Image provided by: North Santiam Historic Society; Gates, OR
About The North Santiam's Mill City enterprise. (Mill City, Or.) 194?-1949 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1948)
The North Santiam’s Mill City Enterprise Serving the North Santiam \ alley VOLUME IV. NUMBER 47 Mgy-, Looking Up and Down Shot in Bear the Canyon Hunt Mishap By CHARLES WOLVERTON With this issue the Enteiprise in troduces Jim Stevens and his column. “Out of the Woods.” James Stevens is one of the great storytellers of America, and tops among all who have written about the timber coun try. More than years ago he won fame for his tales of the legendary Paul Bunyan, strong man of the tim ber world. He knows the lingo, the life and the soul of the logger. We're proud to have him Writing for this paper, many of whose subscribers belong to the life of which Jim Ste vens has provided an undying record. i 4 More than the usual number of loggers and mill workers are out of jobs because of the lumber market situation, or the early snow in the higher levels. This would not be a serious set back for the Canyon if many of the unemployed could use their time in developing the land for fruit grow ing. Several months perhaps of time in the winter could do a great deal to ward clearing and planting the fer tile hill land in fruit. In a few years a «op like that which is now being harvested in the Fern Ridge section is possible. The question simply is: Do we wait 100 years for the trees to grow up, or do we realize a far better use age of the soil in strawberries, vine berries and orchards, in a matter of a few years. W. R. Olmstead has proven that this region is superb for boyseriber- ries and king berries. A d'jen -'row ers in Fem Ridge reaped strawberry crops of over three tons to an acre— at »500 a ton, and they are getting fine co-operation from Oregon State College with experiments on rasp- berrier. One Canyon citizen, long identified with the lumber industry, is getting into the berry business this year. He is Vem Clark. We hope others will f'fllow his lead. • • • The Canyon fully understands the tiemendous difficulties the Kucken- berg Construction Co. has overcome in building the North Santiam High way. At the same time, they feel that motorists and truck drivers who have to use the route frequently ought not to have to put up with months of tire busting and general mauling of their vehicles because of the rough con lition of part of the new grade. When the construction company built the stretch between Gates and Niagaia. it forced momorists almos, for a year to drive on a roadbed with rocks as big as your fist. We hope the same situation won’t go on much longer on the new project. • • • Mill City High School has a group of athletes this year who deserve a lot more recognition than they’re getting. They won second place in the Marion County B League in foot ball, and they appear to be headed for at least as good a record in bas ketball. Of course, the boys ought to have the town's support, win or lose. But if makes it more fun to see them win. But in a way, it’s not the commu nity’s fault, entirely, that the team gets so litle support. No regular sys tem of reporting the ; 1 n« has been set up at the school, am) it is difficult for this paper to cover the games at hohle and impossible to be on hand at the out-of-town games. But, with co-operation, we’ll have the news each week, with as much space as requires to tell the story. A * j Norris Thomas was accidently shot in the leg by his stepson, Earl Thom as Monday while on a bear hunt at an abantloned logging camp two miles above their home near Gates. The elder Thomas was shot through the upper part of his leg and was painfully but not gravely wounded. The two men had separated to fol low the bear trail when the son saw something, which he took to be the bear, move in the brush. He fired, the bullet striking his father. Ea 1 then gave his fathe. what emergency care he could and left for help. Tony Baker, a neighbor, returned with him to the old Hammond Camp 6 where the accident occurred, and Mr. Thomas was carried on a str etch er to his home. The accident occurred at noon, but it was not until 7 o’clock that the trip was completed. Dr. Jack Reid of Mill City wa3 called. Mr. Thomias was suffering from loss of blood and exposure. The Mill City Tirriberwolves, who ended up the football season in sec ond place, looked this week as if they were going to do even better on the basketball court. Tuesday evening they took on a team outside the B League, Stayton high school, an A League team, and trounced the visitors 39 to 30. The Timberwolves showed Stayton that Mill City was playing a brand of basketball that was on a par with A League style, and would take that kind of playing into the B League. The Timbeiwolves, in a practice session Monday afternoon, beat the Gates team by a lopsided score. The A string includes Lewis Ver beck, Jerry Hunter, George Miller, Leo and Lawrence Poole and Ernest Thornley. Stephen Beck, high school coach, and a caiioad of boys attended the St. Paul-T)ayton football game in St. Paul. School Begins Hot Lunches The hot lunch program started on Monday in the MiU City grade school with Mrs. Roy Beebe again in hharge of the program. Children are required to bring James Cooke, former Mill City stu their own hup or bowl, Spoon and a dent and now a senior of Salem high glass for fruit juires. Tsere is no school, won the mid-Willamette Val lharge for the meal. ley title Wednes<iay in the “I Speak for Democracy” contest, sponsored by A wide program of activities for the Salem Junior Chamber of Com the Christmas season was under way merce at the grade school. Children are Young Cook’s talk will be recorded practicing on .plays; the dates of the for entry in the state contest at Kla performances will be announced next math Falls Dec 4. He is the son of week . Mr. and Mrs. Ed Cooke of Mill City. The Dec. 8 meeting of the Mill City * The six finalists' talks were broad Parent-Teacher Assn, will stress the cast over a Salem radio station. Gene fellowship of man and the goodwill Malecki was Jaycee chairman for the inherent in the Christmas season. contest. Two short films, “The Brotherhood Young Cooke, when he went to of Man” and Merry Christmas,” will school here, w<as an active leader in be shown. The choir of the Presby the Boy Scouts. terian Church will sing several carols and Miss Hope Baney will lead the STIFF FINE GIVEN audience in singing of favorite Yule- FOR DRUNK DRIVING tide songs. James A. Allen was fined »200 and Refreshments will be served after costs and given a 60 day jail sentence the program. Remember — everyone in Breitenbush Court for driving un attending should contribute a plain der the influence nt H-;uor. The sen white cup to the kitchen. tence was .appended, but Allen was barred from driving, exceipt at work, 3-LINKS BAZAAR 8ATURDAY for a year. A ham dinner and bazaar will be given Saturday night by the Three BOY HURT IN CAR Links Club at the IOOF hall. Tickets Mark Meineit, son of Mr. and Mrs. are $1 and 50 cent« for children. The Wilbur Meinert of Mill City, suffered public is invited. Proceeds will be a fractured shoulder Thanksgiving used to redeoorate the hall. Dinner when the car his father was driving will be served from 6 to 7. Tickets came to a quick stop at an intersec can be purchased from Mrs. W. R. tion to avoid a collision, throwing Olmstead, general chairman, or mem the boy against the dashboard. bers <rf the club. Ex-Local Boy Wins as'Orator Bridge Work Will Close County Road Dam Clearing Bids Over U. S. Estimate Construction of Rock Creek bridge about a mile east of Mill City on the Linn County side will begin within a few days. It is a duplicate of the B(lyeu Creek span. The construction project will close the county road to Gates for about 60 days. The bridge is 56 feet of rteel span ami 91 feet of timber trestle, a total length of 145 feet. County workers this week began construction of a briodge across Bil yeu Creek. Steel for the concrete deck \ as being placed, after which the cement will be poured. Lumber Slump Laid to Tax Situation Engineers’ Figure $45,460; Lowest Offer $59,900 The Cascade Construction and En gineering Co. of Harrisburg was low bidder on a project of clearing tihe Detroit daonsite, but Army Engineers Cotips in Portland indicated the bid would be turned down because it ex ceeded by more than 25 per cent the official estimate. Bids were opened in the Portland office Tuesday at 2 p.m. The Cascade bid was »59,900, more than »3000 be low the bid of the second lowest es timiate, that of Ray Nordquist of Sweet Home fore »63,400. But the engineers had estimated thecost of clearing the 78 acres around the dam site at $45,460. In the absence of Col. O. E. Walsh, the Portland office of his district was reluctant to state whlat would be the next step. Officers said the usual pro cedure is to submit the job for rebid. The clearing job must be completed if the Army Engineers Corp« fulfills its present plan to begin construction on the dam itself—a »60,000,000 pro ject, by spring. Factors other than the decline in prices of the lower grades of lumber are believed by lumbermen to be op erating in the current slowdown of lumber production. One of the main considerations, it is felt, is the question of taxes. In GATES WOMAN SEVERS nearly all cases, mills in this part of ARTERY IN ACCDENT Oregon have made substantial pro Mrs. Harold Wilsou spent Thanks fits, and, exept where difficulties in giving day and the preceding night the supply of logs were encountered, in Salem Memorial Hospital as the prouced steadily throughout the year. IWith the shipping situation as It result of an accident in her home is, still suffering from the effects of Wednesday in Gates. She accidently slashed an attery the longshore strike, mills could do in her left wrist on a broken bottle, little more than pile up inventory until the first of the year. This would also severing a tenAon. Dr. Jack Reid gave her emergency mean a substantial increase in their treatment before she was operated income or corporate taxes for 1948. on in Salem. Inasmuch as most mills, having producer! more lumber than they have MAYOR RETURNS been able, because of transportation Mayor Horald Kliewer returned troubles, to sell, have well - filled from Los Angeles Wednesday night. docks, the incentives for producing He had attended funeral services for much before Jan. 1 is lacking. The decline in the price of No. 2 his brother, the Rev. Albert Kliwer, to No. 4 grades of fir lumber also who ied of airplane crash injuries. is a deteriant to continuer! produc tion in some mills. Some, indeed, are CZECH LODGE PLANS DINNER in a position of having paid more Jerry Lyons, Gates tavern opera A dinner and bazaar will be held for stumpage than finished lumber tor, aveited what might have been Sunday at the Bohemian Hall. The will bring. For despite the decline a serious fire in a neighboring tavern public is invited. The dinner is 50 in lumber prices, the cost of stump when he observed smoke pouring out cents for adults, 25 cents for children age has not yet reflected fhe drop. of it early Sunday morning after and will be Served at 12:30. Games, In the ease of Mill City Manufac closing. music and entertainment will fallow. turing Co., it was learned, that firm Mr. and Mrs. Ned Richards, oper for some time had almost discontin ators of the other tavern, were asleep BEAR TRAPPED IN NIAGARA ued purchase of logs from its once when an oil stove broke, causing George Ditto of Niagara trapped chief source of timber -the Blowout considerable smoke damage. The tav a 271 pound black bear on his place Creek area, now being logged for ern was not set afire, but the interior early this week. The animal was the M. and M. Woodworking Oo. In was damaged by soot butchered at the Mill City Market. this case the price of logs, according The Mill City fire department was to a logging company official, was called, but the fireXhad been put un NOTICE Knights Twnplar of San the main reason. der control by the time they arrived. tiam Canyon are requested to as The break in lumber prices, it is The Richards live in quarters in semble at Masonic Hall, Mill City, felt in some quarters, may actually the same building as the tavern. Mr. at 10:45 a. m. to attend Christmas result in an increase in production. Lyons lives next door. service Dec. 19 fn a body and In Those who predict this say that there uniform. is no basic change in the demand - GOOCH TO HALT LOGGING that construction of homes and other The Gooch Ixrgging Co. expected structures fs as urgent now as before to halt operations Tuesdayithis week an.! that lower lumber prices may and not to resume until the first of stimulate burbling. the year. Hence lumber economists are say An Army Engineer* cre<w last ing that it’s too soon to get gloomy week, working on tests at the Dig Burt Turnirlge was in a Salem hos about the current situation. Cliff dam site, were stranded for sev pital following an injury. Shippers of lumber report that Lois Jean Hart has returned to buyers are a lot more choosy than eral hours on an island when part school after two weeks’ absence be they have been. Order* come in, but of the force took the boat aerosa the Santiam and left them with the cold cause of brochi tis. ■pacific grades and quantities are de water between them and home. manded. Gone, apparently, are the They stay« there from the end of days when a mill could ship on a the work day, about 4:30, till 7:30 “take it or leave it” basis. when a night crew came on. As for the Canyon, the only way Soundings are being taken at the be satisfied. If you can’t get along it can continue to absorb as many with Joe Rubfoerman, you can’t get in the wood products industries as «ite, where an 85 foot dBm auxiliary to the Detroit dam, will be built, in along with anybody.” before will be by more extensive pro order to eternine rock structures. Peace in the Pines. cessing of the raw product. The logs Glary Jones work«! his head off are not hear to continue to supply for a couple of days, falling as much present mills in timber for dimension timber as any two men in the crew, lumber only. More extensive fabri Keep Stamps on Hand and with never a fight'ng word for cating of lumber will have to be STAMP anybody. But on th* third day the done if the Canyon continues to keep If you want to be a friend of the undying grouch in him would no 800 or more busy in the woods and rural mail carrier, buy some stamp*. longer be denied. Through the after mills. That was the message of an appeal noon he was seen to stop sawing and by the Postoffice Department to rural -\ heard to yell at bhe inner tube. boxhohier this week, and the carrier RECRUITER COMING “Y’ou’re ridin' the saw. Rubber .Sgt. Richard Edlund of the Salem of Lyons, Route 1, heartily concurs. man!” yelled Glary Jones. “You’re One of the pet peeves of the rural Armp recruiting office will be in Mill ridin’ the saw, and it ain’t fiair to yer postman is an unstamped letter with pardned! Next thing you’ll be drag City Tuesday at the postoffice to in loose pennies to be found somewhere terview youg men interested in en gin' yer feet. Look out for me, Rub in the box. berman! Take keer, or I’ll snap you listing. What is the remedy* Says Uncle Recruits between the ages of 17 apart!” Sam: Then he would work harder than I and 35 will be interviewed from 10:30 “Just keep a supply of stamps on ever, seeming to try to pull the saw a.m. to 3 p.m. Quotas are again open hand, enough to cover every emergen in such fast strokes that “Joe Rub in the Air Corps. Enlistees are given cy, the «am» a* you would buy sugar, berman” could not snap it back I a choice of areas and technical <alt or any other household commo through the tree. But from pine to * 1 schools. Sgt. Edlund said ther are dity. It seems like a mere trifle, but pine, Glary’a partner kept pace with many opening for former servicemen the age-old proverb say* that “trifles at this time. him. make perfection, and perfection is So the work went for the rest of no trifle!’” the summer and until the snow flew CHURCH BAZAAR NEXT WEEK The Presbyterian Churrh is giving PARTNER SELLS MILL SHARE in late fall. Six or seven times a 'lay Clary Jones would bpwl out Joe Rub it» annual Christmas bazaar Thurs Glen Hennes* has sold his interest berman and threaten to destroy him. day, Dec. 9, in the new recreation A buff<A supper will be in the Henness-Klutke sawmill south At the end of the season he’d made building. more budieling money than any team ' se ved fmm 5 to 7, with adult tickets of Gate* to his partner, Elmer Klutke of fallers in the strips, with one ex-1 »1 and children's 50 cents. Mrs. Lee and the mill will continue to operate reption. And he had begun to find Ross in in charge of ticket sales and with a «ingle management. Mr. Hennes* has purchased an In peace in himself. He was free of Mrs. D. B. Hill will supervise the bucking. He was at last a faller. And supper Proceeds v4Tl go into the re terest in the tavern owned and oper so Bullbuck Pratt looked at his work creation building fund. This is the ated by Jerry Lyon* in Gates. He was with Glary Jones and called it goad. first affair in the complete.! building. t<> its t work there this week. Out of the Woods - - - B.v Jim Stevens ber.” THE GROUCHY LOGGER I knew Clary Jones in the short A Mighty Invention The bullbuck started to tell Clary log country more years ago than I hankeT to tell about. He was the Jones that he couldn’t hope to keep worst grouch I ever met. Called a falling partner through one full “Clary” because a glare was the only hour. Then he thought better of it. kind of a look he knew, this gaunt, Here was a mighty man of work, lantern-jawed, powerful pinetop was one to good to lose. Any real boss also unpopular in Camp 5 because with any kind of brain would rig up he was what we termed “work-sim a way to keep such a worker. So he ple.” Clary Jones stirred up the only told Clary to stick to camp until fist fight I ever saw in the woods. next morning, and maybe something It was in a gang of swampers. The could be done for him. The next morning the fallers saw otheis would nA 1<\ or work with Bulkbuck Pratt lead Glary Jones into him. “I don’t like to send a good worker a timber strip across the railroad over the hump, hut I swear I don’t from the others The grouchy logger know what to do with you,” Hank packrda raw. a falling ax, wedges, Pratt, the buUbuck, Mid. “That is, oil bottle anil waterbag. The boss as long as you don’t want to be a carried a Model T inner tube (the year was 1914) a long and heavy,Iron buckor.” “No buckin’,’ Clary Jones grimly stake and a maul. He stopped at the said. “T expected this a is cornin’. 1 first standing sugar pine, mauled the knowed it all the time you was plot- I stake into the ground, cut, the tube tin' to make one of your gol-blasted and roped one end to the stake and buAe-s of me. Well. I won’t stand the other to the saw for it. Erery place I been for 30 years ry You’ve got you a falltng Bittner the push ends up by tryin’ to make | Then: “There's my invention, Gla- me a bucker. I stood it a long time | you can get along with. Mr. Jones, But no more. I’m sick and tired of ( meet Mr. Rubberman. Go to work, buckin’ logs." He spat out a chew of now.” The grouchy logger made no argu snoose as though is were a hot bul let, then reloaded. It seemed to gentle ' ment. Soon he was sawing, knee-high him some. “Buckin’ is so wretched from the ground When he pulled, the lonesome," Clary complained, “tone- rubber tube held the saw steady as it was stretched. When he shoved, some. yes. sir. No buckin'.” “You can’t keep peace with any the tube pulled the saw back through body, Jones. What can I do for you ?” the kerf. ’There, now,” said Bulkbuck Pratt. “Mr Pratt." said the grouchy log ger, “I've always wanted to fall tim “I hope you’re satisfied. You GOTTA mw ci mi mi wimii mrnti mtuii tmimmiMiHii mu inn.iiiiwiiwmiuiiiNWiuMMi »2.00 A YEAR. 5 CENTS A COPY MILL CITY. OREGON. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 2. 1948 Wolves Start Off Like Champions Lyons. Mehama. Elkhorn, Mill City, Gates. Mongold. Detroit and Idanha Fire Averted At Gates Tavern Engineer Crew Gets Marooned