Abstract:
Ranching and lumbering were two of the primary economic practices in a
small rural study area south of Philomath Oregon (in Benton County), from
first Euro-American settlement through 1930. Ranching was common but
lumbering was restricted by geographical and market transportation
problems until after 1900. Catalysts for change came in the form of
individuals and advanced technology. The introduction of trucks marked a
cusp between two eras for both loggers and cowboys. Two important
historical facts were discovered through oral history-gathering, regarding
this rural area: first, the story of the first successful lumber company to
build a mill close to Philomath, and second, the occurrence of a remarkably
popular Round-Up in this small town, in 1916. The two primary oral
informants were both born at a rural mill settlement established by this
lumber company, at the foot of the Coast Range, in the southwest part of
the study area. Junctions (and distinctions) between geography and
economy, city and country, loggers and ranchers, and oral and written
history are highlighted in specific detail. Because of long geographical
isolation from big lumber markets, this region's timberlands, mills, loggers
and lumber companies remained in the hands of local people, into the
1950s. This area thus underwent a history quite different from coastal
logging history. Attention to local oral sources and specific catalysts for
change in other such small rural regions would broaden current historical
understanding of the history of the West, and the Pacific Northwest.
