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The Skamania County Pioneer, Stevenson, WA.
Part 1 on page 1, April 14, 1939
Part 2 on page 3, April 21, 1939

"HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT OF THE WIND RIVER VALLEY" By Henry Metzger

In the late seventies and early eighties, Thomas Monhagan, A.S. Estabrook, A.J. Tucker and Isadore St. Martin, together with a few others settled on the west side of Wind River in the lower Wind River Valley. H. Murphy, George Miller, Jos. Robbins and McKeighan settled on the east, near the mouth of Wind River. These were the earliest actual settlers in this valley when I came here in 1883.
In 1880 A.S. Estabrook built the first sawmill in Wind River Valley, a water power concern on Carson Creek. About 1881 a company built a good sized steam sawmill where the town of Carson now stands. Timber was cut from the Soda Springs. With the crea-

The following column appeared next in the article. It doesn't seem to "fit", and I can't determine what's missing or where it should go.
1,200 acres of the lower valley flat, and much of it was secured by placing "fake" or temporary settlers on the land until the timber was cut. The logs were dragged to the mill with ox teams and the lumber flumed to the Columbia river and shipped to The Dalles by sailboat. In 1886 this sawmill left the valley and permanent settlers took up the logged over land on the lower flat; the Zurchers in 1885, the H. Metzgers, L. Imans, R. Glurs, Gattons and others in 1887. In 1889 O.A. Crow, George Olmstead, Horace and C.C. Wetherell and others settled across Wind River on the middle flat. In the early nineties settlers' cabins and had been built in the woods as far up the valley as…

tion of the Columbia National Forest further homesteading of the upper valley was arrested. Almost all the settlers of the middle and upper flats sold out to the Wind River Lumber Company, about 1900, for an approximate average price of $900.00 per 160 acres.
Those settlers with families encountered much hardship in homesteading because their families had to live on the land for the five years while single persons might remain a away from their land part of the time.
Since the soil from the steamboat landing up to the upper flat is of clay composition, several weeks of the volunteer work with required to build a road suitable for travel during the wet season. Across the flats of the valley proper, where the soil is gravelly, road building (such as was needed) was comparatively easy but the crossing of Wind River canyon, three miles north of Carson, was a difficult task. In 1890 the first bridge was built across Wind River Canyon one-half mile upstream from the present cable bridge, by donation labor. Two years later this bridge was washed away and for many months a cable crossing was the only means of getting into or out of the upper valley. About 1910 a delegation of citizens went before the County Commissioners and asked for the construction of a bridge where the cable bridge now stands. After much discussion and many delays the commissioners ordered the building of the suspension bridge in 1912. The first estimate of its cost was $8,000.00, but by the time it was ready for traffic it had cost $17,000.00, and since that time steel towers and other improvements have increased this cost, but it has long since paid for itself in convenience to travel. John Isham, better known as "Hi John," drove the first team across this bridge.
In 1899 a wagon road was built to Stevenson, largely through donation labor, and for the first time Wind River Valley was connected with the outside world by a wagon road.

Part 2

"History of Settlement of the Wind River Valley"
By Henry Metzger

The first schoolhouse in the valley was built by the sawmill company. It was a miserable shack, built of rough timber, roof and all. It was braced by putting heavy planks against it on the outside. School classes met in this building until 1889. About 1900 the schoolhouse, which is still in use and is known as the Carson Community Hall, was constructed. The present four-room schoolhouse was built in 1908. School was also taught for many years in a schoolhouse on the middle flat and in one near Camp Four. Around 1890 the teacher was paid $25.00 per month and boarded with the parents of the schoolchildren. Three or four months of school constituted a school year.
Several times when a death occurred in the settlement and there was no money to pay funeral expenses a few of the men would build a coffin, dig the grave and, as there was no church or preacher at that time, one of the settlers would make an address suitable for the occasion, read a prayer over the grave and thus give the departed a respectable burial without cost.
Prior to 1893, the nearest store and postoffice was at Cascade Locks, Oregon. To get there and back by rowboat was to say the least, very inconvenient. In that year, A.G. Tucker, an old bachelor, started a store in a miserable, tumble-down shack which was built by the sawmill company. The citizens of Carson applied for a postoffice and were granted a twice-a-week mail service. Mr. Tucker, an ardent admirer of Kit Carson, suggested the name "Carson" for the post office and the name was adopted without objection. After one year the postal inspector notified Mr. Tucker, the postmaster, that he could no longer maintain the postoffice in the building in use then, where upon Mr. Tucker put up a half-way decent building for his store and postoffice. The postoffice, in its first year of existence, was in a building so primitive that it even had a wooden chimney.
About 1900, good stores and residences began to be built and by about 1910 the town of Carson boasted of 5 hotels, including St. Martins and Shipherds, 1 restaurant, 4 stores, 2 large livery barns, 1 blacksmith, 1 barber, 2 butchershops, 1 bakery, 1 weekly newspaper (for a short time only), 1 billiard hall and dance hall, a brass band, 2 schoolhouses, 1 church and when they railroad was built -- 7 saloons. Four of these saloons were in town, 1 was at Shipherd's Springs, 1 at St. Martin Springs and one near the steamboat landing. The building of the Northbank railroad in 1907 brought a land boom to the valley and uncleared stump and brush land sold for as much as $100 per acre on the lower flat.
Before we had a postoffice here, Carson was known as "Sprague Landing." The early settlers got out cordwood, shipped it to The Dalles by sailboat and brought back groceries and supplies for a whole year, or as near that as was possible.
The earliest settlers engaged in stock raising along the rich bottom land near the Columbia river where they found easy clearing and often natural meadows and good winter pasture. Their location also gave them a short haul for timber products as the forest then reached to the water's edge. The upland settlers, who came in the late eighties, had less fertile soil, more difficult clearing problems and longer hauls to market their timber products.
As all the early settlers had little, if any money and had no chance to make more than a living, the development of the valley was rather slow until about 1900, or soon thereafter, at which time hotels were built at both the St. Martin's and Shipherd's Hot Springs, 16 miles up the valley. The Wind River Lumber Company started logging on a large scale in the upper valley and the forestry station at Hemlock was started. All these concerns contributed towards the rapid development of Wind River Valley.