Wants to buy standing timber

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, November 8, 1915

Pacific States Lumber Company of Tacoma makes offer to city council for forest at Cedar Lake

Negotiations for the purchase from the city of Seattle of approximately 200,000,000 feet of standing timber around Cedar Lake were today opened by the Pacific States Lumber Company with headquarters in Tacoma. In a letter to the city council the company says that it is in the market for the city’s timber, having practically closed deals for the purchase of 200,000,000 feet of timber from the Northern Pacific Railway Company and the United States government, all in the same section of the watershed.

The company is willing to submit to such sanitary restrictions as the city may impose on its logging operations in the watershed, and in addition to the purchase of the city’s timber to also purchase the city’s railway line, extending from Cedar Falls and connection with the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound line to Cedar Lake.

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Selleck once diverse entertainment center in late 1920

By Nobu Yoshimitsu

Noriyasu Abo (Pei’s son) at the Selleck logging camp.

Selleck today is a sleepy community in rural, Southeastern King County, but it was once known for its thriving logging and lumber industry. In the early decades of the 20th century, Japanese immigrants were central to these enterprises. In addition to the labor they provided, they also contributed to building a diverse culture.

My great-grandfather, Peichi (Peiichi or “Pei”) Abo, was one of these early Japanese immigrants. First arriving in 1905 via Vancouver, BC, he was employed as a rail worker while studying English. He moved to the town of Selleck, where he worked for several years before being promoted to the position of foreman of the Selleck logging camp in 1915.

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Selleck history survives—owner seeks ways to keep town alive

Originally published in the Seattle Times, December 17, 1986

By Jim Simon

In its heyday, Selleck was a testimony to American corporate energy.

Running three shifts a day, the massive mill owned by the Pacific States Lumber Co. turned out nearly a million board feet of lumber each week. Its power was generated by an on-site steam plant; to feed the saws, the surrounding hillsides were stripped of virgin stands of Douglas fir and red cedar.

Built in 1908 as a workers’ camp, Selleck became a full-fledged town with two hotels, its own hospital and school, a tavern and a community hall. Nearly 900 people lived there at one point: East Europeans, Irish, Italians—and a contingent of Japanese recruited to produce lumber used to rebuild Tokyo after a 1923 earthquake leveled that city.

The good times came to an abrupt end in 1939, when Pacific States went bankrupt and dismantled its mill to provide building materials for the war effort.

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Seattle-area men buy Selleck for rehabilitation of alcoholics

Originally published in The Seattle Times, November 10, 1965

By Marjorie Jones

Members of the corporation checked plans on a street of Selleck. From left, Ralph Woolman, J. Morrison MacDonald, and John C. McDonald

Three Seattle-area men have bought the former sawmill town of Selleck and plan to transform it into a private residential alcoholic rehabilitation center.

J. Morrison MacDonald, a Seattle attorney; John C. McDonald, a Kent real-estate broker, and Ralph Woolman, a mortgage banker, formed The Selleck Corp.

They purchased the town from Lloyd Qually and Gust Coukos, who had owned it since 1940.

The property, somewhat run down, was bought for an undisclosed amount “in the six figures.”

The site includes a large house, formerly occupied by the resident superintendent when the sawmill was operated by Pacific States Lumber Co. in the 1920s and 1930s; a boarded-up dance hall, and 21 three- and four-bedroom frame houses.

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The foothills

Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 5, 1972

There’s little activity in Cumberland to disturb a Husky dog sleeping in the sunshine. Once a thriving coal mining community, today there are, well, the memories …

By Walter A. Evans

(This is the 19^th visit Seattle Post-Intelligencer staff reporters and photographers have taken to introduce the people, industry, and lifestyle of cities, towns, and rural communities around the state. Next week: Bellingham.)

The names are little more than memories now, once thriving communities of people who made their living from deposits of coal buried beneath the ground of the Cascade foothills. They bore names like Cumberland, Kangley, Kanasket, Bayne, and Selleck.

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Old mill town a vestige of the past

Originally published in The Seattle Times, July 31, 2007

By Cara Solomon

SELLECK—In the quiet of this forest clearing, there once was a bustling way of life, with a school, a hotel, and a dance hall for hundreds. Bands traveled to town on Saturday nights to play.

That was back when the woods were loud with logging. Now the sound of Selleck is children scouring the nearby creek for snakes. Parents talking on the porches of century-old houses. A few dozen people, living in a time capsule of a town.

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Seattle may sell timber in its watershed

Originally published in The Seattle Daily Times, May 10, 1915

Pacific States Lumber Company’s proposition will be considered by two city council committees

Purchase of 200,000,000 feet of standing timber in the Cedar River watershed is proposed by the Pacific States Lumber Company, in a communication which reached the city council yesterday and was referred to the city utilities and finance committees.

This is a part of a deal, outlined in The Seattle Times of May 2, whereby the Pacific States Lumber company hopes to purchase something more than 400,000,000 feet of standing timber in the watershed from the City of Seattle, the Northern Pacific Railway Company, the Milwaukee Land Company, the Weyerhaeuser Company, the state of Washington, and the United States government. The city is the largest owner, the Northern Pacific, the government, and the Weyerhaeuser Company having holdings in the order named. The state and the Milwaukee Land Company are small owners.

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Selleck, Cumberland, and Kanaskat

Originally published in A Glimpse of the Charmed Land 1925

All tourists who have a little extra time on their hands, should not fail to make the drive from Enumclaw to Selleck, a mountain sawmill town some sixteen miles to the north along the range of foothills and in the very shadow of magnificent Mount Rainier.

The drive is along a solidly packed, smooth, graveled road, and the ever-changing Alpine scenery makes the entire trip a pleasure trip through a nature garden of unalloyed delight.

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The community of Selleck welcomes you!

Originally published in a brochure by Selleck, Inc., date unknown

What is Selleck?

Selleck is a quiet residential community at the “end of the road.” If you are looking to get away from the urban pollutions of litter, smog, crime, and gridlock you’ve come to the right place. You won’t find crowds, pollution, or fancy shopping in Selleck. What you will find is a pace of life that is slower, a neighbor who is friendlier, and all of the clean air, open spaces, and elbow room the great outdoors has to offer. So unwind in our traditional small town atmosphere—and welcome to the town of Selleck!

As a guest of our community, we would like to tell you something about the town of Selleck—past, present, and future.

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A short history of Selleck

Originally published in the MVHS Bugle, February 1999

By Margie Markus

I’m sure some of you who read this will remember much more than I, but this is only some of the things we remember about Selleck. I gathered some of my information from articles I have on Selleck. Some came from my memories and my mother’s memories (Eva Litras).

Frank Selleck’s home is in the foreground while the Selleck School is in the background. (Photo courtesy of Lloyd Qually.)

Where is Selleck? Are you asking yourself that question? To those of us who lived in Selleck or nearby places—we know where Selleck is.

At Four Corners—the intersection of Highway 169 and the Kent-Kangley Road—you would follow Kent-Kangley east to and through Ravensdale, taking a left at the Y in the road. Go through Kangley and on to Selleck, where the road ends by automobile to the public.

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