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About Siletz news / (Siletz, OR) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2007)
NOTICES Native Christian Conference Scheduled for Seven Feathers Casino The fourth annual Native Christian Conference will feature two days of spiritual discussions and insights about unity in the Body of Christ. There will be American Indian dancing, praise and worship, and general fellowship. The conference will be held at the Seven Feathers Casino Convention Center in Canyonville, Ore. The conference begins at I p.m. on March 30 with Laura Grabner and Pas tor Larry Gatlin as speakers. After a dinner break, the evening will feature praise and worship, and Pastor Micheal Pina and Pastor George Kallappa as speakers. On March 31, the program begins at 9 a.m. with praise and worship. Speakers for the morning session will be Stan Speaks. Sue Shaffer, and Rev. Millie Salt. After a noon lunch break, the conference will resume at 2 p.m. with a series of workshops. The closing session will start at 7 p.m. after a dinner break and Pastor Dave Booye and Brad Booye will be the fea tured speakers. The conference also includes hand crafted items for sale. Crafts do not have to be Indian and display space is $20. For conference reservations, addi tional information, or to reserve craft display space, contact Millie Salt at 541-791-3674, e-mail her at salt_of_the_earth513@hotmail.com, or write to Salt of the Earth Ministry, P.O. Box 1094. Albany, OR 97321. Registration is $30 per person for the two days. Tickets will be available at the door. First Warrior Project Features World War II Veterans, Others When the First Warrior Project is finished, it will have successfully pho tographed and recorded the stories of 125 American Indian combat World War II veterans. This includes a story on Edward Collins, and Gil bert Towner Jr. is recognized in a section on Korean War veterans. These heroic warrior sto ries will serve as cultural and histori cal value for years to come. Many people don't know that during WW1I, more than 12,000 Indian men and women enlisted and served in all branches of the service. Many gave the ultimate sacrifice. We must never let America overlook their courage and valor. Jeff Mitchell, creator and photog rapher of the First Warrior Experience, invites any tribe that still has any liv ing combat WWII veterans to contact him so their stories can be told and pre served forever, and to ensure that our WWII American Indian veterans have a place in our nation’s history. For more infor mation. contact Jef frey A. Mitchell at 32912 River's Drive, Chiloquin. OR 97624; 541-892-0756 or 541-783-2762; (e-mail) jemitch!2@ aol.com; or visit www.firstwarrior.com. Siletz Logging: Railroads and Rafts by Leonard Whitlow Jr. Most of the residents of the Siletz Valley assume that all the early logging done in the valley was done by rail road. Much of it was. In 1918 when Spruce Logging began in earnest, rail lines reached out from Toledo. Old rail beds in the Siletz area fan out from Camp 12, circling by Dewey Creek Falls, radiating out west and north to Pompel Hill and Ojai la Road. Many of those old rail beds are now roads, including the Siletz-Toledo Highway, which was constructed after the railroad from the reload (near Moonshine Park) to the mill was aban doned to the state in I960. To obtain rock to build the rail beds, a drag line was strung across the Siletz River just downstream from the G-P pump station and upstream from the old agency ferry crossing. Logs were pulled by steam donkey to the railroad directly or from a distance by a skyline. Then they were loaded on “disconnected” cars for the trip to the mill in Toledo. The terrain was too rough, however, to extend those lines all the way down the Siletz to the ocean. The bosses at C.D. Johnson in Toledo knew that moving logs by water is much cheaper than transportation by rail. At that time, C.D. Johnson ran the mill and Manary Logging Company handled their log ging operations. In the early 1920s, Manary Log ging built Camp No. I I, a floating log ging camp that was more affectionately known as “The Ark.” Constructed in Toledo, the Ark traveled down the Yaquina River, then via the ocean it was towed to Siletz tidewater, where it was anchored up and down the river, wherever a stream allowed a clean and constant water supply. Right: An old rail bed. circa 1918 Below: The Ark. a floating logging camp 12 • Siletz News • March 2007 The Ark contained bunkhouses for the men, showers, a cookhouse, saw filers, and even a small commissary. Men logged the old-growth spruce and fir trees to the river. There they were rafted, towed to sea, then to Newport and up the Yaquina to the mill at Toledo. The February 2007 issue of Siletz News featured a front-page article about underwater logging that could eventu ally become a successful enterprise on both the Siletz and Yaquina rivers. Old-growth spruce trees did not al ways float very well. Some sank before the rafting crews could rescue them. At log dumps and in rafts, “sinkers” were often tied to large fir logs to keep them afloat. Even those sometimes broke away to sink to the bottom of the river and some worked their way underwater down to the tidal flats where they became buried in mud. Back in those days, timber and la bor were cheap and little effort was made to salvage the ones that sank. When the dam at Valsetz was re moved. Boise Cascade was astounded by the number of logs that had sunk to the bottom. Generations to come will find it hard to believe the size of these giant logs and the ingenuity of the men who fell them and got them to the sawmill. Leonard Whitlow Jr recently donated documents and historical publications to the Siletz Tribe and the Siletz Public Library (Siletz News, February 2007).
