In 1912, when Red River Lumber Company began construction of its company town of Westwood, Lassen County officials did not know what quite to expect. Lassen County had experience with planned communities, such as Standish, but none of these proposals ever came to full frutition that the promoters envisioned. Westwood was entirely a different proposition. County officials were relieved that all of this development would not only cost the county any money, but its tax base mushroomed beyond their wildest dreams. The county was spared every expense, even the deputy sheriff, Red River paid that salary.
The good times would not last forever. By the early 1930s Red River was in a serious financial crisis. The days of a company town would soon only exist as a memory. Red River’s company owned businesses would be no more, those enterprises leased to outsiders. In the fall of 1934, Red River and Lassen County began working on the transition wherein the county would be responsible in maintaining the streets of Westwood. On November 10, 1934 Red River deeded over the streets of Westwood to the County of Lassen, however for reasons unknown the county did not accept the deed until September 1935.
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The Red River Lumber Company’s Time Clock, 1915—Otto Kratz Collection
The Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen, also known as the 4Ls was a unique government intervention to get sawmill operators and their workers to work together during World War I. This unique labor organization was created due to a lumber strike of the Pacific Northwest that crippled the production of spruce lumber. This commodity was essential for its strength and flexibility in airplane construction and the government was in dire need of the aircraft.
When the War Department intervened it was able to get both the mill operators and lumber workers to work together as a patriotic association. Concessions were made by mill operators to provide for an eight-hour day and better working and living conditions. In return the employees were required to sign a loyalty pledge. Those who refused to sign the pledge were not hired. In essence, the 4Ls was a government sponsored union.
After the War the 4Ls reorganized and it remained a regional organization of the Pacific Northwest. It was the American Federation of Labor that was the main rival of the 4Ls. It had problems competing with the 4Ls since the latter was a de facto “company union.” The company’s management were members of the 4Ls and basically dictated the organization. This had great appeal to Red River Lumber Company. In July 1933 Red River joined the 4Ls, and Ted Walker, a member of Red River’s management served on its Board of Directors. It was short-lived when Congress approved the Wagner Act that allowed the labor movement and union formation more clout.
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By the late 1930s, the Red River Lumber Company had exhausted most of its timber tributary to Westwood. Red River officials consulted with the Lassen National Forest about a possible exchange of cut-over lands for timber rights on Forest Service lands, which could be done under the accordance of of the Land Exchange Act of 1922. The Forest Service considered the exchange program beneficial in the long range for future recreational aspects for the public and also for the re-growth of the forests. A deal was struck and on January 21, 1941, Red River deeded over some 50,000 acres adjacent to Lake Almanor and Butt Valley to the Forest Service in exchange for 50 million board feet of timber in the Moonlight district, east of Westwood.
Camp 38, Red River Lumber Company, 1922. It was located on the east shore of Lake Almanor. Courtesy of R.S. Pershing
Last summer, in one of those “Where are We” segments was Camp Harvey. While I provided details about the old railroad. logging camp, I neglected to state why the old water is even in existence. When the Fruit Growers Supply Company abruptly shutdown the camp in the spring of 1949, they were in hurry to move the portable buildings to a new location. The days of railroad logging and their counterpart camps were quickly fading on the horizon. Fruit Growers had reached an agreement with Shasta Forest, who managed the property for the heirs of the Red River Lumber Company, that they could take their time in removing the structures. Most all of the logging cabins and related structures were removed in 1952. It was mutually agreed to keep the water tank tower with its 10,000 gallon redwood water tank, along with the pumping house and pipes in place for fire protection.
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Train load of logs leaving Camp B, Fruit Growers Supply Company, 1922
A reader noticed recently the logs depicted above where on railroad flat cars belonging to the Red River Lumber Company. Fruit Growers found it to be more economical to lease flat cars from the Southern Pacific Railroad, who transported the same from Westwood Junction to the Fruit Grower’s mill in Susanville. Fruit Growers initial operations in the early 1920s, experienced a flat car shortage with Southern Pacific. Red River being a good neighbor obliged to provide Fruit Growers with flat cars until the matter could be resolved with Southern Pacific.
Another point I might add, the above was not a typical load of logs. These type of images, are common among lumber companies. They were used to show investors, bankers and the lot the most premium logs, to show them where the money was being spent. In Fruit Growers case, this photograph would be published in a portfolio to show the citrus growers where their money was used to provide them wooden boxes to ship citrus.
Red River operated numerous logging camps from 1913 through 1944 when it sold to Fruit Growers. The camps were assigned numbers, though in no particular order. The majority of the camps were short lived and only had a span of one to maybe three years. One of the more interesting camps was Camp 33, but referred to as Town Camp, as it was located less than a mile west of Westwood. What made it unique was that Red River’s company town of Westwood would experience from time to time a housing shortage for its employees. On occasion, this camp was used to house mill workers instead of loggers.
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Unknown gentleman in front of the Old Town General Store, circa 1930s. Courtesy of David Zoller.
In 1922, the Red River Lumber Company announced that Westwood was to become a permanent town. Additional investments in community buildings commenced, such as a American Legion Hall and Masonic Hall. Across the log pond was Old Town home to large immigrant population. The residents of Old Town felt left out with no hall of their own. They, too, had their own fraternal organization the Centro Hispano Americano Society and desired to have a place to hold their functions.
In 1926, the residents of Greenville built a modest community hall for $2,100. This inspired the Old Town to do the same. They contacted Fletcher Walker, Red River’s resident manager, with a proposal to build a hall similar to Greenville’s and offered to pay half the costs. Fletcher took the matter of under consideration and on August 20 wrote to His brother, Willis Walker, part of the local management, about the topic: “The Mexicans and wops want a recreation hall similar to the one recently built in Greenville. The Old Town bunch are willing to dig up $1,300 which will cover the labor cost, and they have $1,000 of it in the Bank, if you are willing to build a building on this basis. “The way it stands they cannot take part in the recreations on this side of the Pond as the majority of them do not speak English. A Hall of this sort would make a place for their parties, dances, a Movie occasionally, and a general social center and they have a Fraternal Society organized so they feel competent to police, janitor and generally conduct the building so it will make a better place for them all to live, and as this common labor is quite essential to the Plant as they do work that the short staked Americans will not stay long enough as to become sufficient in it has a commercial value to us that it is hard to measure dollars and cents, but I believe is a good proposition to go ahead with.”
Willis was agreeable and wrote back, “If for amusement only and thus we could do this much to retain men and helps on labor turnover.” Archie Walker who constantly watched Red River’s bottom line wanted to know if they would receive any rent for the building, or were they just donating the use of it? What is rather remarkable while the Walkers quibbled about spending so little money to build this hall, they did not blink an eye when in the previous year they had spent over $100,000 to build and furnish the halls for the American Legion and Masons, as well as the Westwood Theater.
For the residents of Old Town, they were just pleased to learn that their request for a hall was approved. When completed they referred to their hall as the El Centro.
This post nearly slipped through the proverbial crack. Some may recall the initial piece on Red River Facts. Those two articles were done prior to my fall from grace so to speak and and thus some things were sidelined.
As some may recall, the 1916 publication extolled the many virtues of Red River Lumber Company’s plant at Westwood. In the end not only did it inform the perspective customer that they would receive a superior product at the lowest cost. Satisfaction guaranteed. One statement that caught my attention: “Special items can be cut to order at Westwood with unusual promptness. Even should it be necessary to fell trees and cut logs, every operation from stump to car moves without friction or delay.”
When the Red River Lumber Company established its company town of Westwood in 1913, it had to provide numerous amenities due to its remote location at the time. It was necessary to not only attract employees, but to retain them, as the lumber industry experienced a high turn over rate in labor. The Westwood Club was one of several facilities designed to meet the recreational needs of its employees. It included a restaurant, lunch counter, soda fountain, cigar and newsstand, barbershop, reading room and a billiard room.
On early Friday morning, March 31, 1944 a fire broke out in the Westwood Club though the cause, was never determined. Within twenty minutes the whole building was engulfed in flames. The heat so intense, that Nick Kannier’s automobile which was parked in front of building, burst into flames. Even neighboring buildings from across the street were smoking, on the verge of spontaneous combustion, which with quick action by the fire department prevented the same.
The J.R. Bartlett Company were the concessionaire of the Westwood Club, which included the clubhouse, cafe, pool hall, bar and lounge. There were four other tenants in the building—Ehorn’s Pharmacy, Quitman’s Apparel, Westwood Market and Kilpatric’s Used Furniture department. Estimated loss for all parties was placed at $125,000.
Red River Lumber Company had a large employee turnover.
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and sometimes referred to as the “wobblies,” is a labor organization that formed in 1905. As a matter of fact, certain Starbucks shops are affiliated with it. The IWW had an image problem in its early years. Some considered it radical in its thinking for the time. Others considered it a communist organization. It gained notoriety for its strikes that were marred with violence.
The biggest problem IWW faced in Lassen County was that all three big lumber companies paid the prevailing wage, if not above, and provided better housing than found in other regions on the west coast. The employees had few grievances, so there was no incentive to be a part of the labor movement. It was because of these conditions that Lassen County sawmills remained union free during the 1920s.
A sketch by R. Herrera from the early days of the Madeline Plains
In the 1930s witnessed Franklin Roosevelt’s economic recovery program for the nation, which brought about with it a whole new terminology. It could actually be called alphabet soup, with such acronyms as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), National Recovery Administration (NRA) and the Works Projects Administration (WPA). In Margaret “Peg” Woodrich’s small booklet about the history of the Madeline Plains, she added the whimsical non-existent program Information, Wind and Water (IWW).
