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Onalaska - WA
COOKBOOK: Rememberances & Recipes, 1975
COOKBOOK: History and Favorite Recipes of Onalaskans, 1997
Onalaska HorizonsOnalaska Log Building School
My Hometown: Onalaska, WA
I was raised in Onalaska WA, and came back here to raise my own children, as many of the townsfolk have also done. Four generations in my family have gone to the same schools here in "Ony", starting with my grandma.
"It's a great day to be a logger" (this school moto holds true).
Some of my school memories: In 1983 Onalaska was put on the map when we became the State "B" Basketball Champs. Then in 1986, we did the same for State "B" Football Champs!
History of a Logging Town Called Onalaska
The mill property of the Onalaska Company is one of the most complete plants of the kind in the state and the business controlled by the company ranks with the foremost enterprises of this character in the northwest. Active in the management of the company's interests in Onalaska is William A. Carlisle, who was born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1888, a son of William Carlisle, president of the Carlisle-Pennell Lumber Company of Atchison, Kansas, the owner of the business at Carlisle, Washington, conducted under the name of the Copalis Lumber Company.
This company was organized in 1912, at which time a modern lumber mill was erected with a capacity of one hundred and seventy-five thousand feet. A twelve-machine shingle mill was also built and the wise promotion of the industry there has led to the attainment of substantial success. The company has its own logging camps, its logging road and splendid equipment of every kind and employs about three hundred and fifty men. The company at first put up a small mill with which they sawed the lumber to build the present mill, which was completed on the 1st of May, 1916.
The mill property is run in part by electricity and the planning mill is run entirely by electricity. The company also built a large shingle mill equipped with six Sumner machines, having a capacity of two hundred and forty thousand shingles daily. This mill is a model of its kind, operated entirely by electricity and equipped with blowers, which remove all dust and render it a pleasant place in which to work. The company operates its own logging camps and has about three and one-half miles of logging railroad with standard equipment. They employed three hundred and fifty men, engaged in the manufacture of both rough and finished lumber. The large steam plant generates its own electricity, with which the plant is operated, and also supplies light for the town of Onalaska.
Logger Pride!
Where is Onalaska?
- Mill Closed in 1938
The mill was forced to close in 1938 as a result of the Great Depression, and the town of 1,000 dwindled to only a few hundred residents today (memories from 1975 historian) - the town has been growing since. - Moving Picture Theater
The company built dwellings, which are of four and five rooms. The five-room houses all contain bathrooms. The lumber that was used in the construction of these dwellings was all sawed in the mill. - The company also built a store and there is a meat market, a barber shop, a pool hall and a moving picture theater. A regular physician is in attendance, furnished by the Hospital Association.
- 1920's Schoolhouse
- There is a schoolhouse with four teachers and an attendance of one hundred and sixty pupils. The town covers one hundred acres of ground. There is a gravity water system, water being secured from sixteen springs and supplied by pipes to each house, while in every department of the mill there is also running water.
Located 9 miles east of Napavine on SR 508.
The town was founded in 1914 by the Carlisle Lumber Co, which built the largest sawmill in the county.
There is some confusion over the source of its name. One source says its name came from Unalaska, in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Another source says the Carlisle Lumber Co. named it after Onalaska, Wisconsin.
Cookbook & History of Onalaska
The first edition of Rememberances and Recipes; compiled and published in 1975. It contains 128 pages, with 40 of them dedicated to history & photos. Read more.
The second edition: History and Favorite Recipes of Onalaskans; compiled by Linda Hanson, 1997. It contains 291 pages, with the first 100 of them dedicated to memories, history & photos. Read more.
Food For Thought: Why is it those who can wait 3 hours for a fish to bite, can't wait 5 minutes for dinner?