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Kathleen Long - Personal Communication
Interview, 11 September 2001
Kathleen Long's husband William A. Long was born in Cashmere and grew up in Wenatchee. He served as a combat infantryman in the 10th Mountain Division during WWII. After the war he earned Bachelor's degrees in forestry, geology and education at Washington State College. He earned a Master's degree in geology from the University of Montana in 1955. He taught secondary school science and math and worked for the USFS in the summers. Later he worked as a geologist for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service. He died in 1995 at age 74. Long's Pass near Mt Stuart is named after him. His ashes were scattered at Long's Pass after he died.
by Lowell SkoogKathleen gave me a five-page story that Bill wrote about a winter ski trip to the Gourlies' cabin at Windy Pass in December 1940 (long-1985). She showed me a photo of ski tracks on Tamarack Mountain taken by Bill during an earlier trip. I stumbled on this photo in the Wenatchee World (ww-1940-Dec-4-p11) and it prompted me to contact her.
She said Melvin Gourlie and his parents lived year-round at Windy Pass during the Depression, where they trapped and prospected for gold. She gave me Mel's phone number and offered to call him for me. (See gourlie-melvin.) She said her husband did a lot of snowshoe trips with Bill Prater. During the mid-1950s he taught school at Diablo and did summer trips with Ken Hunichs, supervisor of Seattle City Light.
Bill Long left a large photo collection, mostly of mountain scenery and especially of glacial features in the Cascades. He presented slide programs on his geological observations to local groups. Kathleen said the Entiat Museum bought several of Bill's pictures. She showed me a few photos of the Windy Pass area in winter. Most of the photos depicted snowy scenes and cornices on Tamarack Mountain. One showed Mel Gourlie and Bill standing on skis among snow plastered trees. When I visited Mel later that evening he showed me the original of this picture.
In the early 1940s Bill responded to an advertisement by Ray Courtney for a ski trip to Lyman Lake. One of Bill's pictures depicted the Lyman Lake cabin in March 1940. Kathleen said that Bill gave up skiing as their children grew because it was too expensive. In later years most of his winter trips into the mountains were on snowshoes.
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