Historic Hood River
Sonny Mill?
Notes
Here’s another fine Columbia River Highway postcard courtesy our friends at ODOT. As the road is not yet paved I’m dating this circa 1915.
This is right around the corner from the Parker house and those cabins at “Sonny” that we looked at earlier.
This one seems to show a mill operation. We know there was a Newby-Kautz mill in the area from about 1907 to 1913, and it was purchased by M. D. Jameson in 1913. The 1911 county map shows it a bit south of the river along a creek. There is reference in The Hood River Glacier to a small mill at Sonny in 1917, so perhaps that’s what we’re looking at.
Mills in this era moved around often as timber was used up or fires destroyed them. The records are sketchy so I’m rarely 100% sure which mill appears in which picture.
By 1935 when the Army Corps of Engineers mapped this area in preparation for the Bonneville Dam construction, there was a small cattle ranch operation down by the tracks but no mention of a mill.
Tags: automobile, Columbia River Highway, mill, Mitchell Point, postcard, railroad, Sonny
Kenn
I see Newby Mill just west of Sonny at the mouth of Mitchell Creek and a Mitchell Point mill farther up the creek. I have followed the remains of a flume from the top of Perham Creek past the upper mill to the lower one. Following the flume down we found the upper mile site where there remains two model T blocks, T pedals and the track of the carriage. At the lower site I remember fenders of old trucks, now gone, and stone building foundations that still exist.
Arthur
Model T engines were often used as power sources at industrial sites like sawmills. Ford continued to manufacture them into the 1940s, long after the Model T was discontinued. They were cheap, reliable, and parts were easy to find.
Kyle
There’s a little inn in Woodstock, VT that claims to have the first "ski lift." It was a tow rope with handles, and it was powered by a Model T engine.