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The Pari; Destiny arid Ambition, and a
Desire to Dp Something Worth While,
ringing
Plaved in B
opriierit of
One of the
About the Devel
cultural Sections
oftrie
Richest Agri
United States.
i
By W. D. POTTER.
In the Klamath Falls country the
cenic view of the wilderness will al
ways remain, for' nature has 'done
much for this great section. .Thou
sands will enjoy the view of the lakes
skirted by mountain and pine, hut a
great city, the largest between Port
land and San Francisco, is arising
where once the Indian hunted. Few
men have had as great an opportun
ity as is afforded Mr. S. O. Johnson
. Mr. G. X. Wendling and their asso
ciates to do something for posterity.
They have come to realize that after1
all there is something to life besides
the dollar mark, and that thereji- no
greater destiny than that of preparing
. the way for happy homes in one of
the greatest sections of the,' whole
. West V V
I use the word "destiny" because I
believe that some great unseen power
must have brought these two men to-
aether, it Johnson and vveaoiing
had continued to compete with' ne
another instead of cooperating there
would have been no railroad In Klam
ath Falls, no city there; and no outlet
for the neighboring country. . 'j , .
Here in this vast empire now in
process of railway conquest is ample
room for an agricultural' population
as great, if not greater, than the Ger
man Empire. '
. In the. year 1905' S. 0, Johnson,
general manager of the .' McCloud
River Lumber Company,' found him
self in active competition with the
Weed Lumber Company, of which
Geo. X. Wendling was president.
Lumber, had, brought them both into
the Klamath Falls country and they
were very active in promoting the
interests of their , respective . compa
nies. Neither of them in these days
of lumber making thought that a fu
ture lime would see them working to
gether in the development of a great
agricultural empire with Klamath
Falls as ifs "capital.
Johnson, from the time
IVr
ie
ifomia and Oregon. Today he knows
every wagon road and trail in the vast .
territory of which "Klamath ' Falls is " ""
the center and distributing point i
, As head of the Weed Lumber Com-7 '
pany, Mr. Wendling was very active
in building railroads .into the best
lumber territory. ' Roads were needed . '
to get lumber out of the forests and
into the market,-and to the' task, of
creating adequate , transportation Mr.
Wendling" applied himself with char- 5
acteristic vigor. While he was doing
this the attention of . H. Harriman
had been attracted to this wonderful 1
. country'. ' . ! , . ' t
When Mr. Harriman received the
reports of his engineers," who, had
. carefully examined the .timber re
sources tributary to Klamath Lakes,
. what did he learn? ' He found' that
five .saw milling concerns, cutting
100,000 feet of lumber each daily,
' making a total 9f"5Q6iS66feet per day,
came to California with his father, the
late . Samuel S. Johnson, has put in
nearly all of his time in northern Cal-
computing the working days each
year, would require 200 years to har
vest the forest tributary to that nat-
ural commercial center, Klamath
Falls, .If this material were reduced '.
to carloads of '15,000' feet ,"ach the"1,
train would contain 1,333,333 ' cars," .
and equal a train approximately "42,
666,656 feet long equivalent, to 8080
miles, or nearly one third the distance
around the earth. This will mean
payrolls of over $200,000,000.00. ,
But lumber will not last jorever.
What else did the engineers report?"
That the inexhaustible fertility of th .
soil jn the Klamath Basin would pro
vide sustenance for man and beast for 4
countless ages; that in the main the
great plateau was made up of lake . '
bottoms, holding as a treasure of fer-
. tility the products of erosion, the
work of ages past That the govern- ,
mcnt of the United States, reported
' after careful examination, that the.
" Klamath Basin was the most natural
and feasible irrigation' project of all
the work undertaken by the nation,
and on their recommendation the
government appropriated $4,500,000
from the irrigation fund incident to "
this gtatif undertaking. Much of the
GEO. X. WENDLING
work ' has been completed,' and the
remainder is being pursued with per
sistent vigor under this ample appro-.
, priationf and when finished will be
the largest body of irrigated land in '
the United States. - .
" Soil, sunshine and moisture are cs- "
. sentials of production. Nature, das'
been kind to Klamath Falls. She has
endowed her with soil and warmth,
. and has put moisture within her reach
. through the medium of irrigation.
The Weed Lumber Company was .
building a road from Weed, Cal, to
Klamath Falls, Or, 'Wendling as
president of the Weed Lumber Com
. pany, -saw that the road would be
more valuable to the country tas part
cific for the actual cost of its con
struction, 42 miles of, right , of way
were given free. ' Th6 only thing re;
served were the town sites along the
right of way. , : '"
In the ' meantitrJc Johnson and
Wendling, 'rivals for business, had
come to realize that' greater, results
could be obtained by cooperation! and
in June, 1909, we' find them associ-'
ated together. Mr. S. O. Johnson as
president of , the Klamath Develop-'
ment Company,- Mr. Wendling as vice
president, and. Mr.,' Johnson as vice
president of the Weed Lumber Com
pany, of which' Mr. George X. Wend
ling ' is president. , Almost siibcon-'
. sciously had the idea come to both of
Today, Mr.' j
of his'time to
mcnt Compan
preparing to V
Mr. weiTcnr-,
both think the
arc. But ;the"
metropolis of
sure center .off
that of most b
them as empir'
whose destiny
for' a prosperc
Friends of
called it; the'
will be greate
all the advan
none of its '
thebesr-wtys'
fhegreatSoiitheTrrPacificTtnd'tie "" ,themharotTrferfly,'thc,''Trtring"
opened negotiations with a view of down of timber but the building of sibilities of a
transferring his road from Weed to cities and the development of a great "first fitici out!
Klamath to the Southerfl, pacific. It 1 agricultural empire was their life - ' panies are doj
was turned over to the Southern Pa- w'ork. , improvement
it.
. -'.rs iv -zrir - : . . z. . nv i mv. i yt f ire i u i n i
r-rmm ' t. 'iWf" A-vjv..' Z l . . S-4UI II li 11. I'A l,7 f 14 f J.. I X, I
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It:- A U lrtZ?2,.ii.,f I fa In II I All . .
i k . '. . v . 'a' y w 1 1, 1 ' 11 . e e ii . ,:s'
,.' . ' IftUfer hW .U&W. : I W : WA i . HA i. 'Sh. . ;
If v I a it53t JJUiAJv.. 4 mW "'tli j';' 7MJ I 1 fc.r i' I AJSC .tWJw ' - -
.-.., . mil)- f j mi- si... .
: .;.:- ; i, v , r nmamy tt.mmzg.v& -'mw-it . . .
hW,i,- ... .... ... ii . zo im .. rrw.m,: , .
.. , , w jrr s if a y y jn .
is ; giving al!
path Develop-
n Wendlintr is
i Mr, Johnson
per men. They -pf
the futur '.
; Falls, the.'
I', larger. than
tes.'-will- know
e, and as men
, make homes ,
. y j.t,' : v .;
t ; Falls ' have
t)f. Oregon. Jt '
okane. It has
$pokane, and
gcs, One of '
-king- the-fwM
ana ornate structures of the grat state
vi vicjuu, s iu ue ereciea, tne lunua
for this work having- been appropriated
has likewise outgrown the street rail-
bouses of modern design, built of stone,
Johnson and Wendling have of courss "
met a few of this class at Klamath
Falls, but'thla opposition simply adds
Interest to- the grand work in hand,
because men qf tha Johnson:Wondllng
type find, no pleasure iii doing th easy
things of this life, and yet they are not
the calibre of men who. go out with
chips on their shoulders.
The other day, In conversation with
me, Mr, Johnson said; "When tho peo
ple of that great territory learn of an '
honest ambition to build' a great city
at Klamath Falls; when they "see -In
due time the extent of our work, tho"
few, and they are very few, who do not
want tha aid order of thtngs .changed
will put their shoulder to the wheel
j section is to
' ; railroad com
in the way of
At Klamath Falls'a magnificent 'class
1 A granite and passenger depot is
. rearing completion; In design and ar
rangement u is ample, to-accommodate
a city of 40,000 people. The freight
depot is finished, fitting, the needs of
commerce. ' ,. .
Suitable sites for. sh,ops and round
, hous?s have been purchased by tho'
Southern Pacific company, together
with broad and extensive rlghta of
way, 300 feet "wide by 8000 feet long,
date traffic Of almost any magnitude,
, thus abundantly attesting ihe wonder
ful present commerce of Klamath Falls,
and prophetically forecasting the future ,
one a graded school, considered ample with us. The people of Klamath. and
i sir :, vein rat ta trim) a wa. aa a . aia. Dntia a1i - i.y . . . .
growth of the great Inland empire trlb
'" utary to that city.' .'
' The railroad in' equipment and ser
vice Is equal to any other similar Mad
in 'the country. ,' T",
' When" I first talked, to Mr. Johnson
' and Mr. Wendling about '- Klamath
Falls, they talked about what they ex
pected to . do. In business nowadays
people arc too apt to overlook tha
things 'already accomplished. Already
a city Jias been built that , would at
tract tiot Icq anywhere as a place with
ft future. ' ' " "i '' ' ' '"."'
i Tha city of Klamath Falls has out
grown its courthouse facilities and a
new courthoube, of ample slz1, built of
stone and to be one of the most noble
iur : years 10 come, are aireaay over
crowded, reyuirlng . added accommoda
tions, which are now In process of con
struction, and their splendid efficiency,
testify to the high social and commer
cial integrity of the population, and tho
and'is not yet. 1 v
; It has always been the rule- when
men have "gone into a new country, as
Wendling and Johnson have dona, and
Mutte vauey country are a great people
and some of Oregon's and California's
best known and grandest old pioneers
believe there is no greater work than
to help develop tho country." 1 Y '
; ,When- Mr., Johnson said this he
sounded the keynote of ,7the future .
policy of , the .Klamath Development
company. , . v
All of the big business In this world'
VPbuild.ng of the resource,, that there' enthuslasm. Both Johnson
were , men who opposed fhern because. - w thU hftv-
unfortunately, there art people In this -tho best organljsatlon8 ln bll8lne88.-
world who would oppose anything that Around them they have gatherml many
means progress or ' improvement of the finest young hustlers . in the
countryman 'willing to" work, "and" they"'
do work t If 'the .afternoon I spent In
their offices is a sample.
At the head of th ot-eranliation
sales manager is p. e. Lavey,.of Tort
land, known in teal pstate circles as one
of the best sales managers and organiz
ers of sales forces in the United States. 1
&avcy ,1s an Irishman who has
caught the fever from Mr. Johnson to .
help in the big work, and already he
Is enlisting many 'clean.' enetgetlc, .
healthy looking young Americans under
the banner of these -two men. ' '
At Klamath Falls William V. John
son, the younger ond only brother of
S. O. . Johnson, has taken charge' of af
fala and from now on 'the' real work
of result getting will he carried on with
vigor. i . ,
' Bchlnn" ' this force of young men,' 8.
O. Johnson and G. X. Wendling will .
put their millions, their energies . and
'abilities. It is to be a clean, campaign.
It is to be a campaign of upbuilding
and ' progress, not of laclness or de
struction, aud all are preparing to glvs
the best servhe they 'can dether. Al
ready one' can see success stamped on
aw-rrri.i:Terv,v.''fc.rT i
In the company's magnificent otth
at zn rmod riiillalng. I inyneif have
f caught'thla fever of wanting to help In
the devplopmnt of ths KUimn'h "'! 'ry.
It will bo llg work,' :
I