Hoh River - History

History

The indigenous people of the Hoh River are known as the Hoh but they call themselves chalat'. Their name for the Hoh River is chalak'ac'it.

The earliest documented encounter between Europeans and the Hoh people occurred in 1787 when the British fur trader Charles William Barkley, captain of the Imperial Eagle, dispatched a boat up the Hoh River to trade with the natives. The boat's crew of six were killed by the Hoh people, according to European histories. The incident led to the naming of Destruction Island. Barkley named the river Destruction River, but the name became attached to the island instead. The Hoh people deny the story, saying they never massacred ship-wrecked sailors.

In 1808 the Russian American Company set two vessels south from Alaska as part of an effort to expand Russian control south to the Columbia River and beyond. One of the vessels, the schooner SV Nikolai ran aground at Rialto Beach, north of the Quillayute River. Tension between the crew and the local Quileutes led to battle. The Russians fled south along the coast to the mouth of the Hoh River where many were captured and taken captive by the Hoh people. Those who evaded capture fled up the Hoh River. They built a small blockhouse and survived into the winter. In February they surrendered to the Hoh tribe at the mouth of the Hoh River. The captives were exchanged and traded among the coastal tribes, with most ending up with the Makah in the Neah Bay area. In 1810 the Lydia, commanded by Captain T. Brown, an American working for the Russian American Company, sailed into Neah Bay. The thirteen surviving captives being held by the Makah were ransomed by Captain Brown, who then returned them to Sitka.

In the 1850s Isaac Stevens, the first governor of Washington Territory, began negotiations with the tribes of the Olympic Peninsula with the goal of obtaining land cessions and creating Indian reservations. In 1855 a treaty was signed by representatives of the Quinault, Queets, Quileute, and Hoh. The negotiations were done in the trade pidgin language Chinook Jargon. The treaty, known as the Treaty of Olympia (or the Quinault River Treaty), was ratified by Congress in 1859. Its terms included the cession of most of the western Olympic Peninsula to the U.S. federal government with a reserve to be determined later. The Quinault Indian Reservation was established in 1863 and the treaty signature tribes were expected to move there. The Hoh, however, refused to move. In 1872 the Indian agent R.H. Milroy explained that the Hoh did not believe they had agreed to cede their land and that the treaty signed had been explained to them as being an agreement about keeping peace with U.S. citizens and allowing them to enter the Hoh's territory and trade for furs. In 1893 President Grover Cleveland signed an executive order establishing the Hoh Reservation on the south side of the mouth of the Hoh River.

Early pioneers wishing to settle in the Hoh River valley faced numerous challenges including the dense forest and enormous trees, regular large-scale flooding, isolation from markets, and the impracticality of navigating the Hoh River due to its swift current, floods, and frequent logjams. Nevertheless, land relatively far upriver was settled. The area now within Olympic National Park was never inhabited by non-indigenous people. By 1900 the population in the Hoh River Valley was enough to warrant two post offices, one established in 1897, the other in 1904. Over time the population dwindled. By 1919 there were few people left. Abandoned structures rapidly deteriorated in the wet environment. The few historic structures that used to exist in the Hoh River Valley are entirely gone today.

On the north side of the mouth of the Hoh River, across from the Hoh Indian Reservation, the town of Oil City was established in 1911 by Frank W. Johnson and the Olympic Oil Company. Natives had already discovered the oil, which seeps to the surface. This was to be a deep water oil port. Many of the lots were bought on the hopes of oil prosperity, but some were used for vacation homes. Oil drilling operations were conducted by the Milwaukee Oil Co., the Washington Oil Co., the Jefferson Oil Co. and others in the surrounding areas. No significant commercial oil reserves were found. Later, two-thirds of the platted city were returned to the state which now forms part of the Olympic Wilderness Park. http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7446