A weekly look back compiled by the Clark County Historical Museum from The Columbian archives available at columbian.newspapers.com or at the museum.
100 years ago
On April 10, 1923, workers drove the first piles for the Columbia River Paper Mills sawmill plant. “A number of interested Vancouver people stood on the rail tracks watching the pile driver operations.” The DuBois Lumber Co. furnished the piles, many of which were already on the grounds or “in the river ready to be snaked up to the driver.” The Columbian editorialized that “it is almost certain that a great industry will soon be occupying the shipyards with from 1,000 to 2,000 men employed.”
75 years ago
On April 12, 1948, two men were held in the county jail after their arrest for possession of “a quantity of gelatin dessert which was taken from a railroad car.” A total of 22 cases of gelatin dessert taken from the rail car were found in locales linked with the saccharine swindlers throughout the city.
50 years ago
A tractor-trailer collided with a railroad trestle at West Third and Columbia streets on the morning of April 12, 1973. While the bridge sustained no damage, according to police, the trailer suffered minor harm from the collision.
