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Elias Charley

Packer and guide

Tulalip. The account that was left out of the report.

In August 1953 Elias was working as a packer for a Forest Service survey crew above the Skykomish, a job he had done for eleven seasons because he knew the drainages better than anyone the district could hire.

Four men saw the same thing on the same evening. Elias reported it to the crew boss, who took the report and filed it without that part in it. Asked why, the boss said it would make the whole survey look unserious.

The other three did not press the matter. Elias took a bus to Hollowfield in December because he had heard, from someone who had heard it from someone else, that there was a room there where things got written down.

Ada Merrick recorded his account in full and read it back to confirm she had it right. He asked her to read it back a second time.

He became the Institute's first field correspondent and brought in more accounts over the following decade than any other member. A good many came from people who had likewise been told to be quiet, and a good many more from people who would not have said a word to a stranger with a notebook and a Forest Service jacket.

The ledger records him as Mr. Charley, which was his name, and not the other one he had, which was nobody's business and is not in the file.