Description
Creative Communications, Published 1980. Paperback, 173 pp.; 28 cm; Second Edition; illustrated with black-and-white photographs, drawings by Dorene Stafford, and a map of the Olympic Peninsula.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
112
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Good condition. Glossy illustrated paper covers with bumping and creasing to edges and corners and a small nick to paper at top edge of front cover. Dampstaining to front cover and to inside of front cover; front cover wavy from moisture exposure. Thin black remainder mark on bottom edge. Binding tight. First 25 or so pages wavy from moisture exposure, with some dampstaining to first 5 pages through title page. Otherwise, pages unmarked. Family memoir of John Huelsdonk (d. 1946), the "Iron Man of the Hoh," by his daughter, who grew up on the family homestead on the Hoh River in the rain forest of the western Olympic Peninsula. Fletcher follows the family from Germany through Iowa to the Hoh in the 1890s, and sets her father's life against the tall tales that grew up around him, among them the 70-mile weekend hikes and climbing trees on calk boots. Also covers homestead life, elk, bears and pet animals, Hoh Tribe neighbors, barn-building, and the fire that destroyed the homestead in 1935. Cover portrait from an oil painting by the Iron Man's granddaughter Elizabeth Barlow; chapter introductions by Jervis F. Russell. Dedicated to her sister Lena Fletcher, who fought the federal government over the return of pioneer farms to wilderness. Contents: Why The Man, Not the Myth; In Germany, the roots from which John Huelsdonk will grow to be the Iron Man of the Hoh begin to sprout; John's wife-to-be, Dora, learns to work, something that would be required of her all her life; Voyage to a new home in Iowa; Dora learns and earns, then follows the Huelsdonks; John finds his way west; A homestead, and a legend, begin; The iron is tempered by Dora Huelsdonk; Troubles, including the Depression of '93, brings the rest of the family west; The Huelsdonk community adjusts to frontier living; A child remembers life in the wilds; The family is divided; School Days!; John passes up the chance to be Paul Bunyan II to earn a living from the farm and forests; Transportation, land, sometimes even life, are at the mercy of the heavy rains of the Hoh Valley; Memories of a barn-building, a sister's birth, Indians, and a day without light; Blackberries, sheep and wolves don't mix; Taming the wildlife; The rain forest becomes a playground; With John and Henry some brotherly traits were only skin-deep; A daughter walks in her father's footsteps when she captures elk; John successfully battles a bear to save his turkeys but another bear, a dead one, traps his partner; Turkeys go to market for the last time; Mama practices what she preaches, the family goes to the high country, a fire gets away, and a bear almost gets the Iron Man; The daughters marry; Fuel for legends; The last hunts; A Golden Wedding Anniversary, a few restful years, and then; Epilogue, A legacy; Appendix, Obituary; Sleep, Old Pioneer (Poem).