Deer Park Album 2 The Olson Family

Mr. Tom Olsen, Son of Louis Olsen, and Grandson of Olaf Olsen has supplied our Webmaster with an almost endless supply of early Deer Park history. This Deer Park 3 Album is because of his generosity, time and interest. We dedicate this album to the Olsen family with our sincere thanks.

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Deer Park, Washington, July 8th, 1914. John, Louis, Jim, Ed, Oscar, Hoakan, Olaf, Albert. Front row- Minnie, Clara, (First born Trysil Norway, Mom Olsen, Hannah Johnsdatter Nydel), (Dad Olsen, Lars), (Lena, youngest girl), and Olivia.

This picture is labeled "Olsen Bldg 1908." It is now called the Deer Park Hotel, Other photos call this solid structure the Arcadia Inn which probably was the Dining area only.

On the reverse side it reads. The Louis Olsen Family. Where our folks spent the first night enroute to Homestead at Deer Park(parked under the big tree). This was the W.E. Strong place situated about 1/2 mile south of R.R. Hazard store and Post Office in Spring of 1889. Our wagon was not covered. We kept warm with bed cloths. Clara, Olaf, Olivia, John, Hoakan and parents constituded party. Sec.32 TWP Z gR42.

Part of dining room, Arcadia Inn, Olsen Bldg, addition 1912.

What seemed like an eternity to the Settlers, but only a minute in time now, huge changes were in the works. One by one homes sprang up. Business thrived and soon big business. Arcadia Valley Fruit Growers developed a 17,000 acre apple orchard complete with a large packing plant in 1913.

Libby and Olaf Olsen 1903

This is a photo of Mynda Dahl, Twin sister of Hannah Dahl of Deer Park. WA. It is believed this was taken in Trysil Norway. A cousin of Tom Olson thinks it was taken at the Skjarsberget farm there. Hannah was born there and is Tom's Great Grandmother and Olaf Olsen's Mother.

The Olsen family had a huge successful homestead west of DP. The Olsen Hotel, the Olsen Mercantile and he spearheaded the Arcadia Fruit Orchards. Granted not all at any one time but this family was driven. Along with Mr Short the Woodland Cemetery Assoc. was formed. Mr Short was the major stockholder but the Olsens were stock holders and recieved a certificate for their portion of shares. Mr. Tom Olsen presented the Clayton Deer Park Historical Society with this original deed for our museum. We feel very honored by Tom Olsen's trust in our group.

By 1910 the Olsen family was branching out. The first photo in this album was taken at 728 Crawford in Deer Park in 1914. This photo in 1911 at 1017 10th on Spokane's elite South Hill. This is a tattered newspaper clipping stating that Mr. Olaf Olsen purchased this house for $6500.00. So just in case you want to see a more current photo, check out the one up and to the right.

This is the Stevens/Spokane County Homestead map developed from the files of the United States Bureau of land management by Peter Coffin.

Lars and Hannah ( Dahl) Olsson. Parents of Olaf Olsen. Year unknown, Note the spelling of Olsson in Norway. Lars and Hannah were the proud parents of 5 children born in Trysil and 7 more in Deer Park.

Howard Olsen, 2 years old. Tom's Dad, J. Louis Olsen, 4 months.

The Olsen Boy invaded Clayton the Summer of 2008 and brought their ladis with them.

Mr. Roy R. Grove with his Bride Anna V. (Neaville) Grove. Married Oct 31, 1900. Anna is the sister of Libby Neaville Olsen, Tom's Grandmother.

MR. OLAF OLSEN. REPUBLICAN LEGISLATURE. DEER PARK WA.

Louie Davenport built the ornate and elaborate Davenport Hotel in the big city of Spokane in 1914. He started a huge chicken ranch just outside Deer Park.

On August 9, 2008, the Olsen boys joined the CDPHS meeting combined with other guests, Betty Burdette, Eddie Olson Violet Zimmerer,and Sharron Boyd Clark in near record attendence of 23.

This LZ photo had Dave Jones stumped for a bit but he says, this picture was taken looking north and is also the Spokane Falls and Northern RR depot. This is quite early. The rail siding on the left with one rail car was built in 1903. It shows only one track through Deer Park. The second track was built in 1907 so the photo was taken between 1903 and 1907. The building across the street was listed as Martin Paints in 1915.

I'm guessing 20 below zero in downtown Deer Park. If the Deer Park Pine was in existence at that time that makes it 30 below zero in the cut shop. Dave Jones, railroad historian states, "This photo is remarkable in many ways. First of all it is a great action railroad photograph taken between 1910 and 1920. Because cameras were so big and cumbersome, most railroad pictures were just scenes in rail yards. This one is of a moving train in the dead of winter." The depot is the original Spokane Falls and Northern depot before the addition from Circle, WA was added on in 1919/20. The train is probably Great Northern #256 (Westbound Northbound that left Spokane at 8:55 AM and went through Deer Park at 10:02 arriving at Marcus at 12:55 PM. The train in the back ground is probably a frieght train. Another interesting thing is the number of people waiting at the station. This may have been normal for Deer Park, but that many folks standing in the cold makes me believe it may have been a special event. Perhaps it may have been a WW 1 troop train bring boys back from the war. It just seems like an awful lot of people wanting to go to Marcus, but we may never know. The water tank is the original 25,000 gallon tank which was replaced in 1920.

This ‘Shay’ style steam engine, produced by the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio, was once the property of the Deer Park Lumber Company. The photo - just one of the remarkable photographs from the Society’s ‘Lawrence Zimmerer Collection’ - was identified by C&DPHS associate Robert “Bobj” Berger as a Lima model ‘B 42-2’. // Bobj, a railroad history enthusiast, said, “This type of engine was designed primarily for work in the timber industry – designed to run at slow speed along very poor tracks with very tight turns.” // Dale Jones, railroad historian and author, told the society that records indicate the Deer Park Lumber Company owned five locomotives. Three of those were “normal” steam rod engines, the other two were gear-driven Shays. Dale’s research uncovered the ‘shop numbers’ for those two engines, but those numbers lead to engines so similar that they can’t be identified from the available photo alone. We do know that one engine, built in 1913, was owned by Deer Park Lumber from 1922 until 1930. The other, built in 1909 and purchased from a western Washington logging company at an unspecified date, was advertised for sale - presumable by Deer Park Lumber - in 1926. No other dates are currently available for this second engine. // What makes the Shay engines unique are the cylinders setting vertically on one side of the engine (usually the right). These drive a crankshaft that in turn spins drivelines running both forward and back. These drivelines attach to gear boxes on the wheels, where teeth on the driveshafts engage teeth fixed around the exterior surface of the drive wheels.

The Shay Steam Locomotive was the work horse locomotives. Top speed 13 - 15 miles per hr. Load limit. unimaginable.

"A photograph of the Olson Building dated 1909. A part of the Edward W. Nolan collection and retrieved from the MAC's Joel E. Ferris Research Library and Archives, submitted by local Whitwort student D. Atherton. Below is a picture taken 100 years later from approximatly the same angle."

A D. Atherton Photo taken Feb. 15th 2009. of the Olson Building.

More Shay Locomotive on Deer Park Album 4 (Cont)