Historic Hood River
Dee Detail
9-30-2019
Notes
We saw this September 1909 image of the Dee mill a few years ago but I thought you would enjoy seeing this detail. This is early in the history of this mill town. It kind of has that “frontier town” feel, with everything a bit haphazard.
lee
As you can tell this is the back side of the Hotel looking to the North the Mill and pond on the left. There was also a Post Office, Store, and Beer Tavern plus houses on both sides of the river. It was very cold in the winter and hot in the summer.
nels
I'm assuming the white to the left is water, so there must have been a dam there?
ArthurB
Yes, there was a dam which formed the mill pond. Remnants of the dam are still visible from the road to Lost Lake.
Kenn
What are the final dates for the hotel and covered bridge?
L.E.
In the October 8, 1908 HR Glacier Page 2:
ACCIDENT WRECKS DEE POWER PLANT:
Failure of the governing machinery to work on the big dynamo of the Oregon Lumber company at its power plant at Dee last week run away and caused the dynamo to wreck the plant. Part of the 10 ton flywheel was thrown across the river a distance of several hundred feet. One hundred and fifty men are out of employment as a result of the accident……
ArthurB
Wow, that's an amazing story. For those of you who don't remember how steam engines work, the regulator prevents the RPM from exceeding a certain value. Centripetal force of rotating weights triggers a release of steam if the RPM exceeds the desired speed– you don't have direct control of the fuel like a gas engine. If the regulator fails and the boiler has a good head of steam, the engine will go faster and faster until something fails. The flywheel is an inertial mass whose rotation smooths out the power delivery of the engine as the piston stroke only provide power in one part of the cycle. The flywheels I have seen are large cast iron parts- I'm not sure what part broke off, but once the flywheel becomes unbalanced the engine will rip itself apart. I'm amazed no one was killed. How is it we don't have a photograph of the aftermath?