The Fidelity Mill Goes Night-and-Day, and a Free Ferry Fills With Workers
Newport's new Fidelity sawmill reached 60,000 feet a day, started a night shift, and put about 100 men to work—while a free ferry brought mill hands and ranchers into town.
The new Fidelity mill is now working in fairly good order, cutting about 60,000 feet in ten hours. It is expected that when the machinery gets thoroughly in running order there will be no difficulty in reaching a cut of 75,000 in ten hours, which is the capacity for which the mill is planned.
Monday evening a night shift was started and the mill is now running 20 hours daily. A temporary electric light equipment has been installed, which will be used until the arrival of the big engine and dynamo, which will furnish light for the plant and power for the planing mill.
Finishing touches are being put on the boiler and engine rooms, which are being built of brick. A big timber deck is being built at the north end of the mill, and the driveway from the sorting deck to the piling yards has been planked.
About 100 men are now employed and the force will be increased later when the plant gets to running to its full capacity. Work on the building of the planing mill will soon be started. A railroad track scales has arrived and will be placed in position.
The free ferry to the mill is now running smoothly and is receiving a large patronage. Besides the mill men many ranchers living across the river are making more frequent trips to town and others are coming here to do their trading who formerly went to Priest River. The hours of free service are from 6 a. m. to 7 p. m.
“About 100 men are now employed and the force will be increased later when the plant gets to running to its full capacity.”
In 1909 a sawmill running a night shift was a civic event: it meant paychecks, a ferry schedule, and a fight for the trade of ranchers across the river. The Fidelity mill's free ferry even redirected shoppers away from Priest River, showing how industrial payrolls could reshape a whole borderland economy. Newport's timber economy is long gone, but the competition for family-wage jobs and cross-river traffic remains familiar.
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