Historic Hood River
Mill and Mill Town
Notes
Our collection includes this postcard of a lumber mill and the surrounding mill town. I did an image search with Google and found a similar view attributed to the Oregon-American Lumber Company mill in Vernonia, Oregon. This mill was burned for a 1961 movie titled “Ring of Fire”.
You can read more about the mill here and here. These histories would date this image to the 1920s. I’m a bit surprised there are no automobiles visible, given the date.
This interactive map overlays the mill on Vernonia today, and gives some insight into mill town life in the 1920s. It identifies housing as “Japanese Colony”, “Negro Colony”, and “Filipino Colony”. Aligning that map with this image (use the large burner and mill for context), we’re looking at the housing on the north side of the mill. The “colonies” are out of frame to the right.
Pat A
Great information on this scene, especially the interactive map.
My wife and I enjoy camping in Anderson park near the old mill site in Vernonia. We escape there from the heat of summer and love riding bike trails on the old railroad trail.
I plan on watching the, Ring of fire it has some great railroad logging scenes.
L. E.
The Nehalem River flows through Vernonia. That is one crazy river. It begins on the east side of the Coast Range. Flows northeast, through Vernonia, then heads north, like it wants to get to the Columbia River, but those darn hills get in the way, so it turns west, makes its way around the north side of the Coast Range then heads southwest for the ocean. It winds and curves and finally ends up in Nehalem Bay.