With the wonderful assistance of the Ryan Express trucking company of Fremont, Ca and the local Rogue Ales Brewiing Company, YPRHS was successful in moving a 32′ wooden flagpole from San Jose, Calfornia to Toledo. The pole, originally on site of a former San Jose adventureland park, became the property of William Chandler, brother of Conductor Tom Chandler. His horseshoe club had it installed at the courts in San Jose. Then the City decided to move the courts to land near the airport and FFA reg’s prohibited installing the pole. So….after several years, Bro Bill donated it to our site. Thanks also to Jim Kline and Rogue for all their help.

Rogue Ales Brewiing Company

Rogue Ales Brewiing Company Flag Pole Delivery

Yaquina Pacific Road New Flag Pole

The after page at Rogue Ales

Continuing the mission of preserving the railroad and logging history of Lincoln County, we are pleased to have the opportunity of restoring to operation this R.M.Wade Co. drag saw.  It was donated to YPRHS by Terry Woolfolk and until recently was stored in our railway post office (RPO) car.  R.M. Wade Co. started in Portland in 1856 and is still in business, one of the oldest businesses in Oregon.  Robert Marshall Wade’s son-in-law, Edward Newbegin, introduced the company’s first original product, the Wade Drag Saw around 1915 and built hundred’s of these that were shipped nationally and around the world. This is a gasoline-driven one-cylinder saw that could be used to cut rounds off big logs which were then split to be used for fuel in the steam-driven donkey engines to pull logs from the woods.

A couple of months ago, Lane Plotner (who had a mill with his father on Pioneer Mountain until in burned in 1949), was walking through the display and remarked that he and his dad had one of them in his mill.  He made a further comment regarding his having spent 17 years repairing magnetos.  Ours being in poor repair, suddenly had a new home for some tender loving care.  The next major job was to get the water tank repaired.  After several false starts, member Marlyn Kaps indicated that he thought he knew somebody at the Georgia-Pacific plant in Toledo that could possibly repair or rebuild it.  Our thanks go to Terry Smith’s department encouraged by Robin Rose (former YPRHS Program Coordinator), especially to Damon McGill and his apprentice for building the tank.  Thanks also to plant manager Ed Bortz who is supportive of all manners of community efforts.

So on Tuesday, July 27, 2004, after some 80 years after it was built and for an undetermined amount of time sitting idle, the YPRHS Drag Saw was coaxed back to life.  She is a monster in repose, dangerous to the untrained and powerful enough to force a 5 foot blade through big timber. She’s noisy, heavy, smoke belching, and certainly would not pass OSHA inspection in today’s world.

The Yaquina Pacific Railroad Historical Society is constantly looking for railroad and logging equipment.  Even more important YPRHS always welcomes folks who have skills and knowledge about these industries to come and lend a hand, uncover a resource, or provide information.

It seems that just about everyone you talk to about trains, say the caboose is the one of the things they really miss  seeing, when a train rolls by. The caboose seems to fire up the imagination of a home on the   rails, and visions of places to visit and things to see. We agree, but our vision is a might different, our gem, a 1907 wooden caboose, will be our visitor center and office here at the Railroad Heritage Center. This rail car was built by Southern Pacific at the Sacramento Shops and is numbered #573. This unit was in service until 1965, at which time it was donated to the Toledo Jaycees to be used as a meeting hall and was located on tracks north of the Toledo W & P station. YPRHS acquired the caboose in 1996 an moved it to It’s present location, and the fun began! We were not quite prepared for all the water damage and rot that had occurred over the past thirty some years after its retirement, but not to be deterred, we dove right in. Our object was to restore this piece of history to appear from the outside, as it did when it rolled as a sentinel behind the consists of the Southern Pacific, however, the interior would be restored and updated to be better utilized as an office and info center on our dockside tracks.

A brief rundown of what has ensued to date.

Yaquina Pacific Railroad Museum

To our dismay we found the lower walls and timber sills were extensively rotted. At some earlier date, 4×8 panel siding was added in an attempt to stop weather damage, however the window sills were not sealed allowing water to constantly soak the lower walls, thus the extensive rot . The task of replacing these items was decided to be better handled by professional builders and we contracted this work out to a local firm. The contractor also replaced the repaired the interior wall areas that were damaged. Once that was completed, it was time for our intrepid team of volunteers to dig in and tackle the major task of making this very special piece of history come alive again.

The first order was to replace all the windows and 1×4 clear fir vertical siding to seal the caboose  against any further water damage. After a coat of Caboose Red stain, new platform planking, 4 sets of fabricated steel risers and wood steps, wow, our pride and joy was really starting to look like we really meant business. Next we tackled the cupola, not knowing how far time and water had taken its toll until a partial tear down, we finally resorted to taking it off of the car for a complete reconstruction using  the original framing pieces as patterns. Luckily, one of our members is a cabinet maker, so he led us through this very educational exercise of mortise and tendon construction. We were even able to obtain the true dimensional lumber needed to replicate the structure, true to the original. Once all the pieces were fabricated, we assembled the framework on the dock to check the dimensions, then we took the pieces up on the roof to frame up the cupola, install the through rods and base brackets. Happily, thanks to our mentor, everything fit and our caboose was whole again. New built-up roofing was installed, all new windows were patterned and built from the old,  new roofing on the lower section was then put down and we were finally snug an weather proof. Then came some finishing touches for the outside, a fresh top to bottom coat of red stain new fabricated hand rails and curved assist side rails, planked roof catwalks, window trim and a fresh coat of black paint on all the railings and trim. Now this is what we were waiting for, we stepped back and looked at ol’ #573. What a beauty, to behold, truly ALIVE AGAIN.

The rest of the story is nearing completion The interior work to be finished include, cupola seating and cabinet, galley with built in refrigerator, sink and microwave, restroom, oak wainscoat, antique sconces, carpeting and custom made oak doors. Project completion date target, late 02.

Lloyd M. Palmer, Chapter Historian-February 23, 2008

For this Trackside Series we’re going to revisit the subject of an earlier article.  Back in 1999 the second article for this series addressed the subject of rumors about abandoned locomotives in the woods.  The second locomotive that was addressed in that article was about one of the locomotives used by the C.D. Johnson Lumber Co. on their operations out of Camp One.  This large logging camp was located about two miles north of Yachats, Oregon, one half mile from the beach, in the southern end of Lincoln County.  There were about twenty-three miles of railroad lines that extended eastward from the camp up into the Coastal Range of mountains,  what’s locally known as the Blodgett Tract. In that earlier article I had mentioned that all of Johnson’s locomotives had been accounted for and that my best guess is that there was no locomotive left in the woods.  However, I also mentioned that the stories would probably persist . Thus,  this installment.

A couple of weeks ago Richard Cullison of our chapter phoned me and told me of a fellow that had visited him and told him about coming across a locomotive behind Camp One several years ago.  According to Richard the details of this story seemed to be plausible and were worth following up on.  A couple of days later Richard and I got together at my place to go over maps and photos of the area to see if we could make the story fit the ground.  It was time to determine if any of these reports of lost locomotives were only myths or were really true stories.

According to this fellow, he had been hunting and started off the road and into the brush from the location of today’s Blodgett Rock Pit.  He had headed west, dropping down the hill from the road and stayed up on the slope out of the creek.  He continued west with the creek downhill to his left, staying up on the side hill to avoid the brushy stream channel and steeper sloped just about the creek.  As he continued west he was below the gravel road, today’s Forest Service Road No.1046 and above the stream, which is a branch of the South Fork of Big Creek.  One of Johnson’s old railroad grades is known to have extended up this same hillside, that being Spur 3B.

This fellow told Richard that as he continued downhill towards the west he came across a locomotive that was setting upright in a stream channel at the bottom of an old trestle where he figured it had fallen through the structure.  He remembers climbing into the cab and noticing that all the steam gauges had been removed.  He also mentioned that the bell was still attached and that there was a big nut holding it in place.  He had thought, over the next few years, about returning to the locomotive and removing the nut and taking the bell off the top of the boiler but that he figured it was be too difficult to pack the bell and wrench back up the hill. Not a one man job with a 100lb. bell.

With this information in hand we looked over maps of the area where he said his hike though the woods had taken him.  In years past I had the opportunity to hike all of the railroad grades in the Blodgett Tract and do a detailed report on what I had found and what the construction features of the spurs had been.  In doing so I had noted the location of all the trestle locations that I had run across and had noted them on some maps.  With these maps laid out on the desk, we went about putting the story of the map to see if we could make it fit.  To my surprise, it did!  The locations of the creeks and hillside fit with his story of where he left the rock pit, there was a railroad spur in the right area and there had been several large trestles located along the line.  Of all the stories I’d heard over the last thirty years about some lost locomotive behind Camp One this one seemed to bear some credence.

For the first time I felt that there was enough evidence to warrant the effort to explore the area of a story and see, if by some small chance, we might actually find such a locomotive.  Remember, all locomotives known to have been used by Johnson have been accounted for. Maybe here was one that we missed.

The following Saturday dawned bright and sunny and for mid February on the central Oregon coast I figured that must be a good omen.  In the time between the evening that we had looked over the maps, Richard had mentioned the story to another local man, Tom Millard.  Tom is the scout master for Troop 53 in Waldport and he and several of his boy scouts had expressed an interest in joining in on the search.  In addition, I had mentioned the story to our Conductor Tom Chandler and he also said he would love to join in the hunt. We were all to meet at Richard’s place, which just happens to be at the site of the former Camp One, at 8:00 AM.  I told Tom that I would take along an album of photos depicting Camp One and the logging operations in the area and a couple of maps.  I’d show these to the boys and give them a little background information about the area we were headed into.  Conductor Tom (I’ll use that name for our own Tom to distinguish him from Tom Millard in the rest of this article) and I met in Waldport shortly before 8:00 and headed south to Richard’s.  Tom and several of his Scouts were already there.  Included were Elliot Webb, Mack and Joe Cullison, Larry McElroy and Nathan Mirelez.  We laid the photos and maps on the table and went over some history of the area.  After about an hour of that we devised a plan for our day in the woods and headed out.  However, before leaving, Conductor Tom and I realized that we fell a little short of the Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared” and hadn’t thrown any lunches in for ourselves.  That problem being corrected by Mack with PB&J sandwiches, we headed for the brush.

We piled into two rigs and headed up towards the Blodgett Rock Pit.  About fifteen minutes later we arrived at the point where we planned on beginning our search.  We were at the top of a piece of ground that had been clear cut about 1997 and I knew that the railroad grade had passed through this old unit.  Plan A was to hike along the grade, from east to west, through the eleven year old clear cut, to the area of existing timber west of the unit where we were to concentrate our search.

As it turned out this wouldn’t work since the clear cut was covered with a thick layer of brush under the young stand of trees and walking along the old grade would be next to impossible.  It was time to turn to Plan B.  We hiked back up the road, heading for the west side of the unit.  Reaching the far side, we started downhill off the road, hoping to cut across the grade as we went.  After diving into a couple of draws and stumbling though the brush on the hillside for awhile, we found ourselves right back on the road, albeit farther down the hill.  All that effort for nothing.

We again entered the timber, again heading downhill, trying to find the old grade.  I knew that there had been a couple of trestles in the immediate area and that we’d be in and out a several draws so that finding a good segment of the grade was going to prove difficult.  On that point I was correct.  I also knew that there was good grade near the western border of the clear cut so after crawling in and out of the several draws we headed out of the timber and into the brushy clear cut.  After battling uphill through the thick brush laced with blackberry vines and intermixed with felled trees which had been cut for thinning purposes we finally found the railroad grade we were looking for.

With this part of the problem solved we again headed back into the timber and found the sites where a couple of the old trestles had stood over seventy-five years ago.  A large fire had burned though the area in 1936, shortly after the logging operations in the area had been completed and it had burned up many of the old wooden bridges.  That, in addition to the many winters of wet, rainy weathers, has obliterated almost all remnants of all of the former structures.  These two particular trestles were where we figured we would have the best chance of finding our elusive abandoned locomotive.

After a fair amount of exploring we failed to turn up our prey.  The area is fairly open, and being winter, all the leaves were off most of the brush.  This made it easier to look around but still, no abandoned locomotive, at least not where we were.  Having come to that conclusion we pondered our next move.

Installment #9 of our Trackside Series will again be of a historical nature however, like the previous article, will deviate from being purely railroad oriented.  The idea for the subject of this installment stems from the fact that a fellow in Southern California is currently researching material for a book that he is writing about the operations of the U.S. Army’s Spruce Production Division during World War I.  As a result of my interest in the subject, we’ve shared much information and it’s renewed my own research into this facet of Lincoln County’s railroad history.

The Army’s operations in this county resulted in the construction of three separate railroads in close proximity to Newport and Toledo.  The Toledo & Siletz RR. ran north from Toledo, into the area along Wessel Creek and was an extension of a railroad already in existence at the time.  At the outbreak of WWI it was being used by J.B. Miller to supply logs to the Bade Lumber Co. sawmill in Toledo.

In addition to this line, two completely new railroads were built.  The Yaquina Northern RR. began at a connection with the end of Southern Pacific’s line at Yaquina and extended northward through Newport to Otter Rock.  The Alsea Southern RR. was constructed from South Beach, southward along the coastline, through Waldport, to a point two miles north of Yachats.  The subject of this article, the sawmill in Otter Rock, was associated with the construction of the Yaquina Northern RR.

Benjamin F. Jones was a prominent citizen from this area, having arrived in Toledo in 1870 with his mother, his sister and most of his brothers.  He had an extensive public life, being appointed the newly formed Lincoln County’s first County Clerk, serving as mayor of Toledo and being elected to the Oregon House of Representatives.  He also became involved in numerous business ventures around Toledo and Newport, including becoming a real estate developer and being interested in the lumber industry.

In 1907 he purchased much of the land that makes up today’s Otter Rock and platted the townsite.  In 1908 the steamer Minnie Kelton was wrecked and much of the lumber she carried washed ashore at Otter Rock.  Taking advantage of the situation, Jones used the lumber to build several cottages and a hotel nearby.  By 1912 most of the lumber had been used and Jones, along with several other investors, decided to build a small sawmill in Otter Rock, near the mouth of Dope Creek.  He had been involved with a mill in Toledo for several years so the sawmilling business was not new to him.

The main sawmill building was 40 x 80 ft. and an attached lean-to that measured 20 x 20 ft. was used as the boiler room.  The boiler was 5 ft. in diameter, had a length of 18 ft. and put out 90 horsepower.  This boiler had arrived in Newport and required a twelve-horse team to transport it up the beach to the millsite in Otter Rock.  The log carriage had been built by the Albany Iron Works and the mill’s daily capacity was around 20,000 Bd.Ft.

For the next several years the sawmill produced lumber that was used around the local area, mostly by people who had decided to build houses in Otter Rock.  As with most small mills of the period, it operated on and off, running only when there was a need for lumber by someone nearby.  However, this all changed during the summer of 1918.

It was during that time that the Army had decided to build a railroad northward from Yaquina in order to tap the large stand of Sitka spruce that grew along the coastline.  The country was at war and spruce lumber was being used in the construction of the much needed “aeroplane” being used in combat for the first time.  Most of the dimension lumber that was needed in the construction of the Yaquina Northern RR was coming from the mills in Toledo but in order to expedite the building of the railroad, a source for the lumber needed to be found closer to the site.  The sawmill in Otter Rock was deemed perfect for the needs of the Army and for its contractor that was building the line, the Warren Spruce Co.

As a result the Army entered into an agreement with Jones and decided to purchase his mill.  A bill-of-sale was drawn up, signed on September 7, 1918 in which the Warren Spruce Co. purchased a one-half interest in the sawmill for the sum of $2500.  This document states that the sawmill was located in Lot 1, Sec.32, T.9S., R.11W.  An earlier item in the Yaquina Bay News of July 11, 1918 stated that “the mill property has an oceanfront of 450 ft. on the beach just north of the Punch Bowl” and that a camp was to be located “in the timber on a flat on Dope Creek.”  This camp was designated as Camp 7-I by the Army and was used to house the soldiers that worked in the mill.

The mill was used to produce much of the dimension lumber that was needed along the northern end of the railroad.  Included in this were the railroad ties, the large bridge timbers and much of the bracing needed on the numerous trestles that the line required.  A map dated October 1918 that shows the location of the camps along the line, also indicates that a  short spur was to be built from the mainline of the Yaquina Northern RR., westward towards the mill site but it was never completed.

When the war ended on November 11, 1918 the Army’s need for the railroad and their mill at Otter Rock quickly disappeared.  As a result, along with the rest of their holdings in Lincoln County, the properties were put up for sale.  The sawmill in Otter Rock, valued at $10,000 at the time, was included with the Yaquina Northern RR. in the sale packet that was produced by the Army for review by prospective buyers.

In November1920, Fred Douty, president and general manager of the Multnomah Lumber & Box Co. of Portland, submitted a bid for the purchase of the railroad and sawmill.  After taking several months to review the bid, it was finalized on August 12, 1921 whereas Douty paid $400,000 for the properties.  The Yaquina Bay News printed an article in the January 21, 1922 issue that stated “they have announced that they will commence operations in February 1922.  They will enlarge the Otter Rock mill and put in a number of camps along the line of the railroad.”

It’s at this point in time that knowledge of the sawmill drops off.  No further mention of the facility has been found in the local newspapers of the time nor has anything been uncovered in other publications.  The railroad itself was sold by Douty in 1929, to the Hutchinson Co., owned by Tom Hutchinson and continued to operate until he abandoned it in 1936.  However, no mention has been found as to how long the mill existed or whether it was acquired by Hutchinson.

Written by Lloyd Palmer

January 25, 2005