Goldendale Mill Lost to Fire
Volunteer firefighters saved the surrounding lumber yard, but the Beckett mill plant was completely destroyed by a boiler room blaze.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The buildings and machinery of the E. C. Trost planing mill plant at Goldendale, Wash., were destroyed by fire Monday. The plant is known as the Beckett mill, and the owner, E. C. Trost, discovered the fire in the boiler room. The volunteer fire department responded quickly and was able to save all the lumber in the yard. The loss is estimated at $7,000, with insurance of $3,000. Mr. Trost said that the plant would be rebuilt immediately.
“The volunteer fire department responded quickly, and was able to save all the lumber in the yard.”
Mill fires were a persistent hazard in small Washington towns, often marking the end of a local industry's era. While the mill is gone, the resilience shown by Trost—vowing to rebuild immediately—was the standard response of small-town entrepreneurs across the Big Bend.
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