The Columbian

Images From the Attic: Clark County history

A group poses at the Vancouver Municipal Airport, perhaps sometime around its 1930 dedication. From left to right, the sitting front and standing back rows show Bert Justin, Charles Mears, Freddie Sauers, Art Whitaker, Sid Monastes, an unknown man and Fred Rafferty; and in the rear row: Henry Rasmussen, Ed Klysner, Les Boyd, Edith Foltz, Major Gilbert Eckerson, ìDadî Bacon and Lt. Carlton Bond.

February 24, 2024, 5:43am Clark County Life

Forced labor helped build Vancouver’s Municipal Airport during 1929. Several men guilty of vagrancy or drunkenness found themselves working at the nascent field constructing its first hangars while others cleared ground for more. While on the job three prisoners took “French leave,” as The Columbian chided. One was found dining… Read story

Clark County history: York

York, a slave in bondage to William Clark during the voyage of the Corps of Discovery, is depicted in this 1912 painting, “Lewis and Clark at Three Forks,” by E.S. Paxson. No actual image of York is known to exist.

The enslaved York was the only Black member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. William Clark inherited him from his father and wrote about him in the expedition’s journals, sometimes negatively. Besides the journal references, historians know little of York’s life before or after the expedition. Yet even in the… Read story

Clark County history: Leverett Richards, aviation reporter

Vancouver journalist and pilot Leverett Richards flew for 54 years and claimed never to have scratched or bitten a passenger, no matter how tempted.

When the military tested a high-altitude B-52 at low levels in the hot turbulence of Eastern Oregon’s high desert in 1959, the giant bomber crashed. The Oregonian sent Leverett Richards, its aviation reporter since 1935, to cover the breaking news and get pictures. The 288-mile trip could have meant six… Read story

In 1908, the year the bell tower was added, the congregation gathered in front of the Salmon Creek Methodist Church dressed in their Sunday finest. The church later was moved from this location to the east side of Northeast Highway 99.

Clark County history: Salmon Creek United Methodist Church

January 20, 2024, 6:05am Clark County Life

In 1940, the construction of Highway 99 nearly demolished one of the oldest church buildings in Clark County. The Salmon Creek United Methodist Church had to be moved to its current location on the east side of the road. Today, those driving northbound along Northeast Highway 99 by the creek… Read story

Loggers pose at a Weyerhaeuser Timber Company lumber camp in Yacolt. The Yacolt Burn of 1902 created as many as 700 jobs salvaging the burnt timber. Workers loaded charred logs on railroad flatcars and sent them to Vancouver daily.

Clark County history: After the Yacolt Burn

January 13, 2024, 6:05am Clark County Life

The 1902 fire came close enough to blister paint on many of the Yacolt’s 15 buildings but turned north short of town. Leaves, ash and cinders swirled like a snowstorm. When the rain came days later, it cleared the air and cooled the embers. What remained of the forest was… Read story

Henry Pittock died of influenza during the Spanish flu epidemic, after this portrait was taken. He and his wife Georgina had four daughters and two sons. One daughter married Fredrick Leadbetter, who became his partner. The two founded Camas and owned its first paper mill and a sawmill in Vancouver.

Clark County history: Henry Pittock

January 6, 2024, 6:03am Clark County Life

Henry Pittock wasn’t the first to bring industry to Camas. Michael Simmons built a small shingle mill there and sold shakes to the Hudson’s Bay Company. Both businessmen landed at the juncture of the Columbia and Washougal rivers near today’s Georgia-Pacific mill. Read story

Pioneering Vancouver educator C.W. Shumway circulated these campaign cards as part of his unsuccessful candidacy for county superintendent of schools, but is still remembered for his work as superintendent of the Vancouver School District.

Clark County history: Charles Shumway

December 30, 2023, 6:05am Clark County Life

Vancouver’s new school superintendent, Charles Shumway, and his wife traveled from Milo, Iowa, to Vancouver in 1895. Passing through towns named Hope and Paradise, Mrs. Shumway commented they’d indeed left both behind, saddened to leave the town where her husband spent a decade as an elementary school principal. Read story

The Chautauqua Auditorium in Gladstone, Ore., was the site of adult educational events from 1896 to 1927. During the golden age of Chautauqua, people around the region, including Vancouver, attended three- to five-day events there.

Clark County history: Chautauqua, an Iroquois word for ‘two moccasins tied together’

December 23, 2023, 6:08am Clark County Life

Three innovations shrank the nation after the Civil War. The railroad moved people across the nation in days rather than months. The telegraph transmitted news faster. The Chautauqua closed the social gap by bringing adult education and culture to small rural towns each summer. Read story

Stories by Martin Middlewood

Columbian freelance contributor