Westwood’s Old Town, home of many of its immigrant workforce. Courtesy of Hank Martinez
One of the more unusual annals in Red River’s history was deportation. Red River hired a large percentage of foreigners whether it be Scandinavians, Italians or Mexicans. By 1929, with the downturn in the lumber market, the company was forced to layoff some of its workers. If they thought that the layoff was temporary, they allowed the affected worker to remain. By 1930, however, Red River sought alternatives, as they could no longer bear the financial burden. Continue reading Westwood’s Deportation of Immmigrants→
In the mid-1920s, Red River had two hydro-plants in operation to generate power. This abundant power supply created an unusual man-made landmark. Red River was able to conserve its sawdust/wood waste pile, which took on a life of its own as it started looking like a small mountain. This created a nice reserve of free fuel that was readily available at any time should there by interruptions from the hydro-plants. To comprehend just how large it was, a Ripley’s “Believe it or Not” column once designated it as the world’s largest waste pile. In 1941 it lost its status to Portland General Electric Company who reported having a 130-foot high pile of sawdust.
Anything of this magnitude created its own hazards. One of the first lessons learned was how to prevent it from spontaneous combustion. A conveyer belt, along with a steam shovel and caterpillar tractor were employed to constantly work on the sawdust pile—whether adding to it or feeding the conveyer belt to the power house. It was not unusual for a worker to get trapped in a sawdust pocket where one could easily die from suffocation. While no fatalities of this nature occurred, there was one death attributed to the sawdust pile. On the morning of January 20, 1925 Alexander Kollinkoff was killed when he was struck by a large piece of frozen sawdust while operating a steam shovel.
Red River also explored other ways to utilize this enormous wood waste pile. When the mill operated at full capacity it produced 400 hundred tons of sawdust and wood chips in a twenty-four period, over half of which was used to fuel the boilers in the powerhouse. In February 1927 Red River installed an interesting piece of machinery, one that manufactured the modern day version of briquettes. This impressive device was capable of compressing a ton of wood waste into briquettes every hour. About a third of the wood waste which it compressed into briquettes could be used for home use, camping or even at the plant itself.
Packaging tape with the Paul Bunyan trademark.Courtesy of John Webb
In the logging camps in Canada and Northeastern United States as folklore would have it, tales of the mythical Paul Bunyan was born. Stories were passed around in the camps, no written account.
In 1900, W. B. “Bill” Laughead, a cousin to T.B. Walker, went to work in Red River Lumber Company’s logging camps at Akeley, Minnesota. There he undertook many jobs starting as a camp chore-cook and ending as a construction engineer. After eight years of working in the woods, he decided to move to Minneapolis working odd jobs and experimented with free-lance advertising work. It was at this time, Laughead drew the first known character drawing of Paul Bunyan, in part of an advertising campaign for Red River’s new California operation. Laughead created the company logo, of a circular design, with his Paul Bunyan’s face, accompanied on the outside with the words Paul Bunyan’s Pine and it became Red River’s registered trademark. The logo was placed on many products and even on its logging trucks. For a short time, Red River even bottled their own soda beverage, with the embossed bottles displaying the trademark. When the company expanded into other operations, they changed it to a Paul Bunyan Product.
In the 1940s, during the dissolution process of Red River, Kenneth Walker continued in the lumber business. In doing so, the trademark was transferred to him, since his own enterprise was the Paul Bunyan Lumber Company.
Pat O’Dea, Courtesy of the University of Wisconsin
In 1919, Charles J. Mitchell arrived in Westwood like so many before and after him seeking employment. The Red River Lumber Company had high turnover in its workforce and always had openings. Little did Red River know their new hire was a famous football player. Then again, Mitchell used an alias. After all this was in an era, where few people carried any type of identification, and Social Security numbers were non-existent. Continue reading Pat O’Dea—The Kangaroo Kicker→
Red River Lumber Company had a large employee turnover.
The labor movement received a big boost during World War I. However, unions lost some momentum after the war as nation went into a recession. Industry on the other hand came up with strategies to counter act the union movement. One of these was the American Plan. The plan had its origins from the labor turmoil of World War I and was first adopted in November 1919 by the metal trades. In time, the Industrial Relation Association of California got behind the movement. It recognized that the model had to be flexible, since there were many variables between industries.
The plan deemed unions a nuisance—a barrier between the employer and the employee. In the simplest of terms, both the employer and employee had to maintain certain obligations. For the employer, one of the critical factors was to design its business wherein the employee was guaranteed steady employment.
In 1921, the Red River Lumber Company adopted the American Plan as a way to stave off the union movement. Actually, during the 1920s Red River’s labor issues were nominal. By the end of the decade, things changed. It was not just from Red River’s own financial turmoil, but the lumber market was headed in a downward
spiral, even before the stock market crash of 1929. Like many lumber operations, Red River was forced to curtail operations. On July 28, 1930, Red River reduced wages by 15% and adopted a five-day week, with an eight hour working day. Red River did make a concession for its employees. It reduced the rents in Westwood accordingly and board at logging camps was reduced to $1.25 a day.
The American Plan at Red River was put to the ultimate test, but circumstances were overwhelming. Red River sought other solutions and company would experience labor turmoils during the 1930s.
Last Friday, (10/6/23) featured a photograph of Westwood’s Hotel Saville. It confused some readers, as they did not think that the Red River Lumber Company allowed and/or operated hotels in Westwood. Those readers are correct.
Red River, in its own peculiar way, named their boarding houses “hotels.” These facilities housed single men, while houses were reserved for families. The Hotel Saville was built in 1913, and was one of the first rooming houses constructed there for Red River’s employees. It was a substantial structure with 250 rooms. Initially it housed Spaniards. In a bit of trivia, when T.B. Walker visited New York City on financial matters, he always stayed at the Hotel Saville.
On Sunday night, March 30, 1918 a fire broke out on the the lower floor of the Saville. The fire spread quickly and some five hundred men battled the blaze. Every effort was made to contain the fire, for fear it might spread to neighboring Westwood Club and Opera House.
In 1911, the California Legislature implemented a voluntary Workmen’s Compensation Act. It failed way short of its goals. In 1913, the introduced a new version, but this time it was mandatory. It initially affected large manufacturers. In yesterday’s column, T.B. Walker was not pleased with this legislation and with the construction of Westwood underway, there was no way to avoid it.
Companies had two options: 1) They could make payments to the State which set up a special account or 2) They could self insure.
Red River Lumber Company went the self-insured route. Each month one-dollar was deducted from employee’s salaries. This money would fund the Westwood Hospital. For employees it was a good deal. In turn, they received full medical coverage, and even for not work related injuries. As far as I am aware Red River continued with the self-insured route until they sold Westwood in 1944.
When Fruit Growers Supply arrived on the scene they, too, opted for self-insured, just as they did at Hilt. In 1942, Fruit Growers opted out of self-insured and money collected from employees were sent to the State. This was not so good for employees, because their insurance covered only accidents on the job. One of the side effects was hospital at Hilt was closed, but converted into a first aid clinic.
When T.B. Walker was scouting his westward expansion of the Red River Lumber Company he examined all angles. Two important topics were politics and taxes. He was not fond of California politics, but then again he did not like Minnesota taxes.
In Walker’s opinion he though California had an anti-business stance, and he was concerned about future legislation impacting on Red River’s profit. In a 1913, letter to his son, Willis Walker, T.B. made reference to the passage of legislation concerning
workmen’s compensation and providing medical benefits. T.B. wrote:” There is a very unsatisfactory labor liability law that seems to be more drastic than has been passed in any legislature. I am aware that the prejudice against business in California has got so far along that it is but little use of make any defense or efforts at protection of our legal rights and proper treatment.”
In summation, T.B. declared: “The California Legislature is a sly,
reckless gang of socialists, and have succeeded in completely
deceiving the people through which they can make successful war
against capital and enterprise”
Tomorrow: The California Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1913
Truth be known in the beginning Red River Lumber Company had three sawmills at Westwood. The first was a portable circular sawmill powered by an old hay threshing machine engine. This mill was assembled in September 1912 and sawed its first piece of lumber on October 1. This mill would provide lumber for construction of Mill B. Mill B would in turn supply lumber for Mill A, the permanent one.
Mill B had a 40,000 board feet daily capacity. The mill was pushed to its limits and it became around the clock operation. Of that output, common grade lumber was utilized to build the town and highest-grade lumber was stored awaiting shipment for when the railroad arrived.
There are discrepancies as to when Mill A was placed into operation. Some accounts have that the first board produced occurred as early as May 1, 1914 and others as August 1. Interestingly, both Mill B (temporary) and Mill A (permanent) were running at the same time. The record is not clear what Red River’s plans were for Mill B. Unfortunately, the issue was resolved when on September 8, 1914, it was destroyed by fire. The fire had originated when sparks ignited the nearby sawdust pile. The fire was fanned by strong winds, which quickly spread to the temporary mill and destroyed it. All efforts were made to contain the fire to the mill, which they succeeded thereby saving the nearby planing mill and lumberyard. While the mill was equipped with automatic sprinklers they malfunctioned during the fire. After the fire, it was discovered there was a piece of wood inside the pipe blocking the flow of water.
Red River’s lumberyard up in flames, September 17, 1917. Courtesy of Walter “Doug” Luff
For years corporations and politicians, too, during any major event play the unfounded blame game to curry favor in public opinion, even what they relayed had no factual basis. At the same time, behind closed doors, their actions were the opposite.
An interesting case occurred on September 17, 1917 when the south lumberyard of Red River Lumber Company’s Westwood operation caught fire.The fire destroyed two million board feet of lumber valued at $800,000. Officials were quick to pass judgement that it was an arson set by the Industrial World of Workers (IWW) a union detested by lumber companies. While the charges would later be unfounded, Red River’s initial message of the dangers of unions was the major headlines and that was what the public believed.
The story does not end there. Red River filed a lawsuit against American Cast Iron Pipe Company for $91,305.31 for defective water pipes that hampered fire-fighting. As can be customary in civil litigation, the case dragged on and did not go to trial until June 1923. The court side with American Cast Iron Pipe and Red River lost the case.
