Old sawmill town remembered

Originally published in Northwest Nikkei, May 1994

By Ed Suguro

A 1924 photo of the Selleck Japanese community. T.Z.Maekawa is the man in the striped tie with hand in pocket, third row from top; Heiji Sakakibara is the man standing next to him. The Rev. U.G. Murphy is sitting far right third row from bottom. Mr. Abo, the foreman, is sitting in the middle with the baby.

Before World War II there were a number of company sawmill towns like Mukilteo, Snoqualmie, Selleck, Eatonville, National, Onalaska, Walvill, and Longview in which the Issei worked and the Nisei grew up.

Selleck was about 10 miles east of Maple Valley and was recognized by the King County Landmarks Commission as a historical landmark and by the National Register as a historic district. It was a company town in which the Pacific States Lumber Company, one of the largest on the West Coast, employed a number of Issei.

Among those who lived there were T.Z. Maekawa, who worked at the mill, and the Rev. Joseph Sakakibara, who grew up there until high school.

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