A Mill, a Dam and 200,000 Yards of Dirt: Ione’s Building Boom
Work has begun in earnest on the big mill, with a dinkey railroad, steam shovel and teams moving earth for the foundation, dam and lumber yards.
Work has begun in earnest on the building of the big mill. The concrete work of the foundation was begun yesterday. The machine shop building is completed, the boilers set and steam raised. A “dinkey” road is being built by Jones Onserud, who have a contract for the removal of some 200,000 yards of earth. Two dinkey engines and 21 cars are already here. A third dinkey engine and a steam shovel will arrive the first of the week. One hundred thousand yards will be removed by the steam shovel and 100,000 yards by teams. Part of the waste is for the filling of the big dam and a part is the removal of quite a hill and the leveling up of the millsite and lumber yards. — Ione Record.
“Part of the waste is for the filling of the big dam and a part is the removal of quite a hill and the leveling up of the millsite and lumber yards.”
The scale of the excavation—200,000 yards moved by steam shovel and teams—shows how industrial logging remade Washington’s river towns. Ione’s mill project was part of the same boom-and-bust resource economy that still shapes the region.
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