#57 – Coveys Great Adventure – June 2019 – Shedd OR

June 2019 – Shedd OR

We had done a lot of reading about Thompson’s Mills State Heritage Site since we were selected to be hosts at the park, but the pictures hadn’t prepared us for the shear size of the place when we rolled down the driveway the first time. The silos are as tall as Cape Blanco Lighthouse, and then there is that five story, 130,000 square foot mill behind them. We turned to each other and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into, especially when the chickens and ducks were pretty casual about getting out of the road.

Luckily the fowl weren’t the welcoming committee. We were expected, and one of the current volunteers directed us to a temporary site for the night until the outgoing hosts cleared one of the regular sites in the morning. After setting up, we went to the mill for a quick look around. It was as big inside as it looked from out, and packed with very old, dusty machines driven by a bewildering array of line shafts, pulleys and belts. I was right when I stumbled onto this on the ‘net; this is my kind of place!

Schroeder is going nuts

The three host campsites are brand new and all we had hoped for. New lawns separated the sites which are surrounded on three sides by large fields. After a few days, I used the large riding mower to cut a path around the perimeter of the fields for better dog walks, and Lucy and Schroeder clearly seemed to enjoy exploring it. It is far enough from the chickens and ducks that they can be off leash, a real treat for the dogs, for the fowl and for us.

The first morning it became apparent that hosting here was quite different than any other place we’ve been. Hosts are encouraged to “own” the place and to use considerable initiative maintaining the mill, making any needed repairs and suggesting improvements. I’ve done a little carpentry, electrical repair, plumbing, pump repair, rigging and other stuff I’ve forgotten. We have the run of a pretty good workshop for whatever we need to tackle.

Tom Parsons has been the ranger in charge for ten years and really knows the whole site, inside and out. Luckily, volunteers Don and Penny overlapped with us through June. They have spent six months a year here for five years and are intimately familiar with every facet of the mill structure and operation. Penny is the go-to person for the ducks and chickens. Yes, three days a week we are also farmers. More on that later.

Original posts and beams

Describing this place isn’t easy. On the one hand it is OSHA’s worst nightmare because almost everything will seriously hurt you if you aren’t careful. That’s why it’s so interesting, though, because everything is right there: belts fly, pulleys spin, machinery pounds away and you are in the middle of it all, watching the whole show. Some of the belts go up (and down) over five stories, from the water powered turbines in the cellar to the top of the main grain elevator.

Water powered, and it still runs

Don and I got to figure out how to replace a belt, including making a splice when one broke. We used a tool that was on display as an artifact that might be as old as the mill, and parts that the archivist had cataloged and put in storage. It took two attempts but it’s been running for a month now.

Visitors are free to wander the grounds and the first floor of the mill, but most join us for a tour which includes visiting the basement where we can open the flume gates to run one of the turbines that is still connected to machinery on the first, second and third floors. That’s a real kick for everyone, and it never gets old for us, either. We also have a section of the mill that was electrified in the 1940’s and set up as a very live demo. Four elevator banks fly by, a corn cracker starts hammering away, and a big seed separator comes to life. Everyone gets a real kick out of that, too.

It will take weeks to finish the logos

When we arrived, the silos were encased in scaffolding and surrounded by safety fences. The roof of the silos and much of the roof support structure was being replaced. That work wrapped up in late June and the scaffolding finally came down. The painting crew moved in and spent the next week water blasting every surface of the silo to prep for paint. That really made a mess! It did get a little old trying to give tours while all that was going on, but the visitors were all understanding. Finally, a muralist began to repaint the large, colorful logos that have graced the silos for over 100 years.

This mill is the last survivor among hundreds of small water powered mills that dotted western Oregon’s fertile valleys beginning in the mid-1800’s. Few decent roads, no navigable rivers and no railroads made it a real challenge for farmers to get their wheat turned into flour. Moving grain by horse and wagon averaged just 6 miles a day, so they were enthusiastic customers for the new mill to reduce their travel times.

Top of #1 turbine

But, you couldn’t just decide to put a mill anywhere. Water powered mills need two things besides customers and capital: an adequate flow of water and a minimum “head”, or drop, of 16 feet to pressurize it. Richard Finley found what he needed along the Calapooia River and built the mill here in 1858.

Main drive shaft from #1 turbine still operates

It was his third mill, and he poured everything he learned from the first two into this one. One decision, though, probably did more to insure the mill’s survival than any other. He bought the water rights to seven miles of the river upstream of the mill. Since Oregon was still a territory in 1858, those territorial water rights were never successfully challenged by farmers or by the State right up to the sale of the mill with the water rights to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department in 2004. In 2011, the state demolished two dams that mill owners had built on the Calapooia, restoring the river’s natural flow to assist Coho and steel head salmon spawning.

Originally roughly 3,000 square feet and two stories high, the mill is now 130,000 square feet and five stories tall, excluding the silos. Most of that expansion took place under three generations of the Thompson family, from 1891 to 1976. Despite that growth, the original mill is still in place, buried within the present structure. The mill was expanded in every possible direction, and then the expansions were expanded! The original 12" x 12" hand-hewn posts and the beams that connect them are easily seen and still make up over 50% of the mill’s machinery space. 

Building a platform over the mill race, just
part of the job

We certainly enjoyed hosting at Cape Blanco Lighthouse, but our duties were constrained by it being an active aid to navigation and by the fact that it’s mission over time didn’t change: it’s a lighthouse, period. Now we had five stories and the basement jam packed with stuff to explore and to figure out. We are not restricted from any part of the mill. We are encouraged to  poke around every floor and locate and understand as many of the bins, elevators, augers, chutes, belts and pulleys as we can. When we aren’t giving tours we clean (it takes almost 5 hours to vacuum the main floor), knock down cobwebs, mow, trim flowers, repair whatever needs it, change the store displays, or whatever else crops up. We had three sets of hosts in June and all were busy, but Tom couldn’t find someone to replace Don and Penny, so July is going to be a challenge.

We really like this part of Oregon. The Willamette Valley is very different from the coast. Home to about 300 wineries, the valley is also the second largest grass seed growing region in the world (New Zealand is first, who’d of guessed?). When we arrived, the huge fields all had a slight yellowish fog of pollen hanging over them.  My allergies immediately kicked up to the point that I was afraid we would have to quit and leave – nothing I had on hand worked at all. On a whim, we stopped at a local pharmacy in Brownsville. The pharmacist asked me a couple of questions and handed me two OTC products that I’d never heard of and I was cured. That, and Randy’s Main Street Coffee where Randy makes everything himself made Brownsville one of our favorite places in the area. Don’t miss Randy’s and the town itself if you are anywhere nearby.

We also enjoyed exploring Corvallis and Albany, small cities just a few miles apart with pretty different personalities. Corvallis is a college town, home to Oregon State University. It’s a lovely town with great charm during the summer when school is out. The population increases close to 50% when OSU is in session, which I’m told by everyone I asked makes a big impact on congestion, parking and the general tempo of daily life. No one sounded like they were planning to move, though.

A college town wouldn’t be complete without Trader Joe’s and Corvallis didn’t disappoint. It was one of the first places we went, since we hadn’t been close to one for a few months. On the same trip we celebrated my birthday at Sada Sushi & Izakaya. I had been looking forward to sushi since we left California last fall. That’s way too long between fixes, and it was really good, too. We both ate way too much.

Albany is not an academic community, but that isn’t a criticism. It’s a younger city than Corvallis, which means the streets are wider, parking is easier and the shopping is more varied and accessible. The area’s Costco is in Albany, along with Home Depot, Lowe’s and the rest of the usual suspects. We are equal distant from Albany and Corvallis, and probably spent twice as much time in Albany because the access and the stores make shopping easier.

Albany doesn’t lack charm of it’s own, though. The old downtown district is small but worth visiting. It’s nice to spend a pleasant afternoon wandering the shops and restaurants, but the highlight is the carousel. The city has come together to restore an old carousel, and it really is impressive. Hundreds of people have donated over 160,000 hours so far to rebuild, restore and operate the carousel, including carving all new animals. Each animal is sponsored and there is a waiting list. Visiting it is worth a trip on it’s own.

A month into our stint here and I think we are now comfortable guiding visitors through the mill. Like she did at Cape Blanco, Kayeanne has spent many hours poring over the records that Doug Crispin, the first ranger in charge of the mill, and several others have created. She has also watched hours of interviews conducted by Doug with the last owner of the mill and with people who worked here over several decades. She now knows the history of the place in more detail than I do. I want to take one of her tours.

Books I read this month included

             Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon

             Leave Tomorrow by Dirk Weisiger

         

More soon,

Bob