BIG TIMBER DEAL
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10, 000 ACRES NEAR GOBLE SOLD FOR $800,000
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March 1, 1907: What is said to be the biggest deal in Columbia River timber lands ever made was completed Monday, when the Clark and Wilson Lumber Company purchased 10,000 acres near Goble for $800,000.
William Reid and his father in law, D. C. Pelton, president of the Banker’s and Lumbermen’s Bank, of Portland were the former owners.
The tract contains about 400,000,000 feet of standing timber and the purchase includes the Goble, Nehalem and Pacific Railway, a logging road ten miles in length and all the logging and camp equipment now on the land.
The logging outfit [that] formerly worked on the tract has been putting about 100,000 feet of logs into the river daily. The purchasers announce that the capacity will be increased, making the daily cut about 150,000 feet. The logs will be rafted and towed to the Clark and Wilson Company’s mill at Linnton, where they will be cut into lumber. The Clark and Wilson Company plans to carry on its own logging operations in the future.
Reid and Pelton have held this tract just sold for three years. During that period it increased immensely in value. The purchase price just paid for the timber is largely “velvet” but just how big a portion could be called that the sellers decline to state.
The Clark and Wilson Lumber Company is made up of O. M. and W. W. Clark and C. G. and J. A. Wilson. The Clarks are Wisconsin lumbermen and lived neighbors to William Reid in that state. Their acquaintance helped the deal along, for the sale was negotiated by the persons directly interested without the intervention of any outside agent.
The Clark and Wilson Lumber Company was organized two years ago and the mill at Linnton was then bought and enlarged until it now has a capacity of 200,000 feet daily. It covers a large site and owns 160 feet of deep waterfront, along which good docks have been built.
After two years lumbering in Oregon the Clarks and Wilsons are confident of the future of the industry in this state. The heavy purchase of timber just closed shows how highly they regard investments of this character.
