Wendling, Oregon
History
Initially, Booth-Kelly had no intention of building Wendling, The original plan was use the Mohawk River to float logs to a new mill near Coburg. Lane County granted them a 90 year franchise for movement on the river. This met with harsh resistance from the other valley mills, loggers and farmers.
Booth-Kelly then decided to build a mill and supporting elements near the timber. To do this they needed to acquire the right-of-way for the Southern Pacific railroad from Springfield to their proposed site on the former homestead of William McCullough. It was secured and Wendling mill and supporting structures were built in the fall of 1899 while railroad construction was underway. The railroad was finished and the first train came into Wendling on September 3, 1900.
Fires
On the night of August 24-25, 1910 embers falling from a nearby forest fire destroyed all but three homes in the company-owned residential section of Wendling, the church, school, cookhouse and bunkhouse. The mill, store, and company offices were saved. Booth-Kelly rebuilt within two months and kept the mill and camps running during that time.
In the morning hours of September 26, 1917, the planer mill and dry sheds were burned to the ground. The sawmill and other structures were saved.
During the forenoon of July 6, 1922, the saw mill and nearby kilns were destroyed by fire.
Months after the mill was closed at Wendling and nearly all equipment was stripped from its interior, the mill superstructures and the powerhouse burned in a fire on September 29, 1946. No other buildings were lost.
Other
Wendling Bridge, a covered bridge, carries Wendling Road over Mill Creek at Wendling. Built in 1938, the bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
See also
- Hayden Bridge (Springfield, Oregon) – bridge that was part of the Marcola line, which would take lumber to and from Wendling
References
- ^ "Wendling". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. November 28, 1980. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
- ^ "Lane County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
- ^ "Contract Let". Eugene Daily Guard. September 20, 1899.
- ^ "Valuable Franchise". Daily Eugene Guard. January 11, 1899.
- ^ "The Mohawk Franchise". Daily Eugene Guard. January 14, 1899.
- ^ "Sawmill Men Protest". Morning Oregonian. January 17, 1899.
- ^ "Railroad to Mohawk". Daily Eugene Guard. June 9, 1899.
- ^ "Eugene Will Expand". Eugene City Guard. August 26, 1899.
- ^ "Contract Let". Daily Eugene Guard. September 20, 1899.
- ^ "First Train In". Daily Eugene Guard. September 4, 1900.
- ^ "Graphic Story of Forest Fires". Eugene Daily Guard. August 25, 1910.
- ^ "Wendling is Fast Rebuilding". Eugene Daily Guard. November 5, 1910.
- ^ "Planing Mill and Dry Shed Are Burned". Eugene Daily Guard. September 26, 1917.
- ^ "Wendling Mill Wrecked by Fire". Springfield News. July 6, 1922.
- ^ "Old Wendling Mill Burns to Ground in $90,000 Blaze". Eugene Register-Guard. September 30, 1946.
- ^ "Mill Creek (Wendling) Covered Bridge" (PDF). Oregon Department of Transportation. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
- ^ "Oregon National Register List" (PDF). Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. June 6, 2011. p. 23. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
- ^ Link, Gary (1992). Bennett, Lola (ed.). Hayden Bridge (PDF) (Report). Washington, DC: Historic American Engineering Record. Survey number: OR-19.
Further reading
- Polley, Louis E. (1984). A history of the Mohawk Valley and early lumbering. Marcola, Oregon: Polley Pub. ISBN 0916930092.
- Velasco, Dorothy (1985). Lane County: An Illustrated History of the Emerald Empire. Windsor Pubns. ISBN 0897811402.
- Polley, Louis E. (1989). Wendling, Oregon Logging Camps 1898-1945: Polley Pub. ASIN B006YXHNG6
- KRACHT, SHANNON. "Wendling, a Company Town," Lane County Historian 20 (1975): 3-16.
External links
- "Booth-Kelly Company Ghost Town – Wendling Oregon".
- "The Wendling Project".
- Warner, George. "Growing up in Wendling Oregon".
- Lost Towns: Wendling by the Lane County History Museum