BUTTE FALLS LUMBER COMPANY
Jackson County - Butte Falls
June 7, 1906: "The Butte Falls Lumber company announces that it now has its sawmill plant at Butte Falls in condition to put out at least 140,000 feet of lumber a day, just as soon as the Medford & Crater Lake railroad is extended to its timber belt. The large acreage of timber sold during the last few weeks, and the fact that the larger tracts are under bond in that great timber section at the head of the Rogue river and the two Butte creeks, is significant of an intention to rush this railroad through to completion shortly." (The Estacada News)
June 14, 1906: “The Butte Falls Lumber company announces that it now has its sawmill plant at Butte Falls in condition to put out at least 140,000 feet of lumber a day, just as soon as the Medford & Crater Lake railroad is extended to its timber belt. The large acreage of timber sold during the last few weeks, and the fact that the larger tracts are under bond in that great timber section at the head of the Rogue river and the two Butte creeks, is significant of an intention to rush this railroad through to completion shortly.” (Heppner Gazette)
March 6, 1908: AD: “FOR SALE---Having purchased over 500,000 feet of first-class milling logs, we are prepared to furnish first-class lumber of all kinds in any amounts on short notice. If you contemplate building place your order with us; prices very reasonable; dimension and fine finish lumber a specialty. Write or call. Butte Falls Lumber Company, office over Jackson county bank, Medford, Or.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
August 8, 1908: “J. H. Miller of the Butte Falls Lumber company reports many orders in the mill for finishing products.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
August 19, 1908: “The Butte Falls Lumber company will furnish the lumber for the new bridge over Little Butte.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
March 26, 1909: “B. M. Harris left last evening for Butte Falls. His business there, as he admitted, was to arrange for the reopening of the big mill of the Butte Falls Lumber company, which has been idle, except for the lumber that it has turned out to supply the local demand, which does not require anywhere near the full capacity of the mill.” (The Medford Mail)
August 21, 1909: Mr. John Roberts Allen: “ 'I cannot tell until I examine the property, which I have never yet seen, what I will do. If the entanglements involving the Pacific & Eastern and the Medford and Crater Lake railroad companies are straightened out, the road will be built at once.
'The people of Medford do not seem very anxious to have the road built. Some bondholders have not lived up to their agreement and exchanged old bonds for the new. There is a tendency to hold me up, and not the co-operation that secures railroads. Then there is a suit in the federal court to be straightened out.
'The new Pacific & Eastern bonds have all been sold, but until matters are straightened out, no one could go ahead and build. Whether the present force will be kept working, or increased, depends entirely upon developments.'
Mr. Allen was non-committal regarding his plans, and except to express his ignorance of conditions had little to say.
B. H. Harris assured Mr. Allen that the Butte Falls Lumber company would guarantee 100,000 feet of lumber a day for shipment, and Mr. Allen stated that he stood ready to build the road if similar tonnage contracts were forthcoming.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
'The people of Medford do not seem very anxious to have the road built. Some bondholders have not lived up to their agreement and exchanged old bonds for the new. There is a tendency to hold me up, and not the co-operation that secures railroads. Then there is a suit in the federal court to be straightened out.
'The new Pacific & Eastern bonds have all been sold, but until matters are straightened out, no one could go ahead and build. Whether the present force will be kept working, or increased, depends entirely upon developments.'
Mr. Allen was non-committal regarding his plans, and except to express his ignorance of conditions had little to say.
B. H. Harris assured Mr. Allen that the Butte Falls Lumber company would guarantee 100,000 feet of lumber a day for shipment, and Mr. Allen stated that he stood ready to build the road if similar tonnage contracts were forthcoming.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
September 3, 1909: “The news of Mr. Allen's purchase of the Pacific & Eastern has not only caused considerable rejoicing in this locality, but it has started progressive business men to think, to plan and to act for the future.
The completion of the railroad is a thing that many have dreamed of and have planned on, and now that it is to be a reality, new industries and development work has started, and others will start in the near future.
So confident is Mr. B. H. Harris that the road now is an assured fact that he has already ordered electrical machines to be shipped and installed immediately upon its arrival, so that the Butte Falls Lumber company not only will have its own electrical power to run its several mills, but also to furnish power to sell to other mills which are sure to go up soon in the vicinity of Butte Falls.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
The completion of the railroad is a thing that many have dreamed of and have planned on, and now that it is to be a reality, new industries and development work has started, and others will start in the near future.
So confident is Mr. B. H. Harris that the road now is an assured fact that he has already ordered electrical machines to be shipped and installed immediately upon its arrival, so that the Butte Falls Lumber company not only will have its own electrical power to run its several mills, but also to furnish power to sell to other mills which are sure to go up soon in the vicinity of Butte Falls.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
April 18, 1910: “Mr. Miller, the agent for the Butte Falls Lumber company, passed through Eagle Point last Thursday on his way to Butte Falls.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
July 19, 1910: "Miss Jennie Mahoney is bookkeeper for the Butte Falls Lumber company." (Mail Tribune)
July 24, 1910: “Superintendent Mills of the Butte Falls Lumber company made a short business trip to Medford.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
August 17, 1910: “H. D. Mills, manager of the Butte Falls Lumber company, has returned from a business trip to Klamath Falls. He reports that country as flourishing.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
March 13, 1911: “If the plans of the Butte Falls lumber company do not miscarry they will have a box factory in operation in Butte Falls by early summer and will be employing a large number of men. They also plan to increase their milling facilities and develop their properties.
The Butte Falls lumber company is the consolidation of the holdings of Dewing brothers, Ed Woodbury and Kate Curtenious which was effected some time ago. The holdings are the largest in that section aside from the property owned by the Crater Lake lumber company.
H. D. Mills the manager of the company states that his company intends to develop its holdings at once. A spur from the Pacific & Eastern is to be built at once.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
The Butte Falls lumber company is the consolidation of the holdings of Dewing brothers, Ed Woodbury and Kate Curtenious which was effected some time ago. The holdings are the largest in that section aside from the property owned by the Crater Lake lumber company.
H. D. Mills the manager of the company states that his company intends to develop its holdings at once. A spur from the Pacific & Eastern is to be built at once.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
April 2, 1911: “Reported that the Butte Falls Lumber company are putting in more machinery in the sawmill trying to get ready to cut lumber this summer.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
May 11, 1911: “The Butte Falls Lumber company will start their immense sawmills at Butte Falls Monday, May 15, and are already setting their machinery in order for the season's run.
H. D. Mills, manager of the company, was in Medford Thursday on business connected with the works and states that two large water wheels are about to be installed. Skids, dummy engines, cables and other things necessary for the handling of the lumber are already overhauled for use and by the middle of next week Butte Falls will present a much different appearance than at the present time.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
H. D. Mills, manager of the company, was in Medford Thursday on business connected with the works and states that two large water wheels are about to be installed. Skids, dummy engines, cables and other things necessary for the handling of the lumber are already overhauled for use and by the middle of next week Butte Falls will present a much different appearance than at the present time.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
September 3, 1911: “Caught by an uncovered swiftly revolving screw in the plant of the Butte Falls Lumber company. G. D. Stovall was thrown through the air, his clothes torn from his body, two ribs broken and his collarbone fractured.
Stovall is a blacksmith 44 years of age and was employed as an oiler. He is asking $5000 damages for his injuries.” (The Sunday Oregonian)
Stovall is a blacksmith 44 years of age and was employed as an oiler. He is asking $5000 damages for his injuries.” (The Sunday Oregonian)
June 15, 1917: “Butte Falls is at last coming into her own. Harry D. Mills, superintendent and manager of the Butte Falls Lumber company, has received orders to put things in shape for extensive operations and men are at work putting the mill (which has been idle a long time) in running condition. The company has about a million feet of logs in the pond, and by the time these are sawed out the the new supply will be coming in. The lumber yard and box factory will be in the south part of town and just east of the P. & E. depot. E. A. Hildreth, Sr., is clearing the ground for the lumber yard. The saying that all things come to him who waits will at last be realized by our people, who either from sticktoitiveness, or being to poor to get away, have stayed on the job.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
June 20, 1918: “The Butte Falls Lumber company, having enlarged and modernized its plant, is busy with its contract to supply 1,000,000 feet of lumber to the Southern Pacific company, following which it will take care of its contracts for the government in the milling and shipment of shipbuilding lumber.” (The Oregon Daily Journal)
August 2, 1918: “Butte Falls Lumber company want saw mill men and lumber pilers. Pay standard wages.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
August 26, 1918: “Butte Falls Lumber company is furnishing the county with bridge timber for repairs of the county bridges near Brownsboro.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
November 27, 1918: “Harry B. Mills, manager of the Butte Falls Lumber company at Butte Falls, is in the city today on business. They are getting ready to operate the mill all winter and are building a plank road so that they can haul the logs in with trucks.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
January 13, 1919: “Harry D. Mills, manager of the Butte Falls Lumber company, is at San Francisco on a business visit, having departed for that city Saturday night.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
January 22, 1919: “Harry D. Mills, manager of the Butte Falls Lumber company, spent today in the city looking into the Pacific & Eastern railroad situation. He said his company would start tomorrow getting out an order of 10,000 ties for the Southern Pacific railroad and felt sure the federal court order instructing the discontinuance of the Pacific & Eastern by Jan. 31 would be modified sufficiently to enable the company to get these ties down from Butte Falls.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
January 26, 1919: “Business is handicapped by closing of Pacific & Eastern by receiver. --- One of the results of a meeting of business men of this city and vicinity was a tentative agreement to organize business forces here and at Butte Falls for the purpose of perfecting on which the operation of the Pacific & Eastern railroad from this city to Butte Falls may be continued. The Butte Falls Lumber company expended during the last year $140,000 for new equipment and is now cutting 50,000 feet of lumber daily. The Applegate Lumber company's mill has just been removed to the junction of the P. & E. and the Southern Pacific at the at the northern edge of town, and two box factories have been located there. These enterprises are the principal forces behind the movement to continue the operation of the line by private lease or purchase. The Commercial club has taken the matter up with vigor.” (The Oregon Daily Journal)
January 31, 1919: “Harry D. Mills of Butte Falls, manager of the Butte Falls Lumber company, is in the city for a few days on business.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
March 29, 1919: “D. F. Altland of Detroit and C. A. Dewing of Kalamazoo, officials of the Butte Falls Lumber company, are here from Michigan on business and are stopping at the Hotel Medford.” (Medford Mail Tribune)
April 19, 1919: “One of the large timber interests along the line of the road, said to be the Butte Falls Lumber company, has made the following proposition to purchase the road: Sixty thousand dollars to be raised, $50,000 of which will be used to make the initial payment, leaving $10,000 as a working capital. Of this, the above mentioned company agrees to take $30,000 of the stock if Medford and its vicinity will take the balance of the capital stock. It is this $30,000 Medford is trying to raise.” (The Oregon Daily Journal)
September 24, 1919: “Dr. Buchanan spent Saturday at Butte Falls. He says it was the dullest place he ever saw since the railroad stopped operation. Five timber cruising crews have gone in lately however to cruise the Butte Falls Lumber company holdings and something may be soon doing.” (Ashland Weekly Tidings)
August 3, 1921: “Fishermen who benefit by the sport have the Butte Falls Lumber company to thank for its part in making the state hatchery possible. The company donated the site to the state, it donated part of the lumber for the construction of the flume and the citizens of Butte Falls chipped in $800.” (Ashland Weekly Tidings)
February 1, 1924: “Word comes as to the sale or consolidation of the Butte Falls Lumber company with the Owens company. Either is good enough and raises our long deferred hopes for the future welfare of Butte Falls.” (Medford Mail Tribune)