VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — A water wheel replica is being installed at an environmental education center in Clark County as a salute to the lumber industry.
The Columbian reports that by mid-August, the addition to the old Vancouver Fish Hatchery grounds should be fully installed to serve its purpose. The addition is designed to honor the birthplace of lumbering in the Pacific Northwest.
The water wheel lies a short distance from where Dr. John McLoughlin had Hudson’s Bay Company workers build the region’s first water-powered sawmill in 1828.
Fort Vancouver workers felled timber for the settlement, and before long, lumber was exported to points beyond.
