The East Parcel: Bloedel-Donovan Lumber Mills

A previous post showed a map from 1916, in which Lake Whatcom Realty Co. is shown as the owner of the East Parcel. A new map found for 1929, posted here, shows Lake Whatcom Log Co. as the owner, and a conversation with Jeff Jewell at the Whatcom Photo Archives suggests that these two companies were probably related.

Lake Whatcom Logging Co. was partially backed by Julius Bloedel and J.J. Donovan, and the company  purchased numerous tracts of land throughout the region, eventually controlling "practically all the best timber in the area," according to this article. When Bloedel and Donovan bought out their third partner's shares in Lake Whatcom Logging Co., it (and its land holdings) became part of the Bloedel-Donovan Lumber Mills company.

This explains why Bloedel-Donovan was the owner on record when the East Parcel of what is now the Point was platted into Shallow Shores Road. As to why Bloedel-Donovan took this action, a look at its Statement of Profit & Loss covering the period 1920 to 1932 provides a clue:

Source: George Loggie W. Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies

After being profitable throughout the 1920s, the company suddenly started bleeding red. In a note to the P&L, the company reported, "The lumber industry in this region has been menaced by an ever-increasing tax on timber and timber lands. The timber owner has been forced to liquidate his holdings faster than normal consumption demands, which has resulted in a virtual confiscation by the tax levying bodies."

Having likely "liquidated" its holdings on the south end of Lake Samish, Bloedel-Donovan evidently decided to plat the land adjacent to the lake into Shallow Shores Road in 1932. It will be interesting to learn who the first owners of the platted lots were.

 

A few more owners of the West Parcel: E.E. Scott and J.H. Jenkins

A visit to the Northwest Regional Branch of the Washington State Archives last week revealed that the West Parcel of the Point changed hands a few more times than previously thought.

E.E. Scott

When Thomas McTighe, the original homesteader, died in 1909, he evidently died intestate, as his estate, including his land at Lake Samish, came under the administration of F.J. Barlow of the State of Washington.

On April 22, 1910, F.J. Barlow executed an administrator's deed to sell the Lake Samish property to E.E. Scott for $3,000, as shown in the pages below from the deed volume.

Source of both images: Washington State Archives, Northwest Regional Branch

According to Lottie Roeder Roth's History of Whatcom County Volume 2, E.E. Scott was born in Kansas. After working in the lumber business in Iowa and North Dakota, he came to Washington and eventually settled in Bellingham in 1906, where he became sales manager for Whatcom Falls Mill Company.

George Loggie

Whatcom Falls Mill Company was owned by George W. Loggie, whom we know owned the West Parcel of the Point in 1916. And in fact it was Scott who sold it to him. On May 10, 1910, less than three weeks after Scott purchased McTighe's Lake Samish land for $3,000, he sold it to George Loggie for "One dollar and other considerations in hand paid."

Presumably, Scott procured the property on behalf of his boss in the first place, and was compensated for it via those "other considerations" obliquely mentioned in the deed.

J.H. Jenkins

Another new owner name was discovered in a 1929 map from the Whatcom Photo Archives, which shows that the West Parcel of the Point was owned by someone named J.H. Jenkins.

Source: Whatcom Photo Archives

Corroborating information about a J.H. Jenkins in Bellingham or Whatcom County has so far been hard to come by. None of the Bellingham city directories of the period show a J.H. Jenkins, for example.

Another trip to the Washington State Archives should be able to tell us if Loggie sold the property to Jenkins, and if Jenkins then sold it to Einar Erickson (the next owner we know about based on a 1934 map), or whether there were any other interim owners.

Platting of Shallow Shores Road, Part 2

Further to the earlier post about the platting of Shallow Shores, Whatcom County Public Works has come through with the Shallow Shores plat map from 1932, which marks the official creation of Shallow Shores Road (called Shallow Shores Drive at the time). The plat encompassed the East Parcel, which was originally designated as school land.

According to the dedication on the plat map, the land was owned by Bloedel-Donovan Lumber Mills in 1932:

Know all men by these presents: That the Bloedel-Donovan Lumber Mills, a Maine corporation, authorized to do business in the State of Washington, with principal place of business at Bellingham Whatcom County, Washington, owners in fee simple of the land embraced in this plat at Shallow Shores Whatcom County, Washington, has caused the same to be platted into Blocks, Lots and Streets, as shown on this plat, and we do hereby declare and acknowledge this plat and dedicate to the Public all the streets shown hereon. -- Witness our hands and seals this 19th day of January 1932: Bloedel Donovan Lumber Mills, J.J. Donovan, Vice President. Attest Stewart Matthews, Secretary.

The book 18 Men and a Horse by Donald H. Clark describes some of B-D's operations at Lake Samish as early as 1890:

Source: 18 Men and a Horse, Donald H. Clark, p. 8

"When Bloedel went into the timber to check up on the work, it was easy to locate Mickey [Gates] and his crew; just stand anywhere around Samish Lake and listen!" Clark wrote (p. 196).

18 Men and a Horse also has a photograph of "the Weaver farm," settled on land logged by the company near the south end of Samish Lake:

Source: 18 Men and a Horse, Donald H. Clark, p. 185

From the 1916 map posted earlier, we also know that Bloedel-Donovan was active on the northwest side of Lake Samish.

This Shallow Shores plat map is the first record found of B-D's ownership of the East Parcel of the Point. Perhaps a visit to the J.J. Donovan photograph collection held at the Centre for Pacific Northwest Studies will provide more clues about the company's activities in the area of the Point at Lake Samish.

1951-81, West and East Parcels combined: Maynard and Patricia Parks

In April 1951, Einar Erickson sold the West Parcel of what is now 394 Shallow Shores Road to Maynard and (Mary) Patricia Parks. The Whatcom Assessor report for the East Parcel shows that Maynard Parks owned this section as well, but it does not specify when he procured it or from whom.

According to his obituary (of 2007), Maynard was born in Seattle in 1913. Maynard and Patricia (a nurse, born in Everett in 1915) married in 1940. Maynard served in World War II and subsequently made his career as a railroad executive. The couple had two sons: Michael and Daniel.

It was while the Parks owned the Shallow Shores property that the big house at the Point was built on the West Parcel, in 1977 (presumably demolishing the house that the Ericksons lived in?). The much smaller house currently standing on the East Parcel is believed to have been built in 1940 and remodelled in 1980.

In April 1981, Maynard and Patricia did an extraordinary thing: they donated their property at Lake Samish to Western Washington University. According to the article published in WWU's newspaper, Western Front (below), the gift was directed to WWU as opposed to Maynard's alma mater, the University of Washington, because of an interest in WWU that began when the school's rowing crew waved to him and Patricia while practising at Lake Samish.

The donated land, valued at $750,000 at the time, became the most valuable piece of property in WWU's real estate portfolio. In honour of its benefactor, the school named a new campus building after Maynard and Patricia (who died in June 1981, only a few months after the land donation). Parks Hall was dedicated in 1983.

The land donation was in the form of an irrevocable trust that would pass to WWU "at the appropriate time," according to WWU Board of Trustees minutes. The Western Front reported that the land would pass to WWU upon Maynard's death, but it didn't turn out that way. In May 1987, the Western Foundation (holder of the WWU land trust) sold the Shallow Shores property to Herbert and Chara Messer. The recorded sale price in Whatcom Assessor records was $295,000 -- substantially less than the 1981 valuation of the Parks's donation.

All kinds of questions arise from this: Did the Messers have any connection with WWU? Why was WWU entitled to sell the land before Maynard's death? What did WWU do with the land between 1981 and 1987? A trip to WWU archives may provide some answers.