“The doctor locked her patients up and starved’em! To skin ‘n bone I heard.”

“That’s right and each one of them trees marks a spot where the old lady buried one of her victims.”

Growing up in Star Lake Township, Linda Burfield was described as an intelligent but haughty and high strung.

“I do have fond memories of those days with the hot summer breeze brushing over the lake, but I couldn’t spend my life there I would have lived and died in that hot wind.”

Linda moved to Minneapolis where she became obsessed with the idea that fasting could cure any and all illness. She called herself a fasting specialist and made wild claims of success.

“My method, which includes daily enemas, rids the body of toxins that cause imbalances. Cases deemed incurable by doctors have recovered under my care. This includes everything from chronic constipation, diabetes, paralysis and syphilis. In short, I have discovered the secret of eternal health!”

Minnesotans were a bit skeptical about Linda’s claims so she moved to Olalla, Washington and opened the Wilderness Heights Sanitarium. She made patients fast for days and weeks with the only nourishment being small amounts of tomato or asparagus juice.

Among her clients were wealth English sisters Claire and Dora Williamson. They had corresponded with Linda and submitted to her cure-all with only one side effect, Clair starved to death.

Claire Williamson weighed less than 50 pounds when she died of starvation. Furthermore, Linda forged Claire’s will, stole her valuables and even extracted gold fillings from the dead woman’s mouth. Realizing her own life was in danger, Dora smuggled out a telegram. By the time a family friend arrived she weighed less than 60 pounds but managed to survive.

During an investigation, authorities discovered more than 40 people had been starved to death, their remains scattered throughout the property.

To this day old time Olalla residents refer to Wilderness Heights as Starvation Heights, courtesy of Star Lake’s very own Linda Burfield, fasting specialist.