Student Paper
The Early Years of Camas, Washington
History 469
Washington State University Vancouver

By Angela Redinger
Spring 2000

Generally it is the impression that the process of urbanizing the Pacific Northwest was a slow and steady evolution: solitary pioneers settled into an area, followed by a larger number of farmers, preachers and businessmen. As time progressed this network of people eventually grew from a small town into an urban city. Some historians are finding that this was not always the case; in some instances it is the city that precedes the settlers. Like many other towns in the Pacific Northwest, such as the industrial communities of Longview, Washington, and Coos Bay, Oregon, the city of LaCamas was created by a group of investors who saw the potential in the natural resources of the land; timber and water. The settlers that came to the area of LaCamas became more than just workers for the paper mill industry; as the population of the town grew, they were creating a thriving community.

After the California gold rush in 1849, pioneers were moving to the West in record numbers. Some of these people returned to their homes in the East but the majority stayed in the West and built towns. One person who came to LaCamas in these early years was George Washington Bush, who was one of the first African-Americans to try to settle in the LaCamas area. Bush moved west when his home state of Missouri passed a law barring free blacks from setting up residence. The state had made an exception for Bush, but he decided it was time to look for a place where he and his family would not be subject to prejudices.

At the age of 60, Bush helped finance a wagon train west but half way to Oregon the party learned that the state had enacted a black exclusion law. Bush and his party, who were originally headed for the Willamette Valley, settled in Washington Territory just east from Ft. Vancouver, in what is now Camas, for the winter of 1844. Bush and his friends created the first industry of the area, cutting cedar shakes to sell to Ft. Vancouver.(1) In the spring of 1845, the temporary settlers headed north to the Puget Sound area.(2)

After the Bush party left the area, there were a few other attempts to establish a permanent industry in the LaCamas region. With its seemingly endless supply of timber and easy access to the Columbia River, the LaCamas area was the perfect solution to the growing timber shortage. There were many settlers arriving daily who needed cut timber for their homes and businesses, but there were very few saw mills that could cut enough lumber to meet this demand. The first major attempt at industry was by Jacob Hansacker in 1846, who had a sawmill built on the banks of LaCamas Lake close to the Columbia River. Within a few years this sawmill was completely destroyed by fire and Hansacker never rebuilt.

At the same time, a small number of people were also attempting to make LaCamas their home. Ft. Vancouver was a thriving trading post that had many employees, and many of them preferred to live with their families outside the fort. Some of these employees would live as far out as Grass Valley, Fisher’s Landing, and in the LaCamas area, where they would build temporary housing. When their employment was over with the Hudson’s Bay Company, they would abandon their homes and move on.

The first permanent settler, Richard Ough, arrived in LaCamas in 1849, three years after the Hansacker mill was established. Working as a seaman for the Hudson’s Bay Company, Ough met an Indian woman, White Wing. Soon after, they were married with Dr. McLoughlin, factor of Ft. Vancouver officiating the ceremony.(3)Ough and White Wing, also known as Betsy Ough, made their home near what was later to become the town of LaCamas.

In 1851, two years after Ough’s arrival to the LaCamas area, the Hudson’s Bay Company built a sawmill to supply the fort with lumber. The Hudson’s Bay sawmill had no better success than the one built for Hansacker, for it, too, burned a few years after its construction. A third attempt was made, this time by H.J.G. Maxon in 1852 to establish a successful sawmill. This sawmill, built close to LaCamas Creek, was also destroyed by fire.(4) No other attempts were made to establish an industry in this area until 1883.

Not far down river from the struggling sawmills was the city of Portland, the first metropolis of the Pacific Northwest and home of some of the oldest elite in the area.(5) Portland was known for its dinner parties and lavish balls as well as for its dance halls and saloons. As the city attracted more and more people from all parts of the country, the need for its own newspaper that catered to the tastes of this eclectic group arose.

Henry Pittock, owner of the daily newspaper, The Oregonian, started searching for a site to build his own paper mill. He wanted to replace the outdated mill on the Clackamas River in Oregon City that had been supplying the paper for his newspaper.(6) On May 12, 1883, after inspecting the area surrounding LaCamas Lake, Pittock and his group of investors, The LaCamas Colony, purchased 2600 acres on which to build their new paper mill.(7) This area was rich in the resources needed for a productive paper mill; the area had plenty of water which was needed to run the machinery and more importantly the site was surrounded by thousands of acres of timber.

By September of 1883, a town site had been laid out, covering six blocks by ten blocks with the paper mill site near the shore of the Columbia River. A large crew was set to work immediately under the management of D.H. Stearns, to clear the land for building.(8) There were also close to 100 new settlers(9) in the territory who helped with the cutting up the wood and the burning of stumps and roots on the mill and town site. The workers labored for an average of ten hours a day with salaries varying from 59 cents a day for the boys and up to 69 cents a day for the men.(10)

The largest labor group working on the LaCamas project were the Chinese. This group had been working in the areas’ railroad and mining projects for several years, but in the early 1880’s, hard times had hit the Pacific Northwest. After pressure from white laborers, the government passed a series of laws limiting the number of Chinese immigrants allowed into the country. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed making the Chinese ineligible for citizenship and barred them from working in certain industries such as mining.(11) However, this law did allow them to work as laborers for individuals and companies such as the LaCamas Colony.

A crew of more than 30 Chinese mine and railroad workers were hired to build the tunnel and ditch from the lake to the water storage basin located above the mill.(12) They also worked on helping to clear the land for the mill and town site.(13) By the end of the summer of 1884, there was a crew of over 100 Chinese laborers working in the LaCamas area. They built a small temporary village near the mill site that included their own cooks and laundry men.(14)The Chinese in the Northwest were often objects of prejudice and violence(15). One article in the LaCamas News told of a body being found in the river close to the town of Washougal. The doctor was reported to have said some words that could not be printed in the paper for being dragged all the way out there for a Chinese man.(16) Soon after the work on the mill was complete, the majority of the Chinese workers moved across the river to Portland to find employment.

By May of 1884, the Columbia River Paper Company put out its first sheet of paper, soon after the mill was producing up to 4 tons of newsprint daily from local timber, straw, rags from China and old clothing.(17) With the new wharf and a steamboat line that ran regularly between LaCamas and Portland bringing new settlers daily, the town’s population grew quickly. The local sawmill was producing over 30,000 feet of timber a day and was still unable to keep up with local construction demands.(18)

While most of the new residents were employed by the paper mill, other businesses were being built that also offered employment opportunities. From its beginning in 1883, the town was large enough to support a number of businesses. Aeneas McMaster came to Clark County in July of 1883 from Canada and his was the first business to break ground in the area.(19) McMaster’s business, the Pioneer Store, carried everything from flour and tobacco to lumber. Old account books from the first years of the store show several large orders of nails, shingles and other building materials that were sold to the Columbia River Paper Company.(20)

There were two hotels built in LaCamas by the end of the summer of 1884 that boarded many of the paper mill employees. The Mountain House, and the LaCamas Hotel together were able to accommodate over 65 guests.(21) The Mountain House, which opened in July of 1884, charged $1 a night for room and offered "family style" meals for 25 cents. Drawing attention to LaCamas’s modern conveniences, The Vancouver Independent reported in its July 6, 1887 issue that The Mountain House had installed a bathroom for use by its customers and that "...Mr.Westfield is... keeping up with the times."(22)

By late summer of 1884, the Vancouver Independent was calling LaCamas "the fastest growing burg in the Territory of Washington" and soon an addition was needed in the original town site to accommodate the growing community. R.T. Cowan laid out the Cowan Addition which added 29 more blocks to the original town.

In May of 1885, ground was broken for another business, the new flouring mill built for O.C. Grove and a joint stock company. The building, complete with the latest patented machinery, was delivering its first output of flour by November of that same year. The flouring mill, which was the only grist mill in Clark County for many years, by 1886 was grinding over 50 barrels of wheat provided by the growing local agricultural community.(23)

Toward the end of 1886, the town had grown enough to accommodate three general stores: McMaster’s Pioneer Store, Dedrick and Young’s grocery, and CH Hodges’ Bargain Store, which specialized in ladies fancy goods. The town could also boast a meat market, bakery and restaurant, a blacksmith, barber, livery and stable, and a brewery.(24) But in the autumn of 1886, the new community experienced a small set back with the burning of the paper mill. Rebuilt by November of 1887, the new machinery was better than anything of its kind west of the Rockies and the paper mill was now producing over eighty tons of paper daily, including specialty paper.(25)

As large amounts of timber were being cleared to supply the mill with pulp, a new industry was also being exploited. The land surrounding LaCamas had a natural advantage for fruit growing with its rich soil and mild climate and by the late 1880’s many families had planted peach, pear, apple and prune orchards, making this another important business for the community.

Prunes played a large role in the agricultural economy of the area. Since any fruit grown in the Northwest would have to be dried for shipment, prunes were the ideal crop. Vancouver businessman Arthur Hidden was the first to bring in the Italian prune trees that would soon make Clark County famous. Hidden’s orchard of 3 to 5 acres produced such a profit that soon others followed into the business.(26) With the fruit selling for over 15 cents a pound and staying high until the start of W.W.I, local prune farmers were becoming quite wealthy.

Prunes soon had an effect on the whole community, whether they were prune growers or not. A Vancouver humorist, trying to promote the fruit claimed that the local girls did not have a peaches and cream complexion but a beautiful prune complexion.(27) The local schools would often delay opening in the fall so the children could help with the prune harvest and even the Methodist preacher, Rev. Butler who was also a farmer, would get into the harvesting mood, once giving a sermon entitled "Cutting down Fruit trees."(28) This illustrates that the paper mill was not the sole interest in people’s lives, nor was it the only industry in the earlier years of LaCamas’s history. The town was beginning to move beyond being just a mill town.

By the turn of the century, there were over 435,000 Italian plum trees in Clark County producing over 819 tons of fruit.(29) After being picked, the plums were either hauled to Mt. Norway, where there was a large fruit drier, or local farmers who owned their own machinery would can or dry the fruit for shipment overseas.(30) The farmers exported over 75% of their prune crop to countries such as Germany, Poland and Austria.(31)

In September of 1918, the first annual Prune Festival was held in Vancouver with the first Prune Queen, Queen Fay, presiding over the festivities. The day was complete with prune eating and prune-throwing contests as well as fat man and three legged races. A marching group calling themselves the "Prunarians", wearing matching suits made by the woolen mill in Washougal with prune leaf corsages on their lapels, were also a part of the parade officially known as the "Grand Prune Festival Revue, A Classical Burlesque Parade".(32) The entire community contributed the affair by donating free drinks, dancing and musical entertainment.(33)

The good times were not to last and by the 1930’s and 40’s the prune industry of Clark County began to decline. California farmers by this time could grow more varieties at a cheaper cost, and the European markets that the Clark County farmers shipped the majority of their fruit to was lost with the W.W.II embargo on the German states. In addition to the war, an insect soon destroyed many of the orchards and the prune farmers of the area never recovered.(34)

Not as profitable as the prune industry had been, the community was also involved in the growing of many other agricultural products abundant in the LaCamas area. Crops such as potatoes, hay and hops were grown and exported, bringing another industry to the area. The LaCamas News reported in March of 1889 that "The Traveler(35) was busy carrying cargoes of hay and potatoes from here and Washougal to Portland"(36) This shows us that while the majority of the people in the LaCamas area were working for the paper mill, many others were able to find employment in the thriving agriculture business.

In September of 1889, the first Grange, one of the more popular farmer’s organizations, was established in LaCamas.(37) The Grange gave the farmers of the area an opportunity to exchange news, ideas and to provide social contact to a group that was often isolated from the larger community. Besides regular meetings, the Grange organized picnics, festivals and dances. The most important project of the organization was to provide relief and assistance to farmers and community members in times of need such as illnesses or crop failure.(38)

The Grange was an important economic part of the farming community of LaCamas. It helped to found some of the first co-ops in the area, the Pioneer Fruit Cooperative and the Washougal Growers Packing Corporation. The society also helped to lower the price of transportation of crops to Portland by breaking the monopoly that the riverboat companies tended to have at a time when there was no other transportation options.(39)

The main method of transportation to and from LaCamas in the early years for people, paper and crops were sternwheel steamers like the Portland trader ships Traveler and the Dixie Thompson. The settlers had access to these steamers as early as the 1850’s from Parker’s Landing.(40) In 1880, a wharf was built in Washougal, and when the paper mill was constructed, the steamers made regular stops in LaCamas, but the residents would have to row out to collect passengers and mail deliveries.(41) The mail was usually delivered twice a week, dropped off by the mail steamer as it was heading up the Columbia River. Apparently, the mail did not always arrive on time as reported by the LaCamas News in March of 1888 "We are again without mail, as the Cape Horn pouch was thrown off here and the LaCamas mail was carried on up the river..." (42)

Transportation to and from LaCamas was also a problem for the farmers. The only way for the products of the Pacific Northwest to reach the East was by ships that traveled south around South America. With the Homestead Act passed by Congress in 1862, people were flooding the West to claim their 160 acres of public land.(43) This surge of population increased the demand for trade goods and an easier and quicker form of transportation to and from the cities. The first steps for solving the problem were taken with the construction of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. By the end of the 19th century, there were five transcontinental railroads connecting the country plus numerous spur lines.(44)

In January of 1899, construction began for a railway that would run from Portland to Vancouver and then Yakima where it would connect to tracks going east. By 1907, the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway opened a track on the north bank of the Columbia River. The SP&S Railway ran from the TriCities area through LaCamas and across to Vancouver and Portland.(45) The railroad line brought many new residents and the population of the area nearly doubled in the two years after the line was completed.(46) The community was now connected to the outside world with four local trains on regular stops daily and others at a signal, plus two steamers that made twice daily stops.(47) The new train system made it easier, faster and cheaper for the LaCamas community to send its paper and crops out as well as to bring in supplies that were not made locally.

Life for the settlers in LaCamas did not always revolve around the paper mill, farming and business, the people were also building a closely bound community held together by a shared interest in improving their lives and that of their children. One citizen of LaCamas in the early years, H.M. Knapp reminisced to reporters for the Post-Record that life did not always revolve around work at the paper mill and that they "had some mighty good times" in those days attending dances, socials and picnics.

Numerous newspaper articles also gave some hints to other activities going on within the community, giving us a small glimpse of town life away from work. One article from the weekly Columbian in 1891 commented on a small disturbance during the night of one holiday: "The boys must have been busy Halloween by the look of the town Sunday morning...wood stacks have been moved and one professional gentleman was burned in effigy" another article written also by the Columbian in October 1892, gave praises to the local band, "our new brass band is making things noisy, but the boys will improve." (48)

The local businesses would sponsor many of the social activities. Mr. Knapp remembers that the motels and the paper mill would put on three to four dances a year. The event would start in the early evening with a local band or a group from Vancouver providing the entertainment. A large supper was usually served at midnight and the dancing would continue until breakfast was served the next day.(49) The March 13, 1884 issue of the LaCamas News announced that the owner of the LaCamas Hotel would be giving a ball that Saturday night, on St.Patrick’s Day and that the steamer Calliope would make a special trip that day to bring guests in from Vancouver.(50)

Sometimes, with weather permitting, a dance would be organized on one of the local steamers. The steamers would be decked out in streamers and a large dinner was served while the guests were chauffeured along the river.(51) In the winter, the town would put on an annual Christmas pageant, with recitals and songs from the local citizens. Even the local schools would get involved in entertaining the town. In 1889, the LaCamas Kindergarten class treated the town with song and dance, starting a tradition that would last through many years.(52)

Many settlers chose to move to the town of LaCamas because of the employment opportunities offered by the paper mill, but educational opportunities were also a consideration. The LaCamas School District was one of the first to be founded in Clark County.(53) In other parts of the territory of Washington, the number of public schools grew very slowly. In 1853, the territory tried to encourage education with the passing of the Organic Act of 1853 which required that two sections of each township be reserved for school funds. After statehood, Washington passed the Barefoot Schoolboy Law of 1895, which provided state support for the local school districts. It also allowed the state to levy a tax sufficient enough to provide an education to each child that was eligible.(54)

Three miles east of LaCamas, in Grass Valley, the first local school was organized with money levied under the Barefoot Schoolboy law. The Grass Valley School was a small log structure with cracks filled with mud, a small cook stove for heat, and shelves built around the room for desks. One student, H.M. Knapp, interviewed for the Post-Record, remembered that they went to school every winter for three months, if they were not required to work at home and that "...all our books were old ones, whatever the family happened to own."(55)

The first teacher hired when the school opened in 1884 was Elizabeth McMaster, daughter of businessman Aeneas McMaster. That winter she was responsible for the education of 28 students ranging from ages 4 to 21, many of whom were older than the teacher.(56) By the 1869 school year, a special tax was levied and a new one room school house was built. In that same year it was recorded that 42 students attended the Grass Valley School. The teacher at that time made $100 dollars for the three months of teaching. The salary was changed by 1885, to $25 dollars a month for the three months of teaching.(57)

One of the first teachers in Grass Valley went on to later become one of Camas’s most famous women. Louisa (VanVleet) Wright taught in Grass Valley and other area schools in the early years, but her real interest was in medicine. Earning $25 dollars a month for teaching and boarding with the families of her students during the school year, Wright soon saved up enough money to attend medical school, first at the University of Oregon Medical College and later in Ann Arbor, Michigan.(58) Receiving her degree in 1885, she practiced in Missoula, Montana for a year before returning to LaCamas. As the areas’ first woman doctor and only doctor for many years, Wright would tend to patients as far away as Yacolt and Mt.Norway, treating various illnesses such as typhoid fever, measles and scarlet fever.(59)

While Dr. Wright was seeing to the community’s physical ailments, the spiritual needs of the town were being tended to by a number of traveling preachers. No one settlement in Clark County could supply sufficient work for a preacher in the early years of its development.(60) Ministers rode a circuit that included neighboring communities of Cape Horn, Fern Prairie, Harmony, Fourth Plain as well as the LaCamas-Washougal area. These traveling preachers would usually arrive on horseback or ride out on the Saturday night steamer. Father Blanchet, a Catholic missionary from Vancouver is reported to be one of the first traveling ministers in the area, visiting the few Catholics that had made their home in the Washougal area.(61)

Once the town was established, religious services were held in individual houses or at Aeneas McMaster’s storehouse until enough money could be raised to build a church.(62) In 1886, the Presbyterians were the first to raise the $500 dollars that was needed to build St. John’s Church.(63) The new church was shared by the Methodists, Baptists and the Evangelists, each using the building on alternating Sundays until each of these denominations could construct their own. At the time religious denominations did not mean much and the faithful would attend all the ceremonies.(64)

The churches played a large role in the development of the character of the LaCamas community. They were responsible for the moral development of the community and they tried to set the standard that the town was to follow. One cause the church felt strongly about was the policy of no business on Sundays. In the March 9 issue of the local newspaper, the church reminded the town’s citizens that the Sunday law was going to be strictly enforced and that all businesses were to remain closed the entire day. The article went on to tell the people that they should "get shaved on Saturday night and not play around on Sunday." (65)

The churches were also involved in trying to enforce another issue. From its founding, the town of LaCamas had always been a temperance town(66) and the church’s most important agenda was the campaign against hard liquor.(67) The earliest problem with selling alcohol in LaCamas occurred in 1884 when a Chinese laundry man was believed to be selling Chinese gin. The loggers and paper mill employees made his business a regular stop on their way home from work. The local townspeople protested, the man was given a large fine and was reported to have "stuck to the business of laundering clothes." (69)

The licensing law of the city of LaCamas required saloons to pay a maximum of $300 or no less that $100 a year for its licensing fee.(70) The high licensing fee did not stop saloon owners, who saw the large profits that could be made from this growing community, from trying to locate in the town. In February of 1888, a committee of Methodists, headed by the Rev. Drake and I.C. Pratt, protested against the issuance of a saloon license and were successful in stopping the saloons from coming to the town.

One of the reasons LaCamas was able to stay "dry" was because of the strong town commitment and the support of prominent businessmen of the community who also joined the cause. Aeneas McMaster, one of the first businessmen in the area, was a very active member in the temperance campaign and was committed to keeping "strong spirits" out of the town. Many meetings for the Friends of Temperance were held in the McMasters’ storehouse that had once been used for religious services.

LaCamas became known as one of the most dedicated dry precincts in Washington Territory and many communities struggling with the temperance issue looked to this area as an example of what they too could achieve. An article in the LaCamas News reported that:

After the granting of these licenses, the Rev. Huston and other members of the temperance group The Civic Union, had a showdown with the city council. The city refused to revoke the licenses and the Rev. retorted that the council "lacked in backbone" in opposing the opening of the saloons.(73) The long campaign by the churches and the various Anti Saloon organizations finally paid off. In November of 1914, Washington State voters approved the Prohibition Law which would come into effect in January of 1916, banning saloons from the state.(74)

The churches were not always involved in such controversial issues; they were also organizing activities that would help draw the community closer together. In the spring of 1889, the Rev. Butler founded the LaCamas Cadets for the young boys of the area. All boys from 10-14 years old were invited "to drill and to improve mentally and physically."(75) The highlight of the year for the Methodist church was a steamboat trip up the Columbia River to Cascades(76) where it had a two hour layover and returned home.(77) That same year the first meetings for the Ladies Aid Society was held in members’ houses. Besides helping the needy and organizing fund-raisers for the church, the group advertised that they would do various sewing and needlework.(78) Local town leader, Aeneas McMaster also organized and held meetings of "The Excelsior Literary and Musical Association" in his parlor on many Saturday evenings as well as meetings for the Bible Society.(79)

LaCamas continued to grow quickly until 1891, when the town began to experience an economic slowdown. Many people left to find work in the larger surrounding communities, preachers were finding their churches becoming emptier by the day and the town became desperate trying to keep the community alive. This economic change continued until 1906 when a bag company, equipped with 14 machines opened, helping to revitalize the community. The Pulp and Paper Company also began adding employees and the opening of the railroad in 1907 soon attracted many new settlers into the region.

In 1908 a petition was launched to change the name of LaCamas to Camas. The registered name of the town was LaCamas, but the US Postal Service had officially dropped the La in LaCamas in 1894. The name was similar to the other Washington towns of LaCenter and LaConnor, causing confusion in the mail. The town’s people were not in favor of this change, and continued to write LaCamas as their address for many years after.(80) LaCamas is still used today for the lake and the creek.

By 1908, the town had one three year high school and had plans on adding a fourth year. There were numerous churches in the area with the Presbyterian, German Lutheran and the Catholic Church in the upper part of town and the Baptists and the Methodists in the lower part. There were a number of stores, hotels, a band and a newspaper, The Camas Post. The town also had built poolrooms, a large opera house, four saloons and an amusement hall.(81) It had been 25 years since the town had been built to support a paper industry and during this time, the town had grown beyond being just a mill town. The area had developed from a small village with muddy streets and a community well to the prosperous and successful community that we see today.

Endnotes

1. At this time, Ft. Vancouver was owned by the Hudson's Bay Company.

2. Beverly Wood, "Camas-Washougal Twin Mill Towns," Clark County History, no XXVIII (Fort Vancouver Historical Society, 1987), 92.

3. Camas-Washougal Post-Record, 1976.

4. Wood, "Twin Mill Towns," 96.

5. Schwantes, The Pacific Northwest, 273.

6. Camas-Washougal Post-Record, May 14, 1953.

7. William Welsh, A Brief History of Camas, Washington.(Camas: Crown Zellerbach Co. 1956), 18.

8. Ibid.,18.

9. Ted VanArsdol, Mill Town Methodists (Camas: Columbia Litho, 1998),5.

10. Welsh, A Brief History, 20.

11. Schwantes, The Pacific Northwest, 157.

12. Camas-Washougal Post-Record, March 1984.

13. Camas-Washougal Post-Record, 14 May 1953, p. 11.

14. Ted VanArsdol, "Camas Early Days," Clark County History (Fort Vancouver Historical Society, 1967), 208.

15. Schwantes, The Pacific Northwest, 156.

16. Hughey, Good Old LaCamas News, 1887-1892, (Washington [state]: C.Hughey), 35.

17. Welsh, A Brief History, 23.

18. Camas-Washougal Post-Record Bicentennial, 1976.

19. VanArsdol, "Camas Early Days," 206.

20. Welsh, A Brief History, 20.

21. Ibid.

22. VanArsdol, "Camas Early Days," 211.

23. Camas-Washougal Post-Record, March 1984.

24. Camas-Washougal Post-Record, 14 May 1953.

25. Curtis Hughey, Good Old LaCamas News p.46.

26. Claire Rogers, Rod Rogers, "Prune Fever," Clark County History vol. XXIX (Fort Vancouver Historical Society, 1988), 7.

27. Ibid., 12.

28. VanArsdol, Mill Town Methodists, 9.

29. Ibid., 8.

30. Camas-Washougal Post-Record, 1 October 1980.

31. Rogers, "Prune Fever," 12.

32. Rogers, "Prune Fever," 15.

33. Ibid., 14.

34. Ibid, 17.

35. The Traveler was one of the regular sternwheeler steamers that made stops in the Camas-Washougal area.

36. VanArsdol, Mill Town Methodists, 9.

37. Connie Givens, "History of the Granges in Clark County," Clark County History vol. XXVIII (Fort Vancouver Historical Society, 1987), 80.

38. Ibid, 81.

39. Ibid.

40. VanArsdol, Mill Town Methodists, 3.

41. Welsh, A Brief History, 24.

42. Curtis, Good Old LaCamas News, 36.

43. Maldwyn Jones, The Limits of Liberty: American History 1607-1980. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), 118.

44. Jeff Stark, "Clark County Rides the Rails," Clark County History vol. XXVIII (Fort Vancouver Historical Society, 1987), 22.

45. VanArsdol, Mill Town Methodists, 14.

46. VanArsdol, "Early Camas Days," 212

47. VanArsdol, Mill Town Methodists, 17

48. VanArsdol, "Early Camas Days," 213

49. Camas-Washougal Post-Record, 7 December 1934.

50. Curtis Hughey p. 19.

51. Hughey, Good Old LaCamas News.

52. Ibid.

53. Welsh, A Brief History, 14.

54. Schwantes, The Pacific Northwest, 274.

55. Camas-Washougal Post-Record, March 1984.

56. Camas-Washougal Post-Record Bicentennial, 35.

57. Camas-Washougal Post-Record, March 1984.

58. Camas-Washougal Post-Record Bicentennial, 41-43.

59. Ibid., 41.

60. VanArsdol, Mill Town Methodists, 1.

61. Camas-Washougal Post-Record, 7 December 1934.

62. VanArsdol, "Camas Early Days," 207.

63. Camas-Washougal Post-Record, 7 December 1934.

64. VanArsdol, Mill Town Methodists, 14-15.

65. Ibid., 8.

66. VanArsdol, "Camas Early Days," 208.

67. VanArsdol, Mill Town Methodists, 7.

68. VanArsdol, "Camas Early Days," 208.

69. Ibid.

70. Hughey, Good Old LaCamas News, 21.

71. Hughey, Good Old LaCamas News, 22.

72. VanArsdol, "Camas Early Days," 215.

73. VanArsdol, Mill Town Methodists, 14.

74. Ibid., 16.

75. Ibid., 9.

76. Near present day Bonneville.

77. VanArsdol, Mill Town Methodists, 9.

78. Ibid.

79. VanArsdol, "Camas Early Days," 209.

80. Camas-Washougal Post-Record Bicentennial 1976, 107.

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