H.. Sulphur Springs Sawmill

Charlie Olson: The sawmill was up there quite a little ways farther.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Charlie Olson: But they had a flume they caught water and they trapped it and they had built what you could call a silo today. They had built it with two by sixes laid flat clear around, not edge ways, but flat ways in order to make sure it was strong. And they had built that up until I don't know how many thousand gallons it could hold but it was pretty big and it was up on a stand so that there would be quite a little bit of pressure when they would let that water come out of there. And they would drain that on to a paddle wheel. That was their power and they would saw and then of course when they ran out of water they would stop sawing and then they'd go ahead and fill that up again and when it was full why they would saw.

Bob Zybach: Can you find approximately the spot where that sawmill was if we drive up that way?

Charlie Olson: Approximately maybe, but I can't tell you I can find it because everything is different now, you know, I don't think that should make such a hell of a lot of difference.

Bob Zybach: The reason it makes some difference is that was probably the earliest sawmill in this area, or one of them and if we can get the approximate location they can excavate below ground level and some of the anthropology classes they have now, it would be an interesting school project or an interesting research or education to teach people how to do that, so if they can locate it, and they've done the type of research we're doing today, trying to reconstruct things the way they were.

Charlie Olson: Well, I can make a guess at approximately where it set.

Bob Zybach: Why don't we drive up there and take a shot at it.

H. Sulphur Springs Sawmill

Bob Zybach: Okay, we're up between a cyclone fence and a new logging road to the left and we're about 100 or 150 yards before the gate. Can you kind of point out roughly where you think the sawmill may have been?

Charlie Olson: Where?

Bob Zybach: Approximately where?

Charlie Olson: Well, we're pretty close to where it was right here.

Bob Zybach: Okay, would they have a log yard out in here?

Charlie Olson: A what?

Bob Zybach: A log yard, did they deck the logs in this area?

Charlie Olson: They pulled the logs down with oxen.

Bob Zybach: Oh, with oxen?

Charlie Olson: They pulled them down here with oxen, and they had a skid road up in there and when I was in the school bus business, I went up to the . . . darn it, they had a law suit, court house, I went to the court house but I had a schedule, you know, I had to leave right . . . I couldn't stay and see when it was over. There was a lawyer in Portland, Gitner, he was trying to tell them that this road here had been a highway, county road, and I sat in there awhile and listened and then I had to go on my run. So I couldn't tell just what they had, but anyway this whole hillside was bare. These little trees here now were not there. And Lee Brown, I mentioned him, Lee Brown was on the witness stand and they were trying to get him to say that this had been a county road up through here. So that Gitner owning land and timber up above here could get that road up through there so he could come out through here and that they would keep it up because it was a county road. That was what he was trying to do. I had to leave but Lee Brown was on the witness stand and he said, "I have rode my horse all over that area chasing cattle," and I don't know what he testified later because I had to leave. But this guy Gitner later on, Cook wrote me a letter and warned me of Gitner. He had . . . he had had some trouble with him, because Cook owned this other land in here, you know, and Gitner.

Bob Zybach: So this was Matthews' land and C'ook's land went out from here?

Charlie Olson: Well, Cook's land went beyond here, we've seen where his land was, you know, my uncle and my brother built a fence around .

Bob Zybach: That area we could see from up there fat Lewisburg GlearcurJ.

Charlie Olson: But Gitner had tried to steal something from him, and he wrote me a letter and told me to watch out for Gitner.

Bob Zybach: On Matthews' land, was this sawmill on Matthews' land?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: And so beyond Matthews' land, who owned that land out there, before Gitner?

Charlie Olson: I don't know what Gitner did, that was probably state, there was quite a lot of

Charlie Olson: government land yet.

Bob Zybach: Public domain.

Charlie Olson: Yeah, there was quite a lot of that yet in here and also S.P.

Bob Zybach: Southern Pacific.

Charlie Olson: owned a lot of it.

Bob Zybach: From the old 0 and C lands.

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: So this area here . . . was the sawmill called Matthews' sawmill?

Charlie Olson: I don't know what they called it.

Bob Zybach: Do you know when it operated?

Charlie Olson: No, I wasn't born yet.

Bob Zybach: This was before 1900?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: So, do you know of any other sawmill that operated in the Soap Creek Valley before 1900?

Charlie Olson: No.

Bob Zybach: And this one here, was the water wheel, it was still in existence, you saw that when you were a kid?

Charlie Olson: No, they had taken it Out when I saw it.

Bob Zybach: You've just been told about it?

Charlie Olson: I saw the tank, and I saw the flume and I saw the skid row where they had hauled the logs down with oxen. That's all that I could see.

Bob Zybach: Was the skid road planked?

Charlie Olson: No.

Bob Zybach: Just a regular skid road.

Charlie Olson: Just a regular skid road.

Bob Zybach: Which way did the skid road go?

Charlie Olson: It went up into the timber.

Bob Zybach: Pretty much along the line of this road now?

Charlie Olson: Yeah, right in the valley, right in the draw.

Bob Zybach: Okay, how about the flume, do you know what happened to that?

Charlie Olson: It was gone before I was big enough to come over here and look, I never saw it.

Bob Zybach: Do you know what kind of saw they would have been cutting the timber up with in those days?

Charlie Olson: What kind of what?

Bob Zybach: Saw? What kind of saw? Circular? Reciprocal?

Charlie Olson: The saw, circular saw was the only thing they knew of at that time. They didn't have a band saw yet for years. And that became quite a thing later on, you know, band saws came in.

Bob Zybach: Would they have been cutting up yellow fir, do you think, would that have been the product?

Charlie Olson: They cut the yellow fir, yes, that's the only thing they had to cut here at the time.

Bob Zybach: This bare area here, we're at pretty much the end of the bare area; did it start turning into timber by the gate there?

Charlie Olson: Well, you wouldn't have to go very far beyond what you can see here until it was pretty much timber.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Charlie Olson: And that would go clear to Kings Valley.

Bob Zybach: Timber all the way to Kings Valley?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: No openings or anything like that? All the opening were pretty much here in Soap Creek until you got to Kings Valley?

Charlie Olson: These little . . . all of these little oak trees here have come since.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Charlie Olson: This was all bare.

Bob Zybach: So this is kind of where the bare area ended and after this it was timber?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: And then, could you get to Kings Valley by going this route?

Charlie Olson: No.

Bob Zybach: You had to go back over.

Charlie Olson: You could get there all right but you'd go through an awful lot of brush.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so how would you get to Kings Valley from here?

Charlie Olson: Well, you'd go up the other creek. Go up the other creek and go up that other road. where there was a county road.

Bob Zybach: Okay, we've got the sawmill here, we've got Matthews' house behind us, did Matthews have any barns or anything?

Charlie Olson: He didn't have any barns here at this place.

Bob Zybach: So we would have had a sawmill, we would have had Matthews' house, would have had the old hotel, and then we would have had the barn right by the oak tree and that would have been the only structures through this area that you can remember.

Charlie Olson: That barn over there that we spoke on, there was a wagon, a buggy in there when I was big enough to run around. There was still a buggy in there. And we took it out and Elmer Govier was with us when we did that, and he was probably one of the big guys at the head of that. We took it out . . . there was some people in Corvallis, this isn't . . . this has nothing to do with it, but there was some people in Corvallis that was up here at the Springs, Sulphur Springs. And we thought it would be a joke to take that wagon out and put it in the road and take the wheels off of it. And we did that and then we went back on down. And they stopped at Govier's house when they went back out and asked old man Govier, Elmer run and hid when he saw them coming. And they asked the old man if Elmer Govier was around. And Elmer had told him, "Don't tell them I'm here."

Bob Zybach: Elmer Govier sounds kind of like a trouble maker a little bit. One last question on the /zotel, do you have any idea when that was built or when it shut down?

Charlie Olson: Well, when it was burned up, I can tell you pretty close, when it burned down, it would be pretty close to the '30's.

Bob Zybach: Was it shut down. . . did people rent rooms out by 1900?

Charlie Olson: That was used at all by the time that this . . . this had faded out, people had automobiles when that thing burned down and there was quite a lot of stuff went every where else, you know, but they didn't come here because this was . . . this was kind of an out of the way place

Bob Zybach: So this was pretty popular before 1900.

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: And then it kind offaded out.

Charlie Olson: Well, it was still pretty popular when I was big enough to run a foot race, so

Bob Zybach: Until 1905 or 1910. .

Charlie Olson: Well, 1913 was when that was

Bob Zybach: Just up about until World War I, or up till the automobiles, right up until then it was a popular place to come.

Charlie Olson: It was just about 1913, that they had a foot race on that. . . and I entered it. And Otto Han, do you know him?

Bob Zybach: No, I sure don't.

Charlie Olson: South of Corvallis. Well, he was here, but I didn't know him then. I got acquainted with him later on. And I had four miles to school and it was steep and it was regular. In those days they didn't have kids to exercise, you know, at all. And I had a heck of an advantage. And I could run away from anything that they'd stick out there. And I run a foot race here and they had a guy that was going to run with the winner. And I made an ass out of him.

Bob Zybach: So, did you get anything for winning the foot race?

Charlie Olson: No.

Bob Zybach: How far did you have to run?

Charlie Olson: One hundred yards.

Bob Zybach: It was a sprint.

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Was it an organized thing or was it just kind of an informal competition?

Charlie Olson: No, it was just something that come up.

Bob Zybach: I see.

Charlie Olson: Another one came up just north of Corvallis about a year later. Otto Han was there and I didn't know it. I ran that one, but that one I had a disadvantage. We had button shoes in those days, and the last couple out, and they had hauled wood out of this area with wagons and then of course the wagon would make a track about that deep and about that wide. And they had mowed it and left the grass on there and I sprained my ankle. Otto Han was there. I knew he was there then because he had a sister there, I don't remember her name now, I had just met her that day, but she was pretty athletic and I got her for a partner and nobody would catch us.

Bob Zybach: And you with the sprained ankle too.

Charlie Olson: No, not yet, not yet, but I sprained it there. Button shoes was the thing then, and I

Charlie Olson: put strings in the hole and so I would button it over the string. And got over, there was a rail fence you know in the shade and I sat down and watched the rest of it. And my brother came up and he said, "You've got to get over here and sign up, they're signing up for races" and I said, "With an anide like that," and he said, "Yeah." He says, "That won't brother you." And I said, "I can't run with that." And he says, "You can win it on one foot." Well, I had quite a lot of faith in him, he was ten years older than I was. And he kept on, and I finally got up and went over there and we started to sign up and I was going to sign up with the boys, you know, and he said, "No, you sign with the men." Oh, God, no. But he insisted and I did, I signed up with the men. Well, they had a little cap gun and that went off, why of course I just gritted my teeth and I used it just as if I hadn't sprained it and took off. And there wasn't anything too close, I didn't look around but I could hear them. And when I got to about thirty feet from the string why of course I put on a little extra and took the string. I didn't realize that Otto Han had been up here, I didn't know him at that time. But I had a big advantage over everybody. I could out run anybody that could stick at me, you know, at that time because going to school starting at six and continuing until I completed ninth grade, I told you about Miss Allen, she taught the first year of high school here, and that was the thing, you know, morning and night, evening and morning and four miles and hilly and then after coming home, probably that much more, I had to chase the cows home. I sprained it another night.

Bob Zybach: How about that race there though, what happened on that one, you were thirty yards from the string?

Charlie Olson: Huh?

Bob Zybach: You were up thirty yards from the string and you started to give another burst, did you win that race too in 1914?

Charlie Olson: Oh, yeah.

Bob Zybach: With the sprained ankle?

Charlie Olson: Oh, yeah, that didn't bother me at all.

Bob Zybach: This Otto Han could remember that? He told you later about it?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: You must have made an impression on him?

Charlie Olson: Well, he didn't realize the advantage that I had.

Bob Zybach: From all that exercise.

Charlie Olson: And I didn't either, but you know, they didn't have anything in the way of athletics in schools in those days. But I learned something in the later years that I was chasing cows to try and get them home. I had a little shepherd dog and I was . . . I got them started and they went around me and headed on the road to Kings Valley, I told you about that county road that went right through.

Bob Zybach: We want to go over there, too, before we. . . try to beat some daylight.

Charlie Olson: I was trying to get around them by running in the brush and it was getting dark and there was a big log. I got up on that and jumped and they were just about even with me, I could hear the bells and I was almost ahead of them and when I lit on the other side, something turned my ankle. That time I really turned it. So, I hurt it, . . . it made me sick, you know, I just in desperation and anger, I said, "Sic'em." And my little dog left. And the bells began a ringing a little harder and a little harder and a little harder and pretty quick I began to realize they were coming closer and she had gone around them and they were coming back. And they started for home. They were going just all they could go, you know. And she came back for me after while and I found something that I could use for a crutch and I started for home. And when I got to where there was a lot of openings on that Longfellow place up above our home and on the Kings Valley side, I heard one clink of a bell. Over on the other side was a few open areas and they had a trail through a bunch of small trees and I got onto that trail and started to go over that direction and after a while I could smell cattle sweating and I knew I was right among them and I just said, "Sic'em." And she took them. Well, I didn't get home as quick as they did. But when I came home they were in the barn.

Bob Zybach: Smart dog.

Charlie Olson: I learned then, but it was pretty late in the game, I learned then when those cows was going to go home, just tell them "Sic 'em." That little dog would take them. She'd grab them right by the hock, you know, and then duck back and they would strike at her but she would be back and too low and before they could get anywhere why she