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The Klickitat County Agriculturist, Goldendale, WA., August 3, 1907, page 2

NOTES FROM "KAMP KONTENT"

Guler, July 23, 1907.

The AGRICULTURIST is a welcome visitor at Kamp Kontent for it always contains so much news of Klickitat that I am glad when it comes.
This place is as beautiful as ever, I have gone into raptures for years over its pastoral charms and this year as much as ever. I believe the place is more charming if, that were possible, than in former year. Haying - the first cutting is down, and from the closeness of the shocks, it is an immense yield.
It is said that the Trout Lake Stock Company, managed by J. E. Reynolds, of Arlington, has 2000 head of cattle in the foothills of Mt. Adams. This is a lot of cattle.
There are a goodly number of campers here this year, and more coming. The increase over last years number of tents is noticeable. The hotel is taxed to almost the limit. The day I came out there were three stage loads, and 45 for dinner at the hotel. People come here from everywhere. There is a petty thief who visits the larder of various families here, and he is going to get caught some night. He steals bacon, flour, canned fruit, vegetables, anything that would come handy around his own house, and there is going to be a man howling with pain, when he gets caught. In a small settlement like this, one can form a pretty accurate opinion as to who it is, from the amount of work he does.
I noticed that they are about to tear down the old Blockhouse at Spring Creek. I was shocked, for the old building ought to be restored and preserved. Has not Goldendale a Historical Society or History Club that would see to it that the old landmarks be preserved? The Historical Society at The Dalles is very proud of its old Fort Dalles building, and by their efforts has been restored and is now one of the show places where tourists wend their way and find much to interest them in the old building, and the fast growing museum of historical riches. If Klickitat county would preserve the old Blockhouse, and restore it to its original condition, fence it with a stockade as blockhouses often were in troublesome Indian times, it would be a pleasant drive to see it and tourists would get to see the country places out that way too. In reading "Canoe and Saddle" by Winthrop, I think he came over from Yakima by that very location. He had come over from Nisqually and Fort Stillacoom along in the early '50's by way of Atmum (or Ahtanum as it is now, where some priests had a mission), on his way to The Dalles, when old Ford Dalles was a log building and where he had small pox. In reading the book I've tried to follow him over the old Indian trail to The Dalles and wondered just where he came over the bluff of North Dalles and from where he hailed the Indian at The Dalles who ferried him across in a dugout canoe, and where he swam his horse.
By all means preserve the old historical landmarks. They mark the milestones in the nation's history, in a county's history, and the old Blockhouse was a place of refuge for the pioneers of old Klickitat. Why, I remember once in the fall of 1878, we came very near having to go to that very Blockhouse while Joseph and Moses were on the war path. And for this reason, if for no other, I want to see the old place kept as long as possible. But the chief reason is because it marks a point in the early history of Klickitat county, and ought to have a place in the heart of every pioneer, and sons and daughters of pioneers, whether of Oregon or Washington, because it was a place of refuge in the old Northwest. By all means restore and keep it.

Inez A. Filoon.