Some History

Prior to Tempo Lake there was a small pond. It was called Bushman Lake after Harry & Evelyn Bushman placed a sign on the archway gate over the walkway leading to their house proclaimed it so. Some folks also knew it as Post Lake, but early maps show Post Lake located a quarter of a mile east of Bushman Lake.  Mr. Watkins who used to own all the property over the hill to the west of Bushman Lake said that he used to catch huge cat fish in Post Lake over the hill to the east of Bushman Lake.

The alder forest, pasture land, and swampy area around that small body of water was cleared and a reinforced concrete dam placed on bedrock at the year round running creek that left the area to create the reservoir now known as Tempo Lake.  This reservoir is about 32 acres in size. I’ll confirm that later.

The reservoir and new name took place in 1962 with a petition to the United States Board of Geographic Names that was signed by all the property owners within a mile or so of the reservoir.

Post Lake and the wet area surrounding it drains into Tempo Lake by means of a winter seasonal creek at the North end of the lake.  This creek was created in the 1940’s by the Civilian Conservation Corp who dug a drainage ditch over a rise for about 50 to 75 feet toward the west to allow Post lake to drain also westward where it previously drained only to the southeast. The intent was to create more farmible land.

The flow of water running out of the lake in the summer would be so low that fish would be trapped in pools in the creek. Toby Snyder the owner of Bushman Lake and the Ritchie family who created the reservoir would weekly catch most of the fish in pails and tubs and carry them up to the lake leaving a few to enjoy and watch in the pools. 

“I knew the hiding spots for the bigger trout and could crawl on my belly up to the creek and slip my arm over a log and slide my hand along a trout gently and slowly until I could feel the area behind the head and just grab the fish and run up to the lake with the 15 to 28 inch fish,” Ned Ritchie.

When the Chehalis Western Railway raised the out fall of the creek into the Deschutes river the cutthroat and salmon could no longer migrate up the creek toward the lake.

Even today the seepage from the dam still allows for a year round creek with large pools of water.

Stay tuned for how the bullfrogs arrived

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