Originally published in the Voice of the Valley, August 22, 2006
By Barbara Nilson
At the end the Kent-Kangley Road east of Maple Valley is the mill town of Selleck, which still exists today; next door was the town of Lavender, or “Jap Town.” The mill is gone, but the school is still there and about 16 of the original houses.
In 1908 it was one of the largest inland mills on the West Coast. The town was a company town owned by Pacific States Lumber Company of Tacoma. In 1987, King County designated Selleck as a county historical district and it is listed on both the county and the national register of historic places. Presently, it has the largest concentration of original mill town structures in King County.
When it was built, the foothills were covered with a dense growth of giant Douglas fir and red cedar. Frank L. Selleck was sent to supervise construction and start the mill; though he was only there for a short time his name remained.
As seemed the problem with many mills, it burned down in 1914 and was rebuilt in 1916 by the lumber company. When the mill ran at full capacity all kinds of lumber was cut; there was also a shingle mill. The mill averaged 150,000 board feet per eight-hour shift. In the early ‘20s there were three shifts a day, employing from 600-700 men. These included Welsh, Irish, Italian, east European, and Japanese. The population of the town at this time was about 900.
Two big orders at Selleck were for the lumber which rebuilt Tokyo after an earthquake and large timbers for extensive levees along the Mississippi.
Then came the Depression. Work was cut to two shifts, then to only a few days a week, and finally the mill closed in 1937. Pacific States Lumber Company went into bankruptcy the next year. Timberlands were sold to Anacortes Plywood & Veneer Company. Logging operations gave work to some of the men who stayed. Other jobs were created later when the Bonneville power line was cut through the area.
Town purchased
Gust Coukas and Lloyd Qually, both former mill employees, set up a partnership and bought the town in 1940 for tax title, $3,000. During World War II they rented 40 of the mill houses to Tacoma and Seattle shipyard workers. After 1945 the demand for cheap housing diminished and the old town went back to sleep.
In 1966 shortly after the death of Mr. Qually his widow and Mr. Coukas sold their interests to two Boeing engineers, James Weitzel and Andy Nelson. They set about remodeling, painting, and rewiring the remaining homes. The former town meeting house and social hall was used to store equipment and lumber salvaged from buildings that were torn down. The hotel for bachelors has been gone for a long time.
Most of the single workers lived in one of three boarding houses and took their meals at a communal cookhouse. The families had their own small rough-hewn houses that, though well-constructed, were not much bigger than a shack. There was a bathing pool that was as large as a small swimming pool for all to enjoy and a baseball field.
The camp fielded a baseball team that played teams from other mill towns. The outline of the old ballfield is still visible.
The original school building in Selleck burned to the ground in 1929 and a new one was built the next year. In 1967 it was cleaned, painted, and remodeled with kitchen, library, science, and all-purpose rooms added. There were 160 pupils attending six grades and kindergarten from Kangley, Cumberland, Palmer, Kanaskat as well as Selleck. The older children went by bus to Enumclaw school.
“The Pacific States Lumber Company built the water system which still serves the area with clean, cold water, chlorinated and inspected for purity (according to Morda Slauson in her book, One Hundred Years Along the Cedar River [1970]). “The old flume, three-and-a-half miles within Seattle’s watershed, is still in use. This is one of the few privately-owned water systems left in King County and dates back almost 60 years.
“A legal document signed by John and Florence Lavender, March 24, 1910, states that for the sum of $10 they gave Pacific States rights to water from Lost Creek. Some of the original cedar stave pipe is still in use, the rest replaced by modern cement asbestos pipe.”
Lavender town
The Lavenders, who arrived early on the scene, lived beside the railroad tracks below the old mill in what came to be known as Lavender town, a suburb of Selleck.
They operated a store, tavern, and pool hall. A few houses still stand there. It is believed that during a time when labor was scarce or perhaps problems with the union, the company brought young men from Japan to work in the mill. They settled in the area of Lavender town, which was often referred to as “Jap town,” that thrived between 1908 and 1939. In 1930, 25 families occupied the camp.
When the school burned in Selleck, the first grade was moved to the Japanese school building in Lavender town. It is believed this old building became the Kanaskat beer tavern. The Japanese students spent an hour there each week studying the Japanese language.
In 1988 an archaeologist, Brad Bowden, explored the area of the Japanese community at Selleck. He found the remains of Frank Ozawa’s pond and garden built around a tree stump there in 1930 or ’31. Ozawa was the foreman of the Japanese camp and the liaison between the Japanese workers and the mill bosses. He came there with his wife and nine children in 1925, at the request of the mill owner.
Another bit of history that remains is an old cobblestone fireplace and chimney that serves as the deck of a mobile home on the site. It may have been part of the camp’s cookhouse.
While Japanese immigrants endured racism ever since arriving in the Northwest in the 1880s, the Selleck camp was a separate community more because of language barriers and social customs than because of racism.
Plans have been made to add the Japanese camp at Selleck to the historical designation for Selleck.
(Sources: One Hundred Years Along the Cedar River, by Morda C. Slauson and newspaper clippings.)
The Lavender’s are 5 generations deep and still reside in Washington.
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There are actually 7 generations from the Lavender’s living in Washington state, 5 who lived in Selleck, starting with Henry Lavender, father of John Lavender I(?) Possibly 8 generations with the father of Henry being John Lavender who died in 1890 in Seattle. Still researching that connection.
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I lived in the Selleck area around 1955 and 56. Went to school in the rebuilt school house. Think there were 2 or 3 different grade levels in one big room. My family lived near a “fish farm” near the green river. Great memories. Loved the article.
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My great grandfather, Cecil McNeil, owned the Green River fish farm. I have several pictures of the fish farm- family working on it and building of more ponds. What I do not have is a map showing where it once was. I would love to know. It was a family affair, my father remembers the size of trout requested by the different fine restaurants in Seattle and my uncle drove the delivery truck.
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When I purchased my home in Maple Valley, I was told it was originally built in Selleck and it (and 4 other houses) were moved from Selleck and placed along the Maple Valley Highway in the mid-1950’s. Does anyone remember homes being moved? The house next door to me is its original size of 460 square feet. My home has been added on to and is now 990 sq. ft. I’d like to know more about how my house got here.
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Joan Brunstrom Kenworthy
I lived in Selleck until 1952..went to school there thru the fourth grade. I have a picture of the mill that belonged to my grandmother Josephine Johnson.
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[…] blind from a 1925 coal mining accident, he stayed home while Grandma Lulu taught school in nearby Selleck. Needing to be near Enumclaw’s medical facilities, Papa stayed at our home the last few weeks of […]
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@Karen Lavender-Peterson. Are you a relation of the Lavenders mentioned in this article. We recently purchased a house out in the Selleck area and found John Lavenders signature on a wall in our house
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Yes. I am the great grand daughter of the original John Lavender. My grandfather, father, brother and nephew are all named John Lavender. My father was born in Selleck and his house is still standing, last I knew. I would love to see a photo of that signature, as it well could be his or my grandfathers who was the original builder of the house.
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