The Coquille Valley sentinel., March 20, 2006, HISTORY Spectacular, Page 4, Image 4

COQUILLE VALLEY MUSEUM SPECTACULAR
IA SENTINEL PUBLICATION- pcfge 4
HISTORY DETECTIVES -- The Coquille Valley Museum has a job for you. If you can help Identify the workers in this 1933 Smith Wood Products group photo.
Naming faces from the past
Can you identify any of the original Smith Wood Products Mill employees?
workers, five of them belonging to
the Oreding family that had started
the mill. Ulett came to Coquille with
They helped build the Coquille
big plans to create a giant mill.
we know today.
Months into the venture, crews had
Now, the Coquille Valley
erected those distinctive ‘saw-tooth’
Historical Society needs your help
mill buildings that stood for So
identifying them.
many years.
One of the many donations to
Ulett quickly met the giant mill
the new Coquille Valley Museum is
goal. In less than a year, not only
a true slice of history. On the sur­
had the tiny mill been replaced by
face, it’s a group photograph taken
five giant buildings, but over one
in 1933 of all 146 workers standing
in front of the Smith Wood Products hundred employees had joined the
payroll. Despite the Great
Mill that brought valuable jobs to
Depression that, crippled the
early Coquille The problem is, his­
American economy in October
tory has obscured the identity of
1929, Smith Wood Products contin­
just about everyone in the picture.
ued to grow with additional build­
This is where you come in.The
ings and over one hundred more
historical society is asking museum
visitors to look at the picture and let workers added to the mill staff in
following years. In fact, while many
them know if visitors can identify
anyone. Remember, many of the folks of their fellow Americans were
unemployed, those mill workers in
in this picture grew up here, lived
1933 were still a part of a success
their lives here - chances are you
story in this hard time in American
knew some of these people.
history. Maybe that’s why you can
Not only were the men and
women in this picture hard workers, see ¿miles in the group photo.
Those workers earned their
they are also an integral part of an
money, a decent forty cents an hour,
important chunk of Coquille Valley
while helping Smith Wood Products
history. In short, they were those
to earn their reputation by milling
responsible for a success story. And
it all took place on what we now call and creating products made from
Port Orford Cedar harvested along
the “G.E Site”.
the South and Middle forks of the
When the group was called to K
Coquille River.
pose in front of the mill buildings
Their main product was battery
that day in 1933, the mill had been
separators. In 1933 alone, Smith Wood
in operation for four years. Smith
Products produced 100 million sepa­
Wood Products started the last day
rators that were used to create cells
of 1928 when George Ulett and
in automotive and industrial batteries.
Ralph Smith bought a small cedar
Every week, train carloads of separa­
mill on the Coquille River, across
tors headed out for markets in
from where Safeway now stands.
America, Europe, and Asia. Other prod-
When Ulett took over as manager,
ucts included Venetian blind slats and
with $50,000 budgeted for start up
rails, submarine separators’mhledPort * *
costs, the mill only had seventeen
BY JAKE WILHELM
The Coquille Valley Museum has hundreds of puzzles on their hands. Many his­
torical photos that have been gifted to the Museum come with a mystery - many
times, no one knows the names of those pictured. The museum is asking all their
visitors to peek through the collection and see if they can identify anyone before
the faces of those who helped create our valley slip into obscurity. Some of these
pictures are over 100 years old, but not all is lost. Remember, many times multi­
ple pictures were taken in order for family members to each have a set— maybe
’ you have an identical’photo in your family album.’ PridTO-Jake Wilhelm ’