Welcome to ShingleCreek.Net

When Eliel Ahola cleared an opening for a house on the homestead, he probably didn’t envision the many descendants who would spring from his venture in America. It was a humble beginning for this Finnish emigrant; the forested hills that surrounded the home-site were crowned with rocks and underbrush. His future wife Hilda had not yet come to America. The Yacolt Burn of 1902 would consume their house and most of the trees, but the Aholas would rebuild, and establish a family farm. Eventually, Hilda and Eli had ten children: Bill, Mary, Sophie, Ester, Eino, Marcie, Maymie, Elsie, Alfred, and Milton.

“Shingle Creek” is the family name for one small stream Eli crossed, to split cedar shakes for the roofs of some of the outbuildings: the sauna, the summer house, the barn, the chicken houses and the prune dryer. These structures are now ghost-buildings—gone, except the farmhouse. All the more reason to keep the homestead memories alive.

The “Shingle Creek” website will be devoted to celebrating the Ahola family heritage. We hope that seeing these beginning pages will encourage other descendants of Eli and Hilda Ahola—you know who you are—to add your voices to ours (perhaps, in essay or poetry form). Maybe you have the recipe for the salt-fish that used to hang—inside the bucket—in the wood-shed. Tell us where you can still buy korppu (cinnamon toast). Or post your baby announcement. We also invite the family still in Finland to contribute to the website.

Send an e-mail, and leave a short message with your phone number or e-mail address; we’ll get in touch with you, later.

For others viewing this site: Welcome. We hope you enjoy the visit, and that you are stirred to preserve your own family heritage.

The contents of shinglecreek.net are copyrighted
and are not to be used without the permission of:

Webmaster: Rusty Countryman
Editor: Nita Countryman

Updated: June 27, 2007

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