Vol. XXNo.1 LANE COUNTY HISTORICALSOCIETY Lane CountyHistorian WENDUNG, OREGON Eugene, Oregon C0 C0a

Spring, 1975 0 C(0 3 LANE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Mrs. C. A. Huntington, Route 2, Box 277, Eugene, Oregon 97401 President Stuart W. Hurd, Rt. 2, Box 345, Eugene, Oregon 97401 Membership Secretory lnez Long Forif (Mrs. James G. Forfl) 3870 Watkins Lane, Eugene, Oregon 97405 The Lane County Historian is a quarterly publication of the Lane County Historical Society, a non-profit organization. Membership in the Lane County Historical Society includes subscription to the Lane County Historian. Annual dues: $3.00; family membership: $5.00.

CONTENTS WENDLING, A COMPANY TOWN By Shannon Kracht, University of Oregon baccalaureate student, a sometime writer PREDICTIONS: WHAT FIFTY YEARS WILL DO 17 (Extract: The 1904 Anniversary Edition of the Eugene Register

BOOTH-KELLY MILL, WENDLING, OREGON Courtesy, Lane County Pioneer Museum Wenc/Anz,aCornpanF .T1own By Shannon Kracht

Twenty-five miles east of Eu- The town itself, where 900 people gene, at the upper end of the Mo- once lived and worked, has all but hawk Valley, is the site of what vanished. The vault of the town once was Wendling, one of the store still stands, a squat concrete most bustling to w n s in m o n olit h which houses a few the area. For half a century the broken b ott 1 e s,but blackberry town left its mark on Lane County. vines steadily creep toward it and Today, nature is eradicating the soon will smother it from view. mark; time is erasing the mem- The wood-planked streets and side- ories of its fo r me r citizens. It walks are covered and rotting with seems fitting, though, that a town nearly 30 years of whatever nature which tore its existence from the has seen fit to heap upon them. The wilderness should, in the end, give soft haze of smoke from the mill it back again. an d t he countless wood-burning The trees which were once plen- stoves has given way to pure air; tiful are returning, growing amid the heavy rumbling of locomotives ferns, rotting stumps and r u sty pulling long cars of timber into the cable. The log , once dammed town has vanished. Small birds now and dredged to hold 2½ million chirp and flutter about in the un- board feet of timber, has become dergrowth. It's a softly-sung re- merely a damp depression in the quiem broken occasionally by a earth filled with densely grown rifle shot resounding through the grass and scotch broom; black- valley. berry vines, already encircling the It's all over. cavity, now grow toward the center. The sawmill, for nearly half a Only clouded memories remain, century a fury of steam and noise, and a few old photographs accom- where chains carried logs, and panied by sketchy and often con- and planers cut and smoothed them flicting news accounts. With the to finished lumber, is gone, des- passage of timethe process of troyed by fire in 1946. In its place decay and regrowththe town of are piles of brick and m o r t a r Wendling is returning to the 19th rubble, eroding cement foundations century. covered with pale lichen and moss, It was then that Wendling got surrounded by decaying leaves and its startwhen the Pacific North- berries. west was heralded as a new fron- The creek has receded inits tier, when small villages and green banks. No longer needed as a means meadows abounded, and trees were of log transportno longer a tur- the most important and marketable moil of deep water and crashing resource the region could offer. At logsit has reverted 'to a trickle, that time two men visited the upper drifting down out of the mountains Mohawk Valley and in its vir- and flowing slowly to the west. gin the great opportunity 3 for carving a living from the wil- July 23, 1950, "the sound of the derness. These men, Jordon and ring of and the song of saws Holcomb, builtUpa small logging biendeci with the howling of coy- operation at the convergence of otes and the yelping of timber Mill and Wolf creeks. The site wolves." If we can believe some of would soon become one of t he the stories of that time, then the largest lumber producers in the man made structures were not any area. more accommodating. It was a rough and desolate One old man, according to one country in those days, unaccommo- story, complained that there were dating to all but the hardiest. As too many body lice in the rough- James E. Sprague, Wendling store built bunkhouse and protested by operator and newspaper chronicler, moving himself and his sparse be- noted in theRegister-Guard of longings into a burned-out stump.

THE WENDLING STUMPDriven to a stump house by "gray backs" or lice from the bunkhouse Courtesy, Lane County Pioneer Museum 4 THE WENDLING BOARDING HOUSE Courtesy, Lane County Pioneer Museum

If he accomplished anything by his what the commotion was about. protest, it is lost to history. The Perhaps it was these primitive stump was blown out several years conditions, or the idea of a quick later to make way for a railroad profit that prompted the two part- line; the body lice lived on in spite ners to sell their holdings to two of man's pathetic attempts to des- other men, Whitbeck and Stearns, troy them. who in turn operated the mill for In one final effort to rid the bunk- a time before selling to Johnson house of the pests, after more con- and Wendling. ventional extermination practices During the mid-'90s the area had failed, someone figured that began to develop; a small store and steam would probably do the job. post office had been built, but the So the workers blocked the win- town as yet had no name. The dows and opened the doors and ran story goes that Robert A. Booth, a steam pipe from the mill into who had joined in the venture, the bunkhouse and gave it a good suggested that the town be named long blast. After the steam had to honor George Wendling. Wend- settled, the occupants opened their ling, thought Booth, was a suit- doors to find warped mouldings able name. A ft e r unsuccessfully and f u r nit u r e, melted varnish trying to argue their respective here and there and an oc- merits, the men flipped a coin. casional bug crawling irresolutely Booth won. The community was out of a crack in the wall to see named Wendling. In 1896 Johnson and Wendling hawk Valley, to Wendling. For the sold their interests to Booth and first time in its short existence, his partner, Kelly. Two years later the region's budding populace did not have to fear the capriciousness B o o t h a n d Kelly incorporated, of horse and wagon to t ravel along with several California through the snow and mud of win- shareholders. They began building ter. M o r e supplies and modern a bigger and better sawmill the conveniences were brought in and next year. It was finished in 1900. the people were offered a twice- About the same time Southern daily transport service to and from Pacific completed a railroad line Eugene on the "Wendling Bullet," from the Eugene area, up through a passenger train of dubious corn- the smaller communities of the Mo- fort.

WENDLING MILL AND CREW Courtesy, Louis Polley, Don Stolberg THE RAILROAD REACHED WENDLING Courtesy,Louis Poiley, Don Stolberg

LOGS IN WENDLING Courtesy, Louis Policy, Don Stoiberg OSCAR AND ALICE PAGE Courtesy, Lane County Pioneer Museum Times began to change. The un- of work took their places. Wend- married and sawmill ling was growing as fast as the worker, able to cope with the wild mill's lumber could be transported area, rude living conditions, per- and marketed to an outside world. haps even to enjoy them, began to In most of the Northwest lum- move on; young families in search ber areas in those early days, logs

A. A. ROUSE HOME. WENDLING Courtesy, Lane County Pioneer Museum 8 DAM ON MILL CREEKFirst of three dams buitt on Mill Creek to drive logs to Wendling Mill. Built around 1901. Courtesy, Louis Policy, Don Stoiberg were floated to distant millsin released and the logs traveled down ong runs. Wending, too, toward the , driven by practiced river running of a sort. tons of water. Booth-Kelly aban- The logging camp workers built doned the practice around 1908 long flumes to the creek and slid when farmers in the lower com- logs into the behind the munities complained that the enor- three splash dams constructed mous wash of the dams' re'ease along the creek's length. When flooded the farmland and ruined they were filled, the gates were their crops. The company extended

THE BIG SIX SPEEDERDriver would take donkey fireman to woods, then back to camp to pick up crew, take to work. Back to Wendling for groceries, mail. Back to pick up crew, return to camp. Courtesy, Louis Policy, Don Stolberg 9 TIMBER "FALLERS" ON BOARDS FALLING A GIANT TREE Courtesy, Lane County Pioneer Museum 10 t

LOGS READY TO GO INTO THE RIVER Courtesy, Lane County Pioneer Museum the rail line further up into the Around 1904 the Booth-Kelly op- and transported logs by rail erations were closed clown by the from then on. government for dealingillegally Wendling was a company town; with Southern Pacific in the pro- its only purpose was to house and curement of timber. The railroad serve the company's employees. was apparently selling timber Nearly everything was company- rights to the company on home- ownedthe store, the bakery, vir- stead land, a clear violation of tually all of the houses. There were federal law. no elections in Wendling, not for During the two years of enforced mayor or councilman, nor for any closure much of the town's popula- measures which would govern the tion moved elsewhere to find work. citizenry. T h e superintendent of When the mill and lumber camps the mill also "ran" the town and were allowed to operate again, made the decisions. many of the former reside n t s "You didn't have to know noth- moved back to their community ing to live there," H. E. "Curley" and into their old homes, to resume Bailey, a resident of Wendling for working at their old jobs. 52 years, recalls. "They blowed a The original roads and streets whistle for you to get up, they leading to the small, company-built blowed a whistle for you to go to houses were made of sawdust and work and they blowed a whistle wood 'bits from the mill; it was not for you to quit." until around 1910 the company

OLD AND NEW WENDLING SCHOOLS Courtesy, Louis Polley, Don Stolberg BOOTH-KELLY MILL AFTER THE FIRE Courtesy, Lone County Pioneer Museum added wood slat sidewalks a n d A. D. Wiltze, another long time plank roads. resident, declares, "played old-time Early in Wendling times, the music that you couldn't sit still to company built a recreation hail as listen to." Those were good times a place for men to gather and dis- in Wendling. cuss working arrangements and Then, in the early afternoon of union matters. The hail was dubbed August 24, 1910, one of the most "The Four L Hall," an acronym devastating fires in the country's for "The Loyal Legion of Loggers history began in a logged-off sec- and Lumbermen," the company- tion about five miles east of the institutedunion. The hail soon town. Feeding on dry timber aided proved to be the community's so- by an east wind, the fire, which cial center. Women held gather- residents later described sounded ings and bridge clubs, families at- like a tremendous waterfall, moved tended banquets. Dances were held steadily tow a r d Wendling. The and bands were invited which Mrs. town was in flames by evening and 13 buildings deemed safe from de- While the town prided itself on the structioni g n it e d spontaneously equality of all members of its com- from the fire's intense heat. munity, there was a tendency for The blaze continued throughout the people to congregate in areas the night and into the next day according to their respective job and eventually destroyed every- positions. Though the town, then, thing but the mill and two or three was not marked off by street signs, houses. it was marked off by wonderfully Eugene's Morning Register of the descriptive terms known to every- following day gave this account of one as Silk Stocking Row, where the tragedy: the elite lived; Poverty Row, a "The main street of the town is string of shacks along the creek; but a blackened mass of ruins, not Battle Row where the roustabouts a single post or scantling remain- congregated andOklahoma ing to mark the spot where the Heights, a group of hovels built large cookhouse, the 80-room hotel along the south ridgeline. and bunkhouse, barber shop, meat It was also during this time that market, pooi and billiard hail.. the automobile entered the lives While the men battled the fire, of Wendlingites and the old Wend- Wendling's 400 women and chil- ling Bullet, which had faithfully dren gathered w h at possessions served the transportation needs of they could from their homes and the residents for a decade or more, escaped on SF fiatcars into Mar- was soon retired from service. cola, five miles west. The Wall Street crash and econ- The inhabitants began clearing omic depression of the early '30s away the ashes the following day; affected Wendling asit affected they pitched tents in which they most other towns across the nation. lived until new homes were built. As the economy slowed down, the The entire town was rebuilt within demand for lumber slowed to a months. The primitive two or three virtual standstill. Booth-Kelly was room hovels the fire had destroyed forced to suspend logging and saw- were replaced by larger houses, mill operations for about a year from four to seven rooms, complete and a half. With little hope of find- with indoor plumbing. ing work elsewhere, most of the As living conditions became more residents stayed on. bearable, m o r e families m o v e d "We took care of ourselves," into the community to seek work. Bailey remembers. As men accus- The town boomed again during the tomed to bringing home up to $7.50 years of World War I as loggers a day found their rewards plum- arid sawyers rushed to meet gov- meting to 20 cents an hour, they ernment contract demands. It was banded closer together and held a good time for Wendling. It was potluckdinnersandcommunal during this time that the town gatherings. For the most part, they began to take on a flavor of its own. lived from savings and what little Since all of the residents worked money they could make, cutting for the company in one position or and selling firewood. anotherfrom the exalted man- Long-time residents r e call a agement and skilled positions marked decrease in the local deer down to the menial dock sweepers population, too. ---obviously there we r e different Logging towns have gained a wage scales and classes of people. reputation for being rough-and- 14 tumble places where a man's ability railroad track which had been laid was measured by his skill in drink- over the mountain r i d g e s and ing and fighting. Wendling w as trestled over the many small creeks pretty subdued by those standards of the land had taken its toll of although by no means an angel's the giant Douglas fir. There was paradise. Sometimes t h e sheriff, left only a vestige of logging and hearing that one of the townspeople construction camps together with was running a batch of alcohol, square miles of unmarketable sec- would come up and haul him down ond growth timber. Each car of to Eugene to await trial. logs that rumbled down out of "They never could convict any- the hills brought closer the day body," Bailey recalls. "The sheriff when the camps would look in vain would get someone all right, but for more trees to cut, the mill when it come to trial they didn't would have to close down and the have no evidence. Seems him and town would fold. the sheriff would drink it up on the Lumbermen of t h at t i m e, in way out." order to gain more easily acces- Occasionally a family quarrel sible timber, would occasionally which began with shouts and trade large tracts of land among threats would end in gun shots. themselves. Uppermost in the The most infamous of these events minds of Wendling's citizens was was the murder-suicide which oc- the dim hope that such a trade curred sometime in the late '30s. could be made. A Basque named David Crispo, But, in early 1946, when a trade as a means of supplementing his with Weyerhaeuser Company, income, started a small chicken which owned land to the north ranch in town. Systematically, he fell through, the mill quietly closed dumped the manure from the en- down. And the town, which for half terprise on a compost pile in his a century had 'been home for up to front yard. One day he set fire to 900 people, began to dissolve. the pile and a neighbor, fearing it It dissolved slowly because most might be a health hazard, called of the people enjoyed the communi- for a health officer to come up ty and their homes so much that from Eugene. Crispo, who was well- the company offered to sell them liked by the community but also their homes and lease the ground known forhisvolatilenature, they sat on for a year. wounded the informer and killed "I sold 50 of them one night," a local constable during the ensuing recalled Bailey, who was to stay arrest attempt. The town alerted on as an overseer. Eugene police officers who respond- The "Four L Hall," the center ed in force and attempted to tear- of social activity for most of the gas 'the house in which Crispo had town's life, was moved to Spring- taken sanctuary.He committed field where it still serves as that suicide. city's Moose Lodge. During the early 1940s, after In the early morning hours of over four decades of chopping and September 29, 1946, about seven sawing, the town residents could months after the last whistle had look east out of town and see that blown, the mill caught fire. It soon the 42,000 acres of virgin timber spread to the adjoining 10 acres n which they had 'begun was of buildings and even threatened dwindling. The miles and miles of to engulf the town itself as burn- 15 "THE FOUR L HALL," COMMUNITY HALL AT WENDLING Courtesy, Louis Polley, Don Stolberg ing debris showered down on the The townspeople who are left, community. Estimates of the dam- still gather together once a year, age ran as high as $200,000. on the second Sunday in August, The houses that weren't sold and for a picnic on the townsite, to moved were razed a short time reminisce with old friends and to later when Booth-Kelly sold the relive old times. As they look about, entire site to Georgia-Pacific Cor- they see the changes that the weeds poration, which now uses the land and vines have made on the area as a restorative tree farm. Georgia- so that even long-time residents Pacific sold the last standing land- disagree on locations and dates. mark, the school house, in 1955. "It seems like such a long time In 1961 the company cleared out ago," one of them says, and the a small area in what had been the others concur. A faint, barely per- eastern end of town and set up a ceptible smile passes across their public camp g r o u n d. Wendllng, faces as they try to sort through born of man's need for lumber and nurtured by hisingenuity and more than seven decades of mem- strength, was dead. Its memory ory to pinpoint an event that once lives on, though, in the fading was important. memories of its former citizens. A long time ago. "It was a nice place to live," As they look back to a different says Don Stolberg, a retired book- time, at the changes which have keeper who lived t here for 37 been made in nearly everything, years. "We were all on an even and then see Wendling being slowly keel. Everyone knew everyone reclaimed again by nature, it must else." seem like a very long time ago.

16 Predlclionó: 'What 7i/i,earJU4//bo (Extract: The 1904 Anniversary Edition of the Eugene Register) Within a period covering over sible nor improbable outcome in half a century, Lane County has Lane county, if just such a condi- made its name famous fo r its tion should be brought about as we healthfulclimate,its productive suggest. soil, its variety of crops and vast Twenty years ago there were mineral wealth. Letters are con- plenty of people in eastern and tinually pouring into the county middle states who were ready to from all over the east and middle laugh at the idea of more than one west asking for information about line of railroad visiting this sec- this section, showing that the good tion, but today what is the condi- record Lane has made is being tion? heralded abroad. Pick up a map of 'Kansas, Ne- During the next 50 years de- braska, Iowa, 'Colorado and note velopment will take place in this the network of railroads that trav- locality, and Eugene will grow into erse these states in every direc- the greatest interior city of the state. tion; then' convince us if you can Importance of a line of railroad that the great Willamette valley, along the coast extending from with its illimitable resources, cap- Portland south has frequently been able of supplying the needs of mil- mentioned by the Register, and lions of population, is to be handi- the oftener the matter recurs to capped for years to come by lack us, the more valuable seems the of adequate railroad facilities to building of such a line. facilitate its growth and develop- The Register has awakened an ment. Not so, Capital is always interest in such an enterprise, and seeking safe investment and gi- now Wm. Kyle, the Florence mer- gantic enterprises are always look- chant, in an interview published ing for additional fields in which in the Portland Telegram, dwells to employ their activity and in- at length on the necessity for a crease their net earnings. This be- coastwise road in order to properly ing a fact, transcontinental lines develop the dormant resources that must eventually extend their road- would enrich that section. When beds to the Pacific ocean through once a line of railroad sweeps into the fertile eastern Oregon fields Willamette valley from over the and the far famed Willamette val- C as c a des via the military road ley, if they are to keep up with the route on out to Siuslaw, there to onward march of events and reap be crossed by a coast line that will reward of early entrance into the handle the north and south busi- land of promise. ness in a satisfactory manner, it Oregon mines, Oregon timber, will not take Lane county long to Oregon hops, wheat, oats, fruit and develop into an empire within it- vegetables,Oregon climate,the self with Eugene the inland me- world's bestthese are among the tropolis of the state, and Florence things we offer as evidence that a bustling, active tidewater city, population and traffic will be earn- equal to the best on the coast. estly knocking at our doors for These are not the idle fancies admission, pledged to aid and abet of a dreamer, the conjurations of us in building up a mighty com- a speculative mind nor the impos- monwealth in the golden west. 17 WENDLING GROCERY STORE Courtesy, Louis Policy, Don Stoiberg

FORMS FOR TESTAMENTARY GIFTS Language to be used for bequests designating the Lane County Historical Society (a tax exempt organization) as a beneficiary of your Will: "I devise to the Lane County Historical Society, a cor- poration existing under the laws of the State of Oregon, S -to be used for the benefit of the Lane County Historical Society in such manner as its Board of Directors may direct." "I devise to the Lane County Historical Society, a cor- poration existing under the laws of the State of Oregon, $ to constitute a permanent endowment fund to be known as the Fund. Such fund shall be kept invested by the Board of Directors of the Lane County Historical Society, and the annual income therefrom shall be used for the benfit of the Lane County Historical Society in such a manner as its Board of Directors may direct." 18

LANE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 740 We5t 13th Ave., Eugene, Oregon Organization Non-Profit U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 96 Eugene, Oregon

WENDLING, OREGON Courtesy, Lone County Pioneer Museum