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Dalkena Lumber Company Records, 1906-1944

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Dalkena Lumber Company
Title
Dalkena Lumber Company Records
Dates
1906-1944 (inclusive)
Quantity
7 containers., (3 linear feet of shelf space.)
Collection Number
Cage 616
Summary
Includes correspondence, banking records, sales receipts from the company store and real estate records, mostly from land and timber sales in northeast Washington.
Repository
Washington State University Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections
Terrell Library Suite 12
Pullman, WA
99164-5610
Telephone: 509-335-6691
mascref@wsu.edu
Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Historical Note

The Dalkena Lumber Company was formed in December 1908 as a corporation in the state of Washington. It harvested timber in northeast Washington's Stevens and Pend Oreille counties and manufactured lumber at its mill for the next 30 years. The company's predecessor, the D & K Mill Company, had built a lumber mill and associated structures ten miles northwest of Newport, along the Clark Fork River, a townsite took the name "Dalkena," after the surnames of the D & K Mill Company's founders, Dalton and Kennedy.

In 1908, a group of investors headed by James G. Wallace and John G. Ballord, partners in the Wallace-Ballord Lumber Company of Minneapolis, purchased the D & K Mill Company from Hugh Kennedy, one of its founders. The Wallace-Ballord Lumber Company had interests in the region and maintained local offices in Seattle and Spokane. Wallace, Ballord, and Kennedy became principal stock holders in the new Dalkena Lumber Company, with relatives and others included as minority investors.

Relatively little is known of the day-to-day operations of the Dalkena Lumber Company from the 1910s to the 1930s. The town of Dalkena did grow to become a community of perhaps nearly one hundred, with the company's general store the hub of activity for townspeople and local homesteaders

The Dalkena Lumber Company's mill complex burned down in 1936 or 1937. It was never rebuilt. The company store was spared and continued to serve the local community for several years.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

[Item Description]. Cage 616, Dalkena Lumber Company Records. Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The Dalkena Lumber Company Records are arranged in three series to reflect the nature of the collection. Correspondence and related miscellaneous documents span the entire period of the collections, from incorporation papers in 1908 to routine correspondence between principal investors and company secretaries from the 1920s to loading tickets from the mid-1930s. The second series comprises banking records from the 1930s and company store sales receipts from the 1940s. The banking series is the most comprehensive in the entire collection. It includes promissory notes with three banks and several individuals for the years 1912 to 1935 and cancelled checks from payroll and expense accounts from 1934 to 1938. The third series is company real estate records. It consists mostly of documents pertaining to land and timber sales in northeast Washington. These files remain in their original heavy pocket envelope folders. They often contain title abstracts, routine correspondence, timber cruiser's reports, and maps.

Acquisition Information

The Dalkena Lumber Company Records were acquired from William Miller, Newport, Washington, in 1987. They were accessioned as MS87-30.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Logging -- Washington (State)--History
  • Lumber trade -- Washington (State)--Records and correspondence

Corporate Names

  • Dalkena Lumber Company. --Archives (creator)
  • Farmers State Bank of Newport
  • First National Bank in Minneapolis
  • Old National Bank and Union Trust Co. of Spokane, Washington
  • Dalkena Lumber Company--Records and correspondence

Finding aid prepared by Robert W. Hadlow
2012

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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