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)