Vernonia's voice., December 06, 2018, Page 8, Image 8

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community
december6
2018
The West Coast Shoe Company Story
clothing needs, advertising clothing
brands like Pendleton and C.C. Filson,
along with Golzan, Packard, and Skoo-
kum shoes and boots in their windows.
The stock market crash of Oc-
tober 1929 changed everything.
With the economy failing and
the Great Depression soon to follow,
demand for logs quickly ground to a
halt, and with it the demand for Wes-
co’s boots. John Henry lost everything,
including his business, his home, and
his savings. The only things left were
his shoemaking tools, his family, and a
piece of property on the Sandy River.
But John Henry wasn’t a quitter, so he
swapped that vacation property for 11
acres of land overlooking Scappoose
and built a home for his family, with a
boot factory in the basement. The fam-
ily worked together - on a good day they
could turn out eight pairs of logging
boots which John Henry carried out to
the local logging camps to sell. The
economy recovered slowly but surely,
as did the demand for the Shoemaker’s
work boots. The family, including two
adult daughters and their husbands, and
a grown son, built a factory next to the
family home; in 1937 it was a two-story,
2,400 square foot operation.
The original Wesco logo.
The demand for Wesco’s work
boots exploded during the wartime years
of the 1940s, especially their “engineer”
boots that were the preferred choice of
boatbuilders and shipworkers on the
West Coast. The logging business was
also again booming, and so was the West
Coast Shoe Company.
Following the war the company
introduced a new service, one they still
offer today, complete boot rebuilding,
taking a well worn pair of trusty Wes-
co boots and replacing the heels, soles,
laces, tongues and then reattaching the
boot upper. For about one-third of the
cost for a new pair of boots the original
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continued from front page
ers goes back to my grandfather who
was in the sand and gravel industry
– Wesco boots was all anybody wore
back then and we still wear them,”
says Heimuller. “I was just in and
got measured for a new pair of shoes
myself.”
Heimuller tells the story of his
father, who was helped by the Shoe-
maker family when he was a child.
“My dad contracted polio just a short
time after he was born. He spent
about a year in Doernbecher Hos-
pital. When he was discharged at
18 months old the doctors told my
grandmother and grandfather that he
would never walk. They took him
home, but my grandmother was a
bit tenacious so she went and talked
with the Shoemakers. Mr. Shoe-
maker custom made my dad a pair of
shoes that he contorted in a way to
fit my dad’s feet and then my grand-
mother worked with my dad to learn
to walk. She would take him back
to the shoe factory where Mr. Shoe-
The West Coast Shoe Company started in Portland in 1918.
maker would work on his feet. My
This was one of their storefront locations at Morrison Street and 1 st Avenue.
grandmother said that
pair can be brought back
sometimes Mr. Shoe-
to life.
maker would make
Today Westco’s
him some new shoes,
manufacturing plant and
sometimes as often
showroom take up three
as every two weeks,
levels and 19,000 square
or tear apart a pair of
feet, along with a sepa-
shoes he had made
rate office building, all
and readjust the soles
built on the original fac-
and the shoe. By the
tory location tucked up
time my dad was three
in the hills behind Scap-
years old they had him
poose.
The original
walking. The story is
family home still stands
that the Shoemakers
overlooking the busi-
made my dad’s shoes
ness, surrounded by other
for him all through his
homes, some originally
childhood and never
owned by members of
charged the family for
the Shoemaker family
a single pair of shoes.”
and some still owned by
Today Wesco
them. Five of John Hen-
employs
33 people,
ry’s six children lived in
many
of
them high
homes around the fac-
Wesco gives new life to their customers’ worn out boots
quality craftsmen and
by rebuilding them from the sole up.
tory, and many of his
craftswomen,
who
grandchildren still live
where I am now. It was very common
have
worked
for
the
company
for
many
there. A small sign on the lane is the when I was young for me and my cous-
only indication that a world famous fac- ins to run in and out of the factory and years, some even decades.
The product line has grown
tory is hidden in what looks like a quiet see our grandfather and mothers and fa-
over
the
years, but still includes several
neighborhood.
thers all working here.”
models of their famous work boots.
Five family members currently
Wesco has quietly built its repu-
work for the company. “I started work- tation on their dependable and quality Their Timber logging boots feature
ing here during summer and winter products. Columbia County Commis- patented riveted calks and remains the
breaks during college,” says Roberta sioner Henry Heimuller and his family sturdy and dependable boot that Wesco
Shoemaker. “When I graduated from are also longtime county residents. “My originally built their name on. “Today
college I went to work here in the office family’s relationship with the Shoemak- logging boots don’t represent the large
continued on page 13
and I stayed and worked my way up to
MIKE PIHL
LOGGING CO., INC
Free Estimates
Specializing in Private Timber
Theraputic Massage Specializing in
• Auto/Work Injury Rehabilitation
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• Manual Lymph Drainage
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• Sauna on-site
Owned and Operated by
Don & Kim Wallace
#10732
Heather Lewis, LMT, LMP, CLT, NT
Still billing insurance and taking HSA debit cards.
847 Madison Avenue, Vernonia
For appointments call: 503-429-4677
mplogging@frontier.com
1984 mist drive
po box 321
vernonia, or 97064
503-429-1470
cell 503.789.1268
fax 503.429.0252
DON WALLACE, PLS
Professional Land Surveying
1224 E. Alder St.
Vernonia, OR 97064
Phone: 503-429-6115
FAX: 1-866-297-1402
Email: DWallace_KLS@msn.com
CORPORATE
MEMBER