8.. Coote's Sawmills

Neil Vanderburg: About 100 feet this side of that there was a road went back. And that was the road that went back to Hanish's house. And we took that road and we just kept right on going past Hanish's and right on up to Bennett's Mill. And it was a steep road. I mean, it was. . . that's why Jack Green wasn't taking his truck up there, cause it was practically a cat road.

8. Coote's Sawmills

Bob Zybach: Okay. So, then you said there was a pond in back of the Coote Mill. Is that the place that you were telling me that they had a flume?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, where the Coote Mill, the one you were talking about, if you went on around the corner and probably I would guess probably, oh, maybe a half mile, right on Berry [Savage] Creek, just follow Berry Creek up, Bill Coote had a dam in the creek there, and his mill was on this side of the creek and he had this flume on a pretty steep hill over on this side. And he pulled the logs down the ridge of the mountain, or hill, and then shot them down this flume he had. There was water up there on top that he got in there someway. And they pulled those logs in with team of horses and got them up to where the top of the flume was and then they'd unhook the horses and take a peavy and roll the log into the flume -- shoop -- down it'd go.

Bob Zybach: Straight into the pond.

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: But was his mill back by the pond then, or was it up here closer to the road?

Neil Vanderburg: No, that one was back by the pond. He had three mills.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so one of the mills he had was the one right by the road?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: And then one was back by the pond.

Neil Vanderburg: It was on around the curve of Berry Creek and back up there.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Neil Vanderburg: And then he had the one up on top of the hill. And the one up on top of the hill is what made em put Berry Creek [Road] on through.

Bob Zybach: So, when he had that one on the top of the hill, there's a couple of small homesteads up there. Do you remember the families who lived in those?

Neil Vanderburg: Oh, I can tell you a story about the one that's, I think there's still a house on the lefthand side right up on top of the hill?

Bob Zybach: I think the house isn't there, but there's a couple of apple trees and an old pond up in there.

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah. Okay. Well, I don't know who owned that, but the Gardners lived there. And Mr. Gardner, he was on welfare, and he lived there long enough so that he claimed squatter's rights and he got that away from the owner for nothing. And even in the Depression, everybody looked down on Mr. Gardner for getting free right, or free living, for seven years and then taking it away from the owner.

Bob Zybach: Wow. Who was the owner? You don't. .

Neil Vanderburg: I have no idea. He was, could have been in California or anyplace, you know.

Bob Zybach: I was pretty curious why that got surveyed out. It's a real odd.

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, well. . . Gardner got the house site and quite a bit of land by squatter rights. That would have been probably 1938.

Bob Zybach: Like a little local scandal, or something.

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, yeah. Because he was, actually he was running a "turn a pull" road machine [He helped make the fill on Highway 99 over the rail road in Albany] and still drawing welfare so he was. . . there was a lot of scandal as far as he was concerned. He had a daughter, Charlotte, who had polio and she was older than I was and she just got where she could walk after we lived there, and she rode the bus when the bus started going past their place. But it was another interesting thing about that, when they first lived there the road didn't go past their place. So after they put the road in, well, every time you'd drive by there they'd hang out the window to see who was going by.

Bob Zybach: The Gardners would?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, they always. . . and of course, another scandal with them, they were never up till 8:00, and everybody was up by 5:30. So that was another scandal for them. They just laid around until 8:00 in the morning.

Bob Zybach: All the way till then. [Laughs]

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah. But anyway, there is one thing more now, we've already gone around the corner here in Berry Creek.

Bob Zybach: Yep. Now let me ask one quick question here. When this mill was closed down was it still called the Coote's Mill?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and the old houses were there, but nobody was living in them?

Neil Vanderburg: No, people were living there when we first.

Bob Zybach: They were still living there?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Okay, were they working in this mill back here?

Neil Vanderburg: No, this mill was the first one and this was the second one. And this was the.

Bob Zybach: Oh, the one back by the pond was the first one? With the flume.

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: So was that flume still operating when you were there?

Neil Vanderburg: It wasn't operating but it was there. I climbed the hill beside the flume one time and it was steep.

Bob Zybach: And then this one here had even closed down by the time you lived there.

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, but he'd just barely moved out of that. He hadn't started up the other one up here yet.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Okay, so but then we kind of backed off over there. The one that he started up on. this one here was the one you were telling me got repossessed?

Neil Vanderburg: No, it was the one on the top of the hill.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so these down here he still owned but they weren't operating any more.

Neil Vanderburg: No, they weren't.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and then he moved his operation up the hill.

Neil Vanderburg: Up the hill, closer to the timber. He'd pretty much logged this out and moved up where there was. . . remember, when you're logging with horses you don't pull the logs very far.

Bob Zybach: You pull the mill to the logs.

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, that's basically . . I mean that's the same thing with Bennett's Mill. It was built up in the timber. Anyway, did you ever hear anything on the Chaffin place?

Bob Zybach: Nope.