Whistlin' Fifty

by Adriana Janovich
Yakima-Herald Republic January 21, 2007

Williams family has been making guests feel at home at their mountain lodge for half a century

CLIFFDELL- Under the pines, on the wintry banks of the Naches River, away from the hustle and bustle, a fire glows.

The walls encircling the crackling flames have been pushed back behind and around the large stone fireplace, the core of this mountain lodge and a relic of the original structure.

My, how it's grown.

Renovations and additions have been built around this hearth. So have a cluster of cabins and loyal patrons, families and traditions.

It's impossible to know just how many folks have warmed their hands and hearts in front of this old fireplace throughout the past 50 years. And it's almost as difficult to keep up with the changes that have grown up around it.

"It seems like every year we have a project," says 40-year old general manager Shane Williams, the third generation of the Williams family to run Whistlin' Jack Lodge. "We try to keep improving."

Still, the lodge's Fireside Lounge - the room with the inviting hearth - remains cozy and comfortable, a living room away from home for customers, the community and the family that has owned and operated this riverside resort for half a century now.

"I used to sleep here with the dog, waiting for Dad to close down the bar at night," Shane says, nodding toward the floor in front of the fireplace, the cornerstone of the enterprise.

This year, the Williams family celebrates 50 years - and three generations - of owning and managing Whistlin' Jack Lodge, a mountain getaway 38 miles northwest of Yakima on State Route 410.

The local landmark started out as a small, roadside business in the Wenatchee National Forest - without a Web site, a banquet room or - in its earliest years - even a telephone. Back then, Whistlin' Jack opened on Mother's Day and closed at the end of elk-hunting season, a complete dinner cost $1.95, and Grandma's plate collection graced the walls around the fireplace.

Today, the Whistlin' Jack Lodge complex - a popular launch pad for picnicking, hiking, boating, fishing, cross-country skiing, horseback riding and relaxing on the slopes of Chinook Pass - is made up of a half-dozen cottages named for local communities, a couple of bungalows, an eight-unit motel, a bunch of hot tubs, conference facilities, Little Jack's Corner convenience store and gas station, and Kristy's Gift Shop.

"It's gotten to be a good, big lodge," says Helen Williams, Shane's 95-year-old grandmother and the matriarch of Whistlin’ Jack Lodge.

"We loved it from the beginning," she says. "We put our hopes in it."

Helen and her husband, the late William "Bill" Williams, bought the lodge this time of year in 1957. They lived and worked in it with the youngest of their three sons, Doug Williams, Shane's father.
"We just started in," Helen says. "We improved it as we went, and it was slow because we had to make the money out of it to improve it. It was our baby. And it seemed to kind of catch the family as it grew."

Doug was 8 when the Williamses moved in that first winter. His father tended to rentals and maintenance of the lodge, built in the 1920s or 1930s. His mother did the cooking and baking, and was well known for her pies, rolls and fried chicken, which she prepared in a large skillet.

"I could do, I think, four dinners at once," she says.

At that time, the dining room held nine or 10 tables and a lunch counter. Today, it seats about 100. And a chef oversees the kitchen, including a staff of 10, which grows to nearly two dozen during the summer.

At the height of the busy season, about 70 people work at the lodge, compared with about seven - including Doug and his parents - who kept the place going in those early years, when it was much smaller and its main source of heat was the old fireplace.

Standing in front of the hearth, Doug, now 58, motions to the pillars that stand where the outer wall of the lodge used to end. He remembers his father whistling while he worked in the lodge, which he says "was more of an outpost" in those early years.

"He was always whistling. People would kid him about being Whistlin' Jack. And I would say, 'No, it's Whistlin' Bill,'" says Doug, cracking up at the recollection.

Throughout the decades, many folks have wondered where the lodge got its name, which refers to the hoary marmot, a small, silver-gray animal that lives in the rocky areas of the Cascade Mountains near Chinook Pass and makes a high-pitched whistle to warn of impending danger.

The Williamses didn't christen the lodge, which was already called Whistlin' Jack when they bought it. But they kept the name.

"It's a catchy name," says Helen, who now lives at a Yakima assisted living facility, where a black-and-white photograph of the lodge in its early days hangs above her sofa. A Whistlin’ Jack Lodge mug rests on her coffee table.

"We just liked the mountains, Bill and I did," she says. "We weren't thinking of building history. We were thinking of building a business. We were working to make it pay, make it a place where people wanted to go."

"It grew to have crowds," she says. "But in the beginning we had lots of quiet days.

Since then, Whistlin' Jack Lodge has become a year-round destination for honeymooners and outdoor enthusiasts, weddings, reunions and anniversaries.

It's a place to which people return, year after year, for Mother's Day brunch, the annual Vintners Appreciation Night, weekends away.

This time of year, though, there are still quiet days at the lodge, which sees its most visitors between the Fourth of July and Labor Day. Tens of thousands of people visit from all over the world. But winters, most guests come from the Yakima Valley and Tri-Cities area.

Some have been famous. Supreme Court Justice William 0. Douglas was a regular. In fact, messages would be left for him at the lodge, says Doug's wife and Shane's mom, 60-year-old Kristy Williams.

Gary Cooper and the cast of the 1959 film "The Hanging Tree," which was filmed nearby, also spent time there. So did Will Sampson, who starred as Chief Bromden in the 1975 movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". In fact, he did an oil painting of Mount Rainier in exchange for room and board. It still hangs in the lodge.

So does a copy of the lodge's first menu from opening day - Mother's Day 1957.

"I remember how hard they worked," 65-year-old Dixie Devine of Yakima says of the Williams family. "It was so much effort, and they did it all themselves."

Dixie is Doug's cousin; her father and his father were brothers. She and her husband, Jim, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary as well as Jim's 50th birthday at the lodge. They also vacationed there with their kids when they were younger.

"I am proud of the fact the Williams family owns that resort," she says. "I just wish my Uncle Bill could have stayed long enough to see the fabulous resort it's grown into. So many folks have enjoyed it so much. It's a beautiful place."

Helen became the sole proprietor when Bill died in 1965. She ran the place with help from family and seasonal employees until the early 1970s, when she sold it to her son Doug and daughter-in-law Kristy. They decided to keep the lodge open all year-round.

"It became a labor of love," Doug says. "I felt early on that I would probably always be here."

His son feels the same way today: "This is where I grew up. This is home and comfort," says Shane, who plans to work here until he retires. His wife, 38-year-old Michelle Williams, works here, too. She does the bookkeeping.

Shane hopes their boys - 7-year-old Brian and Kameron, who turns 10 next month - will someday take over the family business. But Shane won't push them into becoming the fourth generation of Williamses to run Whistlin' Jack Lodge.

"They have to want to do it," he says.

Soon, they'll likely get a taste of what it's like: "I'm sure they will be busing tables, washing dishes," says Shane, recalling his younger days of doing the same.

"When we were here, we were expected to toe the line," says Shane, who worked weekends and after-school hours at the lodge as did his two brothers. "And all eyes were on you because you were the children of the owners. You were expected to work as hard or harder than anybody else."

Anybody else includes 62-year-old Harry T. Cooper, who has worked at the lodge for 29 years. His business card identifies him as the "No. 1 Semi-Retired Dishwasher, Whistlin' Jack Lodge.

"I went to work that (first) day, and I never did leave," says Cooper, who has lived on the resort grounds since his first day on the job. Other employees - such as musician Don Forgey, who has performed at the lodge on and off for nearly 30 years, and chef Vernon Watson, who has worked at the lodge since he was 19 - used to live at Whistlin' Jack, which still provides board for some of its workers.

"You feel like family when you're here," says 53-year-old Forgey. "I think people come here and they automatically feel like they've stepped into somebody's home."

That's how 43-year-old Watson feels. He likes working at the lodge so much that he plans to retire here. "My favorite thing, I think, is probably the camaraderie, the welcome feeling you get when you walk in the door," he says.

That feeling keeps Art Danner coming back. The 74-year-old breakfast cook has worked at the lodge for 22 years. He commutes from Harrah, 110 miles round trip, twice a week.

"I think of it as a fulfilling place to work,” he says.

And so do the Williamses, who now have so much - 50 years and three generations - invested in the place.

Helen, the matriarch, still has her hopes in it.

"I'd like to see it stay in the family," she says. "I'd like to know that I'll always see them there. I want it there for posterity," inviting folks to come in from the cold, away from the hustle and bustle, on the wintry banks of the Naches River, under the pines, where a fire glows.

Story by Adriana Janovich
Yakima Herald-Republic

in Cliffdell, Washington on Chinook Pass (Hwy 410)
20800 State Route 410
Naches, Washington 98937-9170
Tel. (509) 658-2433
Fax (509) 658-2436
Toll free (800) 827-2299
Email reservations@whistlinjacks.com