ELIJA “LIGE” COALMAN
In the history of early Sandy one of their outstanding leaders was Elijah “Lige”
Coalman, the son of pioneers Stephen and Elizabeth Harnett Collman. He was born in
1880 on the family’s 160-acre tract of land bordering the Sandy River and located two to
three miles N.E. of Sandy, near the Frances & Lydia Revenue home and trading post.
Tragically, Lige’s mother Elizabeth died when Lige was about 18 months old.
Fortunately, nearby neighbors, the Steve andEllen Mitchell family (who had nine
children of their own), took Lige in like he was one of their family. Lige’s father Steve
was in charge of maintaining and improving the Barlow Road and often took Lige along
on horseback after he was four and until he could ride on his own.This is when Lige
attained a love for Mt. Hood and the beautiful foothills around it.
At an early age, Lige learned carpentry and was in charge of building the
Oddfellows Hall (which is still standing in Sandy) and several homes. He was active in
the community and served as Master of the Sandy Grange. He climbed Mt. Hood with a
Mazama group when he was 17 and became fascinated with the mountain.
Coalman thought he might be interested in becoming a blacksmith, so my father,
Robert Jonsrud, who had worked successfully as a Sandy blacksmith, taught him the
trade. Lige tried it for a time with a partner named Baker but soon decided he wanted to
spend his life in the mountain area. He went to work for Oliver Yokum who built the first
hotel in Government Camp. Yokum, a noted Mt. Hood guide for climbing groups, took
Lige along as a helper. As Yokum aged, Lige eventually took over as the veteran guide.
Lige was able to accomplish a record of 586 climbs which still stands
unchallenged today!
On his many trips from Sandy to Government Camp, he usually rode horse-back
but if no horse was available, he walked. It is said that he would keep up a steady pace
despite the slopes. He also made several walking trips to downtown Portland.
Lige was 30 years old when he married Elvira Nystrom in 1910. They became
the parents of four children, Elrod, Elvin, Roy, and Louise. Lige became so involved with
climbing that he was seldom home and the couple eventually divorced.
When Lige was injured on Mt. Hood by a falling rock in about 1928 and could no
longer work at high altitudes, he took a job as Manager at the Spirit Lake YMCA Camp
at the foot of Mt. St. Helens and worked there for nine years. It was the job that Harry
Truman (not the President) took when Lige moved to California. Truman wouldn’t leave
when the mountain gave signs of erupting so he died in the 1980 eruption!
In California, Lige joined the YMCA staff at Berkeley and then managed their
summer camps on the Gualala River in Sonoma County in northern California. He had
one last visit to Sandy in 1969. He died in California in 1970. In accordance with his
wishes, his ashes were returned to Mt. Hood.
His daughter from Los Angeles and several grandchildren attended one of the
last “Pioneer Picnics” of our historical society at Nelson Memorial Pioneer Park in the
1990s. A few years ago, most of the grandchildren and their families visited Cliffside
Cemetery where daughter Louise’s ashes were placed.
I have always felt privileged to have met Lige Coalman several times in his later
years when he visited my parents.
