The Ione Mill Dam Gave Way, Taking Half a Million Feet of Logs With It
A Tuesday afternoon break at the Panhandle Lumber Co. dam sent a 35-foot head of water through the canyon and delayed the mill for months.
The big dam of the Panhandle Lumber Co. at Ione broke Tuesday afternoon at 4 o'clock, entailing a loss of approximately $50,000. This will delay the starting of the big mill for perhaps two months.
The high water in the river will make it difficult to repair the damage. One half million feet of logs were lost, and the big barge was taken from its moorings and through the canyon.
The dam had a 35-foot head and was more than a quarter of a mile wide. The water was backed up Muddy creek for nearly a mile. Reconstruction will begin immediately.
“The dam had a 35-foot head and was more than a quarter of a mile wide.”
Dam failures and industrial accidents still make headlines today, from aging infrastructure to the consequences for workers and local economies. In 1910, a single break at a lumber company dam could idle a mill town for months—a reminder of how tightly rural Washington's fortunes were tied to timber and water.
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