Historic Hood River
“Planer at Frankton”
Notes
We’ve seen another copy of this image before, but it didn’t have all the names. Also, I know a bit more about the location now.
In 1912 the Stanley Smith Lumber Company had quite an operation in Hood River. They had a large mill up at Green Point fed by three flumes from Rainy, Black and North Lakes, which fed a flume down to this planer mill, and then on down to the mill at Ruthton. While the 1911 County map (produced by local realtors) shows this mill near the Saddle Club at Belmont and Country Club Road, we now have better sources that it was actually at the NW corner of Post Canyon Road and Country Club Road. This is based on the hand-drawn map prepared by Hood River County’s first surveyor and consultation with our current county surveyor. The 1911 map was based on that survey, but made several errors.
You can see all the names on this copy of half of the Slocum panoramic image. On the reverse it adds, “Also worked at planer, not in picture: Alfred Eastman, Tony Frohn, Archie Eastman, Roy Eastman, Steve Eby, Joe Lyberger, George Ledford, John Ledford (planer), Sam Hepner (scaler), Pete Nelson (foreman), Jack Neilegh, L. A. Kerr (night watchman), Charley Early (teamster), John Hutson.” Presumably those are the men in the left half of the image.
I’ll be talking a little about this era in Post Canyon history at a Sense of Place lecture tomorrow (Wednesday). While it is sold out, there is also a streaming option available.
Dale Nicol
I find it really interesting about the number of lumber companies were located on the west side of Hood River. That also includes Krieg Millworks located on Frankton Road and Belmont. I think they were founded around 1907.