Nagrom, Washington

Last updated

Nagrom, Washington
Sawmill at Nagrom, Washington, ca 1912 (MOHAI 5279).jpg
Sawmill at Nagrom, circa 1912
USA Washington location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Nagrom
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Nagrom
Coordinates: 47°13′30″N121°36′12″W / 47.22511°N 121.60343°W / 47.22511; -121.60343 [1]
Country United States
State Washington
County King
Time zone UTC-8 (Pacific (PST))
  Summer (DST) UTC-7 (PDT)

Nagrom is a ghost town in King County, Washington, United States.

Contents

History

A logging company town, Nagrom was located in the Green River watershed between Kanaskat and Lester. The town was built by the Morgan Lumber Company and named after Elmer G. Morgan, the company founder and owner ("Nagrom" is "Morgan" spelled backward). The site was chosen for its access to timber and suitability to build a sawmill and mill pond. In 1910, Morgan petitioned the Northern Pacific Railway, which operated the rail line out of Puget Sound and up over Stampede Pass, to build a spur into the small town. The railway balked, but Morgan persisted and eventually the railway relented. The spur into town was built in 1911. A post office was established that same year, along with a telephone and telegraph exchange.[ citation needed ]

Between 1914 and 1918, rivers and streams flooded in the city of Tacoma's watershed, which was located in and around the town of Nagrom, sweeping sewage and contaminated water from the company settlement into the city's water supply. Worries about typhoid, a common health risk of the era, caused health officials to instruct residents living downstream from company settlements like Lester, Baldi, and Nagrom to boil their drinking water to reduce typhoid-related illnesses. [2]

From 1911 to 1924, the Morgan Lumber Company continued to work the area for timber and to run the sawmill at Nagrom. In 1921-22 the population topped out for this town with an estimated 450 residents. In 1924, however, the company went out of business, presumably due to a post-World War I fall in lumber prices. Logging continued, but at a slower pace, as trucks began replacing railroad in the logging industry. The U.S. Forest Service began managing the forested land in the area in the 1930s with the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps.[ citation needed ]

Decline

The city of Tacoma acquired the water rights on the Green River c. 1910. In the first half of the 1950s, the city's utility arm, today's Tacoma Public Utilities, began buying private land along the banks of the river between their intake at Headworks (just east of Kanaskat), eastwards to the railroad and logging town of Lester. Beginning with the construction of the Howard Hanson Dam, the city limited access between Headworks and Lester, installing gates at various access points to the Green River watershed. In about 1967, the city purchased the entire townsite of Lester from the Northern Pacific Railway. By 1984, most residents had moved out, the rail line was mothballed by the NP's corporate descendant, the Burlington Northern Railroad, and all the former communities along the rail line had become ghost towns. Today there are no residents in Nagrom. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green River (Duwamish River tributary)</span> Tributary of the Duwamish River in Washington, United States

The Green River is a 65-mile (105 km) long river in the state of Washington in the United States, arising on the western slopes of the Cascade Range south of Interstate 90.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cedar River (Washington)</span> River in the United States of America

The Cedar River is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. About 45 miles (72 km) long, it originates in the Cascade Range and flows generally west and northwest, emptying into the southern end of Lake Washington. Its upper watershed is a protected area called the Cedar River Watershed, which provides drinking water for the greater Seattle area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muscogee, Florida</span> Ghost town in Florida, United States

Muscogee is a ghost town located twenty miles northwest of Pensacola, Florida, United States, in Escambia County, along the Perdido River. Named after the Muscogee Lumber Company, formed by Georgia lumber men, the town was founded in 1857 by a group of lumbermen to harvest timber from the surrounding pine forests. They and the following company clearcut the timber, and once the forests were gone, lumbering ended in this area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navarro River</span> River in California, United States of America

The Navarro River is a 28.3-mile-long (45.5 km) river in Mendocino County, California, United States. It flows northwest through the Coastal Range to the Pacific Ocean. The main stem of the Navarro River begins less than 1 mile (2 km) south of the town of Philo at the confluence of Rancheria Creek and Anderson Creek. The mouth of the Navarro is 10 miles (16 km) south of the city of Mendocino. State Route 128 starts from the intersection of State Route 1 at the mouth of the Navarro River, and follows the river valley upstream to Philo. The river is close to the highway through the lower canyon but is some distance south of the highway as the Anderson Valley widens upstream of Wendling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lester, Washington</span> Ghost town in Washington (state)

Lester is a ghost town near Stampede Pass, just south of Snoqualmie Pass in King County, founded in 1892 by the Northern Pacific Railway. Lester is located along what is currently National Forest Development Road 54, on land owned by Tacoma Water, a division of Tacoma Public Utilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albion River</span> River in Mendocino County, California (USA)

The Albion River is an 18.1-mile-long (29.1 km) river in Mendocino County, California. The river drains about 43 square miles (110 km2) on the Mendocino Coast and empties into the Pacific Ocean near the town of Albion, California, where California State Route 1 crosses it on the Albion River Bridge. The river's overall direction is east to west, but it moves significantly in the north-south direction. The tributaries of the river include Railroad Gulch, Pleasant Valley Creek, Duck Pond Gulch, South Fork Albion River, Tom Bell Creek, North Fork Albion River, and Marsh Creek. The river's most inland point is only 15 miles (24 km) from the coast, and its highest elevation is about 1,570 feet (480 m) above sea level. There is a large estuary at the mouth of the river, and tidal waters travel up to 5 miles (8 km) upstream. The Albion River was previously used to power a sawmill on the river mouth, but there are no major dams or reservoirs on the river. The river provides recreation, groundwater recharge and industrial water supply for the community of Albion, and wildlife habitat including cold freshwater habitat for fish migration and spawning.

The Moscow, Camden & San Augustine Railroad Company is a Class III short line railroad headquartered in Camden, Texas. It is a subsidiary of Georgia-Pacific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurel Fork Railway</span>

The Laurel Fork Railway was a small, standard-gauge logging railroad that operated entirely in Carter County, Tennessee from 1912 to 1927. Built by the Pittsburgh Lumber Company to serve a double-band sawmill at Braemar, in present-day Hampton, Tennessee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tacoma Eastern Railroad</span> Establishment by John F. Hart and George E. Hart in 1891

The Tacoma Eastern Railroad was officially established by John F. Hart and George E. Hart in 1891. The enterprising lumberman received leases from Pierce County to harvest lumber from sections of a local school district. By 1890, most available timber near navigable water had been harvested. Sawmill industries had traditionally used the Puget Sound to float their wares to schooner captains, which could then be transported to markets, typically in San Francisco. To accommodate this new dilemma, the J.F Hart and Company began planning and construction for the Tacoma Eastern Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minarets and Western Railway</span>

The Minarets and Western Railway was a Class II common carrier that operated in Fresno County, California, from 1921 to 1933. The railway was owned by the Sugar Pine Lumber Company and was built the same year the lumber company was incorporated so that it could haul timber from the forest near Minarets to its sawmill at Pinedale. The southern portion of the line was operated with joint trackage rights with Southern Pacific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crannell, California</span> Unincorporated community in California, United States

Crannell is a former settlement in Humboldt County, California. It is located 4.5 miles (7.2 km) southeast of Trinidad, at an elevation of 203 feet (62 m).

The Simpson Investment Company is a company based in McCleary, Washington in the US Pacific Northwest that specializes in manufacture of forest products. Founded as a logging company in 1890 by Sol Simpson, the company now functions as a holding company for the Simpson Door Company, a manufacturer of wood doors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Usal Creek</span> River in California, United States

Usal Creek is the southernmost drainage basin unbridged by California State Route 1 on California's Lost Coast. The unpaved county road following the westernmost ridge line south from the King Range crosses Usal Creek near the Pacific coast, but the bridge may be removed during winter months. Usal Creek, 9.7 miles (15.6 km) long, drains about 28 square miles (73 km2) on the Mendocino Coast and empties into the Pacific Ocean near the former company town of Usal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Bragg and Southeastern Railroad</span> Former railway line in California, US

The Fort Bragg and Southeastern Railroad was formed by Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway as a consolidation of logging railways extending inland from Albion, California on the coast of Mendocino County. The railroad and its predecessors operated from August 1, 1885 to January 16, 1930. The line was merged into the regional Northwestern Pacific Railroad in 1907; but planned physical connection was never completed.

Southern Pacific Transportation Company formed the Oregon and Eureka Railroad Company in 1903 in an agreement to use logging railroads as part of a line connecting Humboldt County (California) sawmills with the national rail network. Northwestern Pacific Railroad offered service over the route from 1911 through 1933. The northern 6-mile (9.7 km) of the line remained in use as a Hammond Lumber Company logging branch until 1948.

Hughey is an unpopulated spot in the town of Cleveland, Taylor County, Wisconsin, United States, where logs were once loaded from the Yellow River onto the Omaha Railway. The logging operation was shut down in the 1930s, leaving today only the railroad bed and a few foundations overgrown by brush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alamosa–Durango line</span> Historic railroad line

The Alamosa–Durango line or San Juan extension was a railroad line built by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, following the border between the U.S. states of Colorado and New Mexico, in the Rocky Mountains. The line was originally built as a 3 ft narrow-gauge line between Alamosa, Colorado, and Durango, Colorado. Portions of the route survive: the now standard-gauged segment from Alamosa to Antonito, Colorado, and a narrow-gauge portion from Antonito to Chama, New Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Log pond</span>

A log pond is a small natural lake or reservoir used for storage of wooden logs in readiness for milling at a sawmill. Although some mill ponds served this purpose for water-powered sawmills, steam-powered sawmills used log ponds for transportation of logs near the mill; and did not require the elevation drop of watermill reservoirs.

References

  1. "Nagrom". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. Carlson, Linda (2003). Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. pp. 22–23.
  3. John A. Phillips, III (March 20, 2002), Spelled in Reverse: E. G. Morgan and a Town Called Nagrom , retrieved November 9, 2010