Arden:
Woods and Laughing Waters
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Townsend
Club Picnic, 1935 |
One day in 1890 C.R. McMillan stood looking out on the wooded land
through which the Little Pend Oreille River splashed its last mile to
join the Colville. Something about it brought to mind the idyllic
setting of Shakespeare’s "As You Like It" and, after the
play, he selected the perfect name for this small village—Arden.
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The Arden Store
In 1903 Alex Farquar and Dan Weir opened Arden’s general
store. They sold groceries, general merchandise and tools.
Supplies were brought by "Smith the whip and Buggy
Man." The Arden Store was the center of town. It housed the
Post Office from 1904-1915, the gas station (with a glass gas
pump), and upstairs was a community center where people gathered
for dances, voting, and movies. It was known as a
"Jot-um-down store" and people wrote their purchases
down in a book and paid when they had the money.
In 1913 the store was operated by Harry Farquar (Alex’s
son) and his partner John Bruce. They operated the store until
1965, when it was sold to lifetime resident Harvey Hall. It
burned in 1968 and Mr. Hall rebuilt along the new Highway 395.
As time passed it became a tavern. There are still some
businesses in Arden along the highway. Arden has not lost its
traditional friendly feel.
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Early Pioneer, Judge B. F. Yantis built an old-fashioned grist mill
on the Little Pend Oreille River along the main pioneer roads. In the
early 1860’s the Oppenheimer brothers bought the mill and ran it until
1900. The mill was an amazing operation. Michael LaFleur brought the
grinding stones from Olympia. (They now sit on the lawn at the Stevens
County Courthouse). "The mill was built without nails, using only wooden pins. Upon going inside
the mill, the first thing that attracted one’s attention was the total
absence of that creaking noise and jarring peculiar to all other mills.
Not a single piece of iron shafting, no pulleys, connecting rods or
gearing of any kind. Everything was made of wood." The mill pond
was reportedly an acre in size and a great fishing hole.
The lumber industry was also booming and the first sawmill, a
railroad tie mill, was along the Colville River. In 1909 the Fidelity
Lumber Co. placed a mill at the confluence of the Colville and the Pend
Oreille Rivers. It is rumored that at times there were so many logs in
the Colville River you could walk from Arden to Addy without getting
your feet wet. The mill’s success turned Arden into something of a
boom town, boasting a school with over sixty students. There was the
Fidelity Lumber Company store, the Arden Mercantile store, a boarding
house, the black smith shop, and the Blue Front saloon. (Donna Gumm
1997).
The
Oppenheimer Mill, 1859 |
