Historic Hood River
Dee, Oregon
4-8-2014
Notes
Here’s Dee in its heyday. You can see the mill in full operation, with the hotel and employee housing in the background. The millpond is backed up behind the dam.
This image was badly faded and covered with spots. I cleaned it up more than I usually do because it is such a fine image. While historians usually prefer to study unretouched images since every spot touch up removes information, I think it’s much easier to do a quick read of an image without the dirt. Don’t worry, our archive preserves the original photograph as well as the unretouched, uncompressed scan.
l.e.
East wind blowing?
What is stacked up by the tracks? Cord wood, slab wood?
I like the touched up photos so I can see them.
charlott
Wonder if that is the company store with the false front on it right in the middle of the photo?
Buzz
Would guess this mill was steam powered, but not sure. Could someone enlighten me?
James Holloway
I.e., That must be cord wood to feed the locomotives….boil the water, creating the steam power to those steel wheels…….Yikes, the Age of Burning…
Jim Gray
Buzz; Not sure of the entire life of the dam or the Mill being steam, but the dam did produce electricity.
Longshot
It is my understanding that at some point the mill had a lot of hydraulically powered machinery.
andyb
Is the current road right about where that railroad track is?
Arthur
The railroad appears to cross on the dam, remains of which you can still see today. Today’s bridge and road would be a little out of frame to the left.
LEE
The Mill burned down in 1913 and was rebuilt and operated with electricity at that time on of the first mills to do that. I know in 1956 that the housing had steam heat as we rented one just below the watertower that is still there.
Jeffrey Bryant
The first mention of the town of Dee in the Hood River Glacier can be found at the following link:
http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1905-12-07/ed-1/seq-2/
Jeffrey Bryant
The Hood River Glacier, March 15, 1906, page 1
Mount Hood Trains Now Running to Dee
http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1906-03-15/ed-1/seq-1/
Jeffrey Bryant
Hood River Glacier, September 10, 1908, page 1
Dee Hotel now open.
http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1908-09-10/ed-1/seq-1/
ROBERT DOWNS
my sister was born in dee in 1939