Photos and Reflections

Snow-covered rural scene with a narrow path, trees, a dog, and houses in the background.

Entry gate to Fish Lake Historic Site. Snowshowing from the day use area, along the old Wagon Road. February 2023

The text below is from an email sent to the Friends of Fish Lake gmail account in January 2025 -

Thank you from descendant of a family that was snowbound at Fish Lake for several week in the winter of 1883-84

Greetings.

I wanted to express my thanks for your work on preserving the history of Fish Lake.

This evening I read the following account that is part of the obituary of my great-great-grandfather John HenryGibson, who died in 1912.

“In 1875 [Mr. Gibson] moved his little family to Oregon, settling near Lebanon, where they lived until 1883, when they left late in the fall to come to Eastern Oregon, but did not get across the mountains until the next spring, being caught at Fish Lake, in the Cascade mountains, where they were snowbound for several weeks.  The eldest son, WM. L. Gibson, who was already a resident of this county [Umatilla], hearing of the family’s trouble, left at once for the camp, and by carrying food on snowshoes on drifts as deep as 30 feet for several miles, and by working for a number of days, succeeded in saving them from starvation.”

All the best, Jim Ellickson-Brown

Fort Bragg, CA (originally from Eugene and a resident of Albany (Oregon) from 1979-1986.