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Orin
Fire! From a bustling little community
to the ashes of the Winslow
Lumber Company.
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 Back to the
beginning. The Winslow families came as early s 1900. Orin Winslow, for
whom the community was named, was among them. Other families soon
followed: Sam Motheral and family, James and Annie Craft, Elmer and
Edith Exley, and Ella and Robert Neeley. |
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The Winslow
families started a sawmill when they came and it was t he first of any
size in this area. They chose the name Winslow for the train station.
However, there is a town on Puget Sound by that name. Such a confusing
state of affairs. People and freight came here, but their destination
should have been the Winslow on the Coast. The station was then named Keil and the post office was named Orin. |
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Unfortunately,
the mill burned in 1902. Undaunted, they rebuilt it. There was good
reason, for there was a great demand across the United States for
Ponderosa and White Pine lumber. During the winter, logs were brought
from the Colville Valley area by sleigh and stockpiled until summer.
Then they were floated down the river to the mill. During WWI, they
hauled almost 90,000 feet of lumber a day. Winslow Lumber Co. was to
become the biggest mill in Northeastern Washington at that time.
By
1909 there were two other mills in Orin, the Basin Lumber Co. and the
Stevens County Lumber Co. |
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This picture
shows students in the Orin School. Their studies included reading,
writing, arithmetic and history. They had only a few books, and the
furniture was homemade – wooden benches and tables. This seems typical
for those days. The school term was for 3 months.
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By 1912, the population was about 350. The company built a store, A.
M. Merrill, General merchandise. The post office was in the same
building. (Picture from 1926 with Miss Rose Dubois)
With the burning of the mill, September 29th, 1938, came a
lay-off for almost 200 workers. The mill was not rebuilt. As a result,
all that is left of Orin are a few scattered houses and the cement
foundation of the Winslow Lumber Company. The mill had been the center
of the community.
(Credits to The Last Bell, the Statesman Examiner Newpaper and the
Harrigan Post Office files.)
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