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The North Bonneville Times, January 15, 1937, page 1

PIONEER RECALLS EARLY CARSON AND HARDSHIPS OF 50 YEARS AGO
Henry Metzger, Who Came to Skamania County in 1887, Tells of Heavy Snows and Hazards in Mail and Travel

Coming to a Skamania County fifty years ago and settling in the lumbering region about Carson, Henry Metzger, well known resident, told The Pioneer an interesting tale of the hardships encountered by the residents of that early day. It required a full day to go to Cascade Locks for the mail," his letter says, "and the trip was not the void of dangers, especially in seasons of the year when snow and ice mingled with the river current to make boating hazardous."
"I came to Wind River valley on Dec. 6, 1883, coming down from The Dalles on a sail boat. At that time there was a sawmill in operation where the town of Carson now is. They paid the mill hands and woodsmen an average wage of about $2.00 for a 10-our day work. If a worker spent all he earned in the store and saloon that they were running in connection with the mill, then he was sure of a job, but he if he wanted to be paid in cash, well, then, his job lasted until they could get some one else to take his place. Not being satisfied with those conditions, myself and another man moved into a cabin one mile west of Carson and engaged in cordwood cutting at $1.00 a cord.
"In December 1884, we were caught unprepared in the worst blizzard that has visited the Pacific Northwest in general and the Columbia Gorge in particular, in the last 50 years. Just the week before Christmas. As we had but little provisions on hand and none to be had in the neighborhood we had to get out or face starvation, and so on Christmas morning, 1884, we started out, walked across the Columbia river on the snow-covered ice to Cascade Locks. There we found food conditions rather bad. On account of work on the canal being in progress at that time there were many people living there. The railroad had been blocked by snow for five days already and there was no telling when it would be opened, so it was up to us young fellows to move on.
"The next morning we started out for Hood River, walking up the Columbia river on the ice. At Shellrock, which is opposite Wind Mountain we saw one snow drift on the railroad track where the snow was piled up, away above the telegraph wires and on the upper side the track was blown bare of snow. A few miles below Hood River we met a road clearing crew. Here they had two wood burning locomotives, with an old-fashioned snow plow in front. We saw them running into a snow drift with all the force they could get up, but they got stuck and had to be shoveled out before they could back out again. Road clearing in this way was slow work and for three weeks no train run clear through between The Dalles and Portland. That night we got into The Dalles on a work train where food conditions were not bad.
"In 1887 I came back to Wind River valley and took up a homestead on which I am still living. The sawmill have now moved out and with it went those "false" settlers, who had before "claimed" most of the land here for the only and sole purpose of selling the timber to the sawmill company, which of course, was unlawful but nevertheless was often practiced in early days. There were at that time, Sept. 1887, just 13 actual settlers in the valleys, nine families and four bachelors. As the county could not help us much we had to donate much work building roads and a schoolhouse. We paid a teacher $25.00 per month and she got board and lodging with the parents of the school children. In this way we managed to get the children three or four months of schooling every year.
"Prior to 1893 our nearest store and post office was at Cascade Locks, Oregon. To get there and back we had to cross the Columbia river in a row boat. To make this trip required at the best one day's time. Seldom could such a trip be called a pleasure trip. More often it was a matter of risking one's life, crossing over in stormy weather. In 1893 an old bachelor started a store here. We applied for a year U.S. post office, and got it. The store keeper, A.G. Tucker, suggested that we name the post office "Carson" and that name was unanimously chosen. Now we could send off and receive mail twice a week, quite regular in the summer, rather irregular in the winter as the mail had to be brought over from Cascades Locks in a row boat.
"Our first post office and store was kept in a very primitive building. Let me briefly describe it. In dimension it was 12x14 feet, one room, part of this room taken up by the store, and also living and sleeping quarters for the keeper. One small window let in the daylight. It stood at the edge of the creek opposite where the Legion hall now is. This creek had washed away part of the foundation and the building was noticeably out of plum. On account of this the door would open only half way. One side of this building was taken up by a fireplace, built of rocks and cobble stones with dirt with thrown over to fill up the cracks. On top of this fireplace stood a wooden chimney, four boards, 1x12 inches, 8 feet long, nailed together, carried away the smoke from the fire below. There were but few shelves, the store keeper selling his wares right out of the container in which he received it. After one year or so Mr. Tucker built up a decent building for his store and post office.
"In June 1884, I paid taxes for the first time in Skamania county, by working to days on the public highways in payment for my poll-tax. Included in the public highways of those days were merely parts of the old Indian trail which in very early days led up and down the Columbia Gorge. In the late nineties, by a combined effort on the part of both, the Stevenson and the Carson communities, the last stretch of this Indian trail was converted into a wagon road. All the work on this job was donated, some of us spending as much as ten days hard labor for this purpose.
"Pioneering is not, as some may think, only work and hardships. Far from it, for those who love Nature, Freedom, plenty of elbow room, hunting, fishing and the like it is as near an ideal life as anyone could reasonably wish for. In any vocation we may choose it depends to a large extent upon the individual as to how much or how little enjoyment we get out of life."