BROOKINGS LUMBER COMPANY
Curry County - Harbor
July 20, 1912: "It is reported that the Brookings Lumber company of California is planning to build a large saw mill and logging road in Curry county. The mill is to located at the mouth of the Chetco river and the road will extend back into the timber. Just how soon the company expects to start building is not known but when they do build the plant will probably be one of the largest on the coast. The Brookings company is a wealthy one and owns about 25,000 acres of timber in Curry county.
Last year the company had engineers at work at the Chetco river, which is in the southern part of Curry county. Soundings were taken and it was said that the company was investigating the possibility of making a harbor there. The company owns almost all of the land in that locality. It has been said at different times that the company would not build until a railroad was built into Curry county but it is reported now on good authority that the company will start building operations within a year or eighteen months. The establishment of the building of a town and the bringing about of great development in southern Curry county.
The elder Mr. Brookings is a St. Louis man and is immensely wealthy. He gave eight million dollars to a university recently." (Coos Bay Times)
Last year the company had engineers at work at the Chetco river, which is in the southern part of Curry county. Soundings were taken and it was said that the company was investigating the possibility of making a harbor there. The company owns almost all of the land in that locality. It has been said at different times that the company would not build until a railroad was built into Curry county but it is reported now on good authority that the company will start building operations within a year or eighteen months. The establishment of the building of a town and the bringing about of great development in southern Curry county.
The elder Mr. Brookings is a St. Louis man and is immensely wealthy. He gave eight million dollars to a university recently." (Coos Bay Times)
October 11, 1912: "Another great lumbering industry is to spring up on the coast to the west of Grants Pass, and this, with the extension of the interests already engaged in lumbering in that direction, will witness an activity that will have a direct and immediate influence upon the prosperity of the coast counties of Josephine, Curry, Coos and Del Norte.
Messrs. H. P. Welter, Geo. Henry, Court Wright, Frank Casson and J. D. Weedman, the two first named accompanied by their wives, arrived in the city Thursday morning, and left a little later for the coast by auto, where they will be in charge of construction work on a mill of 125,000 daily capacity to be erected by the Brookings Lumber Co. of San Bernardino, Cal, at Harbor, at the mouth of the Chetco.
This company has already built a small mill on the Chetco, with which it is cutting the timbers for its development work for the building of the big mill, houses for employes, etc. It is proposed to build the mill on the north side of the Chetco, where the output can be loaded on the boats direct from the mill by use of a cable to be erected out to deep anchorage.
The Brookings company has holdings of 30,000 acres of timber lands in the Chetco and Pistol river districts, with many other thousands of acres contracted for, and to reach these bodies, railroads will be built up both the Chetco and Pistol rivers. The plan for immediate future calls for a road of ten or twelve miles up the first creek, and later a road along the coasts through the great body of timber there will connect the Pistol district with Harbor. The lumbering road up the Chetco will ultimately reach nearly to the head of that creek, tapping the timber within twelve miles of Kerby, but on the west slope of the mountains." (Rogue River Courier)
Messrs. H. P. Welter, Geo. Henry, Court Wright, Frank Casson and J. D. Weedman, the two first named accompanied by their wives, arrived in the city Thursday morning, and left a little later for the coast by auto, where they will be in charge of construction work on a mill of 125,000 daily capacity to be erected by the Brookings Lumber Co. of San Bernardino, Cal, at Harbor, at the mouth of the Chetco.
This company has already built a small mill on the Chetco, with which it is cutting the timbers for its development work for the building of the big mill, houses for employes, etc. It is proposed to build the mill on the north side of the Chetco, where the output can be loaded on the boats direct from the mill by use of a cable to be erected out to deep anchorage.
The Brookings company has holdings of 30,000 acres of timber lands in the Chetco and Pistol river districts, with many other thousands of acres contracted for, and to reach these bodies, railroads will be built up both the Chetco and Pistol rivers. The plan for immediate future calls for a road of ten or twelve miles up the first creek, and later a road along the coasts through the great body of timber there will connect the Pistol district with Harbor. The lumbering road up the Chetco will ultimately reach nearly to the head of that creek, tapping the timber within twelve miles of Kerby, but on the west slope of the mountains." (Rogue River Courier)
February 12, 1915: "It is reported the Brookings Lumber Company will erect a $2,000,000 dock." (The Monmouth Herald)
October 20, 1916: “The Brookings lumber company is erecting twenty additional cottages. They have invested $1,500,000 in their plant.” (The Brownsville Times)
October 23, 1916: "Governor Withycombe has written the Brookings Lumber Company suggesting that it donate a grove of California redwood, owned by it in Curry county, to the state as a park. The grove covers approximately a section, and is said to be the only redwood tract in Oregon." (Ashland Tidings)
March 1, 1917: "The Brookings Lumber company, at Brookings, Curry county, will open its large sawmill March 1. Four years have been consumed in establishing the industry and several million dollars have been expended in construction of the mill, logging railroads, company buildings, hotels and residences for the employes. The company opened two years ago, but conditions caused a shut down, since which time the properties have been enlarged and defects remedied.
The company has an order for 66,000,000 feet of lumber which will require six full years to fill. To handle the output the company will put a new steam schooner on the run, which will transport 600,000 feet at each sailing.
The logging roads, which comprise between 15 and 20 miles of trackage, are practically completed, and the ponds are filled with logs. The new town is expected to be one of the busiest on the coast for the next six years." (Ashland Tidings)
The company has an order for 66,000,000 feet of lumber which will require six full years to fill. To handle the output the company will put a new steam schooner on the run, which will transport 600,000 feet at each sailing.
The logging roads, which comprise between 15 and 20 miles of trackage, are practically completed, and the ponds are filled with logs. The new town is expected to be one of the busiest on the coast for the next six years." (Ashland Tidings)
October 12, 1917: "J. P. Miller, local representative of the Brookings Lumber company, owner of the Quinault, said that an expedition will be arranged for the purpose of salving the diving apparatus, and that it was hoped, on account of the smoothness of the sea, to get all of it ashore." (The Oregon Daily Journal)
June 27, 1918: "Fire originating in a logging camp of the Brookings Lumber Company, near Harbor, Curry county, almost totally destroyed the mill town of Harbor. Although the Antlers hotel and 12 other buildings were burned, the fire is now under control. It is believed there was no loss of life." (The Evening News)
March 31, 1921: "W. B. Brookings, of Brookings, Oregon, head of the Brookings Lumber company, was today appointed permanent manager of the new department of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, to be known as the national resources production department. The duties will be stimulate and develop exploration, survey and utilization of all the natural resources of the United States." (Roseburg News-Review)
December 19, 1921: "G. W. Tillotson, general foreman of the donkey engine work in the woods for the Brookings Lumber company left this morning for Idaho where he will spend the Christmas holidays." (Grants Pass Daily Courier)