Image provided by: North Santiam Historic Society; Gates, OR
About The Mill City enterprise. (Mill City, Or.) 1949-1998 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 1969)
(¿«n Hei. ana Uoc. Div, Newspapers, L of U Library 97103 The Mill City VOLUME XXIV NUMBER 41 ON THE SCENIC NORTH SANTIAM HIGHWAY — OREGON’S FAST GROWING VACATION WONDERLAND THE MILL CITY ENTERPRISE—MILL CITY, OREGON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1969 ' ........................................... Cedar Lumber Begins Wrapping Lumber Up and Down The Avenue ♦ By Don Moffatt Many times we people in tliis area think the only thing we have in the way of indus try is timber and its related products. I found out this week that this is not the case. Up at Gates three men moved ir. from the Los Angeles area with a shop full of precision tools and are busy making parts for airplanes. Shipping poses no problem for them, as the metals they use are light, and transportation for their finished product is also easy. They left the Los Angeles area to get away from the smog, traffic, and too many people. They like this area and have remodelled the old garage used at one time by Bill Leming. Possibly this is the break through that this area needs. The manufacturing of compon ent parts for airplanes, assem bly plants, and a varied list of industries could find this area just the place to locate. A few years will make a great change in this area. Of course, logging will probably be the primary industry for many years to come. We have built some fine mills here within the past 10 years. Speaking of advance in pro duction and marketing of tim ber we can’t overlook Cedar Lumber Co., Inc. out in Fox Valley. This firm has made a rapid growth in the past few years. They have just started selling packaged lumber, which is another step forward in mar keting of their product. A picture on this page will show how their new package will look. Progress is coming to the area, and we’d better be ready for it. Right now there :s a housing shortage, and it will continue to magnify as the years go by. I see by the papers that the State Highway department, parks division, is going into camp site construction in a big way. The headlines say 950 campsites to be built in time for use next summer.” I was rattier surprised at the cost of providing one campsite. Some $3,000. They plan to just fix the sites with electrical hook ups, and leave the sewer and water to be done at a later date. While on the coast this weekend I spent considerable time visiting with private par ties who have built trailer parks in recent years. Most of them figure the sites could be built for a lot Less than $3,000 each. They can do it, so how come the State has to pay this much? It is a question I would like answered. One thing I will say about the state parks, they are the best in the United States. They are well-planned, neat, and kept that way. At that price they certainly should be. There has been a big fuss this past year about overcrowd ing tn our state parks. I won der if any of these people who can’t get into a state park ev er tried to get into a privately owned parking place. They are available on the coast now, ar.d at a rate that compares favorable with the state fees. I talked with one outfit which informed me that: “if the state kept out of the park business, private enterprise could well take care of the pro blem. ” I don’t know about that, but I do know that if you really want to spend mon ey to get a job done, just let the government do it. Personal ly I would rather see the state put in maybe 500 parks and do the complete job Doing part ct the building of campsites now and finishing them later is just like building the house, then go to the expense of jack ing it up to put in the base ment. Of course, these engin eers are supposed to know what thev are dong, but I for one have always been against these crash programs—you always pay through the nose for the work done. No matter what happen.-, the demand for camp sites will for many years ex ceed the accomodations. F a cry time I go to the coast 1 have » feeling of disgust ! < n I try to watch the waves • iler Rw The highway de nt put up that damned Above is a picture of the new package of lumber being offered to purchasers by Cedar Lumber Co. Inc. The first wrapped packages went out last week. Fred Krecklow, in the background is seen putting the final touches on a package. Benny Bennett will be in charge of this department, but he was not on hand when the picture was taken by an Enterprise reporter. Don Walk er, one of the owners of the Mill stated he felt this would make their product more marketable. He said when you get a vyhole carload of packed lumber it will show up real good, and before long the Lion will read ily be identified with Cedar Lumber.—The Mill City En terprise photo. Cedar Lumber Starts Wrapping Lumber Cedar Lumber Co., Inc. this past week began marketing “wrapped” lumber. In an inter view with Don Walker, one of the owners, and manager of the operation, he feels that this is the best way to market lumber. It is much more con venient for those purchasing the lumber as each bundle is marked as to size and number of pieces and it is possible to stack the lumber in the open and not in covered sheds as in the past. Walker also said: “it is too costly to ship in box cars any more. Labor casts have increas ed so much for loading and un loading lumber that it makes it nearly prohibitive to handle in this manner. This way it can be unloaded off flat cars with a fork lift, and that saves at lot of time and money.” This is just one of the cases of labor pricing itself out of the market. It will do no good to continue to raise wages, if there is no work to do. Auto mation in the lumber business is reducing the number of men it takes to produce a thousand board feet of their product. Cedar Lumber is one of the several mills in this canyon U. G. N. Fund Drive To Begin Monday, Oct. 6 General chairman for the Un ited Good Neighbor Campaign, Virgil Trout reported Monday, October 6th is the kickoff of this project. Chairman for the Detroit area is Shirley Hill, and for the Gates area, Hazel Gabriel. Those working in the Mill City area are Joyce Trout, Mol ly Larsen, Darlene Ruby, Glor ia Urban, Shirley Biggness, Bobbie Budlong, Addie French, Linda Sanders, Mary Ann Nicholas, Pat Posekany, Bar bara Thomas. Esther Challen- der, Cheryl Challender. Everyone is urged to wel come these people when they call on you at your home in the next two weeks. Money collected through this is dis tributed among 43 different or ganizations. a good part left here in Mill City. Businesses will be contacted separately by Virgil Trout and others. chair, link fence, and just high enough so you can hardly see the big rocks and waves. I still think that was a waste. Of course they said they had to do it to protect the people. Per sonally, if people don’t know any better than to walk off a cliff, possible the fence would n’t stop them anyhow Just a case of overprotection of "big brother” government. which is moving forward in modern marketing. It is the only way to continue in busi ness according to information given The Enterprise. Some of the finest mills in the state are found in the North Santiam Canyon. Truck-Train Mishap Injures Driver Santiam Stays on Win Streak LYONS — The Lyons City Council decided Wednesday night to advertise for bids for blacktipping anil curbing exist ing sidewalks in the commun ity. Budding Inspector Joe John son resigned. Councilmen rec ommended Howard Naue to take over the position. The council discussed reloca tion f the highway through Lyons once a new bridge Is built across the Santiam River. Weather, Detroit Dam 7 a. m. Dally Weather Reading Pool Max Min Elev. Pep Oct. 1 59 51 1522.89 0.02 2 56 45 1522.35 1.73 Oct Oct 3 53 44 1521 78 1.18 Oct 4 60 43 1521.26 0 00 Oct 5 65 39 1520.52 0.00 6 66 42 1519.73 0.00 Oct Oct 7 72 42 1518.89 T Tool Sharpening Requires Skill Plane Parts Being Made At Gates 3’he Santiam Wolverines, trailing 20-12 at halftime, scor ed 2 touchdowns in the second | half, and held host Scio score- ¡ less to win their 4th straight I game by the score of 24-20, Frl-1 (lay, October 3. The Wolverines scored 61 points in each quarter of the I game with the first one on a ' 42 yard pass from Ron John son to Larry Hillesland. The Pictured above is Harvey Keen shown working at extra point attempt by Cline one of his tool sharpening machines. He keeps tool failed. cutting devices sharp, and has his equipment located In the second quarter, How at Gates. He manufactures cutting devices to be used ard Lyness, who had a total of 81 yards in the game, cross in the operation at Gates.—The Mill City Enterprise ed the goal line on a 7 yard photo. plunge, the extra point attempt Heavy Drill Installed again failed. With 12 points on the score board for the Wolverines at half, they had a tough battle ahead of them, for the Scio Loggers had scored 3 times in the first half to lead 20-12. The rest of the game was a one way skermish, with the Wolverines scoring twice, once cn a 4 yard run by Doug Cline and again when Larry Hilles land intercepted a pass and ran 10 yards *or his second touchdown of the game, and his 6th touchdown in the last 3 games. Defensively Mike Long, Lar ry Hillesland, and Bruce Ros coe led tackles with 10, 8, and 7 tackles respectively. There were two fumble recoveries, one by John Ruby, and the other by Tom Rush. Pictured is Ronald O’Donnell, working with one of The Wolverines next meet the heavy drills used in their Gates plant which is man North Marion at North Marion ufacturing parts for the aircraft industry. They moved Friday, October 10. Chamber To Try Night Meeting LYONS—Log truck driver George Childs of Lebanon is in Lebanon Hospital today with injuries suffered when a train struck his truck east of here. Childs was driving for the Gilbert Logging Co., when the Southern Pacific freight train hit the truck at Gilbert’s Sta At a board of directors meet tion m miles east of here at 3 p.m. Tuesday. He suffered a ing of the North Santiam broken collar bone and other Chamber of Commerce held re cently it was decided that a injuries. night meeting would lie tried in an attempt to get sime of of the business men from the Lions Board Meets upper part of the canyon to attend. It is difficult for many At Krecklow Home The board of directors of the to attend a noon meeting. President Harold Wiltse stat Mill City Lions club met at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred ed the next meeting would be held at The Riverview in Me Krecklow Sunday evening. It was agreed that any mem hama Wednesday, October 15. ber who does not attend a din Dinner will be at 7:00 and the ner meeting without a valid meeting will begin at 8 o’clock. excuse turned in before Friday Only a small crowd was pre at 5 p. m. prior to the Monday sent at the board meeting. meeting will be fined $1. This There was a discussion on what is being done because not the Steering Committee from enough members are showing Mill City had brought up at up at meetings to meet the the last meeting about the pro dinner guarantee. gram at the Whitewater Chal In other action, George Long lenge. This referred to having was re-appointed to the steer part of the usual July 4th pro ing committee for another gram carried on in the park at year. The next Lions club din Mill City changed to Memorial ner meeting will be held Mon Day. No action was taken un day, October 13. til that group had a more con Deadline for Calendar Saks crete plan to offer. is the 13th of October. Lyons Plans For Sidewalk Improvement $4.00 a YEAR — 10c a Copy ■ Lightning Strikes; Damage Very Slight They say lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place and a number of Mill City res idents hoped this was true Thursday afternoon. After a day of heavy rain, thunder and lightning hit the area ab:ut four o’clock and really shook things up, making some wonder If the after af fects (or pre-affects) of the Al askan blast had hit. At the Edwin Stone, Jim Grant and DeVaul homes it was reported that “blue fire streaks” were seen coming from the switches and outlets in the homes. However, no damage was re- porteo except f .r some shatter ed nerves. The storm in the area also brought the first touch of snow along the San tiam Pass. Not too many people are yet aware of the precision machine shop that is manufacturing air plane parts in Gates. Thomas O’Donnell and ds son Ronald R. O’Donnell own and operate the shop, moving their equipment, tons of preci sion tools, from VCan Nuys, California where they had an identical shop. The men and their families have lioth purchased homes ’n the area and the old Learning garage in Gates which has been completely renovated inside. As soon as time permits they plan on cleaning up the prem ises. Now, however, they are hard at work on filling contract orders for various airplane companies. The friendly and knowlede- able O’Donnells say they like the area very much and that the smog, traffic and high cost of living brought them to Ore gon. Thomas O’Donnell was raised in a small town In Lou isiana and said it seemed good to get back to the slower pace of living. He started working as an apprentice machinist when he was 17 and has work ed al it ever since. He is a true craftsman and one that enjoys talking about his work, explaining the operation of the tools in detail. The first shipment from their new location was for wheel doors on planes now beipg produced at Boeing in Seattle. Other items now in prcxtuction are bushings and support parts for airplanes. They work principally in al here from California.—The Mill City Enterprise photo. uminum and aluminum alloys. They take the raw material and saw and machine the var Big Lathe Installed ious t ugh, but light weight parts. One machine functions re markably like a child’s trace- c matic but on a complex scale and is called a Hydraulic Profiler. On this a complete outline for a part is traced and cut precisely the same size as the pattern. They are presently making wing supports but this mach ine could as easily turn out complex supports for a truck or car or duplicate any article from the aluminum alloy or brass. Harder metaLs are cut on the hand operated profiler which is geared for strength rather than speed. The large metal lathe turns out pieces up to four feet long and as thick as 19” with piles of bright aluminum curls mount- rng up around the lathe mak ing it look festive holiday de Thomas O’Donnell, above, can be seen with one of corations. Many of the items turned the lathes used in the manufacture of airplane compon on this big lathe or the smaller ents. They moved from the Los Angeles area to get one lose their tubular shapes away from the “rat race.” He said there is no reason when the holes are made and many machine shops such as these cannot be located cut out and fitted with other in these areas, where materials can be shipped in to be pieces. A grinder does the same precise operation on pin manufactured.—The Mill City Enterprise photo. stock. From a six inch piece or one as small as a thread. Linn-Benton College The first requirement at the shop is one of exacting accur Offers Evening Course acy with the O’Donnels start ing the work from full size Linn-Benton Community Col drawings on a huge piece of lege is again offering two ses Wonder what happened to Mylar. sions of the Poise, Posture, and Precision flat or square parts Personality class as an even your summer’s wages? Better ing college credit course in Al start thinking about It, as the are polished and trued on a fuel oil trucks start circling surface grinder before going bany. The twi credit class meets around the city like buzzards, on to matching. Patterns from on Mondays at 4:00 p.m. and friendly type, that is. This a blueprint are created on a again at 7:00 p. m. in Room A past week Mt. Jefferson has black granite block which is received a new covering of as smooth as a mirror and lev 13 at Albany High School. snow, and Thursday saw snow eled by modem guages. Although the first class ses All these precision tools are sions were held September 29, on Santiam Pass, the first re kept sharp by Harvey Keen space is still available and in corded this fall. The weather over the week who has his tool and cutter terested individuals should go end, hiwever, was perfect, but grinders in the O’Donnel shoo. directly to class to register. as this is being written Tues As he says, "Precision work day morning, the rains are reouires precision tools.” The i with us again, however it is men have been friends for Jim Rose Hurt in more in the form of a drizzle many years I than a downpour Hunting Accident Mt. Jefferson Gets New White Blanket Jim Rose was taken to San tiam Memorial Hospital in Stayton Sunday f llowing a hunting accident. He and his son, Jimmy, were hunting in the Rock Creek area when Jim climbed over a downed log, grabbing a limb to help himself. The limb broke off, going into the palm of his hand and coming out between his fingers The limb resulted in tearing quite a hole in his hand which necessitated surgery ti repair the damage. Schools To Be Closed Friday; Teachers To Have In-Service Meet Heart Attack Puts Pittam in Hospital Schools in the area will be closed this Friday, according to inf rmation received here. Purpose of the closure is so teachers may attend profession al meetings within their parti- ular areas of instruction, and th'.se not attending meetings away from home, will have meetings locally. Sob's)! will resume Monday. Jerry Pittam was taken to Salem Memorial hospital Mon day morning suffering from a heart attack. Mrs. Pittam said Wednesday morning that he is still undergoing tests, and that he most likely will be confin ed to the hospital for about two weeks. She said his doctor called It a light coronary.
