By Bob Spiwak
My family and I have wandered through the Fender Mill property for 40 years, along with many friends. This all ended about a month ago with the construction of the salmon rehabilitation project on that property, also referred to as the Fender Mill project. Several people have expressed curiosity as to what the Fender Mill was, and where it was located. It ceased operation a good deal longer ago than my decades.
The mill site was located about a quarter-mile downstream of the Weeman Bridge. The remnants of foundations, some old tools, a couple of old vehicles riddled with bullet holes and a rotting cabin were landmarks.
Ten or more years ago, I got a call from an old gent who claimed to have grown up there on the mill property. He asked if I would give him a tour, as he had not been back in many years. Unfortunately I don’t remember his name, dates are vague, and some of the specific things referenced hereafter are what I remember from our visit.
He lived there during the Depression. His father worked at the mill even before that, and they had a small house on the property. Walking on the site, he guessed at where the house was. None of the now-dominant cottonwoods were there then. He mentioned the company store, and went on to say that during the Depression there was little or no money and everything from food to clothing was bought with scrip or IOUs backed by wages.
I asked about the flume, or log chute, on Boesel Creek, which I had been told was at one time the longest natural chute in the country. He could not verify it, but found no reason to doubt it. Timber was cut from the Rendezvous area across the back of Grizzly Mountain and beyond what is now Edelweiss. Where it had proximity to the chute, timber was stacked, and when winter came and the creek had frozen, the logs were pushed into the creek bed and gravity delivered them down to the road.
From here they were stacked on trucks, wagons and carts pulled by mules. The wood was then transported to the big millpond, which was behind what is now a very large berm on the south side of the highway just after the Weeman Bridge. Where it was not feasible to take the logs to the creek, mules and trucks transported the material to the big pond.
The mill may have been at least somewhat water-powered. I really don’t know and don’t remember discussing that with my visitor. We veered off the primitive road to where there were additional, smaller ponds not far from the river, which made a big bend around the property. There were trails leading to the ponds, and by my recollection the visitor said he and other kids used to ride their bikes there. Other kids? My visitor guesstimated the peak population at around 200. We had a nice visit. He frequently paused and would just look, probably immersed in memories.
Where the property’s main road ended at the river, there is no river today. Whether it has been our drought or a change in the wide channel, it is all gravel and rock.
And like the old man I escorted, my memories of the place are happy ones too.
