Valhalla History
 


Finding Valhalla

In 1957 Earl Ingebright began searching for some land for family recreation and as an investment. He lived in North Seattle and it seemed like everyone he knew was looking for recreation property or had a "cabin" on Bainbridge Island or Whidbey Island or Hood Canal. His kids were 6, 13 and 16. Earl wanted some forested land and Laurine wanted a place on Hood Canal close to the saltwater, swimming and boating. Laurine had great memories of summers spent at Twanoh State Park, where the best warm salt water swimming in the northwest could be found. They watched the newspaper ads and talked to friends.
The couple began to localize their search to the area north of Everett because it was within a fifty mile radius of their home, no ferry needed, no islands. An interesting property came up for sale in the local newspaper (view ad torn from paper)

It was on the Jordan Road near the Stilliguamish River and the town Granite Falls. They looked at the property and it fit the idea.  About 63 acres, it had a creek, a house and a substantial amount of forest. They discovered the homestead house had a history that led to the original pioneer family buried in the cemetery down the road. But there was certain magic to the place. Perhaps it was the 900-foot sheer rock cliffs of Deer Mountain that dominated the east property line. Maybe it was something else. There was a draw, this place was different. Awesome. Plus enough property to really have some fun with it, make things, build things, manage a forest--all just an hour from Seattle. There was even little known ten acre  King Lake nearby and a 200' waterfall all accessible by a rough trail adjoining the property. The lake and surrounding acreage were owned by Scott Paper from the 1900 era loggings and was thought to be abandoned and little known except to locals. In addition to the main two bedroom house there was a barn, another open shed and outhouse built for double occupancy. All were in pretty bad shape.  Earl bought it!

The Early years

 

The house was slowly reconditioned for weekend livability by the family and a squadron of volunteers from church and friends. It had been well built, completely out of cedar with old growth beams and straight cedar boards, expertly notched and planed by some skilled builder a hundred years ago. The double walls were insulated with coarse local sawdust, probably from a nearby sawmill.  It was a good feature given the cold winters in the northwest. This area of Snohomish County had been steam-logged around 1900 and sawdust must have been plentiful.  To finish the inside, a paste was evidently made from a mixture of flour and water and used with newspapers and applied to the walls. It kept the sawdust from spilling out from gaps between the boards. Next there was wallpaper. Ingebrights pulled off the moldy wallpaper and found the original Seattle newspapers were readable and showed dates and news from around 1901. They just left the walls that way, it was kind of cool.
 

Earl continued to fix up the house and barn on weekends. Friends and relatives donated old furniture and in no time they had a serious vegetable garden. He and Laurine expanded the wooded trails to the back of the property and were always ready to "hike to the back". With the family living in North Seattle, a day at the "farm" was an easy hour's drive each way, so you could come up for the day, enjoy the break from the city and be home in time for dinner.

Beavers moved into a wetland in the middle of the property and constructed series of dams across Jordan creek. A five-acre pond appeared and Earl found it had excellent trout fishing. In fact the fishing, trapping and hunting was so good that local people took advantage of it. As soon as the family arrived on a Saturday morning, Earl immediately "hiked to the back" to kick out any trespassers trapping or fishing the ponds. It was almost every week that hunters and fishermen were back there despite signage.

The “Farm” as they called it, soon became the place to spend weekends, celebrate birthdays, summer holidays or just about any other excuse for a picnic with friends and a hike. Both the Ingebrights, their friends and groups from their church found spirituality in the woods, the towering trees and and the stunning nearby deer mountain cliffs. Running water from the homestead well, an outdoor solar-heated shower and refrigeration from a donated Antique Ice Box provided creature comforts.

 

One winter project was a plywood rowboat built from a magazine and later Earl bought an old Ford Model T tractor  from a neighbor and it provided an better way to get firewood and maintain the trails. The weekends through these years were full of family fun and enjoyment of the property with gardening, woodcraft, hiking, fishing and the enjoyment of nature, all in a private setting.  Earl's two daughters had by then, moved out of state and begun college, careers and families. One focal point of each summer was a big office party, a Salmon BBQ hosted by Earl and his friends Fred Lombard and Bob Clifton.

Fred and Bob had purchased land in LaConner (another hour drive north) near the Swinomish Indian Reservation.  They were friends with some of the Swinomish Indians and Fred learned a NW Indian method of cooking a salmon over an Alder fire using green sapling trees and chicken wire to hold the fish. Earl invited his whole Post Office Inspection dept and attendance to these “Clajm Bakes” soon grew to nearly 100 people. The salmon was slow cooked and smoked over an alder fire and tasted just out out of this world. They had funny games like treasure hunts, egg tosses (with one egg hard boiled) and a door prize that was a door off of an old car. One  hilarious, but seriously taken game was the use of a "dowsing rod" or "water witch" where people would try their hand at the mysterious art of locating water by holding a forked stick from an apple tree. You walked around with this forked stick until you were over underground water and it would mysteriously begin to point downward. More on that later. Another door prize was the head of a salmon mounted on a plaque that had to be kept frozen by its winner and brought back the next year.

 

One year Fred had an idea to make and hide a water geyser at the bottom of the BBQ fire pit. It was all hooked up, buried and hidden weeks before the party. Just before it was time to serve the salmon, Earl got the attention of everyone and announced that Fred would now conjure up the God of all Salmon or some other zany thing. On cue, Earl's son David furiously pumped on an old WWII fire pump hidden in the woods and a geyser of water shot up out of the middle of the fire. You could hear everyone draw in a breath as they witnessed this pure act of magic.

 

It all culminated in a last Salmon Barbeque on the 23rd of July 1969. The day man first walked on the Moon. That afternoon, Earl announced his transfer to be the Inspector in Charge, Post Office San Francisco Region. It was a good party but it ended on a sad note. The family had to move to California. They boarded up the old homestead house, chained the barn doors closed, sold some of the equipment, locked the gate and said goodbye to Valhalla. 
 

The 1970's

 

Six years later in 1975, Earl retired after 30 years with the Post Office. He was Inspector in Charge, New York Region, having been promoted from San Francisco in 1972. Earl and Laurine moved back to Seattle and began to figure out retired life. Earl went to check on the state of the farm and returned home sick to his stomach. The farmhouse had been ransacked, everything stolen and all the windows smashed. The same with the barn. The power poles had even been taken out by the power company. The gate on Jordan Road was gone. He thought, well no big deal, it was all second hand, giveaways, what could you do now. He walked away from it, now just a road into the the woods. It was a travesty that this could happen without anyone knowing.

Somewhat frustrated with the burglary and vandalism at the farm and still wanting to work in Law Enforcement, Earl decided to run for Snohomish County Sheriff. He was unsuccessful but had fun trying his hand in local politics, getting to know the local political machine, making speeches and drumming up support for his cause.  He and Laurine bought a condo in a nicely built condo community named Noble Firs in North Seattle. Then he bought five acres of wooded land near La Conner from his friend Bob Clifton. He and Laurine had a lot of accumulated furniture and stuff to store so he had a local Swinomish builder construct a double car garage and shop. He began spending time there working on woodcraft projects and making the place the way he wanted it. He even added a bathroom. 

David moved back to Seattle in 1976 after college and serving in the Coast Guard. He too still felt the magic of the "farm" and remembered all the fun times growing up. When he went and checked on things he too came away sick to see the mess. But still the land was there and it brought back fun memories from long ago.

The real beauty of the place remained. A feeling of peace and solitude when passing through the gate, the clear waters of the ponds, the clatter of Jordan Creek, the big trees ,the glistening of the sheer rock cliffs in the morning sun. David began to spend hisweekends there, camping in the picnic shed, working on the trails, woodcraft projects and relaxing. He and Earl built a new security gate, the first of several.

It was a great work-life balance to Dave's career at Boeing Flight Test
. He began to fix up the place. In examining the old homestead house he discovered there was evidently a later addition (kitchen and pantry) to the original cedar structure. He and some friends tore down the falling apart kitchen addition and left the old floor for a porch. He replaced the glass, built a stove from an old barrel and made a sleeping loft. With no power, the place ran on a 12-volt car battery complete with a car tape deck stereo and lighting in the loft and kitchen. Earl and Laurine gradually came back, at first for a dinner BBQ and later to hike the trails and visit King Lake and enjoy the magic of Valhalla. Earl had begun his college education in Forestry and was interested in managing the forest to it's full potential. Valhalla's valuable timber needed a master plan.

 

The 1980s

Earl and Laurine, and especially David continued to enjoy the place and its numerous outdoor recreation opportunities. The Farm had been logged about 1900 and the second growth had done well. The healthy mix of Fir, Hemlock, Alder, Fir and Cedar had matured nicely in the Western Washington climate. Earl decided to hire a consultant forester and together they worked out a long-range plan for the management of the Valhalla timber. It was agreed that the front "twenty" needed to be clear-cut and immediately replanted. The stand was stagnating and there were signs of laminated root rot. He contracted with a logger and the clear-cut was completed in the spring of 1987. Earl had it replanted it with one-year-old fast growing Weyerhaeuser Douglas Fir seedlings, about 400 trees per acre.  With the dollars from the logging, he had a 20x30 pole building constructed and brought in power. A phone line followed and the place became more civilized than it had been in a long time. Earl bought an old Case tractor to help with roads and firewood. David continued to enjoy the place, staying in the old house on weekends and hiking and fishing with friends.

 

The 1990s

Earl had long wanted to design and draft plans for his dream getaway cabin, a "family condo". He took his drawings to a designer and had the drawings formalized. The County building dept said "no, its not right" so he hired another designer with sharper skills. The house was two story three bedroom, three-bath house with a basement. His vision was an open floor plan with enough space to entertain and serve three families without having jam-ups. He had the shell of the house built and he and Dave plumbed it and wired it. Other finishing jobs were farmed out and Earl trimmed it with wood milled from leftover Valhalla timber.

Earl had a well drilled in the spot where everyone found water during his long-ago dousing rod competitions. The well driller encountered solid rock and Earl had them stop at 140 ft. The well produced water but it was low flow and smelled a bit like sulfur. He and David decided to run a 1/2 mile water line from a spring he had discovered on their land halfway up the mountain. It worked great, providing year-round fresh water to his house and with pressure working on gravity only. He then constructed a smaller garage/barn near the picnic shed. It was made from the straight, old growth 6x6 cedar beams saved from the original barn. It housed the tractor and an old Oliver bulldozer, a gift from Bob Clifton. Earl now began spending most every day at the tree farm, driving up from North Seattle for the day and bringing along a thermos of coffee and a sandwich for lunch. He bought a Kubota tractor to really get around and do work around the place. Laurine stayed home and worked on her sewing, EK Sorority board and social circles. Dinner was usually on the table when he arrived home in the late afternoon.
 

By 1993, more changes were in the wind. A large parcel of land behind Valhalla including King Lake was up for sale. Comprised of about 180 Acres, it had the same second growth timber as the farm. Earl and David discussed ways to raise the funds to make the $660K asking price. "Why not find a way to buy it", David said. "Build a road into it from our place, clear cut it, parcel it into twenty acre lots and sell them as a community". Earl decided it was not doable so they held their breath.  It was sold to three investors, a local attorney and his developer brother and another investor, a retired doctor. They named it Twin Falls because of two waterfalls visible from the top of Jordan Peak.

There was no legal access to the 180 acres and the investors wanted to negotiate with Earl to obtain permission to use the Valhalla entrance road. Earl talked to  his lawyer and had an easement agreement drawn up that required Twin Falls to maintain the road and install an electric security gate. The easement also specified restrictions on what could be done at twin falls, no pig farms, trailers or businesses except small office-type businesses and a limit on the number of houses. The easement was traded for a 100 ft wide (5 acre total) buffer between Twin Falls and Valhalla  along the Valhalla northeast property line.


The Twin Falls investors proceeded to build a road to the lake and to the top of Jordan Peak, clear cut the 180 acres and divide it into 20 acre parcels for sale. Power, water and telephone utilities were all run to the top of Jordan Peak and there was even a pumping system with storage tanks near the top. The investors sold a couple of lots and kept the nicest ones at the top of the mountain for themselves. Four houses were soon built on a total of sixteen lots. One cool house on the north side of Jordan Peak was even featured in Dwell Magazine. The road system was open to Valhalla and gave access to King Lake and the Valhalla back 7.5 acres below the rock cliffs.

David and Earl continued to have a blast working on projects making Valhalla a little nicer. The picnic pavillion provided a nice backdrop for gatherings of 20-30 people and there was sufficient parking for twenty cars or so on grass below the house. Earl had salmon bakes with his church group, parties with alumnae from their high school, and holidays like July 4th.  They added a water faucet and updated the outhouse.
Earl became interested in home winemaking and decided to plant grapes. He planted about a half acre in northern climate, European grape varieties. He and David took a class in winemaking and they began a new hobby that ran all the way from trellising the grapes to the crushing and bottling. They even won a few ribbons from the local wine club.

 

Later that year they built a scout camp with an outhouse, fire circle and running water near popcorn pond. Earl and David were interested in finding ways to give back to the community and sharing the magic of the Valhalla property. They found a couple of local scout troops and began hosting scout camping getaways. Around this time, David recalled the fun office parties his father had and began having a small rock concert every August with three or four garage bands and all their friends. "In 1996 David's Daughter Shannon was born to David and wife Karen.

In 1997 the Twin Falls investors acquired an additional 200 acres to the east, most of it inaccessible or unusable wetland. In exchange for potential additional traffic on the easement road, Twin Falls traded a seven acre block  of land adjoining the Valhalla back forty.  Earl began collaborating with other private forest owners in the tree farming community and worked with the WSU Extension Service to learn ways to maximize the health of the Valhalla forest holdings. In 1999 Earl offered David the opportunity to pick out a home site for himself. The answer was Yes! Earl and David outlined a spot on top of a small rise facing Deer Mountain along with some acreage. Application for a boundary line adjustment was made to the county and it was approved in 2000.

 

The 2000s

Dave got to work deciding on a retirement/getaway house. He settled on a classic northwest prow house design and found a package offered by Linwood Homes in British Columbia. He had the shell built in 2001 and worked on it for the next seven years weekends and summers, doing what he could and contracting out the rest. It turned out really nice and he moved in August of 2007.  Earl began to go after a couple of other big projects he'd always wanted to do. He used David's builder to build a double car garage and upstairs woodshop. Earl had enough tools to outfit a shop and really have a place to do some serious woodworking.
 

Earl had always wanted to build a bridge across the creek. For some reason, it was a dream construction project and he was always looking at the creek for possible crossing places. One spot along the creek near the back of the property was perfect, an easy bridge crossing using Valhalla lumber with a road constructed climbing up to to a small wooded knoll above the creek. He figured the bridge would enable access to construct a small cabin on that hill, another of Earls dreams.  Using mostly lumber from the tree farm, he and his granddaughter Jill built a one room cabin mostly fashioned after the "hytte" cabins their Norwegian cousins owned in the mountains of Norway. Earl even built a replica bunk bed the same as his cousins had in their hytte.
Still interested in maintaining the forest in top condition, Earl and David took a Forest Stewardship Class from the Washington State University extension service  and worked up a forest stewardship plan for the tree farm.
 

The class gave them the information and mentoring to write the application for the state dept of natural resources logging permit and apply for a grant that would replace an old culvert on a small tributary to Jordan creek, which was considered a salmon fish barrier by the fish biologists from the Stilliguamish Indian Tribe  The immediate plan involved harvesting of the mature alder stands that stood on the edges of the fir and a few other places around the farm. The logging was accomplished in 2008 and it was decided to plant western red cedar seedlings in the newly logged areas instead of Douglas fir. Earl and David thought the cedar trees would bring a higher dollar return when harvested and also be immune to the laminated root rot spores that still prevailed in the soil. In 2010 Earl and Laurine were named Tree Farmer of the year by the American tree farm system and were presented with a plaque and large sign. It was a pretty big deal, they were rock stars! Earl celebrated by purchasing a small excavator. David married Jan Stevenson and they began a life together in the newly-finished prow house.


Earl couldn't help but watch what was going on at the Twin Falls community adjacent to Valhalla. The owners languished after the initial burst of four houses. Nothing was happening, but that was fine with him. The lake and mountain roads were a lot more accessible and the vistas from the top of Jordan Peak were incredible. One of the partners paved the road all the way from Jordan Road to his new house on the lake. In 2012 the attorney partner decided to run for a county judge position and his campaign needed an fast infusion of cash. He offered "Lot 16"  to Earl for a cash price and soon it became the latest addition the very back of the tree farm. This lot expanded his Valhalla holdings to over 100 acres and was a nice addition to the tree farm southeast boundary. It would also give the family legal rights to use the Twin Falls road system and King Lake. They built a trail running upstream along the creek from the Hytte to access the bottom of the lot.  Jill Messecar found another beaver pond and they  named it "Jill's Secret Lake".

In 2013 Laurine passed away after a long illness and Earl moved to a retirement community in Granite Falls. He hired a local young man to bring him to the farm every day where he continued to work on woodcraft and various farm maintenance items. The young man, Scott began part time assisting Earl on other farm maintenance, gardening and always a new project.

In 2013 David retired from Boeing Flight Test and began to figure out retired life. It was pretty obvious for him, continue making the farm a cool place and now the ability to live on the property, manage the forest, work on upgrades and maintenance, garden, water system and or just enjoy an afternoon on the patio.

He and Earl continued to work together on various Valhalla maintenance and upgrade projects. In 2014 with a new part time hired man, Tom, the three planned and completed several significant road and trail expansions along with the construction of a Sauna and a  Norwegian chapel using construction methods to make it a replica of a 1300's stave church. The 1986 forest began to show problems partly due to lack of good tree spacing. It had a condition known as crown lock and there were areas where Alder was crowding, and other parts of the stand were thin, leggy and prone to windfall damage.

 

 

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11/03/20G.7