Tag Archives: Red River Lumber Company

History

A Made-To-Order Town

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The soda fountain in the Big Store. Westwood, circa 1917

Awhile back I wrote about Frona Colburn’s’ 1922 book The Kingship of Mount Lassen. As promised from her book, is her account of Westwood.

”Like a trip on the magic carpet is the transformation wrought at Westwood, a model town in Plumas County, set in the heart of a virgin pine forest skirting the southern base of Lassen Peak. All about one clean, sweet smell of newly cut pines, and the whole atmosphere is one of humming activity among an intelligent and contented populace. The five thousand inhabitants live in modern homes in a natural forest park. An eye for the beautiful has left the big white pines standing wherever possible, even along the graded streets, and the approach roadways leading into and out of town.

“It was the author’s good fortune to arrive at Westwood at noon, hot, thirsty and covered with volcanic dust. Imagine the surprise and joy of finding an up-to-the-minute department store—large, airy and cool—where a delicious crushed pineapple ice cream soda all but saved one’s life.  And the price, fifteen cents! This drink was served with all the daintiness of a metropolitan soda fountain, by a chap in white coat and apron spotlessly clean, and with manners to correspond.

Westwood has just ‘growed up’ in the heart of the woods, sixty miles from Nowhere, and is the last word in a logging camp. What gave it impetus? The constructive imagination of its founders.

Westwood, 1915. Courtesy of Leona F. Byars

“It is the pride and glory of the Walker family to have a nearly a perfect plant as it is possible to create and this desire includes evrything connected with the industry of lumbering. The whole atmosphere of Westwood is one of work. No loafers are permitted to stay long enough to breed dissensions. Every person bears his or her share of the work to be done, consequently there are no paupers and no destitution. Nor is there a shack in the town.

”Westwood baseball teams are not only natty in appearance but they can and play ball. Like the neatly-uniformed band they are an inspiration to all the surrounding countryside. Westwood musicians are in demand wherever good music has an appreciative hearing. The men at the head of the Red River Lumber Company not only know how to live themselves, but are willing that others may share in benefits derived from an intelligent, constructive attitude toward a big problem—that of pioneering in and out-of-the-way neck of the woods. The situation at Westwood would have delighted the soul of Peter Lassen, who was something of a sawmill man himself, and had a true woodsman’s love of trees.

“The Red River Lumber Company gives the following as their attitude toward the industry:

”It is our hope, by forestry practice, to so conserve the trees spite of our cutting (the largest of its kind) the actual amount of timber will never grow less but will remain forever a permanent thing of beauty, a field of labor and a source of supply.”

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History

The Climate Change Issue of the early 1900s

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Red River Lumber Company tree fallers
Red River Lumber Company, 1915

California did not know what to think of T.B. Walker and his Red River Lumber Company timber acquisitions in Northern California during the early 1900s. Walker at times was coy with the California newspapers about his intentions. This was due in part that the California operations would be run by his sons, and not by him.

Conservationists and farmers of the Sacramento Valley were concerned should Walker use the same timber practices as employed in Minnesota as it would be detrimental to the environment. They were concerned of the climate change effect when the mountains were denuded of trees, impacting snowmelt and erosion.

To calm the public fears, Walker stated:  “I will make my timber a perpetual resource. When I begin to manufacture lumber, my saws will cut timber only as fast as nature reproduces it.”  When questioned why he did not follow the same practice in Minnesota, Walker stated: “Conditions are far different there. Their excessive taxation forced me to cut the timber as fast as possible. Minnesota land is worth more for agricultural purposes after the timber has been cut off. In Shasta County, the timberland is not worth 50 cents an acre after the timber is cut off.” In conclusion, Walker stated he could do a better job conserving his vast timber holdings than the government.

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History

Michigan Big Wheels

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Red River Lumber Company, with Big Wheels and a McGiffert loader in the background. Courtesy of Hank Martinez
Red River Lumber Company, with Big Wheels and a McGiffert loader in the background. Courtesy of Hank Martinez

Logging operations of the early 1900s was extremely labor intensive. Motorized equipment was still in the experimental stages. One of the best advancements was the development of the Michigan Big Wheels, which everyone just called them big wheels. The wheels were a simple but efficient way to transport fallen logs to a landing, wherein they were then loaded onto railroad cars. The big wheels in time would become a key component in revolutionizing logging methods.

Horses provided the power to operate the big wheels. The name big wheels stems from their size ten to twelve feet in diameter. It was necessary for that size, in order to straddle a log and navigate moderate terrain. The logs were attached to a twelve foot tongue and with a lever, the driver could not only elevate a portion of a log in the front thereby making it easier to drag, but could loosen or tighten the cable, for braking purposes. One big drawback of big wheels was that it required a great deal of labor. Most big wheel logging camps employed as many as of 150 men. Two thirds of them worked as “swampers.” It was their job to remove brush, tree saplings, rocks and other debris that could injure a horse’s leg.

By the late 1920s, both Fruit Growers Supply Company and the Red River Lumber Company had replaced the big wheels with motorized “cats”.

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History

Another Forest Reserve Opinion

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A stand of ponderosa pine.

Susanville, was not alone in their opposition of the forest reserves. In November, 1902 T.B. Walker of the Red River Lumber Company had in a few years acquired some 200,000 acres of timberland in Northern California and addressed some of those concerns. Walker stated:  “These lands could be handled to better advantage for the general interest through the agency of private ownership than to have them tied up in the department at Washington. From a general knowledge of the case I am sure that the people of Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta and Siskiyou counties will regard this reservation move as extremely detrimental to their interests. Private ownership will better protect the timber against destruction by fire, will handle the timber cutting to better advantage to the commonwealth, will make a more continuous or perpetual timber supply, and protect equally as well the water supply and rainfall. There are a few townships and only a few along the Lassen range and in the mountains on the west side of the Sacramento Valley, running perhaps into the upper Trinity mountain country, that might reasonably be put into a forest reserve. Beyond that I think it would be unfortunate to carry out the forest reserve project.”

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History

Northern Counties Utility Company

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Birch Street, Westwood. Courtesy of Hank Martinez

In 1945, when Fruit Growers Supply Company took over the town of Westwood from the Red River Lumber Company it presented all kinds of problems. It should be noted for the record, Fruit Growers did not want Westwood or its mill, but it was packaged deal to obtain Burney Tract which contained a billion board feet of timber.

Westwood provided all kinds of challenges for Fruit Growers. What worked for Red River, did not for Fruit Growers. To provide water, telephone and electrical service to the community Fruit Growers formed the Northern Counties Utility Company. It was necessary for the company to avoid the involvement with its lumber and timber operations.  The residents were not happy with any change, and in the past their utility cost were included in the rent. Fruit Growers did not initially charge a separate utility bill. This, of course, was an accounting nightmare for Fruit Growers. In 1945, the utility company lost $35,549.65. Fruit Growers covered the loss from revenues from rental properties, but it was still a out-of-pocket loss for Fruit Growers. In 1956, when Fruit Growers sold Westwoof it was no longer their problem.

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History

Robert Stinson, Early Day Photographer

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Crystal Lake, Plumas County, 1914, is a Stinson photograph—-C.R. Caudle Collection

Robert Stinson was born in Quincy, Plumas County in 1882, and followed in his father’s footsteps as a commercial photographer. It was a tough trade to operate a business in a rural region. So like many others it became necessary to be itinerate traveling from community to community for business. In 1913, Red River hired Stinson as their company photographer, who at the time was located in Red Bluff. Stinson’s main job was to make a complete photographic inventory of all the buildings being constructed in the town, as well as the sawmill plant. A portion of this collection exists in the T.B. Walker papers housed with the Minnesota Historical Society. Stinson just happened to be at the right place at the right time, when Lassen Peak set off a series of volcanic eruptions beginning in 1914. Unfortunately, for Stinson and other photographers such as P.J. Thompson, were overshadowed by that B.F. Loomis, but that is another story, for another time. Stinson stay at Westwood was brief and left Red River in 1915 to be replaced Otto Kratzer. On a final note, Red River always had an in-house photographer, though they also hired others for commercial work.

Robert Stinson
Robert Stinson’s grave at the Westwood Cemetery.

For reasons not known when Stinson passed away in 1932, he was buried in the Westwood Cemetery.

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History

The Tale of Two Chesters

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Chester Market, circa 1915. Courtesy of Hazel York Moller

Chester located near the northwest shore of Lake Almanor slowly evolved over the years. The townsite was not surveyed until 1911. In the early years, it was typical mountain summer resort town, and its population shrank during the winter season.

Camp 57, of the ed River Lumber Company courtesy of Roy Rea

In the spring of 1922, changes were on the horizon and Chester witnessed its first unofficial subdivision.  The Red River Lumber Company was extending its main logging line westerly and not far from Chester proper the company established a logging camp there known as Camp 57. It was definite boost to the town’s population as the camp was home to over 200 men. The two communities did share one thing in common. Both Chester and Camp 57’s population dramatically declined in the winter.

Tim

History

Changing Westwood’s Image

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Westwood
Westwood. Courtesy of Hank Martinez

By the fall of 1940, the day of reckoning was at hand as to the future of Red River Lumber Company’s Westwood Operation. . A decision had to be made. The responsibility fell on Ted Walker, the General Manager, to provide options for everyone in the family to consider. Some of his suggestions would no doubt seem radical to his grandfather, T.B.Walker, Red River’s founder. Ted wanted to get away from the company town image, and heaven forbid actually spruce up the town by painting the houses. Ted suggested they even allow the opening of the cocktail lounges, so Westwood would look like any other American community.

Clinton Walker agreed to the house-painting program on one condition that there was an appropriate increase in the rents to
offset the cost. In summation, Ted wrote: “In general, I believe we
will be far better off to get away from the idea of a closed, one man
company town as much and as quickly as is practicable. There was, no doubt, merit to the closed town idea at the time operations were
started. It was then practicable, legally, geographically and politically to control mercantile, labor and moral conditions to a substantial degree. None of these things can safely be controlled today. Practically all the benefits of a closed town set-up have been
eliminated by changing times, and all that remains is the unfavorable
reaction and publicity connected with an archaic and obsolete policy
and philosophy. “

Actually, it should be noted, the transformation of the company began in the the mid-1930s in which operations such as the Big Store were leased to concessionaires.

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History

Chester’s Transformation—Collins Pine

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Collins Pine, Chester

One of the most dramatic transformation for Chester came in 1941 with the announcement by the Collins Pine Company that it intend to construct a mill at Chester. This was going to be a radical departure for Chester from its peaceful existence as a summer getaway, and in the fall hunters briefly replaced the summer visitors.  Once winter approached, many of Chester’s citizens boarded up their homes and moved to warmer climates, then to return in the spring.

Collins Pine changed all that, providing an industry to stabilize a year-round community. It should be noted Collins Pine was not a stranger to the region. As a matter of fact, in 1902 the company had purchased 18,000 acres of timberland in the region. In 1940, the nearby Red River Lumber Company at Westwood offered to rent their mill. Collins was not interested. However, Collins in 1941 purchased the millsite near Chester and thirteen miles of railroad from Chester to Clear Creek Junction from Red River.  It was a slow process for the  construction of Collins mill due to World War II and the scarcity of machinery. Even with those adversities, on March 31, 1943 the first board was sawed at the new mill.

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