47° 53’ 19” N • 121° 20’ 31” W
Jon Sharpe at the private driveway that leads to Garland.
Update: November 2023 – We are happy to report the Index-Galena road has reopened!
Two generations of Sharpe’s in 2009 on the washed out Index-Galena road.
We are excited to report the Index-Galena road is scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2023. As many of you know the road was destroyed by flooding in 2006 and a quick 17 years later we are almost ready to resume the 10-mile drive from Garland to Index. We want to thank everyone who has joined together to make this happen. Our family is grateful and blessed to still call Garland “home”.
Thank you, Steve, for creating this video. It reminds me of conversations with Mom & Dad that preceded our move from Oak Park IL to Gold Bar WA. The dream was to restore Garland Mineral Springs so we could share her wonder with others. Unfortunately we didn’t have the resources to bring her back to life.I’m tempted to grieve the loss, but looking at these photos I realize we don’t need to recreate history. We have HIS story embedded in our hearts. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. No fire, no flood, no preservationist, no encroaching river. Garland stands as a reminder of God’s majesty and of His great love – that He would share something so heavenly with our family. Kristin Sharpe Sclafani
We just returned home from a quick visit to Washington for the annual Garland Mineral Springs, LLC Members and Family gathering.
The day before the gathering we trekked out Highway 2 to visit Garland. The Index-Galena road is still closed so we headed up to Skykomish and entered via Jacks Pass. It was amazing to see the number of cars on Jacks Pass, this area has become a very popular hiking destination.
We found Garland as expected with quite a few felled trees on the property from river erosion. There are several cabins still standing but none would be considered inhabitable.
My son Scooter did some exploring across the river and found some fresh Bear tracks. The Mineral Springs are cool as there is a lot of fresh water entering the Mineral Springs pools. I took a knee and drank from the water that helped my Grandfather live past 90.
Visiting Garland always stirs mixed emotions. Fond memories, wishful thinking and a recognition of the debilitating amount of work that would be required to make Garland useful again. However the meeting went well and the Members and Family are committed to push forward with solutions to keep Garland in the family for future generations to enjoy!
I’m Stephen, son of Curtis who is the middle son of Cameron Sharpe Sr. this is my story of Garland.
Curtis Sharpe’s 53 Chevrolet at Garland
My folks Mary Beth and Curtis were living in cabin #1 during the winter/spring of 1962-63. Cabin #1 was the largest of the cabins and had a 2nd floor sleeping loft and apparently it was quite romantic up there during the chill of the winter nights… I was born in Seattle in November of 1963. This was the last time my family lived at Garland.
Fast forward nine years and in 1972 my father resigned his sales career at Best Lock in Chicago Illinois with the dream of rebuilding Garland. I remember he had a place mat drawing of the cabins with the boardwalk. Each cabin restored into village of shops. He was sure Garland could be returned to a working camp.
Sharpe’s Service in Goldbar WA – Circa 1973
Dad sold our home in Oak Park and invested the proceeds in a Mobil station and two small houses in Goldbar. His plan was to use the station as an economic base while he figured out a way to rebuild Garland. He put Mom, my sisters Kim and Kris and myself to work, pumping gas and dipping ice-cream. He worked several jobs, driving bus, hauling alfalfa from east of the mountains. We private labeled honey we sold at the market, basically anything to generate a buck.
Visits to Garland during these years were very exciting for nine year-old boy. It was the end of the hippie era and Grampa had permitted a small group of free spirited young adults to live in the cabins. Needless to say there were quite a few natural bathers in the springs during that first summer.
Curtis, Marybeth, Kim, Kristin and Stephen Sharpe camping with the 68 Buick Skylark and popup camper at Garland in 1972
At the time Garland had two rows of cabins. You would cross a small bridge over the creek to get to the lower row of cabins. There was a small paddle wheel in the creek that generated power. At the end of the row of cabins was a dilapidated stable, Dad would tell me stories of taking visitors on horseback rides up into the mountains. There were also two rusty visible gas pumps which were already relics in 1972. The foundation of the Lodge was still visible and the swimming pool was still there but it was filled with the mineral rich seepage from the springs. During this time the soda spring was still accessable and Mom would let us make Tang with the soda water. Wow, all the Orange Soda a kid could drink, it was like Heaven on Earth!
Each of the “big” cabins had a cast iron stove that were used for cooking and heat and several of the cabins were inhabited. I remember there was a boardwalk along the front of the cabins that would allow you to stay out of the mud when it was raining. The cabin residents had small chicken wire and wood cages with pet chipmunks. On one visit, I had my first taste of cast iron skillet grilled rattlesnake. The “mountain man” who shared this delectable treat with me told me he would catch and kill the snakes, clean them for the meat, drive a nail through the head on a piece of wood and throw the skins on the roof of the cabin to dry. I can still remember the sight of a rattlesnake skin on the roof.
The prominent attraction in the former parking lot was my Grandfathers D8 Catepiller tractor. Someone had spray painted “Noah’s Arc” on the blade. Presumably a reference to the time Grandpa got stuck in the middle of the river with it. By 72 the tractor was disabled and I never saw it run but I “drove” it many miles those summers. I’m not sure when it lost its motor, but years later Grandpa told me someone came in (he thought by helicopter) and stole the motor out of the Cat.
I will always remember Grandpa filling up bottles with the Mineral Water to take home as he would drink some everyday. He lived to 92, I’d say that stuff works just fine!
During the winter of 1973/74 a family friend, Danny and his wife Jerri had moved into Cabin #1 to act as caretakers. I remember thinking to me they looked like Sonny and Cher. They had two Doberman Pincers and two Tennessee Walker show horses. That winter there was a big snow storm that blocked the Index-Galena Road with a slide. After a couple of weeks Dad decided we needed to take them groceries and hay for the horses. Dad had a friend with two snowmobiles so they packed them with supplies and piled on their two young sons to make the day trip up to Garland on snowmobiles.
It was a sunny winter day and was a beautiful trip. When we got the slide we dismounted the snowmobiles and climbed to the top of the pile of debris. As I stood waist deep in the snow with my father knee deep about 6 feet away, we could hear the roar of the first snowmobile as it ascended the hill. Then much to our surprise the snow machine appeared over the crest with the skis in the air… headed straight towards me! My father realized there was nothing he could do as I was just out of reach and he was too deep to get to me in time. The machine landed with a thud and veered off spraying me with snow as it brushed by. My father finally scrambled over and held me in his arms. We finished our trip and delivered the supplies then returned home that evening without incident.
The last fall we lived there I remember my Dad taking me up to Bear falls to see the Salmon jump the falls to spawn up near Garland. The Salmon were so thick in the great clear pool at the bottom of the falls, it looked like you could poke a stick in the water and spear four fish in one thrust. Watching these majestic creatures swim up the fall was a sight I will never forget.
By the summer of 1974 the economic reality of rebuilding Garland had finally sunk in to my Dad’s head. He’d spent two years barely scratching out a living. With my Mom’s encouragement, he resumed his sales career with Best Lock and we moved to Pennsylvania. Visits to Garland after that were far and few between. But the memories were fixed in my mind forever.
My Daughter Kylen Sharpe at Garland in 1988
About 25 years later I brought my young family to visit Garland. My wife Karen had heard my stories, the fond recollections and the joy of my childhood growing up in Goldbar and going to Garland. By then the reality of Garland had caught up. The cabins had been looted, the cast-iron stoves were all gone, the gas pumps had been long added to someone else’s collection, Noah’s arc had sailed away. At the time cabin #1 was still standing but the cabins were in ruin and the river was running through the pool.
Stephen, Stephen Jr. (Scooter) and Cameron Sr. (Grandpa) at Garland in 2001
Now it seems we only visit once every ten years or so. On our last visit the Index-Galena road was wiped out so we took the back way over Jack’s pass. Grandpa had passed so we made the trip alone. When we arrived we found Cabin #1 had quietly slipped into the river over the winter.
Karen and Stephen Sharpe at Garland in 2009
Digging around in the bank of the river that day I found a steel bracket that was part of the fireplace in Cabin #1. I have this bracket on my work bench in my garage. It is my “precious souvenir” of the glory days of Garland.
I guess its time to go back!
Grandpa Sharpe telling me were the soda spring is buried. “It’s not here.” 1988
Curtis, Stephen, Cameron Sr. 1988
Cabin #1 in 1988. Ah the memories!
Kylen, Scooter, Stephen 2001 with big growth trees washing into the river
The “small” cabins closest to the road in 2001
Stephen drinking the Mineral Water at Spring #1 in 2001
Scooter Sharpe crosses the river in the Summer of 2001
By 2009 the river had taken Cabin #1
The small cabins in 2009
The two cabins closest to the river in 2009
The view across the “parking lot” in 2009. Noah’s Arc used to sit there.
The North Fork of the Skykomish river heading down to Index. There are Salmon and Steelhead trying to get to Garland.
Stephen and Scooter on the Index-Galena road in 2009
The washout circa 2009. As of 2015 it’s still not fixed.
The Story of My Infirmity and the Permanent Cure by the use of the Waters of the Starr Hot Springs, near Index, Washington
by Carrie Starr Weismann
In the year 1870, I was living in the State of New York, and became afflicted with a swelling of my right knee. I was taken to Watertown, New York, to Dr. Spencer, at that time a noted surgeon. Dr. Spencer said it was tubercular, and there was nothing to do but to have the leg amputated.
I did not want to submit to such an operation, so went to consult another doctor, a Dr. Brown. At first he seemed to help me. I had to walk on crutches at that time about 18-months, and could not seem to recover full use of my leg. In the year 1884, I went to Omaha to consult with Dr. Lee, who was one of the surgeons who was called to Buffalo, N.Y. to work on President McKinley when he was shot. Dr. Lee told me that the outcome sooner or later must, in his opinion, be an amputation.
In 1887 I married Dr. J.N. Starr of Chicago, and he took me to Dr. Murphy and Dr. Fonger in Chicago. They both told Dr. Starr that that if he would take me to Puget Sound on the West Coast, where there was no frost, a complete change of air, water and food could be had, that I might improve. We came to Snohomish in the year 1888 in August. But, the change did not seem to improve my condition, and Dr. Starr had about decided to take me back to Chicago.
In a conversation with an Englishman one day, who had come in from the woods near the place now called Index, Washington, the Englishman told the doctor about the wonderful springs in the valley of the North Fork of the Skykomish River. He related that the springs were so charged with gas that a bottle would not hold the water. He also said he had been in Baden Baden, Germany, and he thought the water of these springs were much better than the water at Baden Baden.
Dr. Starr then found a guide, took a pack train and started for these springs. This was in the year 1889, in the month of March. After locating the springs and staying there a few days, building cabins and preparing to take me in, Dr. Starr returned to Snohomish and told me he had found the spring and a cure for my knee. (Note: Age 37). In May 1889, he made preparations to take me to the springs. I went on horseback, as there was nothing from Sultan to the spring but a mountain trail, and a very poor one at that.
The first night, we stopped in Sultan at Mr. Inman’s and the next stop was at or near Index at the Englishman’s. I found his wife a very charming woman. I could not go farther on account of my knee being so painful. In our party with others, we had brought a maid. Dr. Starr left me and the maid at the Englishman’s and he, with the rest of the party went on to the spring with the pack train. In a few days, I was able to travel the rest of the way to the springs, and on reaching the springs and not finding the comforts of life, I was not so well pleased, and I decided that I would not bathe in the water. But, as time went on, and my knee got much worse, I finally decided to bathe in the water. I took two baths every day for three weeks. At the end of the three weeks, I had no swelling in my knee at all, but was still very weak. It was then August, and time for me to go back to Snohomish, so I returned with the pack train.
In the Summer of 1890, Dr. Starr had things much more comfortable at the springs, and I went there and stayed a good share of the Summer. I enjoyed my stay there very much. I bathed in the springs a great deal, and was greatly improved. I soon was fully recovered from my infirmity, and the Doctor proceeded immediately to secure title to the lands on which is located these wonderful springs. We secured the grant, which was signed by Grover Cleveland as President of the United States in May 1896, and have owned it ever since.
Since that time, I have never felt anything of the lame knee, and now at the age of 84 years, I am exceptionally well, weighing a little less than 200 pounds and enjoying extremely my home at Wilber, Washington, with my present husband, Mr. Weismann, Dr. Starr, having died some years ago. While I am still able to do so, I am glad to tell of my complete cure at what is now known as the Starr Hot Springs that others who may hereafter be afflicted in some way may also be able to receive their cure in the same way.
Carrie Starr Weismann
March 6, 1928
Note: In the 1930s, the Starr Hot Springs were renamed Garland Mineral Springs.