When we venture deep into the forest, the chaos of the modern world slips away, and it is often only here in this quiet solitude that we are truly able to escape the problems that plague our current reality. As we stroll along, wandering further away from the present, we uncover the quiet magic of a simpler time and cannot help but wonder what it would have been like to experience the harmonious beauty of a life lived amongst nature. At the Buckner Homestead Historic District, nestled within the North Cascades National Park, you can experience just that.
Lake Chelan Pioneer Bill Buzzard Plots a Homestead in the Stehekin Valley
William “Bill” Buzzard was a miner, rancher, packer, and ultimately Lake Chelan pioneer who first came to the Stehekin Valley in 1889 to check out mining opportunities at Horseshoe Basin. He selected a home site a couple of miles upriver on a horseshoe bend of the Stehekin River in what is now the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area within the North Cascades, making it the farthest homestead from the Stehekin settlement at the head of the lake.
He claimed 160 acres and got to work building a small three-room cabin and clearing an acre of the surrounding land for pasture and crop cultivation. Initially, timber from the endeavor was sold to the steamboat company that operated along the lake, and he lent his horses to miners tolling in the nearby Horseshoe Basin to accrue funds while patiently waiting for his small orchard and crops to bloom.
Over time, his homestead began to prosper; in 1892, Buzzard shipped 1,000 pounds of potatoes down the lake to the town of Chelan and sold the rest of his crop to local miners. By 1895, he had planted a small apple orchard to grow alongside his cabbages and potatoes. Eventually, his homestead was officially plated after being reported by the United States Forest Service in 1902. On November 9, 1903, he was officially able to purchase the homestead from the United States government.
The Buckner Family Begins Life on the Farm
After spending several summers at the ranch, Buzzard started considering hanging up his boots, first selling 11 acres of his land to a neighbor. He then sold the remaining acreage to William Van Buckner and his wife, Mae, in 1910. The Buckners had been passing through on their way to Alaska after having left California and deciding to pay a visit to Buckner’s brother, Henry, a local miner and innkeeper residing in the Stehekin settlement.
Buckner purchased the land from Buzzard for $5,000, but instead of a lump-sum payment, they arranged for Buckner to pay just $50 a month until the total amount was paid off. Buzzard then moved to Chelan, where he lived out the rest of his days until he died in 1919. Buckner was one payment short of paying off the property at the time of his death and used the last remaining payment to purchase Buzzard a headstone. Buzzard was buried in the Old Fraternal Cemetery in Chelan.
The Buckner family’s arrival would herald a new chapter in the homestead’s history, marked by increased productivity and a second phase of settlement. Before their arrival, only a single acre of the land had been farmed. The rest was a rugged, stump-filled terrain, a consequence of intensive logging from Buzzard. With meticulous effort, Buckner removed the stumps and constructed an elaborate, hand-dug and gravity-fed irrigation system that diverted water from Rainbow Creek to sustain his new orchard, which started by occupying 20 acres. The central irrigation canal and watering ditches were all dug by hand during the summer of 1911, covering more than four miles.
At first, the Buckner family only lived on the ranch during the summer, heading back to California every fall to avoid Stehekin’s harsh winters and returning each spring to work the farm. Over time, the now Buckner Homestead gradually expanded its production with the help of vegetable gardens and extensive apple-farming operations. While the original log cabin was expanded to accommodate the family, additional outbuildings were necessary to house livestock and store equipment, tools, and produce. As improvements were made and new structures were created, the land under cultivation grew to over 50 acres, featuring large hayfields, extensive pastures, and a much larger orchard, along with a dozen additional buildings, including a barn, workshop, milk house, smokehouse, root cellar, chicken coop, outhouse, sleeping cabins for guests or hired hands, and several general-purpose sheds.
Harry Buckner, one of William’s sons, made the ranch his permanent home in 1915. He married a young woman named Olive from Stehekin in 1919, who joined him at the ranch. Harry’s parents would continue to live in Bill Buzzard’s log cabin during the summer months until 1924, prompting Harry to expand one of the sleeping cabins into a home of their own for him and his new wife.
Together, they worked hard to improve the farm and make it a comfortable place to live. Harry would also convert a smokehouse into a power generator house when the family decided they wanted electric lights. He even built a playhouse for his three young daughters, and when the girls were older, he constructed a concrete swimming pool that was fed using the farm’s irrigation system.
From 1911 to 1955, the Buckner family’s apple-growing operation flourished, involving tasks such as pruning, irrigating, picking, packing, and shipping apples to local settlements and mining communities. They saw the production peak beginning in the 1930s and into the 1940s, with the farm yielding between 4,000 and 5,000 crates of apples per harvest season. Each year, there was enough fruit to fill their entire 40-by-100-foot packing shed, which they had previously built in 1922 to protect the harvest.
The Buckners Retire Their Historic Homestead
The establishment of North Cascades National Park by the U.S. Congress in 1968 coincided with a period of growing competition for the Buckner Homestead from the numerous orchards along Lake Chelan. Sensing an opportunity, Harry sold the homestead and most of his property to the National Park Service in 1970, only retaining a small parcel of land as his retirement home, where he lived until his death in 1976.
Under the National Park Service, the Buckner property was incorporated into the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area. In 1974, they secured the Buckner Cabin’s spot on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) thanks to its unique historic value as an original settler’s homestead; then later, the remaining elements of Buckner farm were included with the cabin to create the Buckner Homestead Historic District, replacing the cabin on the NRHP list in 1989. Through their efforts, the homestead and farm have been preserved and now function as an interpretive center to show visitors what pioneer life was like in the early Stehekin Valley.
While the farm is no longer a commercial operation, it retains its agricultural character. Horses graze in the pastures, irrigation ditches continue to flow, and apples are harvested from the orchard each fall. Many of the original buildings, including the main house, have been preserved and are still used for their intended purposes, with the main house now serving as a residence for a National Park Service employee.
Exploring the Buckner Homestead Historic District
Today, the Buckner Homestead Historic District comprises 15 buildings, several landscape features, some old structural ruins, and approximately 50 acres of apple orchard. Among these buildings are the Buckner homestead hay barn and workshop that was built in 1949, the Milk House that was built in 1916 and rehabilitated in 1979 by the National Park Service, the “Delco House” that was built initially as a smokehouse in 1915 but then converted to house the Delco power generator in 1925, and the farm’s wood and harness shed that was built in 1950.
The Buckner homestead’s primary residence and the original William Buzzard Cabin are also included in the district. The main residence was originally built in 1914 but was expanded upon in 1915, 1921, and 1925; the National Park Service added a porch in 1983 and re-roofed the house in 1975 and again in 1999. Buzzard’s cabin is the oldest structure in the homestead’s historic district and was used as the family’s primary residence until 1924, when it was converted into a guest house.
The orchard, a testament to early 20th-century fruit-tree cultivation in the United States, retains approximately 175 of its original 400 trees, planted in a distinctive 30-foot grid pattern in the early 1920s. Unfortunately, the 700 trees planted in 1911 no longer exist, as the land was converted to hay production in the 1950s. Among the surviving trees are the vintage Jonathan and Rome varieties and the ironically named Common Delicious apple, which just so happens to be a rare variety as it is an ancestor of the globally significant Red Delicious variety and is no longer commercially grown. The orchard’s irrigation system, a marvel of human engineering, remains largely intact. Water from Rainbow Creek is still channeled through a 110-year-old hand-dug ditch and plowed irrigation rills, forming a complex network of weirs, canals, and culverts that is still visible today.
Stepping Back in Time at the Buckner Historic District
Visitors to the Buckner Homestead Historic District will feel transported back to pioneer life. The tranquil setting, with its rustic buildings and lush orchards, evokes a sense of nostalgia and wonder. Visitors can almost hear the echoes of a bygone era as they wander through the historic structures. The hand-dug irrigation ditches, the original log cabin, and the expansive fields tell a story of resilience, hard work, and the enduring human spirit.
Standing amidst the serene landscape of the Buckner Homestead, visitors are invited to reflect on the simplicity and beauty of a life in harmony with nature. As the modern world fades into the distance, the homestead offers a sanctuary where the past comes alive, and the present moment is embraced with a renewed sense of peace and connection to the land. Here, the timeless virtues of hard work, resilience, and community are remembered and deeply felt, creating a lasting impression on all who pass through.
