Historic Hood River
Mill Pond, Mill A
9-18-2020
Notes
This image of the log pond up at Mill A bears what I believe is the handwriting of A.J. Shepler. In addition to the location, he identifies himself (“AJS”), “Fat” Withrow, and “Couchenhower”. Not a lot to go on, but maybe we’ll learn more about these men.
Mill A was up the Little White Salmon River, and fed the Oregon Lumber Company flume bringing logs down to the Columbia for the mill at Viento.
Not sure I like the way that trestle is sagging under the weight of the rail car full of logs.
Charlott
Withrow was Reuben E.Withrow, a native of Missouri born in 1882 and the son of Millard and Clarinda Withrow. He had various jobs, initially as a very young man as a night watchman. There was a time that he was cooking in a logging camp and eventually went to work in this sawmill.
He eventually married and her name was Luella Mead.
He eventually moved to Oregon where he lived out the remainder of his life.
Arlen L Sheldrake
the sag is worrisome but polling those logs off is not my idea of a safe operation.
kmb
This is definitely the pre-OSHA era. You can only imagine how many men fell doing an operation like this.
Kenn
Question for Arlen, is that a full body engine or a caboose/crew car?
Kenn
Mill A location is well marked on the road up to Willard from Cooks, a group of buildings or homes,
Kenn
I do not think the trestle sags, many unloading sites without a crane were built with a tilt to better unload the logs. Some others used a jillpoke which I see no trace of.
Arlen L Sheldrake
I believe it is a steam locomotive Kenn with a winter friendly crew accomodation…….
also, I count six people in this picture,,,two on the loco. this is an amazing picture. I also wonder how many workers joined the logs into the pond……both for a one-way trip.
L.E.
I am not saying this work wasn’t dangerous, but I think you are seeing more danger than what there really is.
I don’t think there is a sag in the trestle. I think it is flat and then once the logs are unloaded, uphill to the shed.
I think the men on top are posing for the photo. I don’t think they are going to stand there and push logs off. I think the log at the bottom front is stationary. The load pulls up next to it. Chains are removed and that front log is dropped down, so the load can fall into the water.
But….I could be all wrong.
Mill A is still a community with a K through 8th grade school. High school goes to Stevenson.
ArthurB
It seems like every time I look at the Glacier to research something, I find an article about a mill worker or logger being killed or maimed.
Norma Curtis
I have a picture of mill-a with the little steam engine in it and it has Little Kate on the side and has 1900 on the picture.
Alan
"Question for Arlen, is that a full body engine or a caboose/crew car?"
That is a "steam dummy" or "steam tram engine." Formerly used on street railways and rendered surplus by electrification. It may have hauled a string of former horse-drawn streetcars, or may have been used to move freight cars on in-town street trackage, replaced in the later case by little steeple-cab electric locomotives. The fully-enclosed steam-dummy locomotive body, with skirting hiding the wheels and scary side-rods and such was supposed to make them less scary to horses and children. After displacement by electrics, many lived on doing light-weight industrial work. In this case, the logs may have been brought down from the woods camp by a huskier road locomotive, and which could head back to the woods with the empties from the previous train, leaving this little fellow to shuffle a car or two at a time onto the dump track. The enclosed body may have been nice in the winter (when few logs were moving), but it would have been mighty uncomfortable in hot weather.