The “Army Mule Train” – Alive Again

March 28, 2022

Years ago, Vera Klock shared with me her unfinished story about a mysterious event – an “Army Mule Train” that passed through our community in April 1942, during World War II. She had wanted to publish this amazing account, but her thorough and even-handed nature would not allow her to bring it forward without certain corroborating details. I urged her to share the story in our Writing Workshop group, and I thought she had done that. Now I’m confused.

Vera’s family has given me a box with writings and newspaper clippings that she had collected, because I asked for anything that related to community history. (I think Vera was a great historian.) In the box, I discovered a story called, “Two Men and a Mule.” It seemed to have been intended for presentation at Writing Workshop. However, she had crossed out HER name as author, and written MINE in its place. At the top of the page was her handwritten note, “written by Karolyn Burdick, drawing on material from Vera Klock’s file on the Mule Train.” I was surprised that she disclaimed authorship. I looked for the story in Vera’s Writing Workshop files, and then in mine; it wasn’t in either. Now I have found it (with many additions), under the name “Two Men and a Mule,” in my general “research” file, where I have put everything related to community history AFTER 1920.

While I am delighted to have found this “lost” story, I am sorry that Vera no longer considered it to be HER story. If I had known this, I would have asked if she felt my involvement in pursuing it to have been intrusive, and to have violated her standards for documentation. I can’t ask Vera for an explanation now, but I hope that she wouldn’t mind having it made public. Eighty years ago, an Army Mule Train came out to the West End. It’s too good a story not to share!

There is “new” information (2022) which came to me from Vera’s box, which adds to the Mule Train story. One item is a very brief article on the front page of the Port Angeles Evening News of Thursday, April 16, 1942.

Group Of Colored Soldiers Held for Peninsula Affray

The army disclosed today that a small group of Negro soldiers was being held in the Fort Lewis guard house after a minor shooting affray on the Olympic Peninsula yesterday, according to an Associated Press news item from Tacoma.

Three or four of the Negroes were slightly injured in an argument among themselves, officers said. The controversy was quickly settled by other soldiers.

A second piece of information comes from the Forks Forum of Thursday, April 4, 2013, in a story by Chris Cook. He wrote about a meeting between James Ho, a writer from Hawaii and Bob Bowlby, and their discussion of “James’ take on what happened, or rather what didn’t happen at Lake Ozette.”. He goes on to quote Ho’s theory, “The most brilliant and ambitious plan that Japan came up with was the invasion of the U.S. Using the disguise plan of leasing thousands of acres from the U.S. to mine for gold in the state of Washington at a place called Lake Ozette, Japan instead used this area as a (possible) staging point to invade the U.S.” Ho goes into detail about the Japanese plans, which were not followed through because the Japanese army and Japanese navy had “different master plans.” The Japanese army plan was to use Lake Ozette as the staging point, and the Japanese navy under Admiral Yamamoto planned to attack Pearl Harbor. The Japanese Naval plan was adopted, therefore the Lake Ozette plan in Washington state was abandoned in 1941.”

For me, this provided an explanation for something Vera had told me years ago – that when she was living along the Hoko-Ozette Road (in the 1930s), she would see cars with Japanese men going back and forth to Ozette Lake. The story was that they were there for gold mining, but she had wondered whether that was true.

Another piece of this puzzle came to light (also from Vera’s box!) – In Patricia Campbell’s book, “A History of the North Olympic Peninsula,” Chapter 48: Peninsula gets through World War II.” She says that, after Pearl Harbor, attitudes changed, “The military, presenting a stony face to the public, said to each other and believed every word of it, “They will attack the Peninsula.”

… What the brass knew but was not saying was that after Pearl Harbor an entire Japanese fleet of carriers and all its supporting ships had been lost sight of. Several months later it was learned the fleet had returned to Japan. But, until the spring of 1942, the U.S. military had to presume it was headed toward the West coast, with the Peninsula its most vulnerable target.”

The combination of these two articles provided me with what I had been looking for all these years – a reason for the existence of the Army Mule Train! Obviously, the unit had been in training before Pearl Harbor, and the plan must have been to defend against a Japanese invasion in the “jungle” around Ozette Lake. After Pearl Harbor, the danger seemed less, but that missing Japanese fleet must have caused concern that there could still be an attempt to set up some kind of base and actually attack Puget Sound-area military targets from Ozette Lake. The military probably learned the whereabouts of the missing ships of the Japanese naval fleet at about the time the mule train arrived in Clallam Bay, and must have then recalled the troops.

Given the wartime restrictions on news of military movements, I guess it is not surprising that there are so many gaps in this story. The pictures of the tent encampment (as the train moved WEST), and those of the troops marching through Clallam Bay headed EAST, reflect only a few of those gaps. I’m grateful to the community members whose memories fleshed out and gave life to this Peninsula World War II story, but mostly to Vera – who wasn’t there for the mule train – but whose careful research brought it to life.