Kalama Steadily Going to Front
Cowlitz County Seat, First
Railway Terminal on Columbia, on UP Grade.
New Industries Thriving
Power Plant, Hatchery and Fine Water and School Systems Combine to Aid Progress Huge
Mill to Be Built, Is Promise

The Morning Oregonian
November 9, 1915
By Addison Bennett

This is Kalama. The county seat of Cowlitz county, the first railroad terminal on the Columbia river practically the place where the first rails on the great Northern Pacific system of railroads were laid. It was between here and Goble that the trains on that road were, for many years ferried across the Columbia river. In those days both Kalama and Goble were important places, places where much business was transacted. 

But long before that, away back in the early 1850s, perhaps in the late 1840s, Kalama was a city of great promise. Indeed, in the early days of Portland, there were two towns on the great Columbia that were running Portland close race for what might be called the metropolitan cup; that is, as to which should be the metropolis of the future. These towns were St. Helens, on the Oregon shore, and Kalama, on the Washington side.

Kalama Passes Terminal Stage

Of course, I am writing on information and belief, for one would have to delve deep into the early histories of the Northwest to get the early history of Kalama, and then more than likely get only little of it. But there are certain facts, such as those relating to the early railroad history of the town, that are well known; other facts and alleged facts I have gleaned from the old-timers of the city. After the railroad was constructed down the river from Vancouver, which was, of course, after the bridging of the Columbia at Vancouver, Kalama was no longer a terminal. 

Then, even before that, the sawmill business had developed until there were over 1,000 people on the payrolls of the sawmills and their logging camps. When the slump came in the lumber business, it did not look like Kalama was to be hurt greatly. But one of the concerns failed and the other mill burned and Kalama received a blow that would have killed almost  any other city of its size in the state. 

I might write a week about the people of Kalama and tell less than I can tell by saying that, in spite of every mishap to Kalama of the past, the city has gone always gradually forward. Not always in the way of population, for when the big mill of the Mountain Timber Company was burned, a good many men had to leave here to get employment, and eventually many families followed.

Upward Move Slow but Substantial. 

But in every material way the town always kept on the upward move slowly, to be sure, but substantially. The prime factor in making of the old Kalama into the Kalama of today was the street paving, turning the ancient, almost impassable mud roads into as fine modern streets as any little city of, say 3,000 has. But Kalama has not more than half that many citizens or perhaps not greatly in excess of 1,500. I have taken great interest during my visit in what I might call the Imus family, or the Bulletin family. Four brothers; L. F., A. H., W. H. and D. D. Imus came here from Kansas in 1889 and established the Kalama Bulletin a weekly newspaper, that has run ever since. 

It has not only kept running, but it has kept making money, having in its career of 26 years laid the foundations for four fortunes. L. F. Imus retired from the newspaper business several years ago and went into the banking business, and is the president of the Cowlitz County Bank. A. H. was admitted to the bar and has been practicing law here with great success. He also has been active in politics, and is the present State senator from this district, while he and his friends are sure there are greater honors in store for him.

Younger Brother Obtains Paper.

W. H. Imus has just sold the newspaper outfit to the younger brother of the four. D. D., W. H. having other large interests to look after. For the present he will go onto a small piece of fine Cowlitz county soil he owns and demonstrate to a nicety the possibilities of the hog, the cow and the Plymouth Rock chicken. In the meantime D. D. will build up a reputation and a competence in the old printing office. In many ways Kalama offers food for the prowler after early facts; perhaps it would sound better to say the delver into early history. 

Take one of the two large hotels, the Kalama. Away back in the early 1870s, in the days perhaps of Villard, when it looked like Kalama would become a big city, a good hotel building was put up. Along came the head functionaries of the Northern Pacific and gobbled it up for an office building, filled it full of bookkeepers, clerks, officials, it became almost over night the main operative headquarters of a great and growing railroad system. However, it should have been said that the railroad people moved it from its original building site to a point down near the northern end of the old ferry."

Ferry Later Discontinued.

Later came the discontinuance of the ferry, the clerks were sent to other points, the old hotel was empty, tenantless. Where for years had been the incessant clatter of the wheels  of commerce came the spider and spun his web, came the moth and found her hiding place. Then the railroad people sold the old structure, it was moved to its present location and became once more the Hotel Kalama. In mentioning the Bulletin. I did not say it was the only newspaper of Kalama. The Cowlitz County News is a sheet established in 1907. 

It is owned and run by R. H. Mitchell and is a good, newsy paper. From the looks of the pages of the News and the Bulletin one can see that the merchants of the place are a wide-awake set of men, for the columns of the two papers just bristle with well displayed advertisements. The Cowlitz County State Bank is a good index of the prosperity and solidity of the town. It has a capital of $25,000. a surplus of $10,000 and undivided profits of $11,938. 

Its deposits are $117.716.68. J. P. Atkin is cashier and L. F. Imus president. It shows up a town to good advantage to publish a bank statement like that. As a rule almost universally, where a bank can pile up a surplus equal to its capital, the merchants and businessmen are prosperous. There is one large fish concern here, the Doty Fish Company. It does a business of about $100,000 a year shipping fresh and salted salmon. There are about 130 fishermen and their families dependent upon this industry for several months each year. 

Just up the Kalama river, which flows into the Columbia just north of town, there is a fish hatchery which is one of the largest in the Northwest, turning out about 12,000,000 salmon fry annually. On the same river, a few miles above the hatchery, is the power plant of the Washington-Oregon Corporation, which makes the "juice" which furnishes light and power for Centralia, Chehalis, Winlock, Castle Rock, Kelso, Rainier, Goble, Carroll, Prescott and Woodland. 

Kalama, like all of the Washington cities hereabouts, has a good school system and good buildings. The student who graduates from the high school here can go out into the world knowing that he is just as well grounded educationally as the graduate of any other high school under the sun. Kalama has a fine water system and the town is well lighted, has a fine lot of buildings in the business section, with large stocks of goods, while the residence section on the highlands back of the main street shows up as well as any residence district of many cities of twice the size.

The people here just now are particularly jubilant because the trial is going on between the sawmill people and the insurance companies, the latter never having paid the fire loss incurred by the complete destruction of mill plant and stock. The sum involved is now nearly $365,000. It is promised that when the loss is settled the company will erect a mill which it will take 500 hands to operate and as modern a mill as can be built. Just why for more than two years the insurance companies have not only refused to pay the loss where there was not even a suspicion of arson or fraud of any kind is something of a mystery. Not only have they failed to pay the loss, they have never as much as made an offer towards a compromise, although the mill people have proved a loss upwards of $400,000.