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ST. HELENS
The county seat of
Columbia
ounty and the city that has made
more progress during tne pasi
year than any other city on the
Columbia river below the Willam
ette. Like St. Johns. St. Helens
lay dorment for many years and
deservedly had tho reputation of
being one of tne slowest towns in
Oreiron. The beauty or its ioca
tion was admitted, but it requires
pay rolls to make a town and these
were altogether lacking. In the
fishing season a little money was
in circulation here and court
house salaries and visitors on
county business made up the rev
enue on which the inhabitants ex
isted. But a change has come over
the scene, the principal factor in
which is the development of the
rock industry. The St Helens
rocks, after being tneered at for
many years for their unproductive
qualities, have at last demon
strated the faith of old Captain
Lemont, who always insisted that
the time would come when "some
body will want those rocks." The
time has come, but not yet in its
fullness. The number of men em
ployed in crushing rocks and cut
ting Belgian blocks, is small com
pared to what it will be in years
to come. .As Fortland and other
towns and cities of the northwest
grow, the demand for this product
must naturally increase greatly,
for there is no other rock quite as
ood for ravine streets for heavy
traffic or for the construction of
public buildings or churches. At
the present time there are about
three hundred men employed in
the industry here, and those who
are stone cutters earn from $5 to
$7 per day. One large plant
that of the Columbia Contract
company is now being installed,
while the St Helens Quarry com
pany has been running several
years. Phillip Bro. employ about
forty men and Howard & Olsen
about the same number, while yet
another large outfit is at work on
the opposite side of the river, un
der the superintendence of Mr.
Jack McKay.
During the past year James and
Charles Mnckle negotiated a sale
ST. HELENS M.
of their millsite to McCoraick &
Sons, of San Francisco, and these
gentlemen have become very im
portant factors in the upbuilding
of our city. They have caused to
be constructed a mill that repre
sents the highest development in
mill construction, and, it is sup
posed, will give the greatest out
put at the least expense. Its aver
age output will probably be 100,
000 feet in a ten-hour day, and it
will employ from one hundred to
one hundred and fifty men. The
site is certainly unexcelled any
where. The mill rests upon hun
dreds of concrete piers and they
upon the solid basalt bedrock, giv
ing it a foundation that will insure
rigidity for the machinery and a
consequent saving in both time
and material. The St. Helens Log
ging company dumps its product
into the Willamette slough, about
half a mile above the mill, so that
logs can be floated into the boom,
thus saving the expense of rafting.
The McCormicks own their own
vessels six in number so that
they can handle their own product
and be sure of transportation fac
ilities whenever needed. Under
these circumstances it would seem
that the St. Helens mill will be
able to run continuously and give
permanent employment to its
men, and, as they favor the em
ployment of married men, their
presence means a direct addition
of several hundred to our popula
tion. They were so well satisfied
with their first investment, and so
thoroughly cpnvinced of the de
sirability of the location for other
manufactures that more recently
they purchased a tract of land on
Sauvies Island, opposite their
millsite, and it is thought, in a
year or two, a shipbuilding in
dustry will be established there,
jriving employment to a still
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greater number of mechanics.
Foremost among the other im
' provements of the past year must
ho placed tho three-story brick
building erected by Mr. Charles
Muckle. "We do not know of any
other city in Oregon of a like pop
ulation that has so flue, a commer
cial building. It is three stories
in height, the ground floor being
entirely occupied by Jas. Muckle
& Son as a department store, and
the other two stories divided into
thirty rooms for apartments and
office purposes. It is steam heat
ed, lighted by electricity, and has
every other modem convenience,
Its construction demonstrates Mr.
Muckle '8 faith in St. Helens.
The St Helens hotel is another
building of which we are justly
proud. It is three stones, contains
eighty rooms, is handsomely fur
E. CHURCa
nished, and has all modern con
veniences. It is the biggest and
best hotel on the lower Columbia
and, under the management of
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob George, it is
enjoying deserved prosperity.
The Columbia County bank oc
cupies its own building two sto
ries and built of basaltic rock, and
its interior furnishings are second
to very few even in the city ot
CHAS.
Portland. It is the oldest bank in
Columbia county, and has deposits
of about $200,000. During the
panic it was one of the few finan
cial Institutions thai kept its doors
open, being closed but one day,
L ikl&m iu i ..
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and that on the theory that tho
"holidays" wero compulsory. Its
published statements show its sol
idity, and, under .conservative
though liberal management, its
business is coutiuitlly increasing.
Its directors are: Wm. M. Uoss.
Martin 'White, James Dart, aud
Edwin Ross.
The city has a good school,
three church buildings, crushed
rock streets, electric lights, a wa
ter system, for the improvement
of which it recently voted to bond
in the sum of $40,000, business
bouses in all lines, good hotels,
etc., and a beautiful townsite. Of
private residences it has several
that would be a credit to any
town, and very many more are
in course of construction. As it
is only 28 miles from Fortland, on
what is to be the greatest avenue
of commerce in the world, and as
the trrowth of the metropolis is
sure to force manufacturing insti
tutions down the river, it is safe
to predict that St. Helens' rapid
growth during the past year is to
be followed by a still greater
growth in the years to come
Every available toot of water
front will assuredly be occupied
by manufacturing institutions and
an electric road will give frequent
and cheap transit between, Colum
bia county and the metropolis.
Inquiries for business opportuni
ties will be courteously answered
if they address their correspond
ence to the Secretary of the Com
mercial Club, St. Helens, Ore
gon.
THE NEHALEM VALLEY.
Situated in the southwestern
part of Columbia county is what
is termed the Garden Spot of Ore
gon. Dame Nature has played a
lavish hand in the bestowal of so
many good features on thh most
secluded spot.
Tho Nehalom river's source is
found in the coast range of moun
tains, situated in Tillamook coun
ty, within a few miles of its
mouth, Nehalem bay, also in Til
lamook county, twenty miles
south of where the great Columbia
pays tribute to the facific ocean.
A thousand little rills, trickling
down the eastern slopes of the
coast range, uniting occasionally
with each other by mutual consent
to form larger brooks, and by the
time these small streams have
reached the boundary line of Co
lumbia county they have become
streams of considerable conse
quence, and along their banks the
little valleys have,-widened out to
greater proportions than is usual-
MUCKLE'S NEW BUILDING, ST. HELENS.
ly found in a rugged and moun
tainous country.
We will here state that in the
above described region is found
a virgin forest of thousands upon
thousands of acres of the finest
timber kuown to the Taciflo coast.
Tho courso of tho Nehalem river
may bo most easily described by
taking a gignntnic home shoo and
placing one of the heel calks on
the crest of tho coast range of
mountains aud the other on the
ocean beach a few miles south of
Tillamook head, with the too oalk
to the northeastward iu Colum
bia county. Trace the outlines of
this mammoth hoino shoe and you
have approximately the map of
tho Nehalcm Valley,
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ST. HELENS MILL.
Comparatively speaking, up to
1870 this most fertile valley was
unknown, except by a few adven
turers, whose only purpose was to
pursue the game, which, at that
time, abounded in immense herds.
Elks as large as medium-sized
horses were almost as plentiful as
are cattle at the present day. The
nimble deer could be seen on all
sides, skipping about like so many
phantoms; while the beasts of
prey, such as bears, cougars,
wolves, lynx and wildcats, might
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C C. MASTEN'S BUNGALOW, ST. HELENS.
be found at any or all times of the
day or nightpursuing their voca
tion of destruction. The feath
ered tribe was and is well repre
sented. The native pheasant or
partridge was very numerous and
as tame as a domestic fowl, hence
their rapid destruction. Tho na
tive grouse are twin sisters to the
ruffered grouse of the eastern
prairies and are a fine game bird.
The attention of the writer will
now revert back: to tne imprint
made by the hoof of the great
equine monster above described
and endeavor to give an account
of the present condition of things.
As before stated, the principal
part of Nehalem Valley lies in Co
lumbia county and the toe calk of
this great horse shoo' marks what
1
should have been named Corvallis,
or core of the valley. Generally
speaking tho valley lands are al
most entirely free from rocks, of
a vegetable mold in character, un
derlaid, as a rule, with a good
-
n
quality of potters' clay f
tho greatest fertility. Two free
stone water abound- in tho great
est profusion.
Tho chief product of tho soil
are wheat, oats, barley, rye,
vetch, peas, clover, and all kinds
of nutritous grapes, of which tho
farmer invariably expects to reap
an abundant harvest.
Vegetables of all kinds common
to this climate yield excellent
crops. While fruit of the various
kinds does well, it has received
A.
only a limited amount of atten
tion. The chief export, consists of
shingles and cednr lumber, of
which there are millions upon mil
lions hauled by teams to the near
est available shipping points,
Clatskanie being the principal
one.
Nehalem ranchmen enjoy the
distinction of producing the best
quality of cream of any locality in
Oregon.
The product in former years 1ms
if one to the Ilalcwood creamery j
in I'ortlaml, but now tho valley i
has it.s own creamery, located atj
Mist, and, under careful manage
ment, it is achieving success, and
will douhtlcHS soon secure the en
tire Nehalem product.
A before stated, about tho year
1870 the first actual settlers begun
to locate in the neighborhood of
Vernon ia ami what was then call
ed Riverside, now Mist, Fish
hawk, Jewell and Mishawauka.
Those sturdy pioneers struggled
along for from twenty-five to thir
ty years in the vain hope of seeing
a railroad being built through
this lovely valley. While it few
have become discouraged and
have east their lots in other climes,
many of the more patient have
passed to that great beyond with
out realizing their most sanguine
expectations.
The writer has experienced the
many tips and downs incident to a
life of over thirty years in what
was at first a dismal wilderness,
arid has noted tho material pro
gress that was evident at the close
of each succeeding decade,
It might seem strange to see
men making of themselves, as it
were, a beast of burden, and pack
ing heavy loads upon their own
backs a distance, at times, of more
than twenty miles. Later on,
when trails were opened, horses
and mules were used instead of
human beings for such purposes.
Later on roads were opened, so
that sleds and carts drawn by ox
teams were used for freighting
purposes. It is only within the
last fifteen or twenty years that
wheeled vehicles could bo used
with any degree of success, but at
the present time thi majority of
tho roads are either corduroyed,
planked or graveled. Whilo they
seem pretty rough, it is a decided
improvement over primeval con
ditions. If tho reader will pictiiro in his
mind's eye an impenetrable jungle
in tho wilds of Central Africa, in
habited only by wild animals, ho
can understand what Nehalem
Valley was thirty years ago; but
now it is difierent. Think of a
dense forest without a mark of
eiviliiittimi and through .whose
tangled boughs tno sun a 01 .k-v
tvs had scarcely, been able to
iicn
Irate for num. icon '""
...,.l l he irri'ii r c
conl rust.
Tho
i.... mi. v now drive.
with
wmpanitivo comfort. Iron, end to
end of this most fertile valley aud
view on every hand tho many coy
cottages
hat Btloru siicucr
the patient tiller of tho soil, whilo
in tho field the luxurient young
1 Hill fiii'i ( , - -
sea of emeralds waiting for
..aitk nun irriiMM in notn
. ;.. i.'iii iiuf likn
a
tho
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fir ttn1'
RESIDENCE OF J. W.
Hit 1 V
Ao To Laws
THE REAL ESTATE MAN
St. Helens Oregon
Logged-Off Lands
Timber Lands
Fruit Lands
Dairy Ranches
If you want to buy or
sell property in any of
these classes, or any
other kind
correspond
upon
A. T. LAWS
St. Helens
reaper a ekle, wh.le tho lary eow
forages along tho miy
and the sleek, frinfcy h..i S j!
over the field. Tho far r, K
luippy ram.ly ru realm,,,, tl.
fruits of their labor.
O.i nil aides there ar0 to b (,ca
iiatakablo tokens f p,,,,,,,,,.
ity, happiness d co,,tl(tm'((1,
where so recently it Was but '
howling wilderness.
WARREN.
To the north of Scappooso Wl(i
possessing the sama general chir
aeteristiea, is the Warren cotmtr
stretching away from the 8cir
pomo bay to tho blue footliilln lnj
closely settled by a prosperous and
industrious neuple,. Itttt ffi
ycara ago tho heavy timber cn,,
down to the bay and logglu
camps were busily engaged in cut.
ting it off and dumping it ,,t,,
water. Now the eye rnugi f0P
miles over a succession ()f heut,
fill cleared fields bearing u.SVy
cropa or corn, oaU, wheat Ami
other grains and grasses, tmj
cord wood must bo haulixl a tlit.
tanco of four miles down knuU
from tho hills to the landing pin,.
at the water side. Corn i 0f
(he chief crops at Warren, ,(
though, it is generally cut gtm
for ensilage, yet an excellent qi1(,j,
it v is produrod. AH tho grnwut
and fruits do well here, ami, in
fact, there is no material diflVr
Ciiee between this lllld the fictip.
pixwc country.
You can buy land in Columbia
county and let it to apple tr
for $100. and in ten years it will
be worth 91,000 per acre.
Columbia county has building
stone and pottery clay.
The fruit industry U in iu in.
fancy in Columbia county. Thert
is big money for the men who
start commercial orchards.
POMEROY. SCAITtXME.
of
realty,
with or call
Oregon