Wendling, Oregon

Wendling, Oregon
Unincorporated community
Wendling Bridge, a covered bridge over Mill Creek
Wendling Bridge, a covered bridge over Mill Creek
Wendling is located in Oregon
Wendling
Wendling
Wendling is located in the United States
Wendling
Wendling
Coordinates: 44°11′36″N 122°47′51″W / 44.19333°N 122.79750°W / 44.19333; -122.79750
CountryUnited States
StateOregon
CountyLane
Elevation
646 ft (197 m)
Time zoneUTC-8 (Pacific (PST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-7 (PDT)
ZIP code
97454
Area code(s)458 and 541
GNIS feature ID1136886

Wendling is an unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon, United States, located northeast of Marcola.[1] Wendling's post office operated from 1899 to 1952.[2] The town was named for George X. Wendling, a San Francisco investor, who was the largest investor in Booth-Kelly's expansion into the Mohawk.[3] Wendling was created as a company town for the Booth-Kelly Lumber Company.

History

Initially, Booth-Kelly had no intention of building Wendling, The original plan was use the Mohawk River to float logs to a new mill near Coburg. Lane County granted them a 90 year franchise for movement on the river.[4][5] This met with harsh resistance from the other valley mills, loggers and farmers.[6]

Booth-Kelly then decided to build a mill and supporting elements near the timber. To do this they needed to acquire the right-of-way for the Southern Pacific railroad from Springfield to their proposed site on the former homestead of William McCullough.[7] It was secured and Wendling mill and supporting structures were built in the fall of 1899 while railroad construction was underway. [8][9]The railroad was finished and the first train came into Wendling on September 3, 1900.[10]

Fires

On the night of August 24-25, 1910 embers falling from a nearby forest fire destroyed all but three homes in the company-owned residential section of Wendling, the church, school, cookhouse and bunkhouse. The mill, store, and company offices were saved.[11] Booth-Kelly rebuilt within two months and kept the mill and camps running during that time.[12]

In the morning hours of September 26, 1917, the planer mill and dry sheds were burned to the ground. The sawmill and other structures were saved.[13]

During the forenoon of July 6, 1922, the saw mill and nearby kilns were destroyed by fire.[14]

Months after the mill was closed at Wendling and nearly all equipment was stripped from its interior, the mill superstructures and the powerhouse burned in a fire on September 29, 1946. No other buildings were lost.[15]

Other

Wendling Bridge, a covered bridge, carries Wendling Road over Mill Creek at Wendling.[16] Built in 1938, the bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Wendling". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. November 28, 1980. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
  2. ^ "Lane County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  3. ^ "Contract Let". Eugene Daily Guard. September 20, 1899.
  4. ^ "Valuable Franchise". Daily Eugene Guard. January 11, 1899.
  5. ^ "The Mohawk Franchise". Daily Eugene Guard. January 14, 1899.
  6. ^ "Sawmill Men Protest". Morning Oregonian. January 17, 1899.
  7. ^ "Railroad to Mohawk". Daily Eugene Guard. June 9, 1899.
  8. ^ "Eugene Will Expand". Eugene City Guard. August 26, 1899.
  9. ^ "Contract Let". Daily Eugene Guard. September 20, 1899.
  10. ^ "First Train In". Daily Eugene Guard. September 4, 1900.
  11. ^ "Graphic Story of Forest Fires". Eugene Daily Guard. August 25, 1910.
  12. ^ "Wendling is Fast Rebuilding". Eugene Daily Guard. November 5, 1910.
  13. ^ "Planing Mill and Dry Shed Are Burned". Eugene Daily Guard. September 26, 1917.
  14. ^ "Wendling Mill Wrecked by Fire". Springfield News. July 6, 1922.
  15. ^ "Old Wendling Mill Burns to Ground in $90,000 Blaze". Eugene Register-Guard. September 30, 1946.
  16. ^ "Mill Creek (Wendling) Covered Bridge" (PDF). Oregon Department of Transportation. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  17. ^ "Oregon National Register List" (PDF). Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. June 6, 2011. p. 23. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
  18. ^ Link, Gary (1992). Bennett, Lola (ed.). Hayden Bridge (PDF) (Report). Washington, DC: Historic American Engineering Record. Survey number: OR-19.

Further reading

  • Polley, Louis E. (1984). A history of the Mohawk Valley and early lumbering. Marcola, Oregon: Polley Pub. ISBN 0916930092.
  • Velasco, Dorothy (1985). Lane County: An Illustrated History of the Emerald Empire. Windsor Pubns. ISBN 0897811402.
  • Polley, Louis E. (1989). Wendling, Oregon Logging Camps 1898-1945: Polley Pub. ASIN B006YXHNG6
  • KRACHT, SHANNON. "Wendling, a Company Town," Lane County Historian 20 (1975): 3-16.


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