TAGS EIGHT
jh UZLGOZi STATXSXIAN, Balem, Oregon. Simdax I luring. Jun 23. ISfl
i
1
From Oxen . 9Cat
99
iillivae's
ii
Saga
IsS
k-42 ,f ' His 4V: ,v..l -r-i;. f i , f;
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This is the way logs were dragged to the mills when Charley Sullivan was a boy at what
Js now Mill City by ox team. A team of oxen consisted of four yoke; two oxen to a
yoke. This picture, of, two teams tandem, believed to be the only one in existence of pre-
J 1900 logging in the North Santiam river country, hangs in Sullivan's parlor. Photo re
production by Robert Y. Veness.
put today the oxen are extinct in lumberland; the caterpillar
. performing feats of which Paul Bunyon might be proud.
snaking logs out of the same
1 . rw j r 1 a
pen, statesman siaii pnoiograpner. .
It's a Big Job the Forest Rangers Have
'Keep Oregon
This Is one of a series of motorlogs
vncriuuig juuutvys to itrtiiL ana I trv
teational areas of the northwest, made
wrougn ? cooperation of The Oregon-
Ian.
1, Th Statesman and the Oregon
State Motor association.
By RICHARD L. NEUBERGER
At 35, Charles Mugler (Char
, 0. MW Vl'O tea UklVl I Vital
ley) Rector is the youngest for-
!l.efvisf' Ln:e. PCifi?
region of' the United States. As
head ranger in the expansive
nui mwesi, uie principii lores 1
1,068,104 acres of the WaUowa
national forest in Oregon's rug
ged northeastern corner, he is a
key figure in the, present effort
to protect and maintain the na
tural resources of the state an
effort undertaken at a time when
Our resources are being mustered
for the defenseof America.
Not long ag Governor Charles
A. Sprague organized a "Keep
Oregon Green" committee of rep
resentative citizens dedicated to
fight .against forest fires. The
Oregon Roadside council has
launched a crusade for increased
gaf eguarding of the timber along
Our highways. And the United
States forest service, under Lyle
F, Watts, regional forester, has
redoubled its campaign to pre-
Vent fires, wasteful logging and
Indiscriminate use of the woods.
Visit Paid Ranger
.' What are the activities of a
typical participant in this long-
' ' '.: Si '
jGrad Miller (left) and Charley Rector, forest rangers,
ilcr.il forest. , '
T
- -s
-
North Santiam, country was
1
3S . f l
Green,' Tour Party Told
range program?
A little sawmill Wants to buy
mnnn hnor-ri foot f PnHmco
. " ' ,
pine. Brush fires endanger, tim-
ber near Chief Joseph mountain.
CCC boys need additional equip-
A, J A.X-
lll
Lostine river must have 4500 ex-
JiJ
f!i!!-;fuff;
f "
j
grazing dues.
All
tnese problems go across
Charley Rector's desk.
Jack of All Trades
"A ranger, explains Charley
Rector, "must be a jack of all
trades and master of many be-
sides. He must be able to shoe
horses, cook breakfast, build
cabins, judge stock, spot fires,
detect soil erosion, maintain tele
phone lines, administer first aid,
hunt predatory aaimals, buy and
sell land and timber, blaze trails,
speak at Rotary club luncheons,
guide camping parties, find lost
hikers," inspect logging operations
and write legible reports."
A forest supervisor must know
what is happening to the forests
in his care. Several times a year
Charley Rector saddles, horses,
loads a pack-train , and rides
into the Wallowa fastnesses with
1
Oh
4 .
' 1 ; J:.
1
V -; 1 -
v- .
)'.(
. - '
diesel tractor reigns king,
This picture of a big 'cat
-taken recently by Frank Her-
0
Grady Miller, veteran ranger who
nas
been in the region for 27
years.
In the Pacific northwest, which
contains virtually halt the stand
ing timber of the nation, there
0 w mw vi a.A
are 129 forest rangers, 20 forest
supervisors and 108 staff officers.
These men are exclusively charg-
ed with the duty of protecting and
cnservin the region's immense
ct of naUonal forest In addi-
tion to them, of course, there are
hundreds of lookouts, guards,
trail crews and other workers,
The rangers men like Grady
Miller are the backbone of the
forest service. They ? are the men
on the line of battle where the
conservation fight is really wag-
Fishin9? It's Great up North
Writes Salem Soldier
Whether you're a fisherman, or not. you'll read with interest this letter "
received by The Statesman from one of Salem's soldiers. Sgt. G. D. Carter,
. now stationed with -the 31st material squadron at Elmendorf Field, Anchor-
age, Alaska.
Dear Editorr ;" '
Being one of the growing populace of the fair city of .Salem
not so long ago, and an esteemed subscriber to your illustrious
and infallible daily newspaper, I feel it only fitting to say some
thing that everybody is talking about at this time not war but
fishing. ' "
I don't know what kind of fish I always scan the Statesman to
stories the Salem anglers are see what the boys have to say
bringing in, but here is what I about the fishing sport this season,
have to say about the fishing in I consider Salem" my home town.
Alaska: "The fishing is very good." I lived there for 15 years, prior to
To substantiate my contentions, I my career in the Air corps, about
am sending you pictures of me
and some of my catches. There
are many lakes only a few minutes
from the field, that is, where I
am located at present There is
plenty of daylight you never have
to worry about being caught af-
ter sundown. The sun doesn't set (And here isr the story on page
until After 9:30 p. m., so you see eight of The Alaska Service Rec
we have adequate time to satisfy ord, to which Sgt Carter refers
our angling yens. ' Last winter in his postscript):
when the ice was on the lakes.
we would cut holes in it like Es
kimos, and do "nigger" fishing.
Now that the ice is gone, we can
do trolling from a boat or be con
tent to fly-fish from the bank.
There is no limit to the number
of fish you may catch in one day. eggs. Only one regulation need
If there were, you could catch concern the angler the one mak
the limit in a few hours. It is no ing it unlawful to take fish for
great feat to get your basket full three years after liberation of
of 18 to 20-inch ones, either. When stock. But when 33-inch, 15-pound
they are biting well (and that is rainbow trout are to be had, no
quite Mteny-we-think nothing of fisherman in his right senses
throwing the; ten-inch one back., would go after mere finger lings.
When we get tired of pulling them , The cutthroat trout and the Dol
from the lakes and streams, we ly Varden trout are by far the best
go out in a boat and fish in the known and most numerous of the
salt water of Knik Arm, and try fresh-water fish in the coastal
our luck at the bigger red salmon, streams ; of southwestern and
for change. southern Alaska. The rainbow
I've been up here for three trout and the steelhead (or sal
months, and I am liking Alaska mon) trout are plentiful in cer
better ell the time, Alaska is a tain areas. In addition to these
fisherman's paradise. If some of native ; species, eastern brook
you fellows are planning on a va- trout have been planted In lakes
cation and art fond of fishing and coastal streams separated from
come to Alaska. the sea by impassable barriers.
By HOWARD KESSLER ,
Sixty five years of i-forth San
tiam history have passed before
the keen blue eyes . of Charley
Sullivan. " " - .: , :
From his two-acre garden tn
Mill City, Sullivan sees the debris
cluttered site of the Hammond
lumber company mill at the river's
edge. ; ; :
He recalls . when only, heavy :
- timber stood there: when, as a
;' yoiuiffster, he cleared ground for
; the first sawmill on the North
r Santiam; when he logged the
forests around an expanding
Mill City; when the Hammond
mill had a capacity of 200,000
board feet a day; when the com
pany shot down in 1935; when
the people of Mill City, refus
ilr to let it become a ghost
town, started a cooperative mill;
and, finally, when the whole
North Santiam . area surged
ahead to reach its all-time peak
production of 1,000,000 feet a
day in this summer of 1941.
. For 65 years, longer than, any
other man nqw living in Millcity,
Charles Edward Sullivan has
watched the Douglas firs disap-
.rin,. . hmeMM nKntrn
;,the turbulent SanUam, unUl today The nearest store was a Me
( most of the cutting has been hama, nine miles wrt, the near- ;
pushed 30 miles east, near the est town Stayton," 19 miles dis
summit of the Cascades. tant A trip to either place meant
There the woods teem with ac- ferry ride across the Santiam at
tivity, as giant "peeler" logs five
feet across and towering 200 feet
into the sky are 'felled by hard-
muscled loggers. Hundreds of men
are cutting, chopping, and sawing
into fine, straight-grained tim-
Jaers the billions of feet of forest
that are available almost in the
shadow of Mt. Jefferson. Fifteen
logging camps and mills are at
capacity production east of Idan-
ha, and another 15 are scattered
from Lyons to Detroit There nev
er was a time on the North San
tiam when forests were being
turned into lumber as fast as now.
Lumbering was not
even a
gleam in the eye of an enterprising
operator when Sullivan first came
to the North Santfam. As a child
of three years, he sat beside his
mother m the wagon that held all
the goods they had brought from
junction wnue rainer sui
livan broke trail ahead through
the dense underbnish.
When the little family reached
a point a mile and a half above
what is now. Mill City, the elder
Sullivan hacked his way back
from the river on hands and knees,
and there, clearing a space on his
hmnPstpaH Haim hp hunt w
cabin.
J The next 5 years brought
many cnanzes to the Norm san
tiam. The first mill came in
1887, and others soon followed.
In 1912 the Hammond lumber
Interests purchased the first
mill, and kept adding to its
equipment and land until, at
peak production 20 years later,
the company employed 559 men,
cut 200,060 feet a day, and sup
ported a town of 1100 persons.
For one despairing year after
the Hammand mill was disman
tled in the fall of 1935. it seemed
doubtful that Mill City could
survive. To the workers wh
pooled their resources and
bought some used sawmill equip
ment in 1936, Mill City owes
much of its present prosperity.
Their mill, a half-mile east of
the Hammond site, now pro
duces 109,000 feet a day and
employs 140 men.
Through all this transition per-
iod from wilderness to large scale
lumbering area, throuzh times
both good and hard. Charley Sul-
livan hunted and worked along
18 months ago.
Yours for more fishing news,
SGT. C D. CARTER.
P. S. I am sending you a copy
of our proud little paper; note
page eight, abovit angling.
ANGLES FOR ANGLERS
No license is required of anglers
and there are no bag limits and no
closed seasons. The Territory ac-
tually pays a bounty in certain
areas on one variety of trout the
Dolly Varden, which eats salmon
-.JOWWWJWt IL1 i .J..."' JUIIMM JVmi! 9 U - Billl MM , iTTirT 1 mm
the North Santiam. His short, pow- f
of the timber land from Mill City
to Idanha, as he greased skids,
drove oxen and - horses in the
woods for 30 years, and operated
his own logging outfit for 13 years.
He retired to his garden beside
the river in 1934.
Only neighbors of the Sullivan
family during those first years on
the homestead were two settlers
a few miles east and a widow .who
had a cabin where the Mill City'
xoutisi couti now sianos. , :
Mill City, and a long, tiresome
wagon journey. Stayton ' was a
day' drive, Salem a metropolis to
be visited only on those rare oc-
casions when the Sullivans had
enough smoked deer meat and
deerskin gloves to make the long
trip worth while. Sullivan sold
both venison and gloves in Sa-
lem, and returned home with gro-
ceries for his family that grew to
include 10 sons and daughters.
Muzzle Loader Effective
The canyon throve with game.
Charley's father would leave the
cabin after a meal, walk 200 yards
with his old muzzle-loader, for
which he made the bullets, and
Ude behind tree. In a fewrmin-
utes he wauld shoot a deer ortwo
and retumi home with more meat
to smoke, more skins to tan and
make inta giOVes.
Sullivan astounded neighbors
who had purchased a new breech-
ladin Winchester by shooting
u u . r71:
they needed 14 to bag the same
number. A clever and accurate
marksman, he early taught Char-
wUes of the woodsman-
WniVM .r nnicance' Thev
were so numerous that to winter,
with six inches of snow along the
river bank, a man couldn't set
foot on the eround without touch-
ing a wolf track. They not only
killed deer, but often killed the
dogs which hunters used to pur
sue the deer.
Sullivan has seen the deer dis
appear, as he has seen the virgin
forests disappear, . but he nods his
grey and tousled head and swears
that even today he could walk
three hours from Mill City and
find deer, "because I know where
to look for 'em.
First Mill , Came In '87
When Sullivan was 12, his fath-
er came home one day with big
news. A miU was to be built down chute greaser in 1890, relates how between 1912 and 1935. It grew
river a way, and that meant a he was caught on a chute with rapidly, nurtured by a big pay
railroad, civilization, maybe more huge logs plunging down it The roll and plenty of old growth fir
money in Sullivan pockets. Right chute was a mile and a half long, at the two main camps near De
at the start they found employ- and logs made the distance in 20 troit and jm "the mountain"
ment, clearing the site of brush, second flat Horner was almost south of Mill City, and up and
It took many months more to pre- to the bottom of the chute with down the Santiam basin. The com
pare . for the sawmill with the his can of tallow, when he felt pany store' was the only store for
crude equipment at hand, but in
September. 1887, the Santiam
Lumber company was incorpor-
ated at Stayton, where its direc-
..." --(;$:... .
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Sgt Carter's picture ef himself
and fish "to the editor.- -
and will one day become important
game fish.- . -
In the streams and lakes of the
Interior are numerous lake trout,
known to reach a length of several
feet and a weight of 60 pounds:
specimens weighing 35 pounds are
not uncommon. Grayling, reaching
a length of 20 inches andattaining
a weight of four pounds, are found
in the clear, swift streams of the
interior. Salmon eggs are the usual
bait in fresh water, but other bait
spinners, and flies are often used.
Among' salt water game fish
are the Chinook or, king salmon,
which reaches maximum weight
of nearly 100 pounds, with the av
erage about 20 pounds. ;
)
.''?
r
"Charley Sullivan, who came to
what is now Mill City with his
father before the logrers' oxen,
and has remained to see modern
tractor logging, to see Mill City
come to life as a lumber town,
die and be revived again.
tors resided.
These men then, John A. Shaw,
Thomas Sims, William H. Hob-
son and Lee Brown, were the real
u;;
t,J ...uiuau iu
'-"J. "u wijr was duiii iar-
east. 7 toe late nine-
to was at Idanha, where it has
remained.
The first mill bad a capacity
of 30,000 feet a day, and was
operated by water power. The
lorrinr crew numbered' a doz
en men, with a like number in
the mill. Ox teams of four yokes
each were used to get the logs
to the chute, on which they made
the remainder of their trip to
the mill pond at a speed of 270
miles an hour.
A. B. Horner, now the genial
general merchant at Gates, but a
a trembling underfoot He leaped
for the side of the chute, but the
first log hit his leg, knocking him
10 feet in the air, breaking his
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Valley Entering Iris Planting Season
Kleinsorge Gardens Yield Some of Best
By LILLIE L. MADSEN f
With the coming of July, the Willamette valley enters into its annual iris planting season
a season of which Silverton is very conscious as some of the country's best-known irises have or
iginated here in the gardens of Dr. R. E. Kleinsorge and been distributed from the Cooley iris
gardens in recent years. Dr. Kleinsorge has been mentioned as one of the four best known iris
hybridizers in the country.
Information given out at the
Irises are essentially sun-lovers.
They should be planted in posi
tions where1 good drainage exists.
and
should notf-
be
expected to f-
s the beit?4
give
flowering results
when -placed in
dense herbaceous
borders where
the sun can sel
dom penetrate to
the rhizomes. If
they can be
grown in a sunny
border by. them
selves so much
the better; if not,
then they should
unit v icumb
at least have a position In the
front of the herbaceous border.
A dressing of ground limestone,
dug into the soil at the first plant-
ing seems to supply all that is
needed and is practically , ever
lasting. .'. .
: The condition of the plant must
decide the transplanting year.
Some of the more rampant grow
ers should be divided , and trans
planted every other year. Others
may be left longer. Incorporate a
liberal helping of superphosphate
of lime at the time of transplant
ing divisions to ward off the at
tacks of disease. I
Rhizomes -.should . nat be
planted deep, but should be
placed, lost below the surf ace af
the soil and roots spread ant U
insure firm planting.
Irises, originated in the Dr. R.
St-- i.
left ankle, and dislocating his left
knee. , .
" Loggers had to be made of tough
fiber in the 90s. Horner limped
around camp for a few hours.
then decided to go home to Mfll,
City for a rest. There his mother
put mm w ocu -uu -
nica, but no doctor was called.
The nearest one was in Stayton,
and a man had to have more than
! a mere broken ankle before a doc
, ltor's services were deemed neces
Paid J1.25-J2 a Day
For their ten-hour days men
were paid $1.25 to $2, depending,
upon the type of work. Logging
contractors .received as little as
$2.50 a thousand feet, as compared .
with a world war-time high of $11
a thousand. But food was plentiful
and cheap, and many of the men
had families at .Mill City. Charley
Sullivan did. In 1896 he married
a girl nemed Mivindia Myers
' whom he had met at Niagra when
he was timber falling there five
years earlier. They bought some
lots at Mill City and still live on
the land.
- The Santiam Lumber company
h sawmill. Jnmnff ouin-
ment, real estate and timber to
W. W. Curtiss in 1899. Curtiss ap-
oratMl thA mill until 1R12 when sA.
B. Hammond, founder of a great
timber empire in the northwest,
took over
Holdings.
the mill and all its
Hammond, New Brunswick born
became interested in lumbering
at an early age in the ' Maine
woods. Later he went into the
lumbering business in Montana.
In Oregon he operated mills at
Astoria, Garibaldi, and Mill City,
and owned the railroad known as
tViA "V on1 IT linA frrm Vainina
to Deroit before it was purchased
by toe Southern Pacific company
All that remains of the Hammond
"rr " Z" U1C . WJ TV
Ui 11U1UUU'UI tuu'1'
unuo.
The
23 years of the Ham
mond company reign on the
North Santiam was an era. Be
fore 1912, the three or four
small mills along the river em
ployed no more than a hundred
men and produced less than
200,000 feet a day of lumber.
After 1935i doxens of small mills
and logging camps took root
and today are flourishing on de
fense orders. Between the two
dates lumbering on the North
Santiam was- the Hammond
Lumber company.
Mill City was a company town
mill workers, and the company
discouraged competing merchants.
The company built homes for its
employes and furnished them with
local gardens concerning the
E. Kleinsorge garden at Silver
ton, and receiving awards of the
American, Iris Society for 1940
are Ormohr,. Aztec Copper and Old
Parchment -Ormohr, is the cheap
est of these and sells for around
$3 a rhizome.
Three new ones are being intro
duced from Dr. Kleinsorge's or
iginations this year. These include
Daybreak, Fortune and
Grand
Canyon.
Two letters received during the
past week are rather contradic
tory. One garden enthusiast writes
that he would .like to grow irises
but they are so cheap that every
one has so many of them and,
therefore, they are not outstand-
ing in his garden. He wants some-
thing unusual, ne writes, some
thing that everyone doesn't have,
and irises .did seem like "a man's
flower."
- V
. Irises have often been desig
. nated Is a man's flewer. t' don't .
; know just why this should be j.
so, but it generally is. And Iff
this correspondent of ' mine, A. -;
C af Salem, wants to ' grow
Irises and wants something that
I everyone doesn't have, he can
' da both if he is willing to pay j
- the price, lie could put in some
; of (he Irises such as Salar or
Lancaster, which sell for S20
f apiece. I am sure that everyone ;
' w&l not have' these yet for a '
few years. Even Elsa Saas at
$12; May Day at $10; Prairie
Sunset at $12Jt; Red Gleam at
water and electricity. The company
even provided pastimes in Mill
City for the- workers. Mill - City
was built and sustained by the A.
B. Hammond Lumber company.
The Hammond mill cut .'prin
cipally virgin yellow fir, but hem
lock, larch, cedar, and pine were
also sawed. During the last years
of operation, all types of lumber
were produced for. the construc
tion of. buildings, from the founfia-i
tion to the cedar shingles on the
roof. The company also produced
timbers,., ties, and other railroad
car material. It shipped hogged
fuel and slabwood,' as well as hem
lock, chips for the manufacture of
paper. . -. -' - , .4- .
At the height of the Hammond
operations equipment included
- i,-.-,-- tn lmp skid-
ders, innumerable steam donkeys,'
30 miles of railroacL , - .
19J5 Black f 1
consequently, the blow to MiU TWL
City residents was terrifk whenYJTl
m j935 the end of Hammond
mill was announced. Lumbering
conditions , were poor, and with
the big mill dismantled and carted
away it looked as though Mill City
might become another Virginia
City. Real estate values dropped
alarmingly, till two-story houses
in good repair sold for $400, ana
five room bungalows brought only
$200. -
Younger logger left , town to
seek employment elsewhere, but
men who had their roots in Mill
City, who had families to support
and homes paid for, couldnt leave
so easily. There were, plenty of
long faces in Milf City 1 the fall
and winterof 1935.
In December, 1935, a veteran
logger named J. F.Potter came to
Mill City to retire, and pass the
res4 ' ms We in e canyon where
he had worked for many years.
He came from Klamath Falls with
a reputation as a hard-headed
lumberman, wise in the ways of
the industry-so a few of the for-
mer nammona employes ap-
proacnea mm ior aavice.
It was Potter who conceived
the idea of a cooperative mill,
and some 50 men agreed to pnW:
their savings into the venture.
Together they raised $11,000.
Potter convinced a number of
Salem businessmen that ' his
scheme was sound, and another
$5000 in stock was purchased
by them.
With the $16,000 Potter began
to shop around for sawmill equip-
ment and found what he wanted m
a bankrupt mill at Clatskanie. The
mill was shipped off to Mill City.
With timbers, roofing, and other
building materials purchased from
Babb Hardware company of Eu
gene, which had bought the Ham
mond mill, the Mill City Manu
facturing company erected its
sawmill and began to turn out
lumber in June, 1936.
Beginning -with a capacity of
50,000 feet a day, the company has
since doubled that output. In 1938,
C. H. Wheeler, of Portland, bought
stock in the company, and is now
president. Potter is manager and
vice president Sixty per cent of
the employes still own stock in the
company.
While the Mill City Manu
facturing company was growing
into the biggest operation on the
North Santiam, other smaller
mills and forging camps were
springing up by the dozen. There
are now no less than SO such
mills and camps between the
summit of the Cascades east of
Idanha and Lyons.
(Next Sunday: How the North
Santiam mills operate and where
you will find them)
iris culture, includes: Zl: ,;fT
$12, should not be too. common
for . some time to come.
Then there was the woman, al
so at Salem, who would like to
grow irises but found that all the
best sorts were "terribly high
priced way beyond my reach.
I'd like some of the better kind
but can't afford to pay over $1
apiece."
There are several among the
irises listed as 'the country's best
99 irises which can be had for less
than $1 and a number for less than
50 cents. When 50 of our Judges
from the American Iris Society
list these as such, they should be
good: Included are Brunhflde. Cal-
ifornia Gold, Eleanor Roosevelt
Gloriole, Golden Hink, Gudrun,
Happy Days, Jean Cayeux, Mar
quita, Missouri, Moonglo, Naran
ja, Rosy Wings, Snowking, Shin
ing Waters and Shah Jehan. ;
That is one ef the nice things
'about irises: there - are ; some I
suitable for each pocketbook.
Even were I offered my choice
In the local Irises gardens, I am
not sure that when I saw them
blooming-. I eovld have chosen
the $25-Span Gold aver the 25
cent Sierra Blue, the latter of -which
Is a. consistent flower
show winner and In 1935 won
the Dykes medal. In fact the
blue ef the Sierra Blue, being
my favorite color, I am afraid
that I might have chosen the
cheaper ane.
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