It was about the time of the Alaska Gold Rush that the bicycle craze gave the boys something to dream about.

"Otto Brown did something about it. He made one of wood. Wooden wheels turned on a horse-powered lathe and tires of rope and a wooden frame.

"He not only rode it on the plank sidewalks of Eureka, he rode it clean to Vancouver for the 4th of July!

"The bicycle store man was so impressed that he traded Otto a new bicycle and used the hand-made bicycle for advertising. The Hockinson bicycle stood in the Vancouver store window for several years."

This charming story, as told by Sandy Brown in Dorothy Person's book "From a Forest Clearing" is indicative of the type of hardy individual who populated the community of Hockinson about the time Washington achieved statehood in 1889.

The area was settled by immigrants from Finland and Sweden about 1862 and named Eureka Greek for "I have found it."

For the first decades of existence, Swedish and Finnish were the "official" languages spoken in much of Hockinson, even in some of the public schools.

Today, the fifth or sixth generation Finns and Swedes of Hockinson are completely Americanized, and the languages of their forefathers are all but forgotten.

However, some of the old traditions are still observed, and the countries of origin are still reflected in such family names as Mattson, Kivinen and Carlson.

Finns and Swedes
They settled in the then heavily timbered, hilly area northeast of Vancouver around the present-day intersection of 159th Street and 182nd Avenue.

They were said to be sailors from Sweden and Finland, especially Swedish-speaking Finns from the Aaland Islands off the Swedish coast.

Gary Haney, then a student at Hockinson School, related this explanation in a 1954 essay: "Here in the Hockinson valley, halfway around the world, they found hills covered with firs that reminded them of home, with deep, virgin soil to insure that their sons could be reared as tillers of the soil."

Their immigration, Haney added, answered "a yearning inherent in the blood of the Norsemen to seek new horizons."

There are several explanations as to why the name of the settlement was changed from Eureka to Hockinson.

Historian Guy Reed Ramsey said when a post office was opened there on Nov. 3, 1884, the first postmaster, Ambrose Hockinson, "decided to honor himself when naming the office."

However, Dorothy Person, in her book, has a different version. The postmaster was Ambrosius Hokensen (Anglicized spelling Hockinson). When he submitted the name Eureka to the postal service, they informed him there already was a Eureka, Washington Territory. Their correspondence was directed to Hockinson, Ambrose, and the name just seemed to stick.

Although usually poor (many of the children went to school barefoot), the Finns of Hockinson always kept their pride and sense of humor.

Proud fish eaters
"We're the fish-eating Finns from Hockinson," they often shouted during sports contests with other districts.

By 1901, the "town center" of Hockinson consisted of three stores, one of them containing the post office, at the intersection of 182nd Avenue and 159th Street.

The same general area contained two creameries, two churches, an Odd Fellows Hall and the school building.

Today, this same intersection remains the hub of Hockinson, including the middle school, home of the Hornets.

In a small shelter on the school grounds is a bronze tablet.

"In memory of the men of Hockinson School who gave in our country's service God's most precious gift life."

There are seven names, several of them Finnish.

One landmark perpetuating the Swedish-Finnish heritage of Hockinson is the United Finnish Kaleva Brothers and Sisters hall, which was built by volunteer labor and had its grand opening on Valentine's Day, 1931. The big wooden hall is still used for community events.

The Hockinson pride of identity now mainly centers on the district's public schools. Composed of an amalgamation of such smaller former districts as Fifth Plain, Salmon Falls and Mountain View, the Hockinson district remains one of the largest non-high school districts in the state.