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. 30, 1948)
Serving the North Santiam Valley VOLUME IV. NUMBER 51 The North Santiam’s Mill City Enterprise MILL CITY. OREGON. THURSDAY. DFit EMBER 30. 15Ï» Lyons, Mehama, Elkhorn, Mill City. Cates, Mongold, Detroit and Idanha $2.W A YEAR. 5 CENTS A C»PY Looking Up Engineers’ Schedule for Dam Mill City Ends Murphy Denies Stall and Down Shows Competion in 4 Years Year Without On Elkhorn Road the Canyon Going in Debt The Detroit dam is scheduled for port of the Willamette Project, I completion within four years, accord think the interest you have shown is ing to a prospectus of the U. S. Army inspirational and shows more people By CHARLES WOLVERTON (From The Statesman* , Hy.” are becoming interested in the de Engineers recently released. Mill City wound up its first calen- “Politics had nothing to do with The schedule for appropriation; on velopment of the Valley. ” I read with interest, if not amaze A short mountain road connecting Mill City and the Canyon have no <iar year in the black. Mayor Harold Elkhorn and Gates will be graveled | the promise of repair for the road. ment, a letter from the Republican | the big North Santiam hydroelectric project is as follows: j representative on the Basin commit Kliewer said this week in a year-end ami < aded next summer but it will The road was inspected last fall. We State Central Committee, to wit: Previous allotments, $5,527,100; tee, although here will be built ttle statement “In reviewing the jam-packed ev never be a "major” county road. Mar found there was no rock there avail- Prospects looked good for the New ion County Judge Grant Murphy said able—as had been reported to the ents of the recent election campaign, 1949, (current) $3,500,000; 1950, $13,- most important individual unit of court by residents Cher«." Year, as the debtless city will _ get Monday. I want you to know that those of us 500,000 (this sum is being asked by the Willamette Project. To rock the road suitably a quan- about fire or six thouean I dollars of at Republican State Headquarters, as the engineers of the forthcoming Judge Murphy made this statement state highway funds in February. A in reply to a newspaper article ap tity of rock must be crushed near it. weTI as our many fine candidates, Congress); 1951 $13,500,00; and 1952 wide program of street imprvements pearing in the Dec. 23 issue of The This will be done this summer, the deeply appreciate your understanding -$10,319,900. will be financed by the highway fund. Mill City Enterprise. In a page one judge said. Because of its steep ele The figures aie those given Con co-operation and efforts on their be gress by General Wheeler, command half and the Party.” I The city council will reorganize at story the Enterprise criticized the vation and rough-weather conditions Since this is a newspaper, I fig ing officer of the U. S. Army Engin . its first council meeting in January, court for not keeping its promise to the road will never be maintained as a major county road, the judge said. ured it would be news to the sub- eers. Mr. Kliewer said. At that time Carl repair the road last summer. “The principal road to Elkhorn will The Willamette basin Project Com Kelly, newly elected councilman, will cribers that the Enterprise supposed The paper said the court promised mittee has placed a request for $14,- Dewey and the Republicans. take office and a succer«or to Lee “to spend $10,000 on improving and be the [»resent one along the Little 000,000 fer the Detroit dam. The or Ross, who plans to resign at that relocating the Gates-Elkhorn road. North Fork. This is a practical course Almost half the town was with meeting, because of moving outside We were given to understand this and the road is easier to maintain.” One of those stories it takes to ganization has asked a total of $172.- wind up the old year involves the 714,000 for the entire Willamette out water this week for twx. days the city limits, will be received. No work Would start in the summer. No when a water main leading to the statement has been made on Ross’ thing was done.” Project. town baker. Ronald Jones, chairman of the Ba- Hilltop section broke, and utility men possible successor, although the coun Christmas eve he looked the shop After repeated requests in Septem cil possibly has individually made up ber, the article said, and engineer over and found he was out of bread. sin committee, said in a lecent an- were unable to find the leak. •w The broken main finally was found its mind on one candidate. Mr. Muir had to go to the grocery nual report to his organization: "wandered up this direction, scratch “Oure project is included, for ¡t on the hill not for from the Hilltop Also, the new council will have to ed around the hill and mournfully store for a loaf. He bought his own Funeral services weie held Wed thorization, in the 308 report of the store. Because of the gravelly ground choose a mayor this session. brand. reporte to residents in the road vic nesday at the Presbyterian Church • • • Coi.ps of Engineers for the entire which underlaid the 4 inch main, the Main business of the coming year inity he couldn’t find any rock. They’d for Willis L. Oliver, Mill City resi One New A’ear’s reslution we’ie go Columbia basin. The Corps of F/ water was absorbed into the eareh will be the adoption of a charter. The have to wart.” dent for 30 years, who died at his ing to keep is this: We’ll make no gineers have, however, given us as and did not come to the surface. For preparatory work on the charter has The paper described the maneuver home Monday. more predictions on the outcome of surance that if there should be any that reason, a long delay occurred been done in recent meetings of the as “like a fancy runaround by the Mr. Oliver was bom May 5, 1868, council, using a model provided by county court. We’re sort of pore re in Tayior, N. Y. He was married to elections. This vow will be fairly easy difficulty in the 3 0 8 authorization, before the break was ¡«covered. Many complaints pouied into the the League of Oregon Cities. The lation up here and usually are for Mary Louise Bond about 1892. His to keep because there are no major they will immediately pull the Wil lamette report out of 308 and >tro- power company office and to mem charter must be passed by the Ore gotten when the favors are passed wife preceded him in death three elections in 1949. efuce it separately. bers of the city council. But water gon legislature, and it will be sub around.” years ago. “The Congressmen and Senators was restored as quickly as possible, mitted this year. They moved to Mill City about 30 Judge Murphy said Monday the TRASK BAGS TWO COUGARS Actually Mill Cit£_as an incorpor Elkhorn-Gates road, which is about year« ago. He was a member of the have given us assurance of their sup- considering the difficulty in finding ated place is only a year old, because four miles long and runs over a high Presbyterian Church. the leak. Cougar hunting was good for Bob | Local manager Curtis CHine said it was not until shortly after the first ridge between the two towns, is on The Rev. James McAuley officiated. Trask the past week. Mie. Ruby Horner who sold her i of this year that i had funds upon this week that when the new settl- Burial was in Fairview cemetery. the county ’ s repair list. The veteran nemesis of beasts Mr. Oliver leaves one brother, Na “These things take time,” the in the Canyon, with his trained dogs, store and home here last week, left ’ ing tanks and pumping system now which o operate . To its credit--and by staying out judge said, “although the road should than Oliver, of Denver, Colo; and tracked down and killed bwo—one in the middle of the week for Palo Alto, being installed, is completed the city the mountains above Gates, the other Calif., to reside. Mrs. Tarry Shelton water will be viitually free of dis of debt—a new jail and city hall has be improved—I am not seeking to four sisters, Mrs. Jennie Allard of Water will be pumped been built, ^ie streets vastly improv minimumize the need for a road over Colorado, Mirs. Nellie Sincerbean, Au in hills not for southwest of Mill of San Fiancisco, wh with her hus coloration. band, spent the holidays with her from a well built at the river’s edge, ed and constant police protection at the mountain. But the coat of labor burn, N. Y.; Mrs. Carrie Schmitts, City. Both were over six feet long. Cougars are worth a bounty of $65 father, A. D. Scott, drove the Horner i filtered and allowed to settT^n the i hand. Much, of course remains to be and materials have taken their toll Rc-hester. N. Y.; and Mie. E. How tanks. done. I of he county's road building capac- land, Cleveland, O. apiece. Ingle Johnson ¿kinne the cats. car for Mis. Homer. Water Cut Off W. L. Oliver Dies The Canyon in 1948- - a Year of Promise Undoubtedly, 1948 was the most important twelvemonth in the Can yon’s history. Not so much from what took place in the past 366 days, but by reason of programs and projects marpiped out for the North Santiam region during the period. Bigges news, of course, awaited until the year had nearly run its course—the announcement in early December of the Army Engineers’ plan to start work on the Detroit dam in early 1949. That great undertaking, which will take more than four yeais of work and $60,000,000 of federal J“unds, is the Canyon’s big chance to end a long and obscure history of being a minor gulch in the Willamette Valley water shed and finding a new role of be coming a major supplier of electri cal current to the nation. For the Dertoit dam, to be one of the tallest dams in the country, will pour 1000,000 kilowatts into the al most dry Northwest power pool. Be sides the dam will hold back the dan gerous floodwaters of the Santiam be fore they can create more disatrous damage m the Willamette Valley. In flood control alone the dam will pay its way from the start. The dam project has brought more benefits than itself to the North San tiam—that is, the direct aid of in creased payrolls and business. The new North Santiam highway offeis a new future to the region. Built be; cause the reservoir of the dam would flood the existing road, the relocated route has turned out to be mort than just a replacement. It will, when fin- isted in early summer, place the Can yon on major transcontinental high ways, to south and east. The perman ent and last.ng benefits of the road are hard even m»w to realize. Bui let's get on with a chronicle, month by month of 1948 in the North Santiam. JANUARY. The first Enterprise of the New Year carried the sad news of the death Christmas day of W L. Quinn, prominent Timberman and an execu tive in the Mill City Manufacturing Co. He was 63. A broken bridge on the Little North Fork gave the area considerable pub licity for a week or so. A bright young newspaperman in Salem cook- el u:> the y. ■■ ■> 0 eral expectant mothers standed up 4 Next week Blowout camp, the big the valley from the bridge and that gest logging operation in the Can momentarily the stork would call. So county craws, to the accompaniment yon, was sold to the M. & M. Wood of flashing camera bulbs, put up a working Corp. of Portland. With the sale, the (Mill City Manufacturing temporal y bridge. It was a month ($r Co. had disposed of all its timber more lefore any expectant mother holdings, federal and private. had crossed that bridge on her way The rescue effoits of the Forest to the hospital. But the story made Service in Detroit pai dividends. A headlines. little girl, who was ailing, was taken Brief news the fiist of the year: across the flooded North Santiam and Roy Newport, a Canyon pioneer, sold to Bend, where she was recovering his Detroit business. from pneumonia.. Lyons cast its lot A lively week of events followed. with Stayton, “Jbining its union high The North Santiam cut loose again. school, after once turning it down. Continued rains hSd raised the river A once isolated community, Mc to flood stage in the Jefferson area, Cully Mountain, was flooded with and landslides cut off the Uppper light—its REA power was cut over. Canyon towns from Mill City and the The last issue of the month car valley. Even the railroad was blocked. ried a story that a project in the An ST engine and several cars Little North Folk, about which there were derailed in Mill City when an had been no litte mystery, was to be engineer lan through a swithh. a mine. (Nothing much came of it Mr. and Mrs. Tony Moravec lost during the year.) Another unfulfilled their infant son, drowned in a ditch. promise that month: a statement by First hint of the impending sale by the state board of aeronautics that the Mill City Manufacturing Co. ap an airstrip was planned for Mill City. peared in the news, with a denial The young city government an that any such sale had yet taken nounced a program for street im flace, but with the assuiance that provement. A windstorm cut off tele a log supply from the camp would be phone and highway communication guaranteed before a sale was made. with Detroit and Idanha. A recluse, W. F. Tinney, of Mc A further development for the San Cully “Mountain, died. tiam area was announced. Salem was Mrs. Alice Rupp was installed as to get its water supply eventually worthy matron of the OES and W. B. from the Detroit dam, the Army En Shuey, worthy patron. gineers said. Next week came news from the FEBRUARY nation’s capital that President Tru The new month began vith some man had requested $3.5 million for discouraging news. The State High the Detroit dam for the 1948-49 fis way Commission had rejected a plea cal year. The sum was the full am by the Bend Chamber of Commerce ount of the engineers' request—until to build a new route between Mill the road was done the work on the City and Mehama. Thus ‘he state will dam would have to wait. be furnishing travelers on the splen A new school building, to be erect- did new road above Gates an ap el by the engineers, was announced proach which Is as winding as a wa for Detroit, whose school facilities gon trail. would not be able to take care of the local fliers got behind the plan to eventual influx of population when build an airstrip—the one which had the dam got under way. been promised but never materialized. The Canyon’s organized workers in The Kuckenberg Construction Co. the mills and woods put in a bid for iffice burned in Niagara. Rep. Ells a 40 cent pay rise. They settled later worth got on the flood control band for much less, but without a strike. wagon, demanding $11.5 million for The rains, meanwhile, had don a I the Detroit dam—for the headlines lot of damage. The hydro plant of the The Detroit Theater announced its Mountain States Power Co was out, ■»pening a week hence. a bridge was washed out. In Idanha, One paragraph in the personals power was cut off by a burning gen said: , erator. Three Mill City youth« were "Mrs. Pearl Reed spent the first injured in a crossroads crass m Gate«. part of the week canning 12 chick The Rebekahs seated Natalie Swift ens.” as noble g-and. The neat paragraph read: “Dick Turpin had three laying hens stolen from his henhouse Sunday night.” There was no connection. Two new Businesses opened: the Milk Shake ShtkJ^ near Mill City, and the Lyons Variety Store. Mrs. Jennie Tumidge died. Next week the opening gun of a fight which was to stir most of Ore gon and TTte Northwest was fired: The battle of small mill and logging operators against the so-called co operative timber sale plan—timber monopoly, they called it. Judge Murphy of the Marion Coun ty Court held up the deed for Mill City’s dump, on ground« that it would spoil the projected highway between Mill City and Mehama. We county withdrew objections Jater. The Hon. Ed Vickers, justice of the peace in Idanha, got himself on a spot. A culprit he’d fined said he’d rather go to jail—but Idanha had no jail. The constable was ill. So Judge Vickers delivered his prisoner to a deputy at Gate«. Col. O. E. Walsh Tf the Army En gineers warned that floods such as had recently been experienced might be a dgnger for 15 years more, or at least till the Willamett«\Project was completed. And Bonneville foresaw a power shortage until 1952. By the following week the fight against the co-op timber plan was going strong, with Canyon leaders joining in. Mill City and Lyons set in motion a drive to get the state to improve the higway between the bwo towns. Lyons invited McCully Mountain, Twin Cedais, Oakdale, Jordan and Fox Valley to form a consolidated school. The whool« of Gates and Mill City got a setback the same week. Albout 21,000 acres of timberland in both distr,cts were swapped by the Weyerhauser interests for federal forest on the coast—the deal coat both districts hundreds of thousands in assessed valuation and later sent tax bill soaring. Next week the Republicans in con gress got out their reonomy ax and whacked off half a million from the President's $3.5 million resjuest for the Detroit dam. An absorbing tale of the f u tless hunt of two Canyon resident» -Chris Knutson and Ingle Johnson—for a lost mine shaft was told. Next week ex-Gov Sprague In The Statesman ' hooted at the yam. Mill City's jail was a building—as nice a hoosegow as you’d want for a lost week end. And a 4-H group learning how to sit babies came up with an apprrpriate name for their group—the Steady Changers. MARCH When news is first ipt inted, there’s no way of telling, sometimes, whe ther its true or phoney. The Enter prise, taking Marion County politic ians at their (word, said that a new road was to be built between Gates and Elkhorn. The goats are still eat ing undisturbed on that right-of-way. The county was to make two such announcements—-one before the pri mary and one before the general el ection. In Washington, engineers pleaded with Congress for more money for the Willamette Project, which includ es the Detroit dam. Lyons boasted a new store, its sec ond in a month. Mr«. Virginia Is-ttelier, a former resident, dfer in Sacramento, and Charles Graves died in Gates. Next week the Mountain States Power Co. announced Its plans for a new water system for Mill City— a project currently nearing completion. A new mill was being built in the neighboring Gooch community. The week later good news came to many who had been out of woik be cause of the big mill’s repair pro gram. The $30,000 project was done, ' work would begin Monday. Little Sharon Jo Aasland and Ger ry Knapp were queen and king of the ! baby world. A freak snowstorm had telephonic communications in a tangle. ■ that contract. The latter job is now complete and the former is nearing windup of the right-of-way, with tower euuipment now being spotted along the line. The editor that week took a back seat to allow Jack Flook to criticize an editorial against the current war scare. Ted Olsen had returned from a trip to Noiway, with an interesting ac count of people there, and their he roism during the war. Detroit Iwaa up in arms over the prospect that the Forest Service had «(«signs on their future townsite (De troit lies within the reservoir to be formed by the Detroit dam). The fighting upper Canyon community won out—its people usually do when they’re straddle their high horse. The first invasion of political can didates, along with flowers in bloom, betokened the coming of spring. The winter had been a severe one and workers in the woods had not yet gotten back to their jobs. There was no closed season on cougar. Bob Trank, Walt Ball and Nick Ball were getting more than their quota. By the second week of the month it appeared that the Army Engin eers were winning their fight for re storation of cuts made in the West’s reclamation program including the original $3.5 millions sought for the Detroit dam. The IWA, which had put up a bid for a 42 cent pay raise, was voting on an agreement to accept 12 cents. Mill City’s new jail was finished, ready for guests. The issue of the 15th reported the suicide in a local motel of a promin APRIL ent Western lumberman, Earle Fulg- As April began, two impoitant de- , ham. Fuigham had been in the Can velopments were announced. First yon for several months on personal was the Bonneville line, a 230,000 business. He had once been general volt line from Lyons to the Detroit manager of the Willamette Lumber damsite. In late February Bonneville | Co. of Dallas. representatives were in the Canyon Warm «lays were welcomed as a buying right-of-way for the power , p »mine that snow in the high region line which eventually will link the would melt and permit logging soon. Detroit dam with the Bonneville grid Another harbinger of spring — in and, for the duration of the ronst ac Stayton a snowman with camellias tion, supply power for erecting the for eyes. dam itself. A boy cake baker took the 4-H The other project announced that prize from the gals. He was Bobby week was a three mile stretch of mad Baltimore. on the North Santiam Highway be Toward the latter part of April tween Mongold and the old Highway most of the hrggers were ba«k in the 222 above Detroit. Guy Atkinson Co., woods, tut a fight had developed over a world is ide construction firm, won (Continued on Next Page)
