Steam schooners load lumber at Donovan Mill — circa 1922 — #G0288_1
| Showing 157 of 831 |
Photograph Copyright Anderson & Middleton Company
United States — Washington (State) — Aberdeen
Chehalis River
Thanks to an anonymous correspondent, who writes: "This photo, taken from the railroad bridge shows the Donovan Mill dock. You can see a bit of what is now (2009) the Weyerhaeuser site and the Aberdeen Lumber & Shingle Mill in the left background, behind the original auto bridge."
Our anonymous commentator continues with some quick boilerplate information about the site in South Aberdeen depicted in this photograph:
"There's been some kind of a mill here on this site from at least the turn of the century. I've seen insurance company maps of Aberdeen (Library of Congress, available through Timberland Library I'm told, though I saw reproduction prints) from just before the Black Friday Fire of October 16, 1903, showing a mill out in the river connected to Curtis street by a narrow causeway. All else between was water and tidal mud flats! The earliest picture I've found so far is the Jones Photo Co. panorama copy #58622_4 which is one picture of a 5-picture set, 180 degree panorama. It's dated 1910 (in reference to the Aberdeen Museum timeline, which says that the Union Pacific began work on the railroad bridge in this view on April 23, 1910). In 1925 Schafer's bought the mill and enlarged it until it eventually became their "Mill #4" There are several pictures of Mill #4 in the Jones Collection. It was a 40-foot mill (I don't believe it was longer), steam powered, burning hogged fuel waste as was every other mill on the harbor.
In 1955 Weyerhaeuser bought it, although there's more to the story than that. Schafer wouldn't sell to Weyerhaeuser (I haven't heard exactly why), so they sold it and most, if not all, of their land holdings to Simpson (I believe it was), who immediately turned right around and sold this mill site to Weyerhaeuser. In 1968 Weyerhaeuser quit using the river to feed the mill and built a ramp for their log stackers. Also around 1968, the chip facility was built where barges are loaded today [2008], although the barge loading part wasn't built until 1987. In spring of 2007 the company finished tearing down the 1925-era building, leaving the Planermill (built c. 1948) and the Small Log Mill (built in 1972 and updated in 2000).
