More Local Lore

Stories compiled from old issues of the Fairhaven Gazette. (No longer in print.)

Many thanks to Tyrone and Penny Tillson for their research and preservation of the history of Fairhaven.

Copyright 2001, Fairhaven Association and Leapfrog Marketing. All rights reserved.

Spider Biles

Assistant Fire Chief Frank Biles became a legend during the summer of 1892. Apparently, he had an uncanny knack for discovering fires rather shortly after they had been started. That summer, Joe Alsop's buildings (behind the Morgan Block) seemed to burst into flames every few weeks without explanation. A cloud of policemen began following Biles on a regular basis in hopes they would discover the secrets to his success as a fireman. Sure enough, one September afternoon Mr. Biles excused himself for lunch and found his way down to the Alsop Building. He crawled under the charred building with matches in hand, and upon retreating found a crowd of yelling people who had been "watching him work" through a peephole through which they were taking turns keeping an eye on the building. He was arrested and hauled off to the Donovan Street Jailhouse, appropriately housed in the basement of the Firehouse. "Spider Biles" got his nickname because when he retreated from under the building he was covered in cobwebs. Turns out, Biles was upset that Mr. Alsop had requested payment of the $10 Biles owed him, and Biles had decided to "get even."

Ghost Train

Every December, a "ghost train" is rumored to run between Fairhaven, through Happy Valley, down to the Skagit. The whistle blows, the wind blasts through and the roar of the train is rumored to be heard. As there are no tracks for the train to run on, where does it come from?

On December 21, 1892, a freight pulled out of Fairhaven southbound. Earlier, a train of logs had crossed the bridge across the Skagit, and the weight of it had broken the chord above the long wooden span and sprung the bent below. The watchman had discovered the break, and a carpenters gang had been sent up from below Mt. Vernon to make repairs. The superintendent declared it safe for passage, much to the distress of the foreman. The bridge might be safe in two hours time, but the "super" insisted the train make the crossing. As it made its way across, the bridge broke and the train tumbled into the river, killing all three men on board.

Every anniversary of the crash, the ghost train runs. It runs over the same line, on a ghost track - though the track hasn't been there for many years. It stops at stations that are but a memory, and it crashes and clatters on to the Skagit at the wrecked bridge, and the locomotive drops to the bottom of the river, the end of the run...