BANKING ON OYSTERS IN
HOODSPORT
February 15, 1975, saw the little town of Hoodsport open its very own locally chartered bank –the Hood Canal State Bank. Represented by a steam donkey on its logo, the bank saluted its logging heritage. The interior was decorated with large photographic murals of early logging scenes and an architectural style described as “a combination of turn-of-the-century logging camp construction and modern convenience.” Adorning the front door and above the cutesy- paned glass windows a fiery bird rising from the ashes was painted – the sign for the Phoenix Camp No. 4. PHOENIX LOGGING CO This logging enterprise was active in the Hoodsport area from the late 1890s until 1940 harvesting the massive first growth trees. Logging over difficult mountainous terrain, the engineers of the Phoenix Logging Company had to devise ingenious methods to transport their timber down to the log dump at Potlatch. To accommodate the steep grade of the railway, the locomotives would hitch exactly eighteen dogged logs– of an average 24” diameter–behind them to act as a dragging break (instead of loading it all onto a rattler car). This was quite a haul for an engine that ran
with only steam brakes. As such, engineers would receive top pay for this risky work $3.75 a day – the same as a faller. The main log dump was down at Potlatch, but in the early years the closest saloon was at Hoodsport. Logging had been an important draw to the area earlier than that though. Hoodsport was known as a good area for spar logs for ships and lumbering was the main industry of early European settlers. The čtsa’ałlałt?b?’xw, a Twana speaking people, were the first harvesters of the forest resources in the area. They had magnificent dugout canoes of Western Red Cedar and large split cedar houses in their prosperous village of sla’l’ałlałt?b?’xw – which would one day be called Hoodsport. Ducks and sea resources were abundant here with rich clam beds and herring runs. This village was burned in the 1860s by the US Government when the čtsa’ałlałt?b?’xw were forced to live on the Skokomish Reservation. This opened the area to European resource extraction and settlers.
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Phoenix Logging Co., Potlatch, ca. 1919
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF HOODSPORT According to Dr. Harry Deegan (1971), the first European settler was Vincent Finch (of Finch Creek fame) sometime in the early 1860s – making this one of the earliest settlements on the Hood Canal. Other sources (Radtke 1975 and others) claim the first European settler was Captain G.K. Robbins who first came in 1875 (a hundred years before his grandson would help found a bank). He explored the area as a schooner captain but did not settle until 1880 when he was granted 200 three acres of land by the US Government for his military service in the Mexican War. FJORD
