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The Enterprise, White Salmon, WA., April 8, 1938, page 9

Trout Lake-Glenwood Junction Thriving Center
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B.Z. CORNERS GROWS BEYOND DREAM OF ITS FIRST SETTLER

Sixty Families Now Living in District. Plan Community House

The B.Z. Corners community is experiencing "growth cramps" these days and has reached the stage when the people are talking over plans of building a community house. They need a hall where gatherings can be held. The proposed community building would serve as a church, Sunday school and a meeting place for the various men's organizations and woman's clubs.

60 Families in District

There are now 60 families living in the district and new residences are being gradually added. Chet Gross moved in his new home across from the Jaymar mill last Saturday. B.Z. Corners, only very few years ago, was just a junction point for the Glenwood and Trout Lake roads. It was a wilderness of heavy virgin timber until Wm. Biesanz of White Salmon settled here, built a fine residence and service station. Many wondered at that time where he was doing but Mr. Biesanz evidently knew, for now he has not only to enlarge his gasoline station, but the 17 cabins he has erected are always filled. While in White Salmon last Saturday he told the Enterprise reporter that he has a waiting list in his cabins.

Mill and Orchard Work

B.Z. Corners grew slowly at first but with the erection of the Jaymar sawmill a few years ago, families came in, found work there, built homes and cleared the timber. Today that section for several miles north and south, and even east across the White Salmon river, boasts of many nice homes. The big 400 acre pear orchard of the Mt. Adams Orchards Co., which practically adjoins this thriving community, also provides jobs for the people of B.Z. Corners. During harvest time the big orchard employs 175 people for over a month, and in the spring pruning operations also provide work. Logging in that section also insures a good payroll. The logged-off land has been found to be especially fertile, as shown by the thriving garden tracts near the numerous new homes.

B.Z Corners 8 Years Old

Mr. Biesanz "blazed the trail" for the present B.Z. Corners eight years ago. People traveling that way those days did not envy his job of clearing the land of the big stumps and brush. So it was, that soon afterwards the people referred to that section as B.Z. Corners, nicknamed after Mr. Biesanz. Of the original 60 acres, he has sold 22 tracts, ranging from one to five acres.

School Kids Fill Bus

At B.Z. Corners, the mail stage from White Salmon, leaves 23 private mail sacks in the one central box at the forks of the road, besides 43 other mail sacks for families living in a distance of one and a half miles from the McIlroy place to the Jaymar mill. Should you happen to be at B.Z. Corners early in the morning when the Wyers Stage Co., school bus picks up the children for Husum and White Salmon schools, you would see a lot of children. They nearly fill the big 60 passenger bus.

New Business Attracted

The second place of business to be built at B.Z. Corners was the confectionery and beer parlors of Earl Verley, who a year or so later erected "The Logs," the county's finest dance hall. After a few years with a few new families settled in the district, another new building was erected for a grocery store which is now opened and operated by Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Russell, who are doing a fine business.
Then Ed Krall put up a fine building in which he operates a pool room, providing a recreation center for the district.
B.Z. Corners also boasts of a machine shop, a new business place in charge of Harley Fordyce.

Gross Addition

Across the White Salmon river from the "Corners" there is the Gross Addition, named after Abe Gross, who had purchased some acreage and built the first home. Today the Gross addition to B.Z. Corners boasts of nine homes on tracts scattered from the river along Gilmer creek. A water system, tapping a spring a half mile up Gilmer Creek, provides the addition settlers with a fine water supply.