The following was submitted to me on October 2nd 2007 by:  Bill Alexander

Thank-You Bill for your help in recording some of 'Lake Wenatchee' history before it is too late to get first hand.

The Alexander’s, Cougar Inn, circa 1964-1972

Hi, ran across you website and thought that I would take a few moments to give you some history on the Cougar Inn in the ‘60’s/’70’s….

My name is Bill Alexander, Jr., my mother (still alive and kicking in Wenatchee at 79 yrs young) Alayne and my father, Bill (deceased) purchase the Cougar in the summer of 1965, I believe they purchased it from the Spalding’s (lived about ¼ mile from Crescent Beach Store).   My father quit his job as a banker in Seattle and we packed up the day after 7^th grade and moved to the ‘Coug.   My brothers, Randy (lives in Leavenworth) and Donny (deceased logging accident in ’95) and I had never been further east than Snoqualmie Summit as far as I know…..We were in business with another family, but that didn’t last more than a few months.   We lived in what was called cabin #5 that was located about 50 yds. North of the lodge…family style and ate meals at the Coug.   Randy, Don and I road the bus to school in Leavenworth, 25 miles nearly an hour trip each way everyday…went over the hill and down the Chumstick….We picked up such strange riders as the Burgess’s, the Newell’s in Plain and Ron at Midway, Tom Merry, the Trowbridges and many, many more.  My brothers and I all became fairly successful high school athletes at Leavenworth HS….not Cascade…ha-ha.

In the summer my mom and “Goldie” cooked for logging crews, campers and fishermen….Bernard was our hired hand….we served full dinners, short-order meals and beer in bottles only from the Tavern.   The Tavern was a small room to the west of the main dinner hall and the dining hall was full of stuffed animals and bear/deer/skins hanging from all the walls.   There was a large rock fireplace in the dining hall.   The bartender (Dad, Mom and Bill Petersen) served the beer to each person, they could not move from table to table and carry their beers, the bartender had to move it for them and women were not allowed to drink at the bar, only at the tables.

The Cougar Inn consisted of  several rooms in the lodge that eventually became the home of the Alexander’s, 4 cabins that lined the edge of the property and stretched nearly to the lake and a campground for campers with one or two hook-ups that consisted of my dad running an extension cord and hose from under the Coug…..Bill Peterson/Pete and Red was our hired hands and though I was away at college, my mom said that Red passed away sitting at the end of the bar with a cigarette, a beer and playing cribbage…..The Forest Service workers were regulars and were the reason that my mom started the “double-meat, double-cheeseburger” that sold for $.99 .  

We pretty much had to work the Coug 24/7 and if we didn’t have good weather for 1^st Day of Fishing Season Labor Day/4^th/Memorial and opening day of deer hunting, we starved over the winter….don’t laugh, it was pretty slim….

At 14/15 years old I drove what I believe was a ’39 Studebaker pick-up to the dump by the state park and hauled the garbage from the Coug a couple of times a week, usually just before and just after the weekend.   We survived driving first a ’61 Comet station wagon and then a 63 Rambler, that went to Wenatchee for supplies each week…..

As time went on, Mom or Dad would actually drive us to Leavenworth each Saturday night so that I could go to the movies with my friends….they would wait for us and then return to the Coug and go back to work…..Sunday’s were quiet as alcohol was not allowed in those days on the Sabbath.   Other trips would be to the Cove on Fish Lake to have Ice Cream and see the world champion fish-fillet’ers, the West’s, who became great lifelong friends of ours….We would also make the weekly trip to the state park to see the movie that was shown each week in the main campground on a big screen with a 16mm projector.

I was in charge of the campground with my dad.   We had a fleet of 14-16 foot wooden boats with Sears and Roebuck 3.5 horsepower outboards and sold fishing gear and boat gas from our dock.   Gas was 39.9 for regular and mixed (24/1 first then 50/1) was 49.9 in those days, Shell if I remember right….It was $1 to camp over night and $1.50 with water and electricity.  We charged .50 to launch your boat and for another $.50 I would put it in for you…..you should have seen me at 14/15 driving the big old campers and backing the boats down the boat launch….On some weekends the line to launch went 100 yds. up the driveway and in the parking lot of people waiting to launch….

I believe that we were the first “wake boarders”, we had a 16’ wood boat and put 2 Sears 3.5 HP outboards on it and towed my brothers on a door, with a rope for a handle along the beach, was amazing fun…..We had a “party” line and I was only allowed to talk for 15 minutes to my girlfriend in Leavenworth, but at least it wasn’t long-distance.

We eventually got a Silverline 14’ ski boat from my uncle who passed from cancer in about ’67-’68, it had a 50 hp Mercury outboard and was pretty slick….We built the first water ski course with the help of “Ron” from Seattle on the north end of the lake where the water was shallow..used cinder blocks, stretch tubing from old tire tubes and Clorox bottles….was great fun….We would ski out across the opening of the White River or down to Crescent Beach store….but you had to beware of the wind on Lk. Wenatchee, if you were downlake when it came up, you might not make it home….The best skiers on the lake were the Joplin’s(first Z-28 Camaro I ever saw), Danny Dempsey(SS 396 El Camino) and Gordy Burlingame (who had a GTO with tri-power) who had a cabin across from George Carveth, the sheriff.  Near the site where the original Cougar Inn was built.

Speaking of George Carveth, I knew him far to well.   I hadn’t had my license for 3 hours and he pulled me over giving my brothers a ride over the “whoop dee do’s” along the road from the Coug to Crescent Beach….right next to Ralph Zufall’s property…..I helped George spray for mosquitoes all around the lake in the summer.   I fed DDT from a 55 gal. drum in to the old water truck (with a coffee can) and then hauled the 2” hose 100+ feet down from the lake to cabins and sprayed for mosquitoes…I remember coming home coated white from the overspray…..I am sure that is why I was bald at about 35….ha,ha.  George was not well appreciated by my Dad, he always seemed to show up when we had a lot of loggers/etc. in the bar and was constantly harassing the motorcycle riders that would come over and visit the Coug….I remember him going through the parking lot with a stick checking to see if the bikers had “spark-arresters” in their mufflers….But, I do remember him as being a good man with a great house and Betty, his wife was very cordial to me when I came in from spraying, always had a cool lemonade/ice team for the “kid”.   He had a tough job in a tough time….

Eventually the Coug wasn’t making enough money for us to stay in the winter and we rented a house in Leavenworth, Dad got on with Steven’s Pass as a rope operator and eventually became the business manager for Bruce and Jenny Kehr.   One winter while I was home from college our winter caretaker skipped and all the pipes froze in the upstairs bathrooms and flooded the Coug….everything froze….I went through the front door with a fire axe and Dad told me to light it on fire…..Mom wouldn’t let me and eventually we bored through the floor with augers, thawed the place out  and tried to save what we could. 

It was about this time that mom and dad went through a divorce, I got married and my memories of the Coug ceased…..I do remember this, for the short years that we lived at the Coug it was a wonderful place for Billy, Randy and Donny…We never once went without (or at least didn’t know we didn’t have…)  It was warm in the winter and fun in the summer….even when Donny rode the toboggan in to the lake on January 16^th….my birthday….My parents were loving and the people friendly….I know my parents worked themselves to the bone, but it was always fun for us boys….

I have only touched on the many, many times and characters that I knew and experienced in my years at the Coug…..I probably missed a lot of memories that my brother’s had and Mom can still remember many, many of them…..perhaps I will have her write down her memories and get them to you…….

Thanks for listening,