Blazing the Way; Or, True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget Sound

FORT DECATUR. JANUARY 26, 1856
OR TRUE STORIES, SONGS AND SKETCHES OF PUGET SOUND AND OTHER PIONEERS
BY EMILY INEZ DENNY WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR AND FROM AUTHENTIC PHOTOGRAPHS
SEATTLE: RAINIER PRINTING COMPANY, Inc. 1909
Copyright 1899 By EMILY INEZ DENNY Published 1909
To My Dear Father and Mother, Faithful Friends and Counselors, Whose pioneer life I shared, This book is affectionately dedicated By THE AUTHOR
A star stood large and white awest, Then Time uprose and testified; They push’d the mailed wood aside, They toss’d the forest like a toy, That great forgotten race of men, The boldest band that yet has been Together since the siege of Troy, And followed it and found their rest. —Miller
BLAZING THE WAY.
In the early days when a hunter, explorer or settler essayed to tread the mysterious depths of the unknown forest of Puget Sound, he took care to “blaze the way.” At brief intervals he stopped to cut with his sharp woodman’s ax a generous chip from the rough bark of fir, hemlock or cedar tree, leaving the yellow inner bark or wood exposed, thereby providing a perfect guide by which he retraced his steps to the canoe or cabin. As the initial stroke it may well be emblematical of the beginnings of things in the great Northwest.
I do not feel moved to apologize for this book; I have gathered the fragments within my reach; such or similar works are needed to set forth the life, character and movement of the early days on Puget Sound. The importance of the service of the Pioneers is as yet dimly perceived; what the Pilgrim Fathers were to New England, the Pioneers were to the Pacific Coast, to the “nations yet to be,” who, following in their footsteps, shall people the wilds with teeming cities, a “human sea,” bearing on its bosom argosies of priceless worth.
It does contain some items and incidents not generally known or heretofore published. I hope others may be provoked to record their pioneer experiences.