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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2015
Photo courtesy Clatsop County Historical Society
The Westport skid road tunnel is pictured around 1910. It was converted to rail around 1906. C.P. Sutfin, who took the photo, is pictured at left holding a string attached to his camera shutter.
Westport: Community thrived on old-growth lumber
Continued from Page 1C
BOOK REVIEW
He wasn’t really a reluctant researcher. He
had the family connection with West, a lifelong
fascination with ships, which play a crucial part
of Westport’s story, plus strong support from the
historical society.
The historical society’s chief archivist, Liisa
Penner, who wrote the foreword, met Aalberg
digging through ¿le bo[es in the basement of the
Clatsop County Courthouse some 25 years ago.
“Westport Oregon: Home of the Big Sticks
and Gold Medal Salmon,” by Jim Aalberg
Clatsop County Historical Society, illustrat-
ed, 212 pages
$30
Tidy his family archives
Aalberg is happy his research has helped tidy
his family archives. More importantly, he has
preserved the trio’s memories. “The thing that re-
ally motivated me was these people who wanted
me to tell their story,” he said. “Every one had a
positive attitude about the company, the church,
the strong worN ethic, the Àower shows and all
those things. It just amazed me. I wanted to tell
their stories.”
The story begins with West emigrating from
his native Scotland to Quebec, marrying in 1832,
then joining hordes seeking fortunes in the Cali-
fornia Gold Rush. When that didn’t pan out, he
moved north to Portland then Astoria.
Upriver he built a waterwheel-powered saw-
mill and salmon cannery on a 640-acre donation
land claim in the 1850s and named the settlement
West Slough and later Westport. The easternmost
Clatsop County community, which once marched
to the tune of the mill whistle, never became an
incorporated city.
“Captain” West became the ¿rst postmaster
and served as justice of the peace. His son, Da-
vid, ran the mercantile, which housed the post
of¿ce, and was the ¿rst telegraph operator.
West packed salted ¿sh in barrels which were
shipped around Cape Horn to East Coast ports
and Great Britain. This progressed into canning,
an industry that peaked on the Columbia River
in the 1880s. The Scot also canned mutton and
beef, ¿nding markets for byproducts, including
oil sTueezed out of ¿sh during processing.
West’s breakout moment for his distinctive
red label Oregon brand, was earning the gold
medal for best canned salmon at the Oregon Ag-
ricultural Society Fair in 1874. The name stays
alive today on products distributed from a base in
Liverpool, England.
Thrived on old-growth lumber
As old-growth lumber was e[hausted in the
East Coast and Midwest in the 1890s, Westport
thrived. The town e[perienced 120 years of con-
tinuous saw-milling operations, surviving multi-
ple changes in mill ownership, rebuilding after
catastrophic ¿res.
“I don’t know of any community that has had
that role in the Northwest and had such an impact
throughout the world,” Aalberg said.
The subtitle of the book — “big sticks” —
refers to old-growth Douglas ¿r, notably from
the Nehalem watershed. Trees up to 112 feet
long were cut by 12-foot ban saws. Timber was
carried around the world to Australia, Japan,
FREE
PUBLISHED THE FIRST FRIDAY
OF EACH MONTH
January 2015
ess
Chronicling the Joy of Busin
Patrick Webb/For The Daily Astorian
Beginning in 1916, the Diamond W brand
of the Westport Logging Co. went on any
piece of timber wider than 6 inches.
Patrick Webb/For The Daily Astorian
The distinctive red label of the John West Oregon Brand canned salmon has traveled all
over the world. Its sales were boosted when it was honored with a Gold Medal at the 1874
Oregon Agricultural Society Fair.
Proceeds to the historical society
Photo courtesy Clatsop County Historical Society
This is believed to be the Hungry Hollow Logging Camp near Westport around 1915 and
shows a blacksmith, cooks and flunkies next to the mess hall, at right.
China and Guam on sailing vessels and then
steamships.
Transportation from forest to mill was en-
hanced by the mid-1890s blasting of a 75-foot
tunnel through the soapstone hill by Malcomb
McFarlane, the only one of its kind in Oregon
constructed for the use of bull teams to drag logs.
A narrow-gauge rail line was laid in 1907. The
collapsed passageway still e[ists, if you know
where to look.
Chinese, Japanese, Greeks, Bulgarians and
many Scandinavian immigrants provided mill
and cannery labor. The Westport Lumber Co.
was founded in 1909 and its “Diamond W” logo
created in 1916. As the community grew into
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Although many traveled in from Clatsop
and Columbia counties, and later the ferry from
Washington’s Puget Island, other workers lived
in company housing, swelling Westport’s popu-
lation to a peak of almost 900 (it is 321 today).
The two world wars boosted productivity,
with Westport sending logs to Great Britain for
railroad ties in the ¿rst then 3 12-ton logs to ship-
yards in California, Seattle, Ballard and Everett,
Washington, during the second. In between, the
mill provided masts for “Old Ironsides” when the
USS Constitution was refurbished in 1929 (and
twice more in subsequent years).
Big timber waned through the 1960s and Aal-
berg carefully charts the end of Westport’s boom
as the 1970s dawned.
The book concludes with an inde[ of charac-
ters, a detailed timeline and a meticulous list of
ships arriving at the mill between 1903 and 1937
with their cargo’s e[otic destinations.
what Aalberg calls a “vibrant quintessential Ore-
gon lumber company town,” mill owners sought
ways to retain skilled personnel. A bowling alley
was opened. Company picnics featured races,
tug-of-war contests or trips to Seaside. Links
with Lin¿eld College were promoted, with stu-
dents returning for summer mill work.
Loyal Legion of Loggers
and Lumbermen
Westport’s social life centered on the 4L
Hall — the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lum-
bermen, a concerted effort to focus loyalty and
keep out the International Workers of the World,
whose militants disrupted Northwest commerce.
Aalberg does not intend to pro¿t from his
creation, instead assigning the photo collection
and the proceeds from book sales to the Clatsop
County Historical Society — actions which de-
lighted its e[ecutive director, McAndrew Burns.
“I am so e[cited in so many different ways,”
Burns said. “It is a huge donation to us for our
records and it’s a wonderful archive of Westport.
“It’s the de¿nitive history — anyone research-
ing logging in the future is going to reference it.”
The work emphasizes the society’s goal of a
countywide focus, even though it is headquar-
tered in Astoria, he said.
“We have all driven through Westport, but I
don’t think any one of us has stopped to think,
‘There’s a ferry, a restaurant and a gas station, but
what history has been there?’”
Patrick Webb is a North Coast writer and for-
mer managing editor of The Daily Astorian.
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Chinook Observer
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