Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Union Mill, Washington


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete‎__EXPECTED_UNCONNECTED_PAGE__. I'm closing this as Delete as I do not care for a Merge tagging from a main space article to a User page. Just my preference. If any editor would like to work with this article, it can be restored to Draft space on request. Liz Read! Talk! 04:38, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

Union Mill, Washington

 * – ( View AfD View log | edits since nomination)

Declined PROD. Only passing mentions of this place could be found:, ,. All of these indicate this was just a sawmill and never a "community". The existence of a post office is not significant, since in the pre-automobile era factory workers often lived at the facilities where they worked, so a post office would be necessary. And according to an article found by another user, the post office was barely a post office. Current satellite view just shows an industrial building surrounded by residential areas. Fails WP:GEOLAND. WeirdNAnnoyed (talk) 02:53, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Geography and Washington. WeirdNAnnoyed (talk) 02:53, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Delete or merge to some singular article about places in Thurston County that are no longer significant. Jclemens (talk) 08:38, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Merge after a couple days of searching, there just isn't much more than a sawmill with a small post office, as mentioned above. The only additional thing I could find - (see pages 91-92) - a pretty cool look of the sawmill and a manly, man's description about horsepower and engine sizes. Because it had a PO (motor carriages or not) and it was a standard company "town" of its day, and I am adverse to deleting the article's info about the history because it doesn't fit a specific topic of notability or doesn't slot well into a 21st century definition of a town (just disagreeing, not an attack on the opinions of others). I recommend that we merge into a draft I began - User:Shortiefourten/Former communities, company towns, and rail stations in Thurston County, Washington - tightening the description to what it actually was. We could merge into a subsection on the Thurston County article under "Company towns", but we would lose the context and history (first mill in the USA to be run by electricity!) - it'd just be a list. The draft I hope to publish when the GNIS cleanup project for the county is completed, is for the purpose to combine all such "communities" that fail notability on their own but nevertheless, their history and existence not permanently removed from Wiki. I'm a big fan of WP:LOCAL, if that explains things better. Thanks for the converation!Shortiefourten (talk) 21:23, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
 * That mill is potentially notable, but the quote town that may have existed there is not. The most optimal thing to do would be to scrub this, and write an article about the mill. The mill may really be notable. I haven't has of yet found and descriptions of the town that was supposedly there, and I want vote keep unless some evidence emerges on that front. I'm going to double check and then vote. The sources on the article are just circular best, the only one source there that might inform anything says "The Union Mills area" which is not encouraging. James.folsom (talk) 23:28, 4 April 2024 (UTC)


 * Delete There just isn't any evidence this was anything other than a mill. The idea of a town is sourced from Meany, and he is unreliable for this. It's based on a letter he received that nobody has been able to run down. I know it seems like there is proof of a town based on the sources, but they all are just repeating what Meany said. I can find no mentions in the local paper of a town, granted I can't look at all the hits because there's a road and mill, but I feel 90% confident there's nothing to this. I saw one example of there being a "camp" at the mill . I think the most telling thing that indicates its "Meany Fiction" is the fact that all local paper back them usually had a section where they published news from rural areas, that were sent in by contributing residents. These places are not always population centers but they leave this evidence of existence in the local paper. This 'place' has none that as far as I can tell, and that's pretty good predictor that it's fiction. James.folsom (talk) 23:52, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
 * comment This is a tough one on the ground, as the topos all the way back to 1937 show a row of houses on the opposite side of the road from the mill, heading west, which in fact are still there. Whether or not their occupants ever saw themselves as residents of a small town is anyone's guess. Mangoe (talk) 21:57, 5 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Interesting, I hadn't noticed that. I checked the property records on two of them, both listed rambler style built 1910.They could simply be company housing for the management. But the question in my mind is, are these the only houses out of many that made it to 1937. Or were these the only houses there during that time? There is a severe lack of sources that give any substance to this. I can be swayed with good sources, though. James.folsom (talk) 22:49, 5 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Taking this info along with property records, and the newspaper clipping about the post office closure: This what I think we got. In 1931 Union mills road had 15 families living on it, and were being served by a "post office" probably at the mill. There was a gas station (the presence of which can be can be explained by the fact that logging trucks burn gas) owned by Mesplay, the last postmaster. Note that Mesplay rd runs through the middle of that cluster of houses. I think that corner had houses built and mill employees lived in them. Now everything that I just wrote is original research, and verboten on Wikipedia. At a minimum it would be nice to see a source that unequivocally says people lived there. James.folsom (talk) 23:08, 5 April 2024 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.