Historic Hood River
Flume Trestle
Notes
Images of engineering feats are always more fun when they’re full of people. How many men do you count in this image?
This is identified as the Big Stanley Smith trestle on the Trip Gate flume. We know the Stanley Smith mill at Greenpoint (now Kingsley) was fed logs by flume from Rainy, North, and Black Lakes. Rough sawed lumber traveled by flume to their planing mills at Belmont and Ruthton. Does anyone know where “trip gate flume” was located?
As a generic term, a “trip gate” is a kind of a dead man switch on a flume’s water source. When a flume fails, a simple electrical circuit is interrupted causing the water source to be diverted from the flume. This can prevent the serious damage of uncontrolled water spilling from the flume. I wonder if every section of flume warranted a trip gate of some sort, or if they were reserved for more critical segments.
Carolyn
Are there names for all these women? We have a copy of this photo
in with our family photos.
Thanks for any help!