Talk:Columbia County, Oregon/Archive 1

Untitled
Inserted a number of additional unincorporated communities.Rvannatta 01:53, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Adding the communities was one thing.--- now something needs to happen with them.

The ones I added are current communities that people in the county now recognize. Inn looking to see what was done elsewhere, Clatsop county, Oregon has its list, and then a few words following mentioning its location etc. any thoughts if this would be a good idea here.....

Also, I'm baffled at to what to do about the dead link of "Milton". It is referenced as the original county seat but per McArthur was wiped out in a flood shortly thereafter, and has never been a community since,  Per McAuthur the site was near the mouth of Milton Creek which is also near where Scappose Bay joins Multnomah channel. this has been an industial area on the edge of St. Helens  a couple of miles from the present courthouse for at least the last 100 years, and I certainly can identify no information on 'Milton' even though  I've had family live withing a mile or two of the site since 1885. McArthur's theory that Milton turned into Houlton makes no particular sense to me. Though Houlton is neer milton Creek it is considerably inland of the mouth, and its claim to fame is the railroad depot.

You see St. Helens is on a most ugly and hard rock outcropping that sticks all the way into the columbia River  It was a good place for a town because it was next to the river but high enough not to flood, but also a highly irregular old lava flow most unsuitable for a railroad so the railroad moved inland at ST. Helens, and the railroad station at Houlton was pretty much the high spot in the tracks as they bypassed St. Helens---not profoundly high--- but all the rest of the trackage in the county follows along the river very near the edge of the flood plain and just a safe distance above flood levels, and it simply makes no sense that the community of Houlton associated with the railroad depot had anything to do with some wishful thinking about starting a town at the mouth of Milton Creek.

consequently I am reluctant to parrot McArthur  but have no other source.Rvannatta 04:36, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

ON another point, I more or less disagree with the 'economic history' of the county which suggests the early settlers came to get the timber.

I suppose one can debate what 'early' means, but for the most part the timber was a nuisance until the 20th century, because except for trees very near the river, there was no transporation method available to get the logs to market.

In the 19th century, the settlers were homesteaders interested in farming, and fisherman. Wood products did not turn king until the dawn of the 20th century, and even then it was not a "settler's" game for the most part because moving the timber took capital enough to build a railroad, something the settler's couldn't do,   but they could and did work for wages for logging companies and sawmills that appeared.Rvannatta 05:00, 7 August 2007 (UTC)