Both Ahlstrom's and Roose's prairies were used to gather berries, Labrador-tea, and basketry materials, and as hunting areas for elk, deer, and black bear.

Peter Roose settled on one of these prairies when he immigrated to the Ozette Lake area, claiming 160 acres (65 ha) under the Homestead Act.

Where Ahlstrom's prairie had a Makah cabin he could live in initially, Roose, a carpenter by trade, built all his own structures from timber he cut and milled on site.

[2] He sold canned mutton, wool, and fruit, worked occasionally as a logger, supplied lumber for construction of the Ozette Lake schoolhouse, and traded with the Makah.

His only neighbors were the few Makah living in Ozette Village (35 people in 1906, down to 0 by the late 1930s), Lars Ahlstrom, and a few Scandinavian families at the lake.

[2] The Ozette Lake and Cape Alava areas, including Roose's homestead, were added to Olympic National Park in 1953.

[2] By this time good farming land was becoming scarce, and immigrants found themselves pushed into more marginal areas such as the Olympic Peninsula.

However, Scandinavians from Scandinavia and the upper Midwestern states of Minnesota and the Dakotas were attracted by the lack of snow and the apparent fertility of land that could grow such large trees and dense brush.

An overland route approached the east side of Ozette Lake from Clallam Bay on a 25-mile-long (40 km) foot trail, now the Hoko-Ozette Road.