The early years of the Naches Pass Tavern were dominated by its colorful owner, Captain Dick Craine. The name has up to eight different spellings, including Natches. Located on Highway 410 where the Greenwater River flows into the White River, the Naches name came from an old Indian trail that connected native Salish tribes on the west side (Nisqually & Puyallup) to Yakima tribes east of the Cascade Mountains. The main items of trade were fish and horses. One of the earliest European travelers of the Naches Pass was the Longmire wagon train in 1853.
A state wagon road running along the White River was approved and built in 1897, making it one of the oldest in Washington state. After World War I, entrepreneurs like Dick Craine capitalized on the popularity of automobiles for motor touring, especially day trips and weekend outings. Towards that end, Craine built his Naches Tavern, a lodge structure which included rooms, home-cooked meals, and a large lobby which included Capt. Craine’s Indian curio gallery. Interestingly, Craine operated his tavern during Prohibition when alcohol couldn’t legally be served, though ‘tavern’ historically meant an inn or resting place serving food and providing lodging.
In “A Glimpse of a Charmed Land” from 1925, Louis Jacobin described the gallery in detail. “Perhaps no other place on the coast can equal it in Indian art work of great historic value. There are Indian curios from the wily savage of the plains to those of Mexico . . . Alaska, Siberia, Canada, and native tribes of Washington and Oregon. Captain Dick Craine takes unqualified delight in showing his collection to his guests and explaining the history and legends of each piece.” At times, Craine adopted the persona of Felix the Yukon Sourdough while telling stories and selling trinkets, bear skins, and relics from his collection.
Craine, shown in last week’s photo supported by canes, slowly retired his Naches holdings leasing the operation to several proprietors including Mr. & Mrs. James Walkers, L.C. Scott, and William S. and Mattie Stout. Around 1930, the tavern and related properties were sold to Stanley Norozny Jr., who continued operations until the original structure burned down in Feb. 1940. Norozny completed a rebuilding in July 1940 on the same grounds. Next week, an early 1950s photo of that replacement that continues to house the Naches Tavern.
This photo #B14973, dated June 7, 1926 comes courtesy of the Marvin D. Boland collection in the Tacoma Public Library. JoAnne Matsumura, an Issaquah historian provided a chronology from newspaper articles and other sources detailing the lives of Dick and Bessie Craine and the Naches area.
