Historic Hood River
Construction Crew at Cloud Cap Inn
5-30-2012
Notes
This is the crew that worked though 1888 and 1889 to construct Cloud Cap Inn on a remote ridge far above the Hood River Valley. You can see the foreman with a single page plan (where was the electrical or plumbing page?) and everyone else with a cutting tool of some form– mostly axes, though I see a chisel and a few tools for removing bark.
We’re fortunate to have names of many of the workers, many of which will be familiar to HHR readers:
- Henry Tomlinson
- Lewis Tomlinson
- Jim Langille
- Will Langille
- Bert Langille
- John Hilstrom
- Jack Lucky
- Link Evans
- Marvin Rand
- George Stranahan
- Bert Stranahan
There is an additional note: “Turner Road Boss from Portland will know the names of others.” I suspect it’s too late to ask him.
You may notice the note to the right indicating “Builders of ‘Glacier Hotel,’ Mt. Hood.” Apparently the name “Cloud Cap Inn” wasn’t assigned to the project at its start.
l.e.
Oh, Charlott will like this one!
There is Bert Stranahan again. I think he was one of the first to put a road into this area.
Hand hewn timbers.
l.e.
They are notching the logs and right in front of the gentleman, you can see the notch that they took out of the log.
The guy on the right has an adze. He can smooth and shape the timbers.
The gentleman in the front has a broad axe. I don’t know what the gentlemen in back are holding.
nels
Evidently important to wear a hat and jacket even if falling and cutting trees.
No overweight people in those days.
Richard Jensen
I am inclined to think that the gentleman holding the drawings is the architect, William Whidden.
Charlott
Notice the log, well, it was a log as a log isn’t square. No doubt they were cutting the logs for under the floor, as the wall logs are exactly that, round logs.
I watched my brother do replacement logs for that structure a few years ago and it was no easy task, especially when they had to replace logs high up in the wall. They did all the work pretty much like these guys did. Logs were brought up and they debarked them by hand and when cut to the size they wanted men carried them up to the building manually.
Wonder how much they were paid for their work? I know as a carpenter later, in 1910 my own grandpa was paid 40 cents per day.
Naturally the photo is a summer one, as no work could be done uip there in the winter……..
Charlott
The Langille’s ran Cloud Cap Inn starting in 1891.
We already saw the picture posted of Will Langille sitting on the front step of Cloud Cap.
Jim Mason
The guy in the lower left is (Rattle & Hum era) The Edge.
Lisa Rand-Thibeau
I think the man in the center of the photo with both hands in his pockets is Martin Van Buren Rand, my great grandfather.
l.e.
The June 1889 issues of the HR Glacier are full of references to the construction of the Glacier Hotel.
Such as this from June 22, 1889:
"Joe Wilson was up at the Glacier hotel this week for the purpose of determining the fall in the line from the springs to the hotel….
Work on the Glacier Hotel is being pushed as rapidly as possible. the logs are all in place and every available team is engaged in hauling lumber from Tucker’s mill, and shingles and brick from here. If the building is not completed by July 1st it will be very nearly so, and it is thought the hotel will be furnished and ready to receive guests by the 10th at the very latest. The masons are at work on the chimneys and the roof is being put on as fast as the shingles arrive."
Jeffrey Bryant
Hood River Glacier, 1927-04-28, page 10 provides a long recollection by W. A. Langille of the development effort leading to Cloud Cap Inn.
https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1927-04-28/ed-1/seq-10/