Clatskanie River Farnellt � r f
► 1�
'��!
James E. Famell, Ph.D.
Research Analyst
DIVISION OF STATE LANDS
Salem, Oregon
November 198�
Ir7TRODLSCTION
t�nder the Equal Faoting clause of the Oregon Admissions Act, the LTnited
States GovernMent transferred ownership of the beds of all navigabie waterways
to the State of Orecton in 1859. Rt the time of this report, the full extent
of Oregon's ownership is unknowne The pres�nt development trends alonc} our
waterways make it apparent that the location of the State/private boundaries
is of extreme importance. The 1973 Leqislature recognized this and passed
ORS 274.029-034. This law directs th� nivision of State Zands to make a study
of all Oregon°s wa�.erways and to make public their findingsm This report �.s
on the Clatskanie River and the other streams in Columbia County which c3rain
£rom the tdehalem Divicie into the Columbia River.
'r'he following institutions were of assistance in develop3.ng material
for this reports
Columbia County Courthouse
Cla�skanie Public I,ibrary
Oreqon Statn Library
Oregon Historical Society
Department of Fish and G'ildlife
Columbia County Museums, Vernonia
and �t. Helens
C?�^ect�n State Rg�hiv�s
i3niversi�y of t5regon Zibrary
U. S. Corps of Engineers, �ortland
Sam Churchill kindly allawed use af the two photograph� regroduced in
Figure 11.
Cover: P•�anzanillo towin�r ioas on the Clatskanie.
Collection of Columbia (.'ounty *tuseum, Vernoniao
TIiF' BASIN
The streams covered in this report are those in Columbia County v�hich
are found in the Columbia sub-basi.ns of the North Coast and Loaaer Willamette
Basins (Fia. 1). `"ne ].arqest of these streat�s is ClatsJ�:anie nive.r which is
27 miles in length anc� drains 96 s�uare miles.� Entering into the Clatskanie's
estuary is Beaver Creek of 21 miles length with a drainage of 70 square miles.
To the southeast of these two streams is Tide Creek of 13 miles Iength which
enters the Columbia about two miles south of Goble3 Lastly there is :�lilton
Creek whose mouth is at St. Helens; it is 18 tniles in length and drains 36
s�uare miles.
Only the Clatskanie has measured streamflow data, and this is limited
to the 25 years 1933-5£i. That record shows an average discharge of 199 cubic
feet per secor.d at the mouth. T�ao-thirds o£ the stream's annual yield occurs
in tae months Deceanber through February (Fiqa 2). Clatsk�.nie River and Tide
Creek have low gradients in the first few miles above their mouths folZocaed by
moderate gradients, but Beaver Creek has only a short tidal area followed by
�our miles of �n�deYately steep c?radient (Fic7. 3) 0
The hed of tne Clatskanie is a mud slouqh in the lower few miles ancl is
here subject to tidal effects. Above that it has primarily gravel bottom, the
size ot the stones increasina toward higher elevationsv The bed of Milton
Creek is also a mud slough in its lower mile, but above St. Helens it flows
through a narrow valley �aith little k�ottom land which is occasionally constrict-
ed by k�asalt cliffs? Lo�r wiers and falls occur regularly in this section of
the creek (Fiq. 12a).
The primary industry of the basin has been timher and its products thouqh
the flood plain of the Columbia Fiver and other small pockets have supported
grazing and agriculture.
1
Figura I.
♦ � �
.50�
��Q
�
�.L..
U
� 300
W
C�
�
� 2J0
s
U
tn
�
•s
�
. �� �;� � ��
�`, � �, . �
�
�
3
OCT NOV DEC dAN F�B iNAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP
0
N ,
D'3S Nd3W 3n09d NOl19'n373
O
O
�
3�
�
�
� o
U p
�
� �
0
W � �1 �
a
> W � �1 �
���� m am °
��t�Q�. ��m
n
� tt1 Ls! � � Z �
t!9 � � p °' o
d ��"' t � >
� �
�
O
N
� O O O
� m � @ .,,
��
�
Q
w
m
N�1$lb
dN3�i3Q � � 0
N
S77tfd -t°
�13�t ts39
a�
w
�
�
�
w
-i SI"IflM
�
0
�
W
J
�O —
�
C•]
�
�
m
�
w
�
NAVIGATION
The tidal portion of the Clatskanie River was plied by stsamboats begin-
ninr, in the last half of �he nineteenth century. mhe Shaver. Transportation
Company had r�gular runs betweer. Portland and Clatskanie during the 1880's
and 1890's (Figs. 4, S).� In 1901 the Corps of Engineers dredged the lower
channel in order to reduce its twistina length by two miles and remove the
silt and debris which shoaled the channel afLer winter f�eshets. Most of
the business of the uessels which came up �o Clatskanie was the carriage af
timber products from the town's hinterland and the towing af log rafts (cover
illustration). The followinq table indicates ths vnlume of traffic in forest
products {Figs. 6, 7};
Year
1898
1899
1900
190i
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
19Q8
1909
1910
1911
1912
Logs 4Bd>Ft.)
52
19,626,849
17,975,300
22,25�,�89
9,418,894
11,309,OOQ
4,240,Q00
22,785,000
2,230,000
10,386,099
19,288,370
31,816,000
30,348,a6I
15,349,124
11,281,911
Piling {Ft.)
112,300
125,000
I5,OQ0
?2,500
31,062
2 � g 7J��
100,000
60,000
10,000
440,OQ0
I9
I00,000
5
L��mber (Bd.F�. )
600,000
1,407,072
1,63Q,400
2.016,OO�J
2,077,406
283,100 �
2,641,000
3,576,670
2,121,035
298,OQQ
438,000
1,333
100,000
43,d00
62,OOd
Shinqles
600
677
825
3
12
bb4
918
968
490
I,779
1,1?1
1,321
840
2,320
3,943
Passengers
12,250
5,210
5,305
2,136
I,I80
494
525
54
502
422
�
�.�����
RIVER DRIVES
Located as they were on the major artery of early Oregon commerce between
Portland and 1�.storia, all of the streams in Columbia County which emptied into
that thoroughfare were brought into service to bring down timber. As The taest
Shore describ�d the situation in Sune 1883;
�very stream of any size has been cleared of ohstructions, so that
logs can be run down them in high water season. Logs ars also
hauled to the bottom lands and tahen they are floated by the freshets
are made up into rafts and towed to the mills on the river, to Port-
land, and even to Astoria....At St. Helens, the count� seat, is the
mill of r4uckle Brathers. It is the largest in the county, has a
capacity of 40,000 feet per day, and runs constan�ly.... In the
Clatskanie valley and in the vicinity of Marshland and Woods° Land-
in_q is the best farming land in the county. A large mill c�yill soon
be put up in th� valley.
The census returns for 1f379 indicate that only A",uckle Bros.' mi11 at St. Helens
used any of the streams £or drivina at that date, in this case Milton Creek.
The Nicolai Brothers operation at that time received its logs £zom Columbia
County, and in 1887 Adolph Nicolai and Company caere cutting at River Mile 10
of the Clatskanie, but the lumber eaas cut on the spot wi�h a po�tak�le steam
sawmil1. As the ��1est Shore article indicated, however, larger mills were to
be built on the Clatskanie and would use that river to bring down logs (Fig. 8).
CLATSKANIE RIVER
In the spring of 1888, sixty-two logs marked "G7.Da" were in the boom an
the Clatskanie River and had been cut in the logging camp of William,Dixon.
The next year 30Q fir sawloc�s were cut on the McDonald plaee on Merrill Creek
(RM 4.2), marked "O.H.", and were to be floated do4m that creek and the Clat-
skanie during February. Norman ;�errill, Clatskanie loqger, after whom the
creek was presumably named, delivered 90 1J2 cords of shingle bolts inta town
in the �vinter of 1890-91.
'^he logging geography af Clatskanie River was revealed. when the Clatskanie
Dam and Eoom Com�any petitioned the Columbia County Court to declare the river a
10
lI
navigable stream. On ,7anuary ?, 1897 the Columbia County Court made such a
deter.mination an� place� the head of naviqation at River Mile 18.8. Below
tnat paint t}�e river �aas to he a public highF?ay for the floatincr and trans-
portation of logs, luml�er and other tir.ther products (Fic�. 9) l� When the
Colinty car�e to lease the river to the dan and hoom cor�pany tor fifteen years
on July 9, 1897, however, it made a distinction in the tolls the company could
charge for fir sawloqs ahove and below Piver Mile '7.2. Pzesumably the river
had previously been neqotiable below that point, but improvements to the river,
inclu�ing a splash dam to ?�e built on the Oliver Anderson place [Frd 11-4-12.5
above FirwoodJ, 19 would be necessary to brincr, sawlogs out from above that reach
of the river. Cordwood, shin_qle bolts, spars and pilings had a common toll on
all lengths of the river, so they had presumably been brought out withuut dif-
ficulty from above River ?�sile 7.2 l�efore 1897, but whether from as high as
River *�Iiie i8.8 cannot be determinecl.
The first notice of large scaie drivinq an the Clatskanie which has come
down to us is the notice in the December 1899 issue of The Columbia River and
Oregon Timk�erman that 2 million feet of logs had come out of the Clatskanie in
the recent freshet. The followin_q autumn, seven million feet of logs were
reported to have been put in the Clatskanie. In January 19�1 the freshet
came out �aith such force, because of a jam on one of the river`s tributaries,
that thp Ticnenor P"ill Company of Clatskanie was buried in ten to twenty feet
of iogs and debris, an inundation that completely destroyed the sawmi11. Sn
Apri3 of t:�e same year, however, J. c,1. Tillman was putting teleqraph poles in
the river to be floated out.
The driving season of 1901-02 was equal in size to the disastrous run of
the previous year but Frith hap�ier resultso 1,��0 loQS came out in the rise
of Decemiaer 19Q1, and 5-6,000 locts came out the following P'erruary, a total
of at least 6 million board feet. These logs had come out with unaidecl stream-
�
flow, because as of that date Graham & Kent, owners of the Dam & Boom Company,
had not yet huilt the splash dam �rovi�ed for in their franchise.
The high waters of the Clatskanie in the first week of December 1902 caused
lo� jams in two places on the river which it taas an�icipated oroul? take consider-
able time to loosen, again an indication that a splash dam had no� been �uilt.
Despite this holdup, a number of_ logs had reached tidewater in that season°s
drive. �ome of the 3ogs had been cu� from the Ole Erickson Ranch (RM 10.5-11}
on the ziver by the Enqart Bros.25 By Nek� Xears Day, 1903, most of the logs had
been gotten downs during April logs were beina put in for the following winter's
run> 'At the end of 1903, it was feared that that season°s drive was in jeopardy
because the usual Decemb�r freshet had failed, hu� the St. Helens Mist could
report better news beqinning in mi�-January 1904:
Rain has raised the water in the creeks so the loggers are running
the logs d�an. The rainy seaso� in ths win�er tim� seems to h�
the loqger's harvest in these parts.
The loggers on th� Clatskani� ar� all hap�y. After �he nex� swell
in the creeks they will probably give a fantastic dance...o�hey say
it will take abou� two more good h�a`ry rains to raise the creeks
hiqh enough to brinq aIl thegr logs down.
�eavy rains raise thz crzeks an� logs are bsing rLn ��rn �y the
thousands, and the log_qers are happy.
mhe sawlogs put into the streams above tidewater this winter are
nearly alI run down.
Graham & Kent were puttinq sawlogs into �he Clatskanie at River Mile 4 from the
Donation Land Claim of Lucretia Barr d�ring �ha� sprinq.
1904 was the year that Columbia County's famous logger, Simon B�nson,
built his rai2roa� up the Clatskanie River, �he route ov�r which he exclusively
�rought his Iocrs to market after that �ate. Other loqgers like Charles Dye,
who had a�ump about three miles upriver from the town of C.latskanie, would
still use the river. �eoroe Hr�wetsan ran loqs �own �he Clatskanie �urinq the
' 14
C C7 u• 'T7
t� O w r•
r4 t-� � W
� G •
O � , � t -�
r• r• o
w � rr =
. �-
n �o
o a�
c n n
� � r�
� � � �
u� �•
� x �
� w �
m a
� �• a
� ro
� r ,
. � � �
K
�b
,-K . �' j '�t�i s� }
� . . ix.'� . .
l�.�
1 -�.
�
�
'� 4:
�
a
9
q
&
{�'
<
?� ,O r
i Y -r
."� �.
; .� '
w F
f
�
: i� �:
Y
5
.%
�s�.i.
*e
, ,q,.
D p '
`�•
; �
:fi�p�
��
� . t•
� V
�
15
..,..wr..r"""'
Y ;' +
8
�
. !'
first week of 1905. Later that sprinq nliver Anderson qot shingle �olts out
on his �lace (R� 11.5-12.5) and drave them down the river. to a hoom in the town
of Clatskanie. ��ta Langfelt and Reuben Stratton had 175,000 feet of fir and
32
cedar sawlogs in the river durinq the winter of 1908-09.
These details of the history of log driving on Clatskanie River in �he two
decades straddling the �urn of the c�n�ury are confirmed and summarized.by the
recollections of Ira k7est of �latskani�. He still remembers seeing horse team
loggers like the Dye Brothers and Chandlers rollinq logs into the Clatskanie
durina the summer in order to let the winter freshets brinq them to tidewater
{�ig, 10). He witnessed the men ridin� the loqs with their �eaveys and h�ard the
rumblinq noise the i��s made, like an ear�hquake, as they approached - loqs turn-
ing every which way crosswise in the stream. wh�n a jam formed, the horses were
used to puli the key log out and after the releas� - away the logs would qo3
Some logs would hang up on the hanks. These were ia�er rolled into the'main
stream and left to await tfie n�xt winter's freshet. �ost lo�s ca�e from about
6 miles upstream, some of four feet in diameter that would be lifte� along in the
freshets. From up at Swedetown near RM 1�, hawever, it was only cedar poles.
The drives he remembered took place between 1905 and probably 191� at th� la�est.
This type of l�gging went on coincidentally with Benson's operations by rail up
the river, but was played out by the beainning of the first world '�Tar.
Indeed the Iast reference to the use of the Clatskanie as a hiahway for log
flotation was the 1914 Report of the Chief of FnQineers; "Clatskanie, a small
town about 2 miles above the mou�h, is the head of naviaatian, but the stream is
34
used for logainq for a further distance of about 12 miles."
:�zLTOra cxEEx
The first sawmill in Columbia County was built at the mouth o� tnis creek in
Z846 by Francis P�rry. Two years later �erry moved up the stream about three
�[:3
miles where he took out his Donation Land Claim. In 1�4R he �uilt a second
sawr.till on that land, but it was washed away by a flood in 1854. In MAY 18b1,
there was a plan ta divert the flow of the creek into Stv Helens to power mills
at that town when it ��as engaged in its s�ruagle far metrapolitan supremacy with
Portland.
36
With this type of entrepreneurship in the area, it is nat surprisin�, there-
fore, that the earliest no�ice of the use o� a Columbia Caunty stream for caray-
ina iocs was on r3iZton Creek t�iq. 11A). Tn addition to the 1879 census return
and mention in the 1883 West Shore James 3r. and Charles �uckle contended in
3?
1895 that the creek had lang been used wit3� its ordinary flow to carry sawlogs:
That said i�ilton Cree}c is a st��am naviaahl� f�r saw-Zogs and well
suited for Ioqging �urposes and that it has been actively used as a
logging stream for the last for�y or fifty years; that it penet�ates
and drains a logginq area of at least fs.f�y thousand square acres,
much of which i� yet coverec� with fine log�ing timber, and that there
is yet enough uncut Iagginc� tim4�er within �he natural slopes a�� d�°ain°�
age of said cr�ek to su,pply activs logqing thereon far the nex fifty
, yearst that said timber cannot be profitably or conveni�ntly taken to
mills or utilized except �?y means of floatir.g the same down said stream
and its several branches; that ths country drained by said stream and
its branches is mostly rocky, hilly and uncultivated, and not adapted
to cultivation, and its value depends nearly entir�ly upon its timber,
and the convenience of conductinq th� same to market; that the said
tim�er is very valuable and the said stream is not o� public or private
utility for any other purpose than log�ing purpases; that �he defendants
have clearec3 out said creek and logqed the same £or a grea� many years,
and had appropriated and were usinq th�e same for that purpose lonq before
the plaintiff acquired any interest in said land, if any he has, and
tnat they have erected and used the dam known as Muckle's D�m for many
years in �.hei.r said 2ogging operations; that a ctreat many people are,
and for many years past hav� heen usinq said cre�k in conjune�ion with
defen@ants for the purpase of floating loqs down the same, that in the
natural flow of said logs they were subject to jamming and making �he
said creek overflow i�s banks, and the defendants, for the purpose of
float�.ng said logs down said creek aY� proper intervals and ther�by
avoiding jams, constructed certain dams an their own lands an said
ereek, above the land described in the complaint, and have used said
dams in a careful, proper and reasonable way for the purpose �f aid-
ing the navigation of saw-Iags on said stream, and have thereby
lessened the damage to plaintiff's said e$tate, if any he has; and
said acts of defendants, and said acts alone, con��itute the acts of
defendants compSained of, and the p2aintiff was not damaged thereby.
17
The evidence would indicate that the earliest loq drives on Milton Creek
had been done with ordinary water flows. Other evidence shows that more than
one splash dam was in use on Milton Cre�k as early as DTovember 1882 when left-
over loas fram the 188I-82 drive and th�se from tne �urrent season came out.
They passed "Brayle's [RM 2j with a rush and a swish ta the lower river wher�
they are in a jam.'° A lando�mer, Enoch Shintaf£er, was planning to put loas
in f rom his homestead near Riv�r Mile 8 at this time, so logs were probably
coming down from at least tha� far upstream.39 In 1889 Muckle Bros. had a
splash dam on their lands at Yankton near River �ile �,,
A. H. Blak�sley descrihed the effects of their Iog transport activities with
the dams upon his land which were at �2Nf 2.3 of the creek:�
For the last six years the defendants have b�en continually and
now are puttin� laage quan�itie� of large sawloqs into said
�tream above plaintiff said lanr�s, aggre�rat�.na many mil2ions
of feet and have by tneans og dams and oth�r contrivances in and
along said stream wiifeslly stopped and prohibi�ed the water from�
flowing naturally down said stxeamoaaabout once every mon�h dur-
ing the last six yea:rs [they] remove said obstructions ta the
flowage of said stream and thus, wilfully, care2essly and neg-
ligently cause a large and extraordinary body of water to flow
down said stream, to carelessly and recklessly carry out and
float the said saw l�oqs down through and u�on the said lands by
means of which the banks on plaintiff's said lands hav� been
overflow=ed and the fencinq carried away and the said Iogs drifted
on said lanc�s and many left thereon from time to time and the
banks of said strearrr cut out and widened and plaintiff°s 2ands
washed away and the orchard thereon ruined.
In addition Blakesley complained that th� lac� driving crews had trespassed on
his lands when thsy took their monthly driv�es down the creek.
Despite Blakesley's lawsuit, and th� vend�t�a agains� Muckle's drives carried
on by the editor of the St. He2ens Columbian,� driving can Milton Milton Creek
continued and tl�e number of splash dams increased. Most of these we�� us�d in
connection with the locxqin_q activities of Abraham �'rouse, a Maine loaqer who
beqan operations on Milton Creek in 1892. Crouse°s qrandnephew, Sam Churchill
19
43
described his drives on Milton Creek:
The doughty old logger had gotten rid of his bull teams and was
dragging Iaqs from cuttin_q areas to the banks of Milton Creek with
a steam-powered donkey engine. A wooden barrier, called a splash
dam, was built across the creek upstream from the cu�tinq aream
At intervals, but mostly in the s�ring of th� year when rains and
meltinq snows raised the water le�ei, the qates of the �am were
closed. Water trapp�d behind the barrier would quickly rise into
a storage 000lo G�►ere th�re we�e sufficient logs scattered along
the downstream banks the qates would be opened and the wall of
water sweeping fr�e of �he dam would sluice the iogs the several
miles to the Columbia River. �nce gathered into rafts in nearby
lagoons the logs were towed by tuqboats to sa4amills along the
riverm
The drives were crude, dangerous, physical effort that left Biq
Sam [Chu�chill's father and Crause's nephew) and the others
soak�d, cold, and exhausted at the end of a normal twelve-hour
working day. The only thing that made it bearable was tha�
L'ncle Pbe worked chest-deep in the zcy water right alonq with
the rest of the crew.
The Oregon Mist simply said, "subs�antial dams plac�d at dif�ere�t locations
along the creek enabled loc�s to be moved readily."� Crause �ut 3 million feet
in during 1897e� In �une 1g0I he was reported to h�ve seve�al thousand feet
of Iogs sn Cox Creek which enters Milton �reek �elow Yankton which he �Ianned
to drive out durina the Iogging season. That year he �ut 3 million feet ��
Milton Creek. The la�e rains of November 1902 germitted his firm to beain
gettinq their logs down the creek aqain that seasonm Throughout the following
mon�h they were still, "fairly well movina the logs the� cut there this sPason,°'
and in the first week of th� new year, "last Sunday thousand's of Crouse°s
46
logs were set afloat down the river.°'
Besides Crouse, Perry Usher took sawiogs, cedar bolts and pilings down
Milton Creek, and G. De Bonnery and A. Aa Smith each put sa.wlogs in the s�reamv
In September 1895 the Tarbell boys of 1'ankton put 40 logs ir� the stream and
awaited rains to take them out. In 1899 they cut cordwood and float�d it down
4R
Milton Creek to the Columbia where it would be used on the river steatnbaats.
20
A notice occurred in Decernber I900 that logqers wrere preparing ta �ut logs in
Milton near Yankton. Tn March 1901, I,500,000 feet of Iogs were run out of
Milton Creek during the freshet (FiQa 12)�� S. W. Early registered his log
brand for �ilton �reek with the Columbia County C2erk in 39n3 and proposed to
send out lesqs, bolts, and teiephone ar.d telegraph roleso 'i'homas Holstein
planned to put loqs in P�ilton rreek for the Binn & Stanwood mill at Yankton
durinq the autumn of the same year. As the �regon Mist summarized this
activity, in 1903, there was "sma11 scale logging on �ilton rreek, especialiy
in low water, but over th� year poles, shinqle bolts and logs aggreqate a
considerable am�unt.°
t;'hen Abraham Crouse's firm was reorganized as the western Cooperage Company,
the use of �!ilton Creek was continued and extendeda� The short-lived Columbia
P.egister, which was set up in their company town of Houlton, expressed the
import�nce of the wat�rway �o the firm: °'The more rain �he more staves."
During November 1904, the factory closed '°until a drive of bolts from the creek
54
could be mad�, but after Thanksgiving they made a successful bolt dr�.v�.
The company°s qoal was to have 10,000 cords af stave holts driven down the river
and stored in their pond in order �to provide sufficient raw material to run the
mill tnrouqhout the summer dry season. ?'hey had 50 men in �he wroods cuttinq_
55
bolts and T. W. Robinson was in charge of drivinq them dawn �!ilton Creek.
During the last week of A�arch 1905, there was more water irc the creek than
was needed:
Milton creek went on a rampage last �tonday. A portian of the bia
dam broke and it became necessary to raise the gate arad let the
�aater out. This caused a heavy wave to come down upon the Oregon
6�Tood Co.'s dam and it went out, carrying with it about 400 cords
of bolts, a large num.�er of ties, loqs and cordwoodo It will
reqcsire the rebuildinq of a portion of the flume and the (?regon
t9aod t'o.'s dar,r before any more hol�ts or �aood can be rune
21
western Cooperaqe suffered minimum damage from the rupture:
They have cauWht the bolts that were taken out by the recent
freshet and have them in a boom ready to be hauled up to the
factory next summer durinq high water. The flur�e has been
repaired and they are aqain runninq bolts just as though
nothing had happened to the dam or flume.
The other logqers also continued operations after the r�pairs had been made,
and in April they were still hopeful that recent rains would allow them "to
56
run out their winters cut af ties, cord wood, bolts, p�les and loos."
It is eviden� from �he desc�iption of the above mishap and from other
notices in local newspapers that there was a holdinq dam at Yanktan which fed
water into the Oregon Wood Company°s flume throuqh which Ioqs and cordwo�ocl
went direc� to Sto Helens. At some point above Yankton Western Cooperaae
apparentl� had another dam to aid tneir drives, hut whether this was at Trenhalm
or whether other loggers used it �o float loqs and ties to the Yankton storage
�ond ar� ��e� questions. Cer�ain it is that Br�nn an� (�e C.) Stanwood floated
their ties down Milton Creek �o Yankten and then use� the flume for the �est of
the six mile transit to St. Helens.
�rank and Alice �rown's home, "The Mapl�s'J in Yankton baard�d the stave bolt
drivers in seasonm A Thanksgivinq 1904 le�ter stated that Frank Brown:
called on us in the afternoon he had 11 stream drivers stop with him
last night and will have as many ocationaly [sic) �hrouqh the winter.
They are runninq out bolts for the stave factory. They have 50 men
in the wo�ds and Frank is supplying them wi�h meat and butter.
Alice described her �ork �n two letters during the spring of 19�4 an� autumn af
19 06 :
I have to feed a crew of M�n for a few days, abou� every two weeks,
:�hen a"drive" of bolts goes down our creek to the "Western Caoperage
Co.'s" factory at Houlton. Last week my family numbered sixteen for
a day or two, eleven and twelve for more than a week - Then I am tired.
You know we board the taestern Cooperaqe t'os. men when they drive bolts
on Milton Creek and our house has come to be the "Wayside Inn" of Yankton.
�2
As late as I914-15, when Mrs. 5am Churchill took the accompanying photoctraphs,
Western Cooperage was sending sta�e bolts down Milton Creek to the Houlton
mill tFig. 13),� thouqh by that date logqinq in �he watershed was done by
raiiroad.
TIDE CREEK
Driving of Tide Creek harl bec�un at le�st by 1882 when Edwin �iexrill stated
that late rains had he2ped caonderfully in getting their loas down the stream.
When Simon Benson began logging on his cxan after 1881 he probably also floated
logs out on Tide Creek. Em Seffert �eQistered his reverse S log brand with
the Columbia County Clerk on t�ctober 19, 1891, for e1 All my s�i.d logs ar� put
af].oat in Tide Creeke" I� October 1892, a lien was placed an 1,100 fi� and
cedar sawl�� branded B and '" which were cut and pla�ed �.n Tide Cre��C betwreen
River ��iles 5 an� 6.�' Another 300,OOa feet of sawlogs branded 4 were taken
out for E. R. Spencer �he same season.
Ose of this stream above tidewater �arly depenr3ed on splash dams. Sn
t7ovember 1889, the Tide C�ceek Boom and Dam Company constructed a splas?� dam
abave F.M 3.5 of the creek "so as to dam up the waters of said creek and thus
form a pond or reservoir for the purpose of catching and holdinq logs, timbers
or wood and then opening a floodgate in said dam and by that means flood said
lo�s, timber or ��ood dawn said creek and across the said premises of the pl�in-
tiff and �i�vrn to the slouqh and Columbia Rivez°."
�' John Siffert complaine�
about his lands being flooded by the loqs. The �tilton Cresk loqq�r, Perry tTSher,
had taken out logs on Tide Creek before 1902.�6 In the fall of that year,
Abraham Crouse had a camp on that stream for the Anchor Logginci Company, but
the dam on the creek broke which delayec3 him getting down his logs. By December
67
12, however �rark in their Tide Creek camp was progressing well.
25
BEAVER CRE:EK
�arly in 1890, 40� fir and cedar sawlocrs a=ere �?riven down reaver Creek to
tic?�water for C. '?'. Leavenworth.�� �urinq the sar^e �ecade �i.man !?enson commer.ced
his loggina career in the county hy usinq this creek to carry out his lo�s.
One year the loqs jammed �t Beaver Fa12s and he had to abandon them (Fig. 14}.
This experience �robably confirmed his dete �rination to reiy on railroads when
he loqged ug the Clatskanie valley,
In 1904 two owners alonq Beaver Creek com�lained tha� a flume built in
1900 by the Beaver Flume and Lum.ber Company and ptirchased by the nreaon or
P�t. F�ood Lumber Company in 19n2 diverted water from the creek and �revented them
£rom using it for ioc� drivinq. T. 1?. Stillman's Iand was the hiqhest on the
creek at ?2M 6 and his compla.int read as folloeas :��
That at alI the times hereinafter named and until the same was
divsrted from its channel or bed as hereinafter stated there
flowed across said land a creek called Peaver Cresk which was
during its annual hiqh state of water a navigable stre�m f�r
tne purpose of floating saw loqs and other merchantable and
marketable material from above and from said lanc� to market
and on which stream durinq such state of hiah water saw logs
and other merehantable timber cut from such tim.i�er could be
floateci to market were it not for said diversion of said streamo
At the present time all local memories of logqing on Beaver Creek are to �.he
flume and inspection of the river iFig. 11B) would indicate the reason for this
and for Benson's failec3 drivea There seems littie merit to Stiliman°s contention
ancl Leavenworth's drive could not have bequn far above tidewatero
26
C�NCLUSION
'^here was vessel naviaation on the Clatskanie piver in the tidal portionse
This naviqation was over the old streambed of the river hefore it was str.aicrht-
ened by the Corps nf Enqineers, so the State would have a claim to that nortion
of the bed af the Clatskanie. �n the basis of loa drives, the State has a
claim 12 miles above the *own of Clatskanie to present River Mile 14.
ti"ilton Creek was used up to thirty years hefore 1881 for log drives with
unai:?ed streamflow. The upper head of this loq r.avigation writh natural stream-
flow was evidently near Yankton, F.iver Mile ?�• '"here is no precise information
about the reaches of Tide Creek which were conducted with unaided streamflow,
and most of the drivina of that stream was c�one oiith splash dams; therefore
the State would have difficulty makinq a claim to the bed of that s�ream. This
F�ou1d alsa be true rer,ardinq Beaver Creeka
2R
r��Tri�mrs
l. t��rec!on} Ct��te t^'ater Resotirces P.oard, *lorth Coast Rasin (�alem, 1961) ,
�p. 95, 106.
?_o Iric. , p. 95; Colur?�i�-� Piv and Or.e�ron '^ 3:3. (.7an 1902} , p. 41.
3. {orea,on) ."..tate 6�later Resources E?oard, rRap rdo. l.ti, "r;orth Coast DrainaGe
Basin" {ig72).
r�. Columnia F,iver and Orec�on Tir+k�erman 3:3 (Jan 1902) , p. 41; Oreaon Fish
Comrlission, Research Division, F.nvi. Survey Report Pertaining
to Salmon and Steelheacl. II. ��?illamette .F.iver and its Tributaries by
R. P.. Trlillis, �. P. Collins, an� R, E. Sams tClackamas, 196�) , p. 74.
5. i?or.t,� Coast Pasin, p. IOF:.
o. I�id Plate 2.
?. Fisii Commission, Environmental Survey IZ, pp. 74-?5.
8. E. r7. 4��right (ed.) , Leu�is & Dryden's Marine F?istory of the Pacific
Plorthwest (Portland, 1895;, p. 2�E, T1> S. Chief of Fngineers, Report, 19�0
VZ, p. 4363.
9. Ibid., 1902 III, p. 2404.
10. Ibid 1£i99-1913 for pa._a,e references consult publication's indeY.
lI. The 6�rest S (June 1883� , p. 28.
12. L. S. Census, Oricsinal Returns {June 1879). Special Schedule of *Ranufacturers,
3. Lumber �tills and Sawrtills, Columbia County, St. Helens Precinct (�regon
State Library ��icrofilm 28-48), Oregon State Lihrary, Salem.
13. Columbia County Circuit Court �ase DIO. 507, C�lumhia County Courthouse,
St. Helens.
14. Columbia County Liens for Laborers, Atechanics, Etc., Boak R, p. 35, �regon
State 1�rchives, Salem.
15. Ihi� , t�. 56.
16. r_olumY�ia County Circuit Court Case r;o. E�S.
17. Colur.t}�ia County Court Journal D, pp. 290-291, Colum.bia County Courthouse,
St. Helens; Pacific Coast taood & Iron {1£�87) , p. 3740
18. Ibid., p. 292.
lg, Columbia County Assessor's Plat Book, Series T, Township �, Range 3 W, Section 5
Columbia County Courthouse, St. Helens.
20. Col umbia River and Oreqon Timberman 1:2 tnec 1899), p. 13.
21. Tbid. , 2:1 {Atov Z900) , p. 7.
22. Ibi�l. , 2: 3(Jan 19�1) , p. �3; 2:4 (Feb 19�1} , p. E•.
23. Ibid 2:6 (Apr 1901}, p. 3d.
24. Ibid., 3:2 (Dec 1901), p. 8t 3:4 {Feb 1902}, p. 9.
25. St. Helens Oregon Mist (5 Dec 1902); Columbia R_iver and Oregon Timberman,
3:7 t�ay 1902), p. 9; Columbia �'oun�y Assessor's Flat Book, Series I.
To�rnship 7, Range 3 W, Section 31.
26. St. Helens �Jreaon Mist (2 Jan, 17 Apr 1903).
27. Columbia River and Oregon Timberman 5:3 (.7an 1904), p. 27.
28. St. Fielens Oregon Mist (15, 29 Jan, 19 Feb, 4 Mar 1904).
29. Columbia County Circuit Court Case No. 1fi53.
30. St. Helens Orec�on Mist (30 Oct 1903); �lice Benson Allen, Simon �senson,
Northwest Lumber. Kincr (POrtland: Bindord &"tort, 1971), ppe 67-83.
31, Iioulton Columbia. Reqist�r h,7an, 14 �1pr 1905.
32. Columbia County Mechanics and Laborers Liens, �, p. I11, Columbia County
Courthouse, Stm Helensa Unfortunateiy, *��echanics Lien Book P, coverinq
the peak years of Columbia County river Ioczging to 1907, is missinq.
33. fiele�hone interview with Ira �nest, Clatskanie, il April 198Q.
34. U. G. Chief of ??nqineers, nepor�, 1914 Apa. TT, p. 1411.
35. t�1PA xistorical Records Survey, Columbia County, IIc, S�IB, VIIB, University
of �reqon Li.brary, Eugene.
36. Columbia C�unty Deed ?ecord F, r�. 13?, quoted in Ihid., VIB.
37o Supra p.10 ; Columbia County Circuit Court Case No. 1003, Defendant
Answer.
38. St. Helens Columbian (24 Nov 1882).
39. Ibid t10 P'ov 1882}; for the drives af 1883-86, see Ibid. (2 Nia�, 3n Nov
1883; 25 Jan, 3 Feb 1884; 9 Jan 1885; 4 Feb 18�6).
40. The site of their nLC in Division of State I�ands Plat I�ook 297, T4N, 42W.
4Z. Coiumbia County Circuit Court Case tdo. 1003, Amended Camplaint.
42e Gt. xe2ens Columbi�n (20 Oct 1882 and �assim�. �uckle finally drove the
editor, Major Fa G. Adams, out of business.
�3. Sam Churchill, Biq �am {N.Y.: Doubleday, 19h5), op. 8-9e
44, St. Helens Oreg t�tist (9 ,7an 1903} .
45. Pacific Coast �1ood & Iron (189'7) , p. 174.
46. Columb Ri ver and nrago '?'imbe�man 2:8 (June 1901} , c�. 7; ?.:11 tSep 19�1) ,
p. ?; St. Nelens �reqon R1ist 21 P'ov, 12 �?ec 19�2; 9 Jan 19�3. ?1 picture
of Crouse's son, Co B. Crouse with loqs is in St. Helens Sentinel-Mist,
Jubilee ed., 23 June 1939, �. (12�.
47. St. Helens Oregon Mist 31 nct, I2 �ec 1902; 1 May 1903; Calumbia River
and Oregon Timberman, 4:9 (Jun� 1903), n. 21.
48. Egbert S. Oliver, ed., The Tarbells of Yankton, 1�91-1932 tPortland, OR:
HaPi Press, 1978}, pp. IR, 33-340
49. St. Helens Columbia County riews 21 Dec 1900; Columl�ia Fiver. and Oregon
Timberman 2:5 (Mar I901}, p. 10.
50. Columk�ia C'ounty L,ocs Brands & �attle Brands, 7�, p. 209, Colu�bia Count�
Courthouse, St. Helens.
510 Columbia Rit�er and Oregora Timberman 4:9 (Jul 1903) , p. 21.
52. �t. Helens Oreaon �tist (9 Jan 1903}.
53. Columb County Histor�� I(1961), �. 34: Cclumbia R.iver and Oregan
Ti mberman , 5:5 tMar 1904), p. 25.
54. Houlton Co lumbia Reqiser a, 25 3Vov 1904. 1� picture of the Houlton plant
is in the St. Helens Sentinel-Mist LTUbilee ed., p. [19�.
55. Houlton Columbia Reaister 11 Nov 1904, 29 Sep 1905.
56. Ibid. , 31 `•3ar, 21 A_pr 1905.
57. Ibid 1 Feb, 29 �ep 1905; Columbia Rive and Oreqon Timherman 2:3
(Jan 1901). p. 8; a photo of the flume is in the �regon Historical
Society Photograph Collecti�n.
58. Tarbells of Yankton, pp. 3�, 43, 48, 74m
59. Information from Sain Churchiil, P.storia, 29 Gep 1980 and photoqraph album
of his moth�r in his poss�ssian. Gilbert Crouse, editor of the �t. Helens
Se ntinel-Mist Chronicle Abraham Crouse's grandsan and Churchill's cousin,
has an old photoctraph of the Trenh�lm stave mi21.
60.
61.
62.
h3.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
St. Helens Columbian, II:31 (l� *4ar 1882).
Allen, Simon Renson, p. 21.
Columbia County Loq Brands, 11, p. 10.
Colur.tbia County �4echanics Liens P., np. 127-2P,, 135, 94, 73.
zbid., pp. 112-25.
Columbia County Circuit Court Case *io. 573, Complaint.
St. Helens Oreqon Mist (31 Oct 1902)a
Ibid. , (14 ?�Iov, 12 Dec 1902.
Co2umbia County R+echanics Liens �1, p> ffi.
Al1en, Simon Benson, p. 22.
Columbia County Circuit Court Cases °!os. 1750, 1764, and see Columbia
niver and �reQOn Timberman 3:H {�nr 1902) p. 12; 1:2 (Dec 1899), p. 17;
and 4:2 (Dec 1902) , p. tr.