Document: newspaper articles
The Vancouver Independent
June 26, 1884
A Flourishing Town
A gentleman just returned from a visit to LaCamas, the new town on the Columbia river a few miles above Vancouver, W.T., describes it as an exceptionally lively place. There is more work going on there than at any other place in the Territory. He says that the big tunnel through the hill is a heavier work than anything of the last and the easiest part of the aqueduct. The frame of the paper mill, nearly 300 feet long and fifty feet high, is up and shingles going on. A pile driver is working away in front of the town, setting piles for wharves. A hundred Chinamen are cutting wood and clearing land on the townsite. A new store opened Saturday (the second) and the second hotel will be opened for business in a few days. Private buildings are numerous, and some of them of a better class than are usually put up in new towns. The prospects of the place, he says, are excellent. There is a large farming country back of it, and our informant expressed himself as greatly amused at the eager and excited look of the country people as they gathered in coin for the small produce, for which they have heretofore had no sale. – Oregonian
The Vancouver Independent
March 26, 1885
LaCamas
A correspondent says on Wednesday water was let on to the wheel at the paper mill. It is now nearly a year since work commenced on this gigantic enterprise. The work has been carried on steadily, and for a part of the time night and day, as fast as the nature of the undertaking would admit. A large force of men are hurrying forward the business of placing the paper mill machinery in position. Surveyors are locating a line for a railroad from here to the interior of Clark county, as fine an agricultural country as lies west of the Cascade mountains. A large gang of men are at work clearing out obstructions in LaCamas creek, to pen up some of the best fir, larch, oak, maple and ash timbered lands on the coast. Three full gangs of loggers are at work along the lake. The saw mill is running full time on orders for houses in the town, teams are hauling lumber in all directions, the hotels are full, the stores are busy, there is not an idle man in sight, and every indication of a prosperous community is present. I came here skeptical and after investigation am not only convinced but enthusiastic that the place has a future as well as your own Portland.
