Never Normal - Hidden Bricks in Fargher Lake

A Trip to Yacolt... The"Haunted Valley".

The town of Yacolt is located in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, roughly 32 miles southwest of Mount St. Helens and 22 miles northeast of Vancouver. The area was a gathering place where local Klickitat and Cowlitz tribal members met to trade with tribes from the coast and from east of the Cascades. The Eaton family, Yacolt's first homesteaders, area arrived in 1873. The small town still has under 2000 residents, the most infamous homeowner there is none other than Tonya Harding. Yacolt is a quirky place. The main store in town is advertised as the place where Bigfoot Caffeinates, and they've badly "camoflauged" a large cell tower into the town into this bizarre giant tree. The drive out feels very "Squatchy," so they clearly know their marketing. Even back when Yacolt was a meeting place for local Indigenous people, the area had a reputation. "Yacolt" comes from the Klickitat word “Yalicolb,” which means “haunted place” or “place of evil spirits” or even "valley of the demons." The reasoning for this isn't completely clear, but a 1901 account from an early settler called J.P. Banzer may provide a clue:
"This section where we are now sitting was, in the long ago and even in my time, a spot where wild strawberries and blueberries grew in abundance. The Klickitat Indians claimed the field and made their annual pilgrimage here to gather berries. One one occasion they found a number of Wilamie Indians, as they called them. A fight started and all the Wilamies were massacred, as they thought, but an Indian girl escaped. The next year, when the Klickitats returned, they heard someone singing the Wilamie death song and saw a maiden disappear in the distance. Several times they heard her sing. They said she was a spirit, the ghost of her people. The word ‘spirit’ in the Indian tongue is Yacolt and that is the Indian version of the naming of this territory."
Whether there’s any truth to the story, which predates settlers coming to the area, is unknown. It could just be an old cautionary tale to keep precocious children like SJ out of the dark and dangerous woods. A series of epidemics in the 1820s and 1830s ravaged the Pacific Northwest, and local Indigenous people lost over 90 percent of their population to diseases like cholera, the bubonic plague and smallpox. In tragic situations like this, the few survivors would completely abandon their homestead site, not even able to bury their dead safely. Nature eventually reclaimed the area and the mysterious structures left behind somehow gained a reputation as being "haunted" by the later white settlers. This could account for part of Yacolt's dark reputation, but... it gets weirder than that.

The "Little Witches" and Yacolt's Shared Madness.

The Chelatchie Prairie Railroad, Yacolt, WA.
Soon after the Eatons set up a homestead in the Yacolt area, other settlers followed, including the Fargher, Landon and McCutchen families, which eventually grew the town's population to about 50 residents as it approached the turn of the century. One of those early settlers, Edgar Rotschy (there is a road named after him in Yacolt), kept a diary from around 1890-1910. In it, he described at least three local residents that seemed to be experiencing some sort of mental disturbances that were paranormally tinged. Three people may not seem like a lot, but for a tiny town of under fifty it could signify a problem.
One of the three men said he was haunted by a spirit that often spoke to him, and that he was followed by something he called "Little Witches." Could this be fae activity? Another resident said he had a mysterious vision of oil hidden on his property, and he was also being bothered by the same “little witches" that were compelling him to keep digging for it.
Finally, there's a third account of a man that was taken to a nearby mental asylum, although details of what his issues exactly were are unknown. Rotschy also noticed that a large number of people in the area had been stricken with cancer, for which there was no explanation, and he definitely seemed to feel that the town was under some sort of curse. If visions of witches and oily substances still weren't enough to convince you this place is weird, the town’s bad luck around the turn of the century might. Strange events ramped up past insanity and disease to the worst fire in Washington's history, prior to the Shitshow that was 2020.

Why Might Yacolt Be So Haunted? The Yacolt Burn.

What is known as "The Yacolt Burn" began on September 11, 1902. The fire killed at least 38 people from Clark, Cowlitz and Skamania counties, burned the homes of at least 146 families, and destroyed just under 240,000 acres of beautiful northwest forest. The winds through the forest were estimated to be 30-60 miles per hour. All that the poor residents of Yacolt could do was run for their lives, riding away in their wagons while the forest continued to spontaneously combust next to them. In 1902 there was no organized system for wildfire fighting, so the fire burned until the rains were able to extinguish it two days later on September 13. Many of the trees around here and even the train tracks show signs of the fire. After spending some time here, we believe that a big part of the town's haunting has to do with this terrible event.
"Another event I shall remember, although I did not understand it at the time, was the day it remained dark as pitch all day. Ashes were falling over us. The chickens stayed on their roosts and crowed, the cows bellowed, and the horses neighed. A religious group climbed to the top of the highest hill and spent the day in prayer, certain the end of the world had come. We learned afterwards that it was caused by a forest fire in the vicinity of the mountain. Not long ago, I read an article about this fire, the Yacolt Burn, which was the greatest in the history of the State of Washington." - First-hand account of the Yacolt Burn, from Lulu Mildred Kombol
The cause of the Yacolt Burn was never firmly determined. The fire's origins were recorded as possibly starting in the Wind River Valley, the Washougal River Valley along the Lewis River, or at Star Mountain. Loggers burning logging slash, regular logging operations, and farmers burning brush to clear land were all common causes of fires at the time. A logger named Monroe Vallett was later charged with starting the fire on Nelson Creek near Stevenson, Washington. He was eventually acquitted when frightened witnesses refused to testify against him in court.
The local ramifications of the Yacolt burn were immediate, with the State Legislature establishing a state fire warden in 1903. Private landowners formed the Washington Fire Protection Association and funded an organization of fire wardens and a program for fire prevention in 1908. By 1910, the U.S. Forest Service began to organize an official wildfire suppression program on public land and fire prevention was finally taken seriously. It's tragic that an entire town had to burn to make that happen.

Reports of Yacolt Hauntings - The Whistle Stop Family Restaurant.

Another local Yacolt business rumored to be haunted is the Whistle Stop Family Restaurant at 206 Railroad Avenue, right across the street from the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad Terminal. The popular breakfast spot was initially called the Whistle Stop Cafe in 2011 when former owner Shannon Thompson lived on site in an apartment upstairs. Thompson also described hearing ghost children laughing and running up the back stairs to her apartment in the middle of the night. While telling her story to a local paranormal investigator Jeff Davis in 2011, one of her employees also admitted to hearing the same laughter and footsteps in her own nearby home. At the time they were interviewed neither of the women had heard about the "haunted valley" legend, but were of course aware of the fire and the lives lost. Shannon eventually sold the Whistle Stop in June 2012 and it became the Double Bar L Family Cafe for a brief time. In 2015 the business was sold again to the current owners and once again became the Whistle Stop Family Restaurant, it's current name. In an interview with local paper "The Reflector," owner Sherrie Smith, who had been looking for a location to open a restaurant, took a chance drive out to Yacolt after seeing a flyer for the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad Terminal. She wanted to ride the historic train, and was shocked to find the perfect location for her restaurant right cross the street from the Railroad Terminal, hence the name. She described the acquisition of the restaurant as:
"Call it kismet, serendipity or plain weird luck – the events leading up to Cathy Carr and Cherrie Smith’s arrival in Yacolt are beyond the realm of pure coincidence. 'So many miracles lined up for this to happen,' says Carr, looking around the two women’s new business, the Whistle Stop Family Restaurant in downtown Yacolt. 'It’s a good story!' - September 9, 2015, The Reflector
The haunted back steps of the Whistle Stop Restaurant.
This story has an even happier post-script: the ladies were able to employ a life-long friend from nearby Longview as an employee. Both very much believe their finding the restaurant for sale that day was fated. We think it sounds like synchronicity events conspired to bring a happy ending for a haunted small business.
Even long before Hellier highlighted the concept of liminal spaces contributing to paranormal behavior, local investigators have noted that the liminality of the location of Yacolt itself may play a part in the level of high strangeness in such a small town. The 2011 article discussing the Yacolt hauntings with local paranormal author and investigator Jeff Davis noted the following:
“We’re at the head of a valley, we’re sort of at the edge of civilization. People here used to believe in giants, in supernatural beings. They believed gods and demons used to walk the Earth. Who’s to say there wasn’t something behind those stories?” - Local Paranormal Investigator Jeff Davis.

St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, Yacolt.

When Janet and SJ went to check out Yacolt to see what's going on in Fargher Lake, we noticed that behind the Haunted Whistle Stop Restaurant is the brick St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church. St. Joseph the Worker is of course Mother Joseph's Patron Saint and whom she named herself after. We thought the sign's battered yet hopeful message was a reflection of how we all are feeling at the end of 2020, and it was a good way to end the day in Yacolt.
While there are no Hidden bricks making up this church, Yacolt is weird enough that it had to have a tie to our beloved Hidden bricks somewhere. That would be the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad, located right across the street from the Whistle Stop, which feels like a very sad place.

L.M. Hidden's Failed Railroad's Ties to Yacolt.

A "Vancouver Register" article from September 22, 1887 (SJ's birthday is 9/22 by the way...) reports that a certain L.M. Hidden of the Hidden Brick Company incorporated what he called the Vancouver, Yakima & Klickitat Railroad. The paper dramatically predicted the importance of Hidden's plan: “The dawn is breaking.”
The project was supposed to be Vancouver’s rail link to the outside world via the Cascade Mountains northeast to Yakima, Washington. The line never made it's goal, only going as far 13.5 miles northeast of Vancouver to the Clark county community of Brush Prairie. L.M. Hidden struggled with every business venture except making bricks with the Hidden Brick Company.
Hidden's railroad project went bankrupt and the railroad Company was then dissolved. Hidden refocused on making bricks with Mother Joseph in Vancouver instead and the rest is history. The work that L.M.'s railroad group began was eventually completed by Northern Pacific when they purchased the line in 1903. Northern Pacific completed connections to Kalama (approximately 30 miles) and then on to the Puget Sound (Seattle area). They also expanded south to Portland Oregon, and eastward down the Columbia River to Pasco and Spokane in 1908. During logging’s peak in the early 20th century, the railroad played a crucial role in getting supplies and people to the camps and taking logs to market afterwards, with passenger trains running daily to Yacolt during those early years. SJ's grandfather Bob worked for Burlington Northern taking raw materials from the taconite open pit mines in Hibbing, Minnesota to Duluth. Being a fan of trains, it was surprising to find that the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad site was the most unsettling place we visited on our entire trip through the Haunted Valley of Yacolt. We both felt watched the entire time we were there.
One car, an old Burlington Northern car identified by the ghost marks left on the side, was truly unsettling. The the energy felt just so overwhelmingly sad here. Whether its due to the fire, or due to the track not being used for so long is unclear, but Janet seems to believe the entire town is haunted due to the ramifications of the fire.
Janet reading the spooky train car in Yacolt.

Welcome to Fargher Lake - "Never Normal."

Fargher Lake is about a 40 minute drive north of Vancouver, due east of La Center on the outskirts of the town of Yacolt, in the middle of nowhere. The Fargher Lakehouse Restaurant in Yacolt, WA (15519 NE Fargher Lake Hwy) caught my attention as they have an internal wall built with antique bricks from the area, including Hidden bricks. Hidden bricks in the valley of the demons? Sign us the hell up! SJ sat through over an hour of country music to hang out at the Fargher Lakehouse restaurant, which the great food (vegan and gluten free options for those with dietary restrictions) almost made up for and of course, then there's these:
What we noticed right away is all of the employees were wearing shirts that declared Fargher Lake "Never Normal." The Lakehouse was mostly filled with senior citizens having lunch, with a couple of blue collar workers having drinks in the bar. This is definitely a locals only sort of bar. It didn't feel haunted in the slightest. SJ talked to the server and she ended up asking THEM about the bricks. She had no idea what Hidden even meant, but it turns out she was very interested to learn about Vancouver's history. The employees there didn't know why Fargher Lake has been called "Never Normal Since 1921." She said she assumed it was just because they are a "redneck town" but advised the shirts were available at the Mercantile across the street and they would likely know why not being normal is a big deal there. We went to buy our shirt and had no idea that the REAL PRIZE was just behind the Mercantile, back by the windmill that is on all of the merchandise that the store sells...

The Bricks Are Talking to More Than Just Us.

According to a KGW story SJ found after she accidentally discovered this GIGANTIC BRICK TOWER behind the Fargher Lakehouse Mercantile, Bill Doty and his wife Roxanne have owned the Fargher Lake Grocery store for over 30 years. The first thing SJ FINALLY got to learn was where the "Never Normal" came from:
"'Since the lake isn’t normal, and neither are we, we adopted it as our motto,' ...1921 is when they drained Fargher Lake, which was more of a swamp...' Bill says that they used to grow bulbs in the shallow lake bed that is now stamped with blueberry fields."
The site of the former lake of Fargher Lake.
Oh yeah, did we forget to mention he put an OWL weathervane on top of this TOWER OF BRICKS he made for the birds? Because, well he did. This is the precise sort of accidental ritualing that that we keep encountering throughout this brick investigation. It's a pattern that interests us - why are brick people so oddly interested in ritual, including SJ?
We really, really need to talk about this "wildlife tower" that Bill built out of antique bricks.... including... yeah, we don't have to tell you. Bill says that it took him about two months to build and it's intended as a replacement for the deteriorating boiler barn that the local birds and bats have lived in. He needs to tear the barn down, but wants to disturb the animals as little as possible, so he made them a new tower... out of highly valuable collectible antique bricks.
"It has the smaller holes for the sparrows, bats. The upper hole at the top is for the owls...I’m hoping that it encourages other people to think about preserving their wildlife." - Bill Doty, Fargher Lake Mercantile Owner
THE OWLS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM.
When psychic empath Janet Borkowski and SJ were here in December 2020, Janet noticed behind the tower that someone besides Bill had built their own altar. The more we learn about this place, the more obsessed with it SJ becomes while Janet wasn't so sure what she thought of the place. SJ got in touch with Bill recently, and he admitted to be called out for his "brick addiction" and lamented the loss of many brick buildings in Vancouver... like the Providence Academy outbuildings. Turns out he also still works with paving bricks even though he is semi-retired. Next time SJ's headed to Fargher Lake we are going to get in touch... and we will be able to tell you much more about exactly why he built this tower, and explain what it's like to you from INSIDE!

History of Brickmaking in Fargher Lake.

The town of Fargher Lake is basically one stretch of road, with a bunch of decaying sites and the property that Bill Doty and his wife own. We explored the ruins of the area extensively, and Janet did some psychometry on the remaining foundation pieces. Being curious, about the history of bricks in Fargher Lake, SJ discovered that W. Foster Hidden, son of L. M. Hidden and the first owner of the W.F. Hidden House, wrote an article about early brickmaking in Clark County that included information about Fargher Lake. SJ's glad they chose someone that knew what they were talking about to chronicle it. W. F.'s April 1930 article for Volume 21 of The Washington Historical Quarterly called "The History of Brickmaking in and Around Vancouver," he mentions the following:
Janet talking to the foundation stones of Fargher Lake.
"There have been a number of brick factories outside of the city in Clark County, using the stiff-mud, wire-cut process...The Fargher Lake plant located about 26 miles northeast of Vancouver, have been producing a light-colored wire cut brick." - W. Foster Hidden, 1930.
This is the only mention SJ can find about the Fargher Lake brickmaking, at least until COVID is over and they can get back inside the haunted Clark County Research Library. Fargher Lake bricks will continue to be veiled in mystery in the mean time. Bill wasn't even aware they actually made bricks there until we connected. Whatever is going on in Fargher Lake is most certainly weird, and definitely related to bricks. SJ even later ended up getting one of those rare EJJ Portland Bricks, a Hidden competitor, that they first learned about from that Fargher Lakehouse wall. Without coming to look for that wall, we never would have even known Fargher Lake even existed, let alone discover how of liminal a spot it truly is.
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