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Edson Dow - Adventure in the Northwest
Chapter XI - Mountain Man
p. 139: Dale Allen was born in the wilds while his parents were on a hunting trip up the White River. While he was a youth, his parents purchased and operated the Tall Timber Ranch at the junction of the Napeequa and White Rivers. As a boy Allen roamed the Cascades constantly. He traveled to and from school near the head of Lake Wenatchee on snowshoes. He graduated from high school in the middle of the Depression. Since no jobs were available, he decided to trap in the valleys of the upper White River.
Allen started working for the Forest Servcie and became Assistant Ranger in the Lake Wenatchee District. Eventually he resigned and took a job as a game protector with the Department of Game. He became Supervisor of District 5 comprising Chelan, Douglas and Okanogan Counties but later resigned because he didn't like the paperwork. He has never left the Lake Wenatchee area and continues to serve both the Game Department and Forest Service wherever his help is needed.
"He was the first person to make numerous crossings of the Cascade Range in the middle of winter and traveled over almost every major pass north of Stevens Pass. He faced avalanches, snow and sub-zero weather." The author describes a trip in which Dale Allen and Walt Anderson skied from Lyman Lake over Cloudy and Suiattle Passes and dropped into the Suiattle River. Exhausted in a snowstorm near the box canyon of Miners Creek, Anderson credited Allen with saving his life by commanding him to eat some rye hardtack. Walt Anderson also worked for the Game Department.
The chapter includes stories of Allen encountering bootleggers up the White River as a boy, struggling to return from Panther Creek during a blizzard, and catching poachers in the Hidden Lakes area of the Pasayten wilderness in winter. Another story describes Allen and Anderson fighting their way on foot from Lake Josephine to Mill Creek (near Stevens Pass) in a snowstorm. On p. 138 is a fine photograph of Dale Allen in summer carrying a small backpack.
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