Handle Giant Logs

Nine Circular Saws Operate

Big Battery Boilers

Cut 87,500,000 Feet

    The essay contest sponsored by the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company during Forest Week has been completed, and a number of commendable papers were turned in by the pupils of the 7th and 8th grades, to whom the contest was limited. The subject covered by these essays was "The Value of the Lumber Industry to Jackson County," and the judges have decided that the papers submitted by the following pupils are entitled to the prizes:
    First prize--Frederick Colvig, Lincoln School.
    Second prize--Charles Green, Lincoln School.
    Third prize--Earl Carkin, of Roosevelt School.
    Fourth prize--Burton Lowry, Washington School.
    In accordance with the judges' decision checks in the following amounts have been given by the Owen-Oregon Lumber Co. to Mr. Hedrick, superintendent of city schools: 1st prize, $10.00; 2nd prize, $7.50; 3rd prize, $5.00 and 4th prize, $3.00.
    The judges of this contest, chosen by the directors of the Chamber of Commerce, were: E. H. Hedrick, A. J. Hanby and W. H. Crawford.
    The winning paper, written by Frederick Colvig, aged 12, son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred L. Colvig of 603 S. Riverside, is quoted in full below. Frederick won second prize in the Better Homes essay contest held in the schools last week.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 6, 1926, page 10

Use Local Trademarked O.-O. Lumber

    The new, modern, electrically equipped mill of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company will be in operation March 1, 1927, according to an announcement made this morning by James H. Owen, general manager of the company. It was originally intended to open the mill January 1, but failure of machinery to arrive from the East changed the plans. The mill is a part of the $1,500,000 building program of the company inaugurated last spring.
    The mill proper has been completed, and bases laid for the machinery. The turbine and power plant, for the operation of the mill, is en route from the East.
    The new office of the mill company, under course of construction and facing the Pacific Highway, will be occupied November 1. The structure when completed will cost $23,000 and be a model office, with modern equipment throughout.
    The filling and grading of the large lawn surrounding the office is under way and the ground made ready for the planting of shrubbery and flowers and grass. A landscape gardener will lay out the grounds.
    In the yard track is being laid for the operation of two electrically driven locomotives, now on the ground. They will be used for hauling of lumber throughout the plant.
    The foundation is being laid for the burner, the largest in Southern Oregon, to take care of the refuse.
    The work of dismantling the machinery in the old mill will be started as soon as the new one is completed. The mill itself will be remodeled into a storage shed. The new mill, in double shifts, will double the cut of the present plant. The old mill will be remodeled into a cutting factory.
    The pine camp of the company will close down during the winter, but the steam camp will operate all winter.

    The company operates in two belts of timber, one furnishing California white pine, and the other Douglas fir. The principal equipment consists of two 9-foot band mills, a 48-inch gang, a 6-foot horizontal resaw, two edgers, two trimmers and the usual complement of the modern sawmill. It is a completely electrically driven plant, with power furnished by two 1000-kilowatt turbine generators. The above mentioned equipment, including sawmill, power and electrical units, is Allis-Chalmers, with the exception of the gang, which is Wickes Bros. This brief description speaks volumes to the practical sawmill man.

    Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Olds of Sheboygan, Mich. are in Medford for a couple of days, en route home by auto from California, where they spent the winter.
    Mr. Olds came to Medford years ago and purchased a big body of timber northeast of Medford, and later purchased the Pacific & Eastern Railroad, expecting to erect a lumber mill. Mr. Brownlee erected a mill on the site of the present Owen-Oregon mill--the plant they recently dismantled--and formed a partnership with Mr. Olds, who later purchased Mr. Brownlee's interest and enlarged the mill.
    Three years ago Mr. Olds sold the mill and railroad to the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, and out of this purchase comes the big modern mill started yesterday.
    Mr. Olds sees a market improvement in Medford in the past three years. He enjoyed an inspection of the new Owen-Oregon mill today.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 22, 1927, page 4


    James H. Owen, general manager of the Owen-Oregon, tendered a banquet last evening at the Hotel Medford to 30 heads of departments in the local plant. After the banquet, each department head discussed plans for the improvement of mill operations and the employment of new systems. The "get-together" meeting concluded at 11 o'clock and will be a regular feature of the Owen-Oregon company in the future.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 21, 1927, page 3


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company will start on a night shift basis in a week or ten days. This announcement was made by officials of the company today.
    This will mean an increase of 175 to 200 men on the payroll, 125 in town and 50 or more in the woods.
    Over 500 men are now on the payroll, and the mills are going full blast. The decision of the Owen-Oregon company to go on a full 24-hour basis will be welcome news to the business men of Medford, and shows the confidence the officials of the company have in the future of this part of the state from a timber and lumber production standpoint.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 7, 1927, page 2


    Last week at the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company plant a test run was made, and approximately 215,000 feet cut. The run was made with the lumber decks cleared in the morning, and after the eight-hour shift, and gave a fairly accurate line on the capacity cut. There was no special hurry, but every employee strove for the maximum.
    Based upon these figures, the plant, with a full year's operation, and a four months' double shift, would cut approximately 75,000,000 feet.
    The Owen-Oregon plant is now running on a single eight-hour shift, and will probably continue to do so the balance of this year. A double shift was operated until ten days ago when the excess of logs cut, while the mill was being constructed, were cleared away. In order to operate a double shift with the present plant, it would be necessary to increase the logging and railroad facilities. This is one of the matters that will be considered at the annual meeting of the directors of the Owen-Oregon company, now in session in Oshkosh, Wis.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 2, 1927, page 1


    James H. Owen, general manager of the Owen-Oregon company, has started the remodeling and rebuilding of the Frank G. Owen home on Siskiyou Heights overlooking the city. It will be enlarged to comprise 11 rooms, at a cost of $15,000, and will be completed about December 1st. The work is under the direction of J. A. DeArmond, for 25 years a carpenter with the Owen Lumber Company.
    The home will be enlarged to a full two stories, built in the colonial style. It will be one of the finest homes in the city when finished, modern to the most minute detail.
    Mr. Owen recently sold his other home on Siskiyou Heights to George W. Barker of Butte Falls.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 20, 1927, page 7


    The Owen-Oregon lumber camp that has been located on government timber east of Butte Falls has been moved to a short distance east of Butte Falls and will now operate on Owen-Oregon timberland. This will enable the camp to operate all winter, according to General Manager James Owen.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 12, 1927, page 3


    ROSEBURG, Ore., Dec. 5.--(AP)--Seven tracts of grant land timber in five counties in the Roseburg government land office district were sold today for a total sum of $92,626.17. The tracts were sold as follows:
    Forty acres Marion County, township 9 S., R. 2 W., sec. 13, 1,850,000 feet of timber, Crabtree Lumber Company, Lyons, Ore., $2,780.55.
    317 acres, Marion County, township 8 S., R. 3 E., sec. 31, 24,394,000 feet of timber, Silver Falls Timber Company, Silverton, $30,671.69.
    640 acres, Jackson County, township 36 S., R. 3 E., sec. 11, 12,060,000 feet of timber, Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, Medford, $27,865.64.
    Two hundred acres, Lane County, township 20 S., R., 1 W., sec. 17, 10,600,000 feet of timber, Erminio Giustnia, Eugene, $12,314,58.
    Twenty acres, Coos County, township 27 S., R. 11 W., sec. 5, $1,300,000 feet of timber, Vern M. Barker, Coquille, $3,256.50.
    Eighty acres, Linn County, township 15 S., R. 2 W., sec. 33, $2,860,000 feet of timber, Fischer Lumber Company, Marcola, $4,922.33.
    Forty acres, Lane County, township 20 S., R. 4 W., sec. 9, 1,935,000 feet of timber, George Schneider, Eugene, $1,844.88.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 5, 1927, page 1

    One of the outstanding industrial plants in Medford and all southern Oregon is the Owen-Oregon lumber mill, just north of the city limits of Medford, completed last year at a cost of about $2,000,000. It is one of the largest and most modern lumber mills on the coast.
    The mill proper is 300 feet long and 80 feet wide [and] has a capacity of 200,000 feet every eight hours, or 600,000 feet if operated 24 hours.
    The average daily output has been 200,000 feet, part of the year the run 300,000 feet. The total output in 1927 was 50,000,000 feet of fir and pine.
    The main timber holdings of the company are located near Butte Falls, north and east of this city. The company owns approximately 50,000 acres of timberland with an estimated stumpage of 1,500,000,000 feet. In the neighborhood of 4,000,000,000 feet of additional timber is adjacent to the company's present holdings.
    The power plant is a complete unit itself, with two large boilers and two Allis-Chalmers electric steam generators, which supply the mill with all necessary electricity. The power plant also furnishes steam for the dry kilns, and sawdust conveyors furnish the fuel for the large furnaces. Unsalable refuse is burned in a great burner south of the mill buildings.
    The entire plant is largely operated with electrical power, employing 96 motors of 3 to 150 horsepower type. The mills contain:
    Two 9-foot bandsaws, one gang resaw, one 6-foot type C horizontal resaw, three edgers, two trimmers, one of which is a 26-foot compressed air lift trimmer with fifteen 30-inch saws, one slasher, and one hog mill.
    One carriage has a 52-foot steam shotgun feed and another 44-foot shotgun feed. Both have electric-driven dogs and setting rigs. The deck equipment consists of a cutoff saw, 12-inch three-arm log turner and steam riggers. A modern lath mill forms an auxiliary to the saw mill. An electrical-driven monorail equipment connects the green chain with the yard-truck system and loads the lumber from this discharge directly onto cars.
    The yard is equipped with track and two electrically driven locomotives. All the yard equipment is modern in every respect. An electrically driven crane is operated in the storage sheds, and planing mill and ten lumber carriers are part of the shed equipment
    In the timber in the Butte Falls district the company operates two model camps, using steam skidders and Caterpillar tractors with big wheels for handling the logs. The logs are carried from the camp yards to the mills at Medford with new logging cars and locomotives on their own railroad.
    The planing mills of the company at Medford are equipped with modern surfacers, matchers, sizers, band, rip and resaws, a moulder and the necessary cutoff and trim saws. Gerlinger lumber carriers are used to convey the lumber from behind the planers to freight cars for loading. Back of the planing mills is a crane shed, a large storage shed for surfaced dry lumber. The company has twelve drying kilns of the latest type for the rapid seasoning of lumber. Foundations have been laid to accommodate 30,000,000 feet of lumber in the yards.
    On the Pacific Highway, east of the mill and lumber yards, an attractive building houses the offices of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company. This office has all the up-to-the-minute equipment, and its beauty has caused considerable favorable comment on the part of visitors in Medford.
    The plant at Medford, the railroad and the company's timber holdings represent an investment of approximately $6,000,000.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 1, 1928, page D4


     The committee in charge of the Owen-Oregon employees' relief fund dance, to be given by the Owen-Oregon mill workers at the Oriental Gardens Friday night, January 27, have everything in readiness for a big time for all who attend.
    This dance is an annual affair given to add to the relief money in which all workers contribute and which is used to help victims of accidents, or other deserving cases among the mill workers and their families.
    The committee in charge promise everyone who attends that there is a good time in store for them and that the public is invited. Good music has been secured for the dance and the committee in charge are: Herb Schritt, Clyde Hammock, Willard McCulloch, Bob Childers and Mr. Blaylock.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 25, 1928, page 8


    The Modern Plumbing and Sheet Metal Works has been awarded a contract by the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company for the construction of a blower pipe system for their local plant. The contract approximates $3500. Work will start at once. The local firm secured the contract in competition with Portland firms.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 26, 1928, page 2


    Considered as one of the most successful of its kind, the third annual Owen-Oregon Lumber Company employees' dance was held last night at the Oriental Gardens, with an exceptionally large attendance. The committee in charge, which was composed of Herb Schritt, chairman; Wesley Durkee, Clyde Hammock, Bob Childers, Willard McCulloch and M. E. Blaylock, extended appreciation today for the support given the dance by Medford business men and residents.
    One of the features of the evening was a balloon elimination dance, in which 15 couples took part, with a prize for the winning couple, who were Miss G. Canine and Cyril Still. These two dancers managed to dance the longest without their balloons being broken by other dancers, each one of whom had a balloon tied to an ankle.
     The thousand feet of lumber, which was donated by the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, was given away at the dance to J. D. Wilson, an employee of the company. The proceeds of the party will be put in a fund for the immediate relief of needy employees and for the sick.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 28, 1928, page 2


    It was during the days of dirt roads and the horse, in 1902, when Dr. J. R. Reddy was mayor of Medford, that the doctor conceived the idea of a railroad to Crater Lake and the big timber up Rogue River. The doctor's vision finally resulted in a railway to the timber in the Big Butte district, which now supplies the Medford sawmills with logs, and which has materially assisted in making the city today really what it is, one of the big timber centers of Oregon.
    It was at one of the meetings of the Medford Commercial Club. In its eagerness to put the city on the map, one of its members to jolly the doctor in his efforts to get the "Gateway to Crater Lake" for Medford, suggested that the doctor build the road. Undaunted, Reddy arose in the meeting and told the fellows: "Let me select four men around the table and I will build the road." "That's fine," shouted the members of the club. The doctor immediately made a choice of Dave H. Miller and Ike L. (Shorty) Hamilton, both now deceased, John Olwell, and George L. Davis.
    The next morning the doctor and his lieutenants went out in the forenoon and had $15,000 pledged in cash for the road to Crater Lake. The next day the subscription swelled to $27,000 and the Medford & Crater Lake railway was born with a capital stock of half a million dollars. It commenced business with A. A. Davis, president. and Dr. J. M. Keene, secretary, who signed the brand new stock certificates, which were exchanged for cash. The grading of the roadbed and securing of right of way then commenced.
    After grading and laying the steel as far as Eagle Point, financial disaster was apparent. A reorganization plan was proposed, which did not meet Reddy's approval and he resigned from the board of directors. Financial troubles came quickly, and the doctor was appointed receiver of the new railroad project. The property was later sold by virtue of a court order to the Columbia Trust Company, of Portland. The proceeds of the sale was used to pay back to the stockholders their original investment and the bonded indebtedness.
    The proceeds of the sale of the property was ordered by the court for safekeeping to be deposited in the Oregon Saving & Trust Company, of Portland, instead of the Medford banks. The next day after the deposit was made the trust company closed its doors and all seemed a loss.
    With all the funds of the receivership in the defunct concern at Portland, Reddy in his despair used his own money in making trips up and down the coast, and two trips to New York City, proposing a reorganization to financiers to save the stockholders and bond holders who had put their money into the proposed road. Finally success crowned Reddy's efforts through John R. Allen and J. F. Stevens, and the day was saved to the investors which were paid in full.
    Those were the days of the race of railroad building up the banks of the Deschutes River into Central Oregon by the Hill people and competing line. In the meantime the Medford & Crater Lake Railway Company had by Reddy and his associates been changed into the Pacific & Eastern Railway Company bonded unto the Columbia Trust Company of Portland, as trustee, and later purchased at the P.&E. foreclosure sale. The Hill people purchased the assets of the P.&E. company, and immediately spent $2,500,000 in extending the road to Butte Falls and equipped with rolling stock.
    Their objective was the low gap in the Cascade Mountains at the foot of Mount McLoughlin over into Central Oregon and making the P.&E. road a connecting road with their main line through Rogue River Valley to the coast at Crescent City. In the meantime peace was declared between the competing roads over on the Deschutes and the building of the P.&E. over the Cascade Mountains was suspended.
    The Hill people, however, operated the road to Butte Falls at a profit until the war came on as a connecting road with the Southern Pacific at Medford. The war restrictions so hampered branch roads that the Hill people found it unprofitable and abandoned the P.&E. road, forcing the Columbia Trust Company, trustee and bondholder in the sum of $150,000, to foreclose its lien.
    On passing into the hands of a court receiver, he suspended the operation of the road, which stopped operation of the sawmill at Butte Falls and other mills tributary to the road, as well as the log supply to the Medford mills. After two years arrangements were made with the receiver whereby a large amount of logs were rushed into Medford over the road, for the mills here, but after the sale, and awaiting confirmation by the court, these shipments were again stopped.
    The largest holder of standing timber in the Butte Falls district at that time was the Butte Falls Lumber & Mill Company, with a 40-thousand-capacity sawmill at Butte Falls and logging equipment in the timber. This company owned 21,000 acres of timber tributary to its plant. The Rogue River Timber Company, controlled by Wheeler, Dusenberry, and Marchean, New York, Pennsylvania and Portland people, owned 50,000 acres. The John S. Owen company of Wisconsin owned 12,000 acres. L. S. Harkness of New York owned 6,000 acres. W. L. Brownlee and associates of Medford owned 6,000 acres, while about 10,000 acres was still owned by individual locators of 160-acre tracts.
    M. D. Olds of Sheboygan, Wisconsin owned 10,000 acres of choice saw timber in the Butte Falls district. When the sale of the Pacific & Eastern Railway, which cost $2,500,000, was made by the United States District Court in November 1920, Mr. Olds purchased it for $190,000. The new owner came unheralded from his home in the East a few days before the sale, and departed as quietly as he came. His departure left the people of Rogue River Valley still guessing what his real object was in acquiring the key to the largest body of standing timber in the whole state. Some said he will reopen the road and market his timber at once, while others said that he would hold the whip hand over the other timber owners by closing the road until they came to his terms.
    In the meantime Mr. Olds had contracted with the government for a large acreage of saw timber. He did not linger long in consummating his plan in the East. On his return he relieved the situation by immediately resuming trains on the P.&E. road giving passage to the timber interests, and started a ten-mile extension of the road beyond Butte Falls into the government timber. He acquired concessions from the Southern Pacific in entering Medford and joined forces with W. L. Brownlee with his Butte Falls timber tract, and brought in mill equipment from the southern states and built a mill at Medford and commenced operations. In 1921 Mr. Olds acquired the Brownlee and other interests and was then sole owner of the Medford mill, the railroad and immense timber holdings.
    The history of the great change wrought in the north part of the city by the coming of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company is well known. These people, who had long been holders of extensive timber interests out in the Butte Falls district, purchased the railroad, mills and timber, and today are one of the largest lumber firms in Oregon.
    The surviving old-timers of Medford, who now look back to 1902, when the first turf was turned to start the grading of the old Medford & Crater Lake Railway, as the years went on, sorrowfully saw their visions of the road to the lake grow dimmer, as the days of the automobile and modern highway grew brighter, Yet, who of the population of the old town would today swap the highway for a railway and thus mar the scenic driveway on the Upper Rogue?
Medford Mail Tribune, February 5, 1928, page B5


    As soon as weather conditions in the hills will permit, the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company will dispatch an engineering contour force into the Butte Falls district to make surveys for future extension of their railroad from a junction point near Butte Falls, according to an announcement made yesterday by James H. Owen, vice president and general manager of the company, who returned a week ago from the annual meeting of the directors of the company, held in Wausau and Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
    The surveys will be in a northeastern and a southeastern direction from a junction near Butte Falls, and will eventually cover all the timber holdings of the company in that section, including a survey covering the old P.&E. line extension.
    Until the surveys and contours are completed, the final destination and future plans, will not be announced, according to General Manager Owen.
    Construction of eight miles of standard gauge track in the Butte Falls district this summer, in the main body of the company's timber in the foothills southeast of Butte Falls, for use in case winter operations are carried on, was also announced. This line, said Mr. Owen, later will be extended as required.
    The building program of the Owen-Oregon company, as approved by the directors for the Medford plant, is as follows:
    The rebuilding of the old sawmill for a finished lumber storage shed with a capacity of 2,000,000 feet, which is now underway. The company recently completed the installation of a shaving blower system for conveying shavings and fuel from the planing mill to the new fuel vault at the sawmill, representing an expenditure of $8000.
    The extension of the lumber storage yards to a capacity of 10,000,000 feet, at a cost of $20,000.
    The enlargement of the trackage system to cover the east portion, so the entire yard will be under rails, with electric locomotives and cars. Lumber carriers are now being used in the handling of the output.
    Future improvements by the company include the building of additional dry kilns in order that the better grades of lumber will go through the dry kilns and be ready for marketing without being stored for air drying.
    It was also announced by manager Owen that it is planned to operate the local plant upon a twelve-months basis, single shift, increasing to a double shift if conditions warrant.
    It is planned to cut 70,000,000 feet during the year. In addition to the logs that the company will cut from its own and government land in the Butte Falls district, they will purchase the output of small operators.
    The cut of the mill, which was completed in 1927, exceeded expectations, according to manager Owen, who said that operation during the installing of improvements had been more or less of a handicap. It is the intention of the company to make 1928 a test year for the local plant. The result will have a bearing on the future enlargements and improvements of the plant.
    Plant and logging operations of the company now provide regular employment fir 512 men and women. Of this total, 78 percent are married, and many own their own homes in this city and nearby towns. The monthly payroll averages $55,000, and if it is decided to put on a double shift, this will be increased $20,000 per month. These facts were gleaned from the statistics of the company.
    The records of the assessor's office show that the Owen-Oregon company, next to the Southern Pacific railroad, is the heaviest taxpayer in Jackson County. In 1927, the company paid taxes at the rate of $1.43 per thousand feet of lumber manufactured.
Medford Mail Tribune, March 20, 1928, page 1


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company will not operate this year upon a double shift basis, as originally planned in the program for the year, but instead will hold their production down to 70,000,000 feet, according to James H. Owen, general manager.
    In a conference with the employees of the local plant yesterday afternoon, the employees voted to continue with the single shift, instead of a double shift, thus furnishing steady work, over a long period, with no curtailment of labor.
    The decision to eliminate a double shift was reached 10 days ago, during the visit of H. S. Lovejoy and A. R. Owen, directors of the lumber company, and was due to a nationwide movement on the part of lumber mills to hold down the production until the market, which is now more or less demoralized, returns to normal. Lumber operators of Northern California and the Klamath district met Saturday at Klamath Falls, and all agreed to operate the coming season on a restricted basis.
    The Owen-Oregon company with its maintenance of a million dollar railroad, with one of the heaviest tax rates of any county in the state, operates under a heavier burden than the other operators of this district.
    Gain Robinson, local sales manager of the Owen-Oregon company, is now on the last leg of a get-acquainted-with-the-trade trip through Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and Utah, and is expected to reach home the latter part of the week.
    James Owen, general manager, left this morning for the logging camps in the Butte Falls district.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 8, 1928, page 3


    Emphatic denial was made this afternoon by James H. Owen, general manager of the Owen-Oregon company holdings in this section, to the widely circulated report in the city and county that a contract had been signed with the Hill railroad system for the trackage rights on the Medford logging railroad.
    "I am president of the Medford logging railroad, and if a contract had been signed I most certainly would have had a finger in it," said Mr. Owen. "There is absolutely nothing to it."
    "I don't know how such reports start," continued Mr. Owen. "I have received calls from Portland and San Francisco gentlemen, who wanted to get an option of the logging road. If it is ever disposed of, it will be by an outright sale, and not by option. Whoever buys the railroad also buys the plant. I would be in a pretty fix with a sawmill and no railroad."
    The Medford logging railroad is 32 miles long, standard gauge, extends to Butte Falls in the heart of the Owen-Oregon timber holdings, and represents an investment of over a million dollars. It is held a vital link in any future railroad development in this section from the Klamath country.
    John S. Owen of Eau Claire, Wis., 79-year-old president of the Owen-Oregon company, who has been visiting relatives and looking over his interests in this city and county, left yesterday for Crescent City to spend a few days visiting old friends and looking over his holdings in the redwood belt. He is expected to return to this city tomorrow. Mr. Owen is an ardent admirer of Crescent City and its prospects.
    Ralph Gilchrist of Detroit, Mich., multimillionaire, and a man of varied industrial interests and rated, next to Henry Ford, "the biggest man in Detroit," spent yesterday in Medford, visiting James Owen, and left this morning to join John S. Owen at Crescent City. The pair have been cronies for many years. Gilchrist owns extensive redwood holdings in Del Norte County.
    John S. Owen, during his stay here, has inspected the local plant and logging operations in the Butte Falls district.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 7, 1928, page 6


    Beginning Monday, June 18, the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company will return to an eight-hour night shift and increase its present output, which had already established a new high record the last month, when over 6,000,000 feet of lumber was cut.
   At the present time at the local mill, and engaged in outside timber-cutting operations, the Owen-Oregon company has a payroll of approximately 640 men. Between 75 and 100 men will be added to the night shift, which will bring the total payroll up to considerably over 700.
    The present nine-hour day shift will continue, the company deciding to speed up its production because the recent curtailment resulted in the accumulation of a large stock of uncut logs.
    When the news of this action by the Owen-Oregon company became known in Medford today there was general rejoicing among the merchants, who predict this decision will improve all lines of business in the city.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 15, 1928, page 1


    Death has claimed two of the best known stockholders in the Owen-Oregon company the past few days. Howard Elliott, prominent Hill line executive and former president of the Northern Pacific, who passed away suddenly in the East Sunday, was one of the large stockholders in the local lumber company, while today James Owen, manager, received sad word of the death of Charles A. Dewing at Battle Creek, Mich. Mr. Dewing owned the Butte Falls timber which the Owens took over, and he was represented here for many years by Harry D. Mills. When the Owen-Oregon company was formed Mr. Dewing became a large stockholder in that concern. Mr. Dewing's death, like that of Mr. Elliott's, was sudden and unexpected.
Medford Mail Tribune, July 10, 1928, page 2


    Lee N. Unger, of Butte Falls, died this afternoon at 3:45 o'clock at Community Hospital.
    Little hope is held for the recovery of Lee N. Unger, 21, of Butte Falls, who sustained a serious fracture of the skull between 9 and 10 o'clock this forenoon at Camp No. 1 of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company of Butte Falls when a boom on a log loader struck him on the side of the head. Unger was unconscious this afternoon at the Community Hospital where he was rushed immediately after the accident, the details of which were not known by Owen-Oregon officials here.
    Unger, according to a partial report of the accident, was working with two other men at the time the tragedy occurred. He was struck by a loading boom, which, according to Dr. J. C. Hayes, caused an extensive fracture of the skull, nearly caving in one side. Unger was thrown 35 or 40 feet by the impact, which in addition to the fracture also caused an ugly gash on his head.
    The injured man was brought to Medford by the Perl ambulance from Butte Falls, where Unger had been brought down on the logging train from the lumber camp. He arrived at the hospital at 11:30.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 9, 1928, page 1


    Preliminary work started this week on the construction of an extension of the Medford Logging Railroad (P.&E.) from Butte Falls, in a southeasterly direction, into the Willows Creek district. The extension will tap a rich timber district.
    According to James H. Owen, general manager of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, the length and cost of the road, which will be extended from time to time as new logging needs arise, are indefinite. He said that the road had been surveyed for a distance of seven miles, and that it followed the old P.&E. survey generally, though on a heavier grade. Mr. Owen said the extension grade would be built "a little better than customary for logging roads, and on standard gauge."
    He further stated the extension was a private enterprise of the Owen-Oregon company, and expressed the hope "it will not get mixed up with a lot of rumors, and be a transcontinental line before I know it." It is expected that the extension will be completed and in operation before snow flies.
    Mr. Owen returned this morning from a three days' business visit at Portland. He attended several sessions of the Interstate Commerce Commission hearing, as a spectator.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 16, 1928, page 1


   BUTTE FALLS, Ore., Nov. 30.--(AP)--(Special)--The Owen-Oregon Lumber Co. is constructing seven miles of logging road, southeast from Butte Falls, following up Willow Creek. They are also moving logging camp No. 1 to within three miles of Butte Falls, and it is conservatively estimated that there is at least a five-year program of logging from this location.
    The California Oregon Power Company, after years of delay, have anticipated the possibilities of Jackson County's wealthiest section and have built a power line from the Prospect sector to Butte Falls, and the town will be boasting a great white way by December 1.
    After many years of patient waiting, the old-time citizens of Butte Falls feel they are on the verge of having their long-desired visions realized. With a big highway plan under construction and partly finished that contacts Butte Falls with Prospect and the Crater Lake Highway, a scenic loop unrivaled in Southern Oregon, and the logging possibilities this loop route affords would make the most pessimistic citizen feel that the little mountain town was well on its way to become the industrial center of Southern Oregon.
    Another road is under construction that leads from Butte Falls via Fish Lake, Lake of the Woods and Klamath, touching the finest hunting and fishing ground on the Pacific Slope.
Medford Mail Tribune, November 30, 1928, page 5


    In accordance with previously announced plans, the Owen-Oregon lumber plant will cease operating its sawmill Saturday, December 22, and will resume operations in this unit Monday, January 7.
    The planing mill and shipping departments will be operated steady, with shutdowns for Christmas and New Year's days.
    During the fortnight suspension, the sawmill will be repaired, and will resume operations Monday, January 7, on a four-days-a-week basis, and be increased to a five-days basis as soon as market conditions warrant.
    During the short week period, the log loading department in the Butte Falls section will work, and it is planned to send one trainload of logs to the mill daily.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 20, 1928, page 3


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, operating the largest industrial plant in So. Oregon, and one of the model modernly equipped sawmills of the land, views 1929 "with sane optimism and prospects encouraging," according to James H. Owen, general manager. Under present conditions, the future is bright, he says.
    The plans for 1929, as far as the local plant is concerned, have not been shaped, except that in the spring a battery of six dry kilns will be built and will be ready for operating by May 1. This will make the kiln total 18. The plant closed down December 22 for two weeks to make repairs to the sawmill, and will resume operation Monday, January 7. During the fall and summer the plant operated upon a nine-hour day. The Owen plant in 1928 operated steadier, and employed more men, than the average sawmill in the Northwest.
    The Owen-Oregon plant in this city, steam and electrically operated with every labor-saving device known to sawmilling, was visited last summer by several delegations of lumbermen. The proposed new mill of the Edward Hines Lumber Company of Chicago, one of the largest lumber concerns in the world, will be modeled somewhat after the local plant. Pacific Coast architects have studied it as a model of mill construction.
    The pine products of the concern are known nationally, and 1928 marked the opening of a new trade territory for the Owen-Oregon company in the Southwest. This includes Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas, Oklahoma, and parts of Kansas, states and sections, in which the bulk of the fir output is now sold. All the lumber products of the company are sold under the trade slogan of "Crater Quality Lumber." Among the sales of the company in 1928, classified as exceptional, was the shipment of timbers for use of bridge construction in Texas. Reports from good will business emissaries of the company received in December from the southwest trade belt show a degree of satisfaction with the Owen-Oregon lumber.
    The Owen-Oregon company during the holidays sent out 150 boxes of Rogue River Bosc pears to their trade.
    Greeting cards by the hundreds were also mailed which advertised the scenic charms and pears.
    At the top of the cards was a colored photograph of Crater Lake. On one side of the main body of the card was a picture of a fine stand of timber in the Butte Falls district. On the other was a picture of a Rogue River Valley orchard.
    The printed matter on the card read: "Greetings from the Owen-Oregon Lumber Co., in the Rogue River Valley, whence come the famous Bosc Pears, and Crater Quality Lumber."
    The card was designed by Manager J. H. Owen.
    The Owen-Oregon company has been a substantial factor in the industrial life of the community. Besides the main plant, it operates the Medford logging road and two logging camps in the Butte Falls section, where the company has extensive timber holdings.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 31, 1928, page C8


    The sawmill of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, scheduled to resume operations next Monday, has been delayed for one week, according to General Manager James H. Owen. The sawmill will resume operations Monday, January 14. Change in plans and unfavorable weather conditions caused the postponement.
    Manager Owen said today that the sawmill would be operated at first on a four-day basis, but expected to go to a five day basis as soon as possible.
    The sawmill closed down for the holidays December 22, and repairs have been completed at the plant during this period.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 5, 1929, page 2


    The largest January business in the life of the Medford plant of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company was recorded yesterday when between 45 and 50 orders for carload lots of lumber were received, according to General Manager James H. Owen. The orders were from various parts of the land.
    As a result the plant is operating on a five day basis instead of the four days originally planned.
    General Manager Owen said that the lumber business was exceptionally strong now, and the best "I have ever seen it in the month of January." He attributed the hopeful condition to a general opening up of the building industry and the policy of curtailment adopted by lumbermen generally some time ago.
    The logging camps of the Owen-Oregon company located in the Butte Falls district, and the life of that town, will not be opened before March 1st, if then. No definite date has been set for resumption of activity, as there are plenty of logs on hand.
    The sawmill is now running on a five-day basis and will be placed on a six-day basis as soon as conditions warrant, General Manager Owen said.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 18, 1929, page 5


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company plant will be in full operation by March 15, according to General Manager James H. Owen. The logging camps in the Butte Falls district, employing 150 men, will start about March 1. The camps have been idle since last fall.
    The sawmill is now on a five-day basis and may soon be placed on a four-day basis soon for a short period to curtail production. It is planned to cut all the logs now on roadways and in the mill pond before March 1.
    The annual report of the Owen-Oregon company, now in course of preparation for presentation to the annual meeting of the board of directors of the company, to be held early in March, shows a substantial increase for 1928 over 1927.
    The lumber production in 1928 totaled approximately 69,500,000 feet, the log production approximately 68,800,000 feet, and the car shipments totaled approximately 60,900,000 feet.
    Manager Owen will leave the last of the month for the East to attend the annual meeting.
Medford Mail Tribune, February 4, 1929, page 3


    That the Owen Oregon logging activities will open up on full schedule within the next 10 days was a statement made in an interesting talk given before the local Lions Club this noon by James Owen, general manager of the Owen Oregon Lumber Company.
    In his summary of the production accomplishment of the mill last year, Mr. Owen said that 67 million feet of lumber had been cut during 1928, and that 2785 cars of lumber had been shipped. Medford and Jackson County alone consumed over eight million feet of the lumber manufactured here, the Tomlin box factory using 685 cars in their industry.
    Mr. Owen quoted the Owen Oregon annual payroll as amounting to over one million dollars, $850,000 of which he classified as direct, and $150,000 as indirect, making a total monthly payroll of approximately $82,000.
    Mrs. A. J. Hanby, representative of the Greater Medford Club, told the Lions of the new community club house, the drive for funds of which will begin soon.
    The new airport was the next subject presented before the Lions Club by W. A. Gates and Seely Hall.
    An interesting program, from an artistic standpoint, was furnished by Herb Alford, who contributed two solos on his original invention, the viomandozyther (also original), and was heartily applauded. Dolores and Mamie Durkee followed with a clever piano and violin duet, and little LaMurle Beck, student of Mrs. Eve Benson, gave a beautiful solo dance accompanied on the piano by Mrs. W. H. Anderson.
    Guests for the luncheon included W. A. Gates, Herb Grey, Seely Hall, S. S. Smith, Fire Chief Graham from Corvallis, Deputy State Fire Marshall Stokes, Herb Alford, James Owen and C. T. Baker.
Medford Mail Tribune, February 6, 1929, page 2


    The sawmill of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company started operations today on a six-day-a-week basis. Since the first of the year it has been operating on a four- and five-day-a-week basis.
    The new order will provide a full week's work for between 100 and 125 men, with a corresponding increase in the payroll, which will be reflected in the business life of the city.
    It was also announced by General Manager James Owen that Camp No. 1 at Butte Falls would start operations next Monday, February 18, and that the second camp would start two or three weeks later.
    The camp employs about 75 men. Most of the timber workers live at or near Butte Falls.
    The Medford logging railroad, a subsidiary of the Owen-Oregon company, which has been on a half-time basis, will resume operations within a short time.
    General Manager Owen expects to leave in a few days for the East to attend the annual meeting of the Owen-Oregon directors, when the annual budget for the year will be considered, along with recommendations for improvements of company property.
Medford Mail Tribune, February 11, 1929, page 3


    The fir logging of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, which opened in the Butte Falls district last Monday, is now operating full blast with 75 men employed. The pine camp of the company, according to Logging Superintendent William Stewart, will open about April 1. The company has sufficient pine logs on hand to operate until that date.
Medford Mail Tribune, February 25, 1929, page 3


    There will be no major improvement inaugurated this season by the Owen-Oregon company of this city, according to General Manager James H. Owen, who recently returned from the annual director's meeting.
    The budget for the year, as adopted, calls for the construction of two additional dry kilns, less that originally contemplated, replacement of worn-out machinery, increasing the summer capacity of the sawmill and improving of facilities for the speedy handling of the output.
    Last Monday the pine camp of the company started operating on government reserve land, with buckers and fallers, but it will be three weeks before logging operations are started. The company is cutting ahead, and as the machinery is operated by steam, the exact date will depend upon favorable weather conditions.
    The fir camp has been moved to Bowen Creek in the Butte Falls district for summer operations.
    The Owen-Oregon company is now watching a new lumber freight rate proposed by the Hill lines, to points in the Southwest. The rate is effective from Washington and northern Oregon points. It does not affect the local situation, as it is in the California district, but gives the rate benefit to Klamath Falls, which is on the Hill lines. The rate will come up for a hearing before the Interstate Commerce Commission.
    Mr. Owen returned the first of the week from the East by way of the Southwest and called upon the Owen-Oregon trade in that section. It is a flourishing business.
    During his trip he visited Col. Robert Stewart, head of the Standard Oil of Indiana, who was the center of a fight for control among the financial giants, including the Rockefellers--father and son. He is a lifelong friend of Col. Stewart's, and they had a reunion.
    Mr. Owen also stopped off in El Paso, Texas, and from the roof of a hotel saw the rival Mexican armies fighting in Juarez, eight blocks away. He says it was not much of a war, but enough of one to cause him to conclude discretion was the better part of gawking and retired to the basement.
Medford Mail Tribune, March 21, 1929, page 1


    Spring awakening has come to industries of the city, with preparations for busy days ahead.
    Commencing tomorrow morning the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company will go on a full production basis. A vote of the mill employees was held this noon upon the matter. The plant has been operating on a six-day basis for some time.
    Both the pine and fir logging camps of the company in the Butte Falls district are now operating and will soon be on a capacity schedule.
    Work has started on the extension of the crane loading shed at the local plant. It will be lengthened 150 feet and will increase the capacity of the shed.
    It is expected that the plant will be operated on a double shift during the summer and fall. The starting date will be decided upon later.
    Gardeners have started remaking the front yard of the Owen-Oregon office building. The ground is being replowed and fertilized and will be planted to fancy shrubbery. The garden faces on the Pacific Highway.
    According to General Manager James H. Owen, this work is beyond his jurisdiction, and in charge is John S. Owen, president of the company, and Mrs. James H. Owen. John S. Owen will arrive the latter part of the month on his usual visit to the plant and will then inspect the company's holdings in this vicinity and the landscape garden, according to manager Owen.
    The Rogue River Canning Company, founded by the late S. S. Bullis, expects the best and busiest year in the history of the concern according to Seth Bullis, an officer thereof. The advance orders for canned cherries and pears are the heaviest yet enjoyed and manager R. U. Boutelle, manager of the cannery, is making arrangements for an early start in order to fill the demand.
    The machinery of the plant is now being put in shape for the season's run.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 1, 1929, page 1


    Mr. and Mrs. A. T. Woodson, Dr. and Mrs. M. L. Jones and Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Mylrea, all of Wausau, Wisconsin, spent Friday in the city visiting James H. Owen, general manager of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company here. The party are on a motor trip to California. Mr. Woodson and Mr. Mylrea are stockholders of the Owen-Oregon company and inspected the local plant.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 6, 1929, page 2


    MOUNT PITT, Ore., April 15.--(Special)--Camp One is almost settled in its new home a few miles above Butte Falls, and in the future will be known as Camp Three.
    Some of the old-timers report there has been more snow at camp this spring than we have had in many years.
    Most of the family men are busy building additions to their houses, while some are erecting new homes. Ike Coffman's is one of the largest and most attractive. Ike is about ready to paint now and is open for suggestions as to the best color scheme to carry out in order to blend with the scenery.
    O. K. Nelson is the proud owner of a new Chevrolet "6" and is busy these evenings building a garage that will be in keeping with such a fine car.
    Mrs. Fred Raatz, who has been quite ill at the Sacred Heart Hospital for the past week, returned home on Friday and is feeling much better.
    Fred Martin has traded his Essex for a Hudson and claims now he can make it to camp in record time.
    Clay Conley and family have moved into their new home at Camp Happy. We all hope they are as happy as their new location would suggest.
    Mrs. George Tranta for the past week has been visiting her sister, Mrs. Fred Butcher, at Jacksonville. Mrs. Tranta had their Studebaker overhauled and in the future will be more careful as to who will do the driving.
    Ole Nelson's "Haywire Orchestra" has resumed its weekly practice, and the strains of "Sober All of Us" are frequently heard throughout camp.
    George Tranta will soon have his new bungalow completed. He is figuring on a concrete cellar, as the gophers and beavers are rather troublesome in his new location.
    O. E. Jones has been promoted to woods foreman at Camp Two. Ole has been quite popular with the men in the past, and we expect him to give a good account of himself for the ensuing year.
    Camp Two has been down for the past week. The snow was some two feet deep in places but is thawing rapidly, and they expect to resume operations again about Monday, April 15th.
    Jack Lorton of Medford is the new timekeeper at Camp Two. He succeeds Jack Crump, who will be scaler for the gyppos this year.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 15, 1929, page 5


    John S. Owen of Eau Claire, Wis., president of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, accompanied by his brother, William C. Owen, of Pontiac, Mich., arrived this morning on his annual visit to the Rogue River Valley for an inspection of his timber and mill holdings in Southern Oregon and Northern California.
    During his stay here of a week or 10 days he will celebrate a birthday--no one at the local Owen-Oregon company office this afternoon knew whether if was the 79th or the 89th--and view the progress made on one of his hobbies--the landscape gardening at the local office building. The first job did not suit, so two teams, two plowmen and two landscape gardeners, are getting the ground ready for the planting of fancy shrubbery.
    Ben Alexander, who owns varied industrial interests throughout the land, and party of five arrived Monday evening from Eugene and this morning with James H. Owen, vice president and general manager of the local Owen-Oregon interests, went by auto to the lumber camps of the company in the Butte Falls district. They returned early this afternoon.
    Alexander is a large stockholder and member of the executive committee of the Owen-Oregon company.
    During his stay here Alexander will visit the mills of the Klamath Falls district.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 30, 1929, page 2


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company announced today that beginning next Monday, May 13, they would operate their plant on a double shift during the summer months. They will employ about 150 extra men, bringing their total payroll up to approximately 600 men. General Manager Owen said the shifts would be on the eight-hour basis.
    John S. Owen of Wausau, Wis., president of the Owen-Oregon company, and William C. Owen of Pontiac, Mich., who have been here for a week, left this afternoon by automobile for Crescent City, Calif., where they will inspect their holdings. They will also make a trip to the Klamath Falls district.
   John S. Owen celebrated his eightieth birthday last Wednesday. Time has dealt kindly with him, and he is as spry as a man of 45 summers.
    He said he could see a substantial growth in this city and surrounding territory since his trip here a year ago.
    The present is the first visit of William C. Owen to this valley, though he has often been in this state, and he is highly impressed.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 6, 1929, page 1


    OWEN-OREGON LUMBER CAMP NO. 2, May 6.--(Special)--Mr. and Mrs. Pat Olds have returned to their home in this community after being away the past few days.
    S. M. Picha was slightly injured while working on a tractor with bunching crews but will be able to resume his duties in a few days.
    W. M. Fickeise, Jr., the Mt. Pitt leading harmonica player, went to Ashland to capture all medals available.
    Several sports from Camp 2 attended the picture show at Butte Falls Saturday night, including Emil Nelson, Victor Holmes, L. E. Stanley and Jack Lorton.
    B. F. Pankey of Central Point, C. E. Bird, Pete Lorentzen--all good musicians--are practicing hard for summer entertainment.
    Horseshoe is the game at Camp 2. Medford experts will have to step it up, for R. A. Lawrence threw 13 ringers straight the other day.
    Mr. Rodgers, government ranger, was a visitor at camp this week.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 6, 1929, page 2


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, when it starts its double shift next Monday, will use logs trucked to the plant from the Trail, Evans Creek and Jacksonville districts. A half dozen logging contractors have contracts for the furnishing of logs. This will be an innovation for the Owen-Oregon company who have heretofore used the output of their own camps in the Butte Falls district.
    John S. Owen of Eau Claire, Wis., president of the Owen-Oregon company and William C. Owen of Pontiac, Mich., vice-president, will return tomorrow from an auto trip to the Del Norte County holdings of the Owen-Oregon company.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 10, 1929, page 7


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company of this city has under consideration the extension of its logging railroad from Butte Falls, the center of its logging operations, to Klamath Falls, according to a statement today by John S. Owen of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, president of the timber concern.
    "I think our railroad should be extended to Klamath Falls, and orders have been issued by the board of directors to James H. Owen, general manager, to proceed with the survey. We are going to find out if a line is practical, and it is certainly worth investigating," said John S. Owen.
    James H. Owen, general manager, said that pursuant to instructions he would have a surveying crew in the field in a short time.
    The present railroad line from Medford to Butte Falls is standard gauge, heavily railed and heavily ballasted, 32 miles long. It was formerly the Pacific & Eastern, purchased by the Owen-Oregon company when they started operations here. The P.&E. was formerly owned by Hill interests and was built with a view of extension to Klamath Falls and Bend, a decade ago.
    The Owen-Oregon company has a logging railroad operating out of Butte Falls and is the one to be extended. The distance to Klamath Falls is about 40 miles. The district is rich in virgin timber, with easy water grades*. Three years ago James H. Owen made a personal trip over the district and reported "a route was feasible for the construction of a railroad." He later sent out a surveying crew. Last year a surveying crew was in the field making preliminary surveys.
    It is known from sources outside the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company that they have long been interested in the extension of their present logging operation, so it will tap a large volume of timber on the divide between their present holdings in eastern Jackson County and the Weyerhaeuser holdings and give them a direct route east.
     Asked regarding the report that the Owen-Oregon company was concerned with the construction of a railroad to Crescent City, Calif., John S. Owen said: "That is too big a proposition for us."
    The Weyerhaeuser company is now building a logging railroad to their holdings on Spencer Creek, in Klamath County, and the two extensions would be in touch with each other.
    Besides developing the timber industry, the proposed extension would open a new summer recreation area and provide fruit shipments a shorter route east. It was unofficially announced last week that the Southern Pacific contemplated routing fruit shipments via Alturas, Calif., as soon as possible, going from here to Weed, Calif., then to Klamath Falls, and then over the Alturas cutoff, thus saving 12 hours in transit, a day on the fruit auction market, and avoiding the icing congregation at Roseville, Calif. The proposed new route would save the trip to Weed and halfway back.
    There have been many reports regarding the extension of the Owen-Oregon lines, but the statement of John S. Owen today is the most definite.
    John S. Owen, accompanied by his brother, William C. Owen of Pontiac, Mich., leaves tomorrow night for his home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, after spending two weeks here attending to business matters and visiting relatives. They returned Friday from an auto trip to Crescent City.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 13, 1929, page 1  *A "water grade" is apparently an old canal-builder's term--a gentle grade over which moving water will sheet, rather than tumble. One definition is three to twenty-five feet per mile.


    School children of the Sams Valley and Derby schools visited the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company today under the guidance of their teachers and department heads and were shown the making of lumber, from the time a log leaves the pond until it is a finished product in the dry kilns. Under orders from General Manager James H. Owen, the children [were] especially guarded from injury and that official himself admonished the children, "Don't touch anything."
    The Owen-Oregon plant will go on a double shift this evening. The employees voted for a nine-hour day, with a half holiday Saturday.
    The double shift will employ 75 or 80 additional men, and will cut logs provided by logging contractors in the Evans Creek, Trail and Jacksonville districts, thus furnishing employment for many men.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 13, 1929, page 3


    John S. Owen of Eau Claire, Wis., president of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, and his brother, William C. Owen of Pontiac, Mich., will leave tonight for their Middle West homes after a two weeks' visit here. They will be accompanied as far as Portland by James H. Owen, general manager of the local plant.
    John S. Owen spent this morning inspecting the local plant and despite his 80 years--56 of them spent in the lumber business--he was as spry as a chipmunk, and his interest as keen as ever.
    He plans on a return visit to this section next spring and has issued instructions that on his next visit he wants to see the office flower garden and shrubbery plot in a high state of beauty and efficiency; it is his leading hobby.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 14, 1929, page 3


    James H. Owen, general manager of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, anent the announcement made yesterday by John S. Owen of Eau Claire, Wis., president of the timber concern, that they would build a railroad from Butte Falls to the Klamath Falls district, "if investigation showed it to be practical and feasible," said this morning that he would put a surveying crew in the field as soon as possible and had started mobilizing the crew.
    In regard to the report from Klamath Falls that the Great Northern line might be fathering the construction, General Manager Owen said: "I don't know anything about the Great Northern."
    He intimated that it was strictly an Owen-Oregon project, had been in mind for three years, and that the railroad "was necessary to develop our own and other timber in the Dead Indian country."
    "If the road is built, it might as well be on the proper grade and curvature, first as last," said manager Owen.
    For the past two summers the Owen-Oregon company has sent surveyors into the territory the proposed road would traverse and had lines set out for two routes out of Butter Falls.
    Manage Owen said that the road would not be operated as a common carrier, but would be built to standard specifications as a matter of economy for the future.
    He further stated that his first step would be to secure figures on the estimated cost and the most practical route, and that he hoped to use a portion of the old survey for an extension of the Pacific and Eastern railroad to Bend and Klamath Falls. The Pacific and Eastern was built in 1909 by the Hill interests and extends from Medford to Butte Falls, a distance of 32 miles. It was placed in operation and used by the Owen-Oregon company in its timber operations the past five years, after several years of inactivity, save for occasional mail trains.
    With the invasion of the Hill lines into Eastern Oregon the road came into reports that it was to be used by the Hill lines as a wedge to enter the Rogue River Valley.
    KLAMATH FALLS, Ore., May 14.--(AP)--A rumor current in Klamath railroad circles for some time, to the effect that the Great Northern had renewed a project abandoned many years ago--construction of a Rogue River-Klamath Valley line, was received yesterday by announcement from Medford that the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company is contemplating extending its logging lines into the Klamath basin.
    Several of those close to Klamath Falls railroad news, and usually well informed, believe extension of the Owen-Oregon line would mean that the Great Northern would enter the fertile Rogue Valley and attempt to take a part, at least, of the fruit and lumber tonnage of that section.
    What route the proposed extension of the Owen-Oregon line would take was not disclosed by Mr. Owen. There are, however, two possible routes.
    One would be a connection with the Weyerhaeuser timber line--a railroad constructed under standard branch line specifications built from the mill site into the western Klamath.
    The second would be an extension of the line across the lower end of Wood River Valley and connection with the Southern Pacific near Chiloquin.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 14, 1929, page 1


    The selection of a chief engineer, to have complete charge of the work of surveying a rail route for the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company between Butte Falls and Klamath Falls, will be made shortly, according to James H. Owen, general manager, whereupon a surveying crew under his direction would be put in the field.
    Manager Owen said that the entire responsibility of deciding the feasibility of the route, as proposed, would rest upon the shoulders of the chief engineer, and that his figures on the estimated cost of the road would also be the final word.
    Manager Owen said he was negotiating "with a couple of engineers who have built railroads in the Northwest, and know every angle of the game," and I think I have the man I want.
    The local timber official said "that it will probably take all summer and fall to get an accurate line on the best route and the estimated costs," and "construction work, if finally decided upon, will not start before next spring."
    Louis Hill, chairman of the board of the Great Northern railroad, and party will visit this city and valley the coming week. They left Portland yesterday by auto for Astoria. They will motor down the coast, stopping at Tillamook and Crescent City, Calif., coming to the Rogue River Valley via the Redwood Highway. They will spend a day in this section and go to Klamath Falls over the Ashland-Klamath Falls highway, thence to Bend, Oregon, and return to Portland over the Columbia River-California highway.
    All points visited by the Great Northern officials are either concerned with actual Great Northern building operations or linked to rumors of Hill line operations.
    The auto trip is characterized by the rail officials as an auto pleasure and "good will trip."
Medford Mail Tribune, May 20, 1929, page 1


    OWEN-OREGON CAMP TWO, May 20.--(Special.)--Paul Sidell, Nick Rivers, Joe Hall, Amos Orvold, all employees of Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, have taken jobs with the government Forest Service for the summer.
    A. E. Nelson and L. E. Stanley were enthusiastic over the circus. Mr. Nelson offered Mr. Barnes 15 cents for the big elephant for use as a hooker in the jammer.
    Ninety-seven men are working at Camp 2 now, and much progress is reported on account of the excellent weather.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 20, 1929, page 8


    OWEN-OREGON LUMBER CO., Camp Two, May 30.--(Special.)--Mr. Rodgers, district forest ranger, and several of his men are attending to duties in this vicinity.
    Many residents from Camp Two attended the big dance at Butte Falls Saturday, May 25.
    Keith Cole and a friend were fishermen of the upper Butte Creek Sunday.
    Ben Edmondson has resumed his duties at Camp Two after over a week's work on his ranch at Butte Falls.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 30, 1929, page 2


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company of this city has booked a valuable order for a carload of high-grade sugar pine for the Boston, Mass., market that will average $2000 per car at the mill. The order was highly gratifying to Jas. H. Owen, plant manager of the local plant.
    An order was also booked this week for Medford, Wis.
    The trade territory of the Owen-Oregon company is steadily gaining in all sections of the country.
    Gain Robinson, sales manager, is now on a two months' good-will visit to Chicago, New York City and the south and southwest states before his return.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 6, 1929, page 3


    The selection of a chief engineer to have charge of the survey for the proposed extension of the Medford logging railroad, a subsidiary of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, from Butte Falls to a point in Klamath County near Klamath Falls, will be made this weekend by James H. Owen, general manager of the Owen-Oregon company, he said today.
    He said the chief engineer to be selected would have complete charge of the work and that when the survey crew would take the field was a matter for his decision.
    Mr. Owen said the object of the survey would be to determine if a route to Klamath County, in a southeasterly direction, was feasible and to secure figures on its estimated cost. He reiterated that the railroad was strictly an Owen-Oregon project made necessary to furnish a speedy outlet for their own timber.
    A topography map of the section will be made and the plan to have pictures for this purpose taken by airplane has been abandoned as impractical.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 6, 1929, page 3


    James H. Owen, general manager of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, announced today that work on the preliminary survey of a proposed railroad from Butte Falls to Klamath Falls would start next Monday. The chief engineer for the task has been selected by the Owen-Oregon company. General manager Owen said that his name would not be made public at this time, but that he was an experienced railroad engineer, "fairly well acquainted with the country."
    The chief engineer, Owen said, would be instructed to gather data on the feasibility of the route and its probable cost.
    "The work of the chief engineer will be conducted with the minimum of publicity," further said the general manager. "He is not going through the timber accompanied by a brass band. His work is a business proposition and will be conducted as such.
    "It is not the policy of the Owen-Oregon company to excite the public and build their hopes to have them crumble. The company realizes the importance of the survey as a development factor in Southern Oregon, and our final plans will be shaped in accordance with the final report of the chief engineer as to costs and feasibility."
    General manager Owen said that the first move would be to have the chief engineer make a personal trip over the proposed routes, which would take a "week or ten days."
    He said the chief engineer would be in complete charge of the work and that it would probably take two or three months.
    Mr. Owen returned yesterday from Portland, where he made negotiations for the services of the chief engineer.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 12, 1929, page 3


    Construction work on the 200-foot addition to the shipping shed of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company is proceeding rapidly, and it will be ready for operation shortly. The six dry kilns are about half finished and some 2000 feet of trams and rails are being laid.
    In connection with the improvements now underway, the 50-year-old column of the American Lumberman, in a recent issue, shows that history is repeating itself. The item is:
    "J. G. Owen, East Saginaw, is building 1,000 feet of new dock and 1,000 feet of tramway. A two-story frame barn has been erected on his mill premises."
    J. G. Owen is the father of James H. Owen, general manager of the local plant.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 20, 1929, page B5


    OWEN-OREGON CAMP 2, June 24.--(Special.)--Several cattlemen have brought their herds into the range recently.
    Miss Marie Thomas of Brookings, Ore., is spending the summer with her brother, W. J. Thomas.
    Miss Anna Cross is also with her parents since the Medford school closed.
    Mr. and Mrs. Ed Russell are the owners of one of the new 1929 model Fords. Mr. Russell is convinced the new Ford is a real mountain car, for these steep hills don't worry it at all.
    Bud Obenchain has been called away due to the sickness of his mother.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 24, 1929, page 6


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Co. closed down its mill and logging camps Saturday for one week, to permit its employees to take a Fourth of July vacation. Operations of the company will be resumed next Monday. The workers were paid off Saturday night and there was a general exodus of mill men and their families to the seashore and the hills.
Medford Mail Tribune, July 1, 1929, page 3


    Three preliminary surveys for the proposed railroad of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, from Butte Falls in a southerly direction, have been completed. The preliminary lines run on the north side of the Rogue River and terminate near Spencer Creek--the objective of the railroad being built by the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company in Klamath County.
    This would make possible a tie-up of the two lines when, and if, built. James H. Owen, general manager of the Owen-Oregon company, who last week walked over a portion of the preliminary surveys, would neither confirm nor deny a "tie-up" with the Weyerhaeuser was contemplated, but admitted it was practical and possible.
    The preliminary lines run exclusively through timber owned and controlled by the Owen-Oregon company and upon feasible grades rich in recreational, timber and through an undeveloped country, stock-raising possibilities.
    One of the surveys calls for the erection of a high bridge near Butte Falls to secure an easy grade and the boring of a short tunnel through the snout of a ridge.
    It is expected to run at least two more preliminary surveys, after which the work of selecting the most practical from an engineering and financial standpoint will be made.
    Additional men were dispatched yesterday to join the surveying crew, and the present work is being rushed. Manager Owen said that it would take at least six months to complete the present task.
Medford Mail Tribune, July 9, 1929, page 1


    OWEN-OREGON CAMP TWO, July 10.--(Special.)--The camp is running full force again since the Fourth. Many old and new employees have resumed their duties.
    Wade Smith is visiting his mother and brother at Butte Falls.
    Lester Heer is the owner of one of the new sport model Fords.
    A. E. Nelson of Camp Two returned recently from a trip to Washington.
Medford Mail Tribune, July 10, 1929, page 10


    Reconnaissance work in connection with the proposed Owen-Oregon Lumber Company railroad from Butte Falls to Klamath country, has been completed and, according to James H. Owen, general manager of the lumber company, "we have found a good route." Owen will leave in the morning to go over the preliminary lines, and the work of actual surveying will start in a week or 10 days. He said that supplies were being sent to Butte Falls for the surveying crew.
    The proposed route runs on the south side of Rogue River out of Butte Falls and extends in a southeasterly direction to the area tapped by the Weyerhaeuser railroad to Spencer Creek. It runs exclusively through timber owned by the Owen-Oregon company.
    Last week manager Owen journeyed to the Butte Falls territory to inspect the preliminary survey. He became lost in the woods and followed an obscure trail. At its terminal he came upon a still that had been recently in operation. No one was in sight, but the sound of a man running through the brush was heard.
    The still is located in the heart of the Cascades and, according to its accidental finder, "nobody will ever find it."
    "It took me the entire afternoon to regain my bearings, and if I had to find that still again, I don't believe I could do it," manager Owen said. He said the still was not located on land owned by his company.
    Directors and officials of the Owen-Oregon company will arrive here August 4. They will inspect the local plant and will receive information on the progress of the survey.
Medford Mail Tribune, July 29, 1929, page 1


    County Judge Alex Sparrow and James H. Owen of the Owen-Oregon company will confer this week upon the extension of Court Street through Owen-Oregon property from North Central Avenue to the Pacific Highway near the junction with the Medford-Sams Valley highway. This is the north loop of the Central Avenue property owners' project to make that thoroughfare a through street, and relieving much of the traffic congestion on Riverside Avenue.
    The county court is not averse to the north opening of Central Avenue, and have been working on the proposition for some time. Securing the right-of-way has been the main difficulty.
    The extension of Court Street would give the north-central portion of the county a direct route to the heart of the city.
Medford Mail Tribune, July 29, 1929, page 3


    Orders for seven more cars of timbers to be used by the city of San Francisco in the construction of the Hetch Hetchy water supply system were received today by the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company. This makes a total of 30 cars of timbers that have been supplied by the local concern for the huge enterprise, and more are in sight.
    The timbers are all certified by an inspector of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association and are of high structural grade.
    The inspector said the timbers are the highest grade and type he has seen in many months, and that out of the cars shipped to date, he discarded but one timber as not being up to AA specifications.
    Manager Owen said today that he was "highly pleased with the compliment and glad to know that the trade recognized at last the superiority of Southern Oregon fir." He said that compliments, backed by substantial orders, "were air-tight and left no room for doubt."
    The timbers will be used in tunnel work.
    The Owen-Oregon company recently filled timber orders for the state highway commission of Texas and the city of Stockton, Calif., for repairs to their water system.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 8, 1929, page 2


    OWEN-OREGON LUMBER CO. CAMP, Aug. 9.--(Special.)--E. L. Russell of Klamath Falls and Lee Winningham of Applegate, Ore., are new employees at camp.
    Ben Edmondson, employee of Camp 2, who has been ill, is improving now.
    Ray Lawrence, employee at Camp 2 cookhouse, has been succeeded by C. A. Jones of Medford.
    Lew Farnham is taking an extended trip north for a few days.
    Mrs. Clara Scholer of Siskiyou, Ore., is visiting her relatives here.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 9, 1929, page 6


    OWEN-OREGON LUMBER CO. CAMP 2.--(Special.)--The average force of men at Camp 2 is 100. A regular 20-car trainload of good pine and fir leaves here daily.
    Mr. McRay of Medford is cruising a large body of timber in this section for the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company.
    Don Smith and Jack Linton were visitors at Lake of the Woods Sunday. Black bass fishing is good there and boating and swimming is also excellent, they report.   
Medford Mail Tribune, August 16, 1929, page 9


    OWEN-OREGON LUMBER CO. CAMP 2.--(Special.)--Mr. and Mrs. Ole Jones and Juanita Nutting motored to Camp 2 Saturday afternoon with a party of their friends.
    Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Bross, M. J. McLaren, Mr. and Mrs. Piatt of Camp 3 motored to the Lake o' the Woods recently.
    Mrs. Russell and others report huckleberry picking good at Blue Canyon, a short distance from Camp 2.
    Mr. and Mrs. Walter Scholer were visiting their relatives here Sunday.
    Mr. and Mrs. Frank James motored to Medford last week on business.
    L. P. Cross has gone to Brookings to visit his wife and daughter.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 28, 1929, page B1


    Effective Saturday, September 14, the night shift of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company will be discontinued. Orders to this effect were issued yesterday. It affects 150 workers and means the closing down of an Owen-Oregon logging camp in the Butte Falls district and a dozen small logging camps operating in the Trail, Jacksonville, Gold Hill, Evans Creek and Jacksonville districts.
    No reason was given for the action except the usual one, "unsettled condition of the lumber market."
Medford Mail Tribune, September 13, 1929, page 5


    The survey for the proposed construction of an Owen-Oregon Lumber Company railroad, from a point seven miles beyond Butte Falls to Klamath County, has been completed and James H. Owen, general manager of the timber company has reported to the board of directors that "the road is feasible and practical from an engineering and financial standpoint."
    The lengthy report of Owen will be acted upon by the board of directors, it is expected, at their annual meeting next February.
    The survey runs from Camp No. 2 in the Butte Falls district to the Weyerhaeuser Junction on Spencer Creek, with an easy grade from that point into Klamath Falls. The distance to Spencer Creek from Camp No. 2 is 37 miles and from Medford to Camp No. 2 is 44 miles. The Weyerhaeuser company is planning to extend its line from five to seven miles northeast from the present terminal, further shortening the distance.
    The survey calls for a junction with the Weyerhaeuser line or transcontinental line at Klamath Falls.
    No figures on the estimated cost per mile were made public by general manager Owen.
    The report sets forth that "eventually a railroad will be built from Klamath County tapping the Dead Indian district, the Big Butte basin and the upper Rogue River Valley, shortening the distance east for fruit and lumber shipments."
Medford Mail Tribune, October 15, 1929, page 5


    MT. PITT, Oct. 26.--(Special.)--The closing of Camp No. 2 of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company was occasioned here last night for a big farewell party to employees of the camp and was enlivened by a variety of games and amusements. Radio music supplied by William Fickeise and wienies were roasted over a large bonfire, lighting up the surrounding woodland.
    The camp will be closed indefinitely, and as a result over 60 men will be out of employment. The majority of families have plans of staying in the vicinity in order that children who have started to the Mt. Pitt school may continue to give attention to their studies. The camp is located 12 miles above Butte Falls and is in the heart of the timber country at the base of Mt. Pitt.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 26, 1929, page 8


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Co. today received a wire that they were awarded a contract to furnish 10 additional cars of structural timbers for the Hetch Hetchy water power development by the department of public works, San Francisco. This makes 50 cars that the local company has furnished for the San Francisco water department in the past six months.
    The structural grade specified is selected for strength and durability and can only contain the minimum annular rings per inch. The lumber was inspected by a representative of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association and a certificate furnished as to its quality and tally.  
Medford Mail Tribune, November 16, 1929, page 2


    James H. Owen, general manager of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company returned yesterday from a nine day trip through the Middle West where he attended the annual meeting of the Owen-Oregon company directors at Eau Claire, Wis., and announced that his recommendation and reports on local mill improvements, and the proposed Owen-Oregon railroad from Butte Falls to a point near the Klamath County line, had been deferred to a later date for consideration.
    He said the general policy of the company would be "to keep step with President Hoover's plan for the maintenance of prosperity," and "that nothing gives the West such a black eye, in the mind of easterners, as exaggerated reports of forest fires.
    "I have received letters from friends hoping I would not get burned up in a forest fire," he said. "Their concern is due to the fact that a fire is burning on a small portion of our timber holdings, and it is doing more good than harm." He further stated that he had learned from railroad officials that reports of forest fires, in the East, yearly resulted in the cancellation of railroad reservations for tourist trips through the West." He favored press reports of forest fires of consequence "without the headlines being 'hotter' than the fires."
    General manager Owen reported that on his trip he heard many favorable reports on the Bosc campaign of the Winter Pear Committee in Detroit and that his company had completed arrangements for the distribution of 300 boxes of Medford Bosc and Comice pears to customers and friends throughout the land at Christmas time. This is an annual custom of the lumber company.
    "I found money 'easier' in the Middle West, and a lull in all lines of activities," said Mr. Owen, "and a disposition on the part of business and industry to do their share towards the maintenance of prosperity, as outlined by the President, and that the federal government should spend more of the surplus in the treasury for the carrying on of public work, without any dilly-dallying by Congress."
    He said that the lumber business generally was at its lowest ebb in many years, but with a willingness on the part of the mill owners to do their share. He said extensive federal work was the key to the situation, and the awakening of industry.
    During his trip Mr. Owen caught a cold, which kept him in his room in San Francisco, when he planned on attending the Oregon-St. Mary's football game Thanksgiving day. He still has the cold.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 4, 1929, page 5


    The welfare association of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, composed of employees of the company, will have Christmas trees for sale again this year. The trees were cut by the association members and will be on display at downtown points. The funds derived from the sale will be placed in the treasury of the association and used for the benefit of the employees of the company in cases not coming under the aid of the mill or state insurance provisions.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 5, 1929, page 3


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, James H. Owen, manager, yesterday formulated its winter operating plans, following a conference with employees.
    The logging camps in the Butte Falls district will close December 23 for the Christmas holidays and resume operations January 2.
    The local plant will close down for Christmas and New Year's and operate in between the holidays.
    In past years the company has closed down its plants and camp in mid-December for extended periods ranging from six to ten weeks.
     The new order will furnish approximately 250 men with employment during the dull season.
    General manager Owen said that the change was in accordance with the announced policy of the Owen-Oregon company to keep step with President Hoover's plan to keep industry moving and because the company itself felt it was unfair to the employees not to give them as much employment as possible when they needed it most. He said the operating costs in the winter were heavier than in other seasons, and that conditions might later force a four- or five-day week with a minimum output.
    H. S. Lovejoy of Janesville, Wis., a director and secretary of the Owen-Oregon company, spent yesterday and today in the city on his annual visit to the local plant. With James H. Owen, he leaves tonight for San Francisco.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 12, 1929, page 1


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company will close down their plant in this city tomorrow night for the holidays and will resume operations Monday, January 6, on a four-day-a-week basis, according to the present plans. If the lumber market justifies, a longer working week will follow. The logging camps in the Butte Falls district will also close down for the holidays.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 23, 1929, page 2


    The employees' relief committee of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company is especially gratified with the generous patronage on the part of Southern Oregon people during the recent sale of Christmas trees conducted by this organization. As a result of the very satisfactory sale of trees, the relief fund for Owen-Oregon employees was materially swelled, and the committee is anxious to express its appreciation for the support given the tree sale. The Christmas tree sale is an annual event with the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company employees, and this year it was far more successful than ever before.
    The employees' committee is also grateful to Mr. Owen, who donated the Christmas trees for the sale.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 26, 1929, page 2


    The Owen-Oregon lumber plant in this city is operating on a half-capacity basis, six days a week, as a precautionary measure against freezing temperature. In the near-zero weather of the recent storm, the crews were kept busy keeping the pipes open. As long as the hills are covered with snow, and low temperatures liable, the plant will operate, Sales Manager Gain Robinson said yesterday. Repairs are being made to half of the plant.
    Upstate mills are closed down on account of storm conditions, and the shutdown has reflected favorable to the local plant, with an increase in orders.
 Medford Mail Tribune, January 19, 1930, page 8
    PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 18.--(AP)--Officials of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association here today estimated the lumber industry of the Pacific Northwest Douglas fir region, which was slowly reviving production following a month of greatly reduced cutting in January, has been held to 20 percent of normal capacity because of heavy snow and continued freezing weather.
    Mills and logging camps in the fir districts, it was pointed out, are contracted to be operated through a winter of rainy weather and most of them cannot be run successfully during heavy snow or extreme cold weather.
    All Portland mills have been shut down for three and four days because of ice. Mills along the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington are similarly handicapped.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 19, 1930, page 8


    Thomas H. Mills of Portland, a practical and experienced lumber and mill expert, has been named assistant manager of the local plant of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company. He has assumed his new duties, and during the absence of James H. Owen, general manager, temporarily in Portland, is acting manager. Mr. Owen will be in Portland for some time to be near the bedside of Mrs. Owen, who recently underwent an operation and whose condition was reported today as highly favorable.
Medford Mail Tribune, February 3, 1930, page 3


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company will paint at once on the roof of its shipping shed a huge arrow pointing the way to the Medford municipal airport, James H. Owen, general manager of the company, said this morning. The lumber sign will be 75 feet long, in black and yellow colors, and in accordance with government aviation sign specifications. Owing to the size of the shipping shed, it has aerial prominence, and can be seen aloft at average height for a distance of from seven to ten miles.
    Through the efforts of Ben Alexander, a director of the Owen company and aviation enthusiast, the concern offered a year ago to paint the sign at their own expense and asked for details. The airport officials did not want the sign until the new field was in service, and there the matter rested.
    City Engineer Fred Scheffel and manager Owen held a conference this morning with the understanding that the painters would paint the sign as soon as the federal specifications could be secured.
    The airport committee will issue a circular at once, for distribution throughout the aviation fields of the land, giving full details and particulars for reaching the local airport, and also note local landmarks on the map to aid lone pilots.
    During the past fortnight, aviators have experienced difficulty in locating the new field, and instead have landed at the fairgrounds field. Yesterday afternoon a fleet of five army planes circled the valley several times in an effort to find the airport and finally landed at the former field.
    An effort will also be made to have arrows pointing in the general direction of the airport, painted on the roofs of downtown buildings as further aids to aerial navigation.  
Medford Mail Tribune, March 27, 1930, page 1


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company went on a full shift of nine hours a day this morning and expect to start operations on a double shift in a short time. The mill has been operating on a part-time basis.
    It was planned to start the plant on a double shift today, but the change is held in abeyance pending further developments in the coast lumber situation.
    James. H. Owen, general manager of the plant, is in Del Monte, California attending a conference of California mill interests. They hope to work out a plan for full-time operations and to bring the lumber business out of the doldrums.
    Both the logging camps of the Owen-Oregon company in the Butte Falls district are operating.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 15, 1930, page 5


    Painters have about completed the installation of a huge orange colored sign on the roof of the shipping shed of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, and henceforth strange aviators will not fly aimlessly over the city looking for the airport. The sign is to be noted on all aviation maps of the air service and private air lines. It is the largest sign of its kind in the state.
    The sign is visible for 15 miles aloft, and half that distance from elevated portions of the valley. It was painted so as to leave a flat impression, and no birdman will have difficulty in deciphering the writing on the roof. An arrow points to the airport with the legend "2 miles."
    If government regulations will permit, arrows will be painted at each end, denoting the general direction of Portland and San Francisco. Some aviation experts locally hold too much matter in the sign is apt to be confusing. Government regulations provide that signs be brief and simple, with no advertising near.
    The sign was painted through the courtesy of Ben Alexander of Los Angeles, an aviation enthusiast, and director of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company. Alexander expects to fly in his own plane to this city the coming summer and view the sign from on high.   
Medford Mail Tribune, April 22, 1930, page 3


    High officials of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, including John S. Owen of Wausau, Wis., president, met here today in the annual meeting of the board of directors. This session is usually held in the East but is combined this year with an inspection of the local plant and a visit to the holdings of the concern in Southern Oregon and Del Norte County, California.
    Members of the party are: M. C. Woodward of Silverton, A. R. Owen of Owen, Wis., H.  S. Lovejoy of Janesville, Wis., secretary; George E. Foster, Wausau, Wis., and William Carson of Burlington, Iowa. All are directors.
    They will remain here until Wednesday, when a visit will be paid to Crescent City, Calif.
    John S. Owen is a yearly visitor to this city and valley and is as spry as ever despite his years. He arrived yesterday and spent the afternoon driving over the valley. He will remain a week or 10 days.
    "The city has grown since I was here a year ago," he said. "I see many new buildings and homes, and that is a healthy sign."
    He expressed delight that Medford had shown an increase in population, with prospect of passing the 11,000 mark.
    Mr. Owen noted without comment that the flower plot in front of the Owen-Oregon office, on the Pacific Highway, was in about the same shape as last year, when he directed that it be put in a high state of cultivation.
    James H. Owen, general manager of the company, said there was no significance attached to the gathering of officials, "and just a sort of a get-together to talk over business and renew acquaintances."
Medford Mail Tribune, May 12, 1930, page 1


    The plant of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company in this city will operate one shift of nine hours all summer, James H. Owen, general manager, announced yesterday.
    The concern will also operate one logging plant, as at present, in the Butte Falls district.
    This means the employment of between 300 and 350 men. Reports were circulated throughout the county that the Owen-Oregon company contemplated a complete shutdown, and some uneasiness has been expressed among employees relative to a complete [shutdown].
    No such step is contemplated, according to manager Owen, though, in common with the lumber industry of the Pacific Coast, curtailments are in force. In some of the mills of the Northwest a complete shutdown has been ordered pending a change for the better in the lumber industry.
    "We will operate all summer with one shift on a nine-hour basis," manager Owen said, "barring the unexpected. Curtailments have been made."
    It was the original intention to operate two shifts during the summer months in the local plants, but the unsatisfactory condition of the lumber market caused a change in plans.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 1, 1930, page 1


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company will start operations next Monday at Camp No. 2 in the Butte Falls district. The camp has been shut down for a month. Resumption will furnish employment for 75 men, General Manager J. H. Owen said this morning.
    It is the intention of the Owen-Oregon company to keep operating on the present one-shift basis all summer and fall.
Medford Mail Tribune, July 23, 1930, page 8


    OWEN OREGON CAMP TWO, Butte Falls, Ore., Aug. 7.--(Spl.)--Camp Two has begun its second week, opening with a full crew of men, totaling 77.
    The camp is furnishing twenty carloads of pine daily.
    Mrs. George West and friends visited her husband here Sunday.
    L. C. Richmond reports huckleberries are getting ripe but are not as plentiful as last year
Medford Mail Tribune, August 7, 1930, page 8


    R. S. Chandler, engineer on the Owen-Oregon railroad, is in the Sacred Heart Hospital this afternoon undergoing examination in the surgery for serious burns received in an accident today. Chandler was brought to Medford from Butte Falls by Dr. J. C. Hayes and W. P. Stewart of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company. Chandler was burned around the hands and legs. The accident occurred when a can of paraffin with waste on top exploded.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 13, 1930, page 8


    Seven additional fires were reported this morning burning in the Owen-Oregon timber in the Butte Falls district, six having been reported yesterday, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The seven new fires started this morning southeast of Big Butte.
    A fire was also reported burning in timber one mile northeast of Gold Hill, in the Wimer district. Five firefighters were to be sent to the Owen-Oregon territory today.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 3, 1930, page 5


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company has offered a reward of $500 for the arrest and conviction of the firebug who set the fire that swept last week through the Willow Creek district near Butte Falls, causing an estimated damage of $20,000. Reward notices have been posted in the Butte Falls section.
    The fire is now under control with a fire trail surrounding it and guards patrolling the area to prevent a resumption of the flames. A watch is also being maintained for new man-set fires. When the fire was at its height, evidence was found of attempts to start new blazes.
    As a result of the incendiarism, $10,000 worth of logs ready for hauling to the mill were destroyed, fives trestles of the Medford logging railroad and a large number of ties burned. The flames also caused some damage in the merchantable timber.
    The local plant of the Owen-Oregon company resumed regular operations today. The mill was closed down last week and the workmen taken to Butte Falls to fight fire.
    The rains of yesterday, with promise of more, will reduce the fire hazard in the hills.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 8, 1930, page 1


    James H. Owen, general manager of the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company, returned yesterday from a trip to the East, where he attended a meeting of the executive committee of the Owen Lumber Company at Wausau, Wis., and a trip to San Francisco, where he attended a meeting of the West Coast Lumbermen last week.
    Mr. Owen said: "Conditions in the East are not as bad as they have been painted. There was not enough optimism in the country after 10 fat years to tide us over a short period of depression, so the money went into hiding. It has started to come out of hiding and so times are improving slow but sure. There has been too much pessimism."
    Contrary to local rumors, Mr. Owen said that it was his intention to operate the local plant on one full shift basis in the mill and one in the woods all winter, as at present, in order to keep as many men at work as possible.
    "The lumber business has hit the bottom, and it is the opinion of lumber men that it is now on the rise. It has improved. By operating this winter on a curtailed production basis, the lumber market will be on an even keel by spring," said Mr. Owen.
    He said there were no new developments about the proposed Owen-Oregon railroad extension from Butte Falls to Klamath Falls. A crew of surveyors are engaged now in making minor surveys and laying out new lines. This work is in connection with making it a thorough job of the first survey a year ago and to and to clear up details pertaining to it.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 22, 1930, page 1


    The Owen-Oregon lumber plant in this city will close down December 23 for the Christmas holidays for two weeks and will resume operations on the present basis early in January.
    Annual repairs to the mill and routine work such as cleaning of the boilers will be carried on. The management said it would keep as many of the employees as possible at work, but some would have to be laid off.
    The timber operations will also be shut down for the holidays.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 19, 1930, page 5


    The Owen-Oregon Lumber Company has resumed curtailed operations on a three-day-a-week basis, and will govern future operations by demand for lumber.
    The plant is now using a single shift of workers, three days a week, in the planing mill, sawmill, and on the railroad.
    Fifty percent of the help is now engaged in mill and office, and 50 percent of the normal cut of lumber is being made.
    If trade conditions justify, the plant will be placed on a full-time basis.
    None of the logging camps of the concern are in operation, and are not expected to start until March 1, and not then unless improvement is noted in lumber market conditions.
    The plant is now sawing its reserve supply of logs, at the loading stations int he woods and in the mill pond.
Medford Mail Tribune, February 9, 1931, page 1