graze. Peter and Margarita Stoller and their seven children were living in the Camas Prairie area in 1879, when they decided to look more closely at the Trout Lake valley. The Stoller’s, who were from Switzerland, built a home on the north side of Trout Creek, east of the lake. Intending to raise dairy cattle, they were lured here by the abundant natural grass in the valley, which they harvested with a scythe and put up for winter. Their timing was unfortunate, since the winter of 1880/81 proved unusually long, and the family resorted to feeding the cattle the straw from their bedding to keep them alive. Only seven cows survived that winter, but the family stayed, building up their dairy herd and selling butter in Portland and The Dalles. The Stoller’s started the tourist trade in the valley, boarding fishermen in their home, and allowing visitors to camp near their home along Trout Lake Creek.
Access to the valley was along an Indian trail until 1883, when R. D. Cameron, a lumberman, built a dirt road into the lower end of the valley, with the hopes of starting a lumber mill. Charles Pearson, an immigrant from Sweden who was working for Cameron, built the second home in Trout Lake in 1883. He married the Stoller’s daughter Susannah in 1887. There are many descendants of this family living in the Trout Lake valley today.
The next settler to arrive in Trout Lake was William Stadelman, who settled on land south of Pearson’s and north of Little Mountain. He had married Maggie, the oldest Stoller daughter. Stadelman was the first to experiment with irrigation from Trout Lake Creek in 1887, and he and Charles Pearson built the first irrigation ditch in the valley.
Another settler to arrive in 1883 was Charles Kittenberg, who built one of the early lumber mills in the valley. John Peterson arrived in 1884 and claimed land east of the Pearson’s. Joseph Aerni, another immigrant from Switzerland, arrived in 1885, and purchased Marie Stoller’s claim south of the lake. He and his wife Lisette and their seven children ran a dairy farm, making butter and Swiss cheese, using some of the nearby caves for storage. Mrs. Aerni died in 1889, and in 1892 Joseph married Marie Fitchner, herself the mother of six daughters. Joseph and Marie had six more children while living in Trout Lake. Due to failing health, Joseph and Marie left Trout Lake in 1906, moving to Portland. Several of their children stayed, and their descendants still live in the valley.
John Eckhart, an immigrant from Germany, arrived in 1885, and he and his two sons filed claims on the west side of the White Salmon River. A dispute over irrigation resulted in their decision to leave the valley in the early 1900’s.
In 1885 Harvey Byrkett and his son Charles arrived from Ohio and filed on the northern end of the meadows east of the lake. The next year his wife Sarah Byrkett and their son Rufus joined them. The Byrkett’s built a large log home that, although modified, is still standing. The Byrkett’s daughter Nancy had married William Coate in Ohio, and they, along with William’s brother Frank, joined the Byrkett’s in Trout Lake in 1887. Frank Coate was a carpenter and helped build many of the frame houses and other buildings in Trout Lake. He also helped build the Trout Lake Presbyterian Church in 1906.
The Coate brothers filed on land next to each other near the center of the valley, and most years worked in partnership raising cattle. William Coate was Justice of the Peace in Goldendale for many years, was elected County Commissioner in 1898, and elected State Representative in 1902. He was also responsible for the development of several fraternal organizations in Trout Lake, including the Artisans and the Masons.
Claus Pearson arrived from Sweden in 1886 and joined his brother Charles in Trout Lake. He married Amelia Fitchner, a stepdaughter of Joseph Aerni. Claus Pearson and his wife ran both the grocery store and a feed and machinery store in Trout Lake for many years.
Ulrich Zuberbuhler arrived in 1887, and made his living raising beef cattle. He ran a meat market and slaughterhouse in Trout Lake.
The first school was held in Trout Lake in 1887, in a log cabin near what is now the corner of Guler Road. Only one of the seven children in the class spoke English.
Peter Schmid arrived in the valley in 1887, later marrying Elizabeth Aerni. He settled south of the lake, at what is now called The Lake Place. He built a boat dock and the family rented boats to fisherman. He died in a wagon accident in 1906. Numerous descendants of this family still live in the valley.
There was a terrible flood in the Trout Lake valley in 1889, and diphtheria followed in its wake. This resulted in the death of several residents, including a number of children. Several are buried in the small Stadelman cemetery near Little Mountain.
Christian, John and Antonne Guler were Swiss immigrants living in Bear Valley in 1887. In 1902 Christian Guler bought the Stoller farm and then in 1903 built the Guler Hotel on the site. This became the terminus for four horse stages each day between White Salmon and Trout Lake. For many years, the hotel was filled to capacity with fishermen, while campers set up tents along the creek. Mr. Guler, the Thode brothers, and Dr. A. G. Belscheim built up the tourist trade and advertised the valley throughout the northwest. The Thode’s built a tourist club in 1904 – which many iterations later became the Trout Lake Tavern and then the Trout Lake Country Inn – and ran it through the teens.
In the early 1900’s Trout Lake/Guler boasted two stores, a hotel, a tourist club, a stagecoach stop, a Masonic Lodge, a cooperative cheese factory, and two post offices.
