The Suspicious Fire at Hartley’s Logging Dam
A dam on Stillwater Creek burned one mile above its junction with Olequa Creek, with arson suspected and loss set at $400. The owner was already in a Supreme Court fight over fishermen and the dam’s gates.
OLEQUA, July 22.—[Special.]—The Hartley sawmill dam, situated on Stillwater Creek, one mile above the junction of the Olequa and Stillwater creeks, was totally destroyed by fire this morning. It is thought to be of incendiary origin. The total loss is about $400. There has been considerable litigation in regard to the dam in the last three years caused by some fishermen closing the gates while fishing during the early part of December, 1891, and the case is now in the state supreme court. The loss will be heavy upon J.S. Hartley, the owner, as he has logged on an extensive scale until two years ago.
“It is thought to be of incendiary origin.”
The Hartley dam fire is a small incident with a very Northwest plot: a logging dam, a salmon stream, and a legal fight over who controls the water. Then as now, conflicts between timber and fish were rarely just about one structure—they were about access and regulation. The $400 loss is modest, but the arson suspicion and the Supreme Court case show how quickly a rural resource dispute could become a local flashpoint.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.