Skookum is a Chinook Jargon word that has been in widespread historical use in British Columbia and the Yukon,[1] as well as the Pacific Northwest.
Another compound, though fallen out of use in modern British Columbia English, is skookum lacasset or 'strongbox'.
[citation needed] It is a common placename in British Columbia, Washington and Idaho.
The term is used for tidal-exchange rapids at the mouths of inlets and bays, a regular feature of the Inside Passage, especially Skookumchuck Narrows.
Skookums were bad spirits or devils of which crows, eagles, owls, blue jays, various beasts and reptiles could be representations.
They were factory-made dolls[5] that resembled Native American people and were sold to tourists at trading posts in the western United States.
[citation needed] Skookum, either alone or in the combination skookumchuck, occurs in dozens of placenames throughout the Pacific Northwest region and beyond.
That locomotive, Columbia River Belt Line Number 7, is notable both for being the first Mallet built by the company for logging purposes, and for having been saved from its planned scrapping by getting into an accident that caused it to be stranded in the woods until preservationists could purchase and restore it.