Historic Hood River
Lumber Flume
6-28-2017
Notes
We don’t know for sure this is local, but it is described on a stereocard as a lumber flume “bringing lumber six miles from mill to railroad in Oregon USA.”
It’s really amazing these contraptions worked at all, let alone proved to be an economical part of a logging economy.
This would be a good place to point out the difference between a “log flume” and a “lumber flume”. A lumber flume carries finished lumber (or sometimes partially finished lumber) from a mill to a shipping location (or another mill for finishing). A log flume carries logs from near where they are cut in the forest to a mill for processing into lumber.
Buzz
Labor was cheap, produced their own building material, in many cases timberlands were given to them for building the railrods through that land, and the water was free, and environmental and other regulations were practically nil. Many timber barons got wealthy helping to settle the west.
Kenn
Definatly not Broughton, too steep ~
Jeff Bryant
This might be at Ruthton.
L.E.
Appears to be passing through an area that was logged 20? years previously.
I would say more to the west side of Cascades. There is fir, cottonwood and it
I think there were flumes, everywhere, most of which have been forgotten.
Rick
Did kids ride these on days the mills weren’t running?
L.E.
Sorry, I must have erased part of my post.
It looks like some vine maple in the brush. I suppose from Greenpoint to Ruthton would have plenty of vine maple.
You can see a creek over to the right. I wonder if it is natural, or overflow from the flume.
As for kids riding,… the timber baron days were a time of no unions. Did saw mills even shut down on Sunday?
Cliff Elliott
I worked for Hood River Co. Forestry Dept. in the summer of 1969, and we brushed survey lines all through the woods east of Kingsley Reservior and north toward Mitchell Pt. We ran into the old wooden flume from the Davenport Mill on Green Pt. numerous times. (Unfortunately I never did get to go back and explore the area.) I do remember finding remnants of old wood cook stoves, bottles, etc. I wonder if this could be a picture of the same flume.