The Railroad
By Don Funk (The Carnavall Reporter: 1957)
Old man river had played his part in the transportation of the Valley and could retire to just keep rollin' along when the railroads came to the Valley in the years 1910-11. It was in the first part of July 1910 that The Great Northern was laying tracks below Duvall. By the following year there was regular service from Everett to Tolt where the track terminated. The old grade can still be seen west of Carnation. The majority of the road bed was on piling over the soft Valley land.
The original Methodist church, Hix's store and the old community hall at the south end of Main Street in Duvall were located on the hillside above the present dehydrating plant to the north. The Big G moved these buildings to their present sites and built the parsonage as part of the right of way payments. A narrow cut was made through the hill at that time just wide enough for the track to run through. The present high-way to Monroe with a few exceptions follows the original Big G railroad grade as far as the Hirock crossing.
The longest straight piece of track in the Valley ran from where the present Monroe highway bends below Doughertys to Cherry Creek bridge. Where the highway is now was a log trestle with the ties being covered with sheet iron to keep the wooden part dry. The daring bicycle riders had good going between the tracks on this stretch, that is, if they could make it before the train came along. The Great Northern Depot (as shown on the Duvall Plat) was located below the present Landers home; the section foreman Burroughs lived in a company house below the present Boy Miles house.
The competition was on its way in the Valley with the Milwaukee railroad running down the Valley from Cedar Falls to Everett. There were hard feelings between the higher-ups which were reflected in the rival section gangs in the forms of fist-fights whenever two workmen crossed each other's paths. Below the Biderbost farm the Big G had made its cut in the hillside right on the bank of the river, consequently the Milwaukee had to run its trestle out into the river to get by. the Milwaukee depot stood along the present track below the south side of the bridge, later purchased and moved to its present site.
By 1917 The Great Northern abandoned the rail service in this part of the Valley, and in the form of a buried hatchet the Milwaukee pulled up their tracks from Monroe to Everett in 1926, using the Big G's road instead, which they still do. The maintenance of the trestle down the Valley was eliminated when the Milwaukee dug out the hillside below the High-rock crossing and made a fill around the piling as we see it now.
One of the streets of Duvall is named after the man who purchased the right of way for the Great Northern. The folks in the Valley thought that a trolley line was coming through, so to speak, and signed over the land before they realized that it was a major railroad line. That is, most of them with one exception, and old Scotsman by the name of Canack who lived on the upper Westman place near Stillwater. He held out and collected $5000 which was "dough" in those days. The Milwaukee had a tougher time of it, you can be sure. One owner sold out just before the railroad cam through -- the next owner collected the price of the farm. One land owner in the Valley received enough from a logging right-of-way to purchase a 40-acre tract of land, built his fine house and barn, only to have the Milwaukee come through. Thus the railroads cut up some of the good farm lands but the owners did get other improvements from the funds collected.
The Milwaukee passenger train made four trips a day in the Valley, the first arriving at Duvall at 8:30 a.m., returning up the Valley at 11 p.m. Coming down the Valley it stopped at Duvall at 3 p.m. and going up at 7:30 in the evening. The fare to Monroe was 25 cents one way. Don Owen recalls walking along the track on his way to Monroe, when it began to rain. The engineer pulled up along side asking if he would like to ride, adding it would only cost 10 from there on in. Looking at the sky, Don took him up on the deal. Of course more than more than 10 cents brake lining was involved to make the stop, but it illustrates the service to the Valley residents.
The arrival of the train, particularly in the evening, was an event "It's about time," and "Here she comes," were common phrases to be heard. There was the brisk walk down the hill to the depot platform where W. S. Lane's horse-drawn dray was standing alongside waiting for the sales-man and his sample bags or freight to go up town. So a simple pleasure of days gone by brings a wistful twinge within to us now: Let's go down and watch the train come in.
By Allan Miller (The Valley Record: November 27, 1980)
Sometime when you are driving along the highway heading towards Carnation, just after you pass the bottom of Fay Road, glance over to your right in the slough between the highway and the abandoned Milwaukee railroad grade. There you will see a series of old bridge pilings standing in the swamp, one of the last remaining traces of the Cherry Valley Logging company. At one time it was a large logging operation and source of employment to the many early Valley residents.
The origin of this "Stillwater Logging Road," as it was commonly called, began in 1890 near the mouth of Cherry Creek. the Millet and McKay Logging Company was, at that time, just beginning to build a logging railroad across the Valley to the hill on the east side. A split-cedar bunkhouse, 100 fee long and 25 feet wide, sat on the riverbank. In one end was a mess hall and kitchen; the rest of the building consisted of one long room lined with shelf-like bunks covered with cedar boughs. These were the living quarters for the men who sawed and chopped their way through the thick forest of vine maple, willow, and wild crabapple that then covered the Valley floor.
With a pile driver operated by the late Billy Brennon, following close behind, a trestle was completed to the foot of the hill when the firm went broke. Some of the pilings for this bridge can still be seen where it crossed Cherry Creek near the east boundary of the State Game lands.
This operation was then bought up by the Mosher and McDonald Logging Company, who completed the trestle, grading and laying track up as far as the old Gus Nordstrom home in Cherry Gardens. A car shed and roundhouse was located just above the hairpin turn going up into the Gardens, near the R.M.L. Rogers place. A brand new "Shay" locomotive with the name "Belle" painted on the side of her cab was brought up the river on a barge to be used to bring out the carloads of logs. This is believed to be the first shay locomotive to be used in the Puget Sound area. This operation lasted until the panic of 1893-97 caught them with a river full of logs, all boomed up, and no market to send them to. They barged out "Belle" and two donkey engines in 1896 and abandoned the rest.
In 1902 the Thomas Irvine lumber Company, of St. Paul, Minn., took over the abandoned Mosher and McDonald operations, buying up about 50 million feet of timer in the Cherry Gardens area. Shortly afterwards, the O'Neal Timber Company of Stillwater, Minn., bought up the remaining timberlands and on May 31, 1904, James and Eugene O'Neal, James E. Gowen and J.T. Kilty formed the Cherry Valley Logging and Railway Company to acquire and operate the logging railroad originally built by Millet and McKay. The new company brought in tons of logging equipment, including three "Climax" locomotives, 13 donkey engines, dozens of logging cars, steel rails and miles of steam pipe. It was all brought up the Snoqualmie River on barges by steamboat and unloaded onto a spur track that ran down the riverbank and on to the barge itself. Under the new ownership railway lines were extended into the hills and camps were set up: Camp 1 was located at the hairpin turn going up into Cherry Gardens, Camp 2 was located at the Gunnar Otness farm, Camp 3 at Cherry Creek Falls and Camp 4 at the Robert Phillips home site. Also, two smaller companies were formed: Cherry Valley Lumber Company, to purchase timber rights and handle the actual logging operation, and O'Neal Gowen Shingle Company, who built a mill near the mouth of Cherry Creek and operated a shingle bolt works at Camp 2.
The Cherry Valley's log dump was located on the east bank across the river from the present Cap Larsen home. The track out on the dump was cantered, meaning that one rail was slightly higher than the other, causing the loaded log cars to lean towards the river when unloaded. Unloading was done by the "jillpoke" method, wherein a steel bar was placed at an angle with one end of the ties and the other against the log. By moving the train forward, the pressure on the bar would force the logs off the car. This was quite dangerous because of the top log sometimes coming back and falling on the man holding the bar. After a few years and several deaths, a safer method was devised. The log cars used here were of the disconnect variety, being nothing more then sets of four wheel trucks with a link and pin coupler at each end. Logs resting across two trucks made up a car, which was held together by the weight of the load.
Over the next few years the logging company continued to grow, adding several locomotives to its log hauling operations and operating around 50 miles of main line track and spur lines in the hills above Stillwater and in the Camp Elwell and Markwood forest area.
In December of 1915, the Cherry Valley Railway operations were purchased by their partner company and both operations, the logging and the railroad, were consolidated under one name, Cherry Valley Timber Company.
Mr. Cliff Peerman of Duvall, a former employee of the company, recalled that they were a good outfit to work for. Working in the rigging he made six dollars a day, plus the company furnished meals and the men lived in bunk cars. The camp cars were 14 by 60 feet divided into three sections, each section having sleeping accommodations for ten men. The camp also included a kitchen car, two dining cars, a bathhouse and a drying room. All cars were electrically lighted and steam heated with hot and cold running water.
On June 21, 1916, James Gowen, one of the founders of the original company, died at his Everett home at age 47. Two weeks later, F.E. Weyerhaeuser joined the board of directors and the company was reorganized under the new name of Cherry Valley Logging Company.
In late 1917, during the height of World War I, Cherry Valley Logging Company, like many others, was taken over by the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen, the United States Government Spruce Division. Before this time spruce had never been considered desirable for lumber, but suddenly the airplane emerged as effective weapon in war. Practically overnight there came a huge demand for high-quality spruce in the construction of airplanes. Hundreds of uniformed soldiers (mostly from the Carolinas) were put to work in the woods, lifting productions to heights even Paul Bunyan himself would find hard to match.
In December of 1924, the company bought up the Security Logging Company owned by Joe Irving and located about 1.5 miles south of Carnation. The following March construction of a new series of logging lines was begun at this site. A roundhouse and shops were located near the present C.Y.O. Camp Bosco, and a siding was built, alongside the Milwaukee, that extended from the present Lake Langlois Road almost to Griffin Creek, plus a storage track about half this length. A new log dump was constructed at Lowell, near Everett, and in September the operations at Stillwater and Riverview were abandoned. Long trains of camp cars, Liderwood skidders and other equipment were brought down from the Stillwater site and moved over the Milwaukee to the new site near Griffin Creek. The Milwaukee had a covered bridge over the Tolt River and some of this equipment was too large to fit through it. A temporary track, known as a "shoo-fly," was built around the bridge in order to get by.
The operations at Stillwater were sold to Robert S. Swan, who owned the Swan and McKay Logging Company. They took over some of the existing railroad and bought one of Cherry Valley's surplus Shay locomotives. They also bought up the Stillwater Lumber and Shingle Company mill owned by J. G. Dickson and George Newbegin, which later became known as Swan's Mill. Logging out the stands that Cherry Valley passed up, they sawed lumber and poles at the mill and shipped them out by rail.
Meanwhile at the new site, Cherry Valley carried out logging operations around Lake Langlois and the Tolt Watershed, adjoining the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company lands on the south side. It was not uncommon to see 100 cars of logs a day brought out of the new site. Many times the locomotive could be seen behind the Tolt High School while the end of the train was still coming out of the siding.
In 1926, most of the remaining timberlands were sold to Snoqualmie Falls Lumber company because of lower freight costs to Snoqualmie. In 1928, Weyerhaeuser began opening up their operations at Vail, near Olympia and needed Cherry Valley's equipment to get things started. The rails were taken up and the equipment moved out, marking the end of active logging operations by the company.
By 1939, the remaining timber contracts had been sold to Weyerhaeuser Company, and on Jan. 19, 1948, after disposing of its remaining land, the Cherry Valley Logging Company was officially dissolved.
Weyerhaeuser's Vail operations continue to this day, running two log trains a day from Vail to South Bay, dumping 90 cars of logs a day into the bay and rafting them to the same mill in Everett. The log cars they use a Vail are also worthy of mention, for they are the same ones that were used by the Cherry Valley Logging Company here in the Valley in 1918. So in a way, the mighty Cherry Valley still rolls on.