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Stella, Washington.
View from upstream on Washington Highway 4.
Image taken March 5, 2005.
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Stella ...
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Street scene, Stella, Washington.
Image taken January 28, 2007.
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Stella Blacksmith Shop ...
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The Stella Blacksmith Shop was built in 1907 by B.F. Brock, a prominent area lumberman.
The shop served the community, it survived a fire in 1921, and when the economy of the lumber industry changed the shop changed too. In the declining years the shop became an automobile repair shop. In 1977 the shop was leased to the Stella Historical Society and today it is an area Museum.
In 1985 the structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (Building - #85003204).
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Stella Historical Site and Museum, Washington.
View from Washington Highway 4.
Image taken January 28, 2007.
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Stella Historical Site and Museum, Washington.
View from Washington Highway 4.
Image taken January 28, 2007.
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Click image to enlarge
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Stella Historical Site and Museum, Washington.
View from Washington Highway 4.
Image taken January 28, 2007.
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October 2007 ...
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Sign, Stella Historical Site and Museum, Washington.
Bunker Hill is in the background.
Image taken October 13, 2007.
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Stella Historical Site and Museum, Washington.
Image taken October 13, 2007.
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Click image to enlarge
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Stella Historical Site and Museum, Washington.
Image taken October 13, 2007.
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Stella Historical Site and Museum, Washington.
Image taken October 13, 2007.
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Early Stella ...
The Stella townsite was originally part of a 320-acre Donation Land Claim filed by John Guisendorfer in the early 1850s. Soon after it was purchased by Henry Lawson who established a river landing at the site. A small community, mostly of German immigrants, sprang up during the 1870s, which provided cordwood for the steamboats and assembled log-rafts to float logs to the Pacific and the Portland market.
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"... By the 1890s, the Stella Wharf was an important assembly point for the rafts, and in 1894, the first huge "cigar raft" was formed, a cylindrically-shaped raft containing 6.5 million board feet of logs destined for California. By the turn of the century, large national companies, including the Hammond Lumber Company and the Wisconsin Lumber Company, dominated area operations and employed over 1,000 men. In addition to the dock, several stores, hotels, and a mill were constructed in Stella during the boom years. A fire in 1907 destroyed a number of those buildings, but the town was quickly rebuilt and new structures included a community blacksmith shop built by B.F. Brock. ..."
[National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 1985, from Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation Website, 2006]
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records Website (2006) shows title being granted to a John Guisendorfer on December 22, 1865, for 323.27 acres of T8N R4W Sections 11 and 12 (Oregon-Donation Act of 1850).
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Stella, Washington.
View from upstream on Washington Highway 4.
Image taken March 5, 2005.
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Stella, Washington, from Mayger, Oregon.
Looking across the Columbia River.
Image taken February 21, 2005.
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Columbia River from Stella, Washington.
Image taken October 13, 2007.
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Columbia River from Stella, Washington.
Image taken January 28, 2007.
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Coal Creek Slough from Stella, Washington.
View from Washington Highway 4, upstream of Stella, Washington.
Image taken January 28, 2007.
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Bunker Hill, as seen from Stella, Washington.
Image taken October 13, 2007.
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Fall Creek and Fall Creek Falls ...
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Just east of the town of Stella is Fall Creek, with Fall Creek Falls visible from Washington State Highway 4.
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Fall Creek Falls, near Stella.
View from Washington Highway 4.
Image taken January 28, 2007.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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Clark, November 6, 1805, first draft ...
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a cold wet morning. rain Contd. untill [blank] oClock we Set out early [from Prescott Beach, Oregon, area] & proceeded on the Corse of last night &c.
N. 50° W. 1 mile on the Lard. Side under Some high land. bold rockey
Shore
N. 60° W. 1 mile under a bold rockey Shore on the Lard Side, opsd. the
upper point of a Island [Cottonwood Island]
close under the Stard Side the high lands closeing the river on that Side [Carrolls Bluff] above river wide
N. 75° W. 12 miles to a point of high land on the Lard Side, passed two
Lodges on the Lard Side at 2 miles in a bottom, The high
land [Carrolls Bluff] leave The river on the Stard. Side.
passd. a remarkable
Knob of high land on the Stard. Side at 3 miles
Close on the Waters edge [Mount Coffin, Lewis and Clark missed the Cowlitz River mouth] — ...
passed
a Island nearest the Lard. Side at 10 mile [Walker Island] the head of a Isd. on
Std. [Fisher Island] opposit High Cliffs [Green Point, location of today's Mayger, Oregon], with Several Speces of Pine Cedars
&c. arber vita & different Species of under groth.
N. 80° W. 2 miles under a high clift on the Lard Side [Green Point, location of today's Mayger Island] the lower point of the Island on Stard. [Fisher Island] opposit those hills are Covered thickly
...
N. 88° W. 5 miles to a high Clift a little below an old village in the Stard.
bend [possibly Bunker Hill, the location of today's Stella, Washington] and opposit an old village on a Lard. point of a handsom & extensive bottom [Beaver Slough/Clatskanie River bottom].
passed a Island in the middle of
the river 3 miles long and one wide [Crims Island], passed a Small Island Close on the Stard. Side [Gull Island] & a lower point of a former Isld. below which the lands high & with Clifts to the river Stard. Side
S. 45° W. 5 miles under a Clift of verry high land on the Stard. side [possibly the Oak Point and Eagle Cliff area] wind
high a head. ...
S. 50° W. 1 mile under a high rockey Hill of pine.
The Indians leave us, Steep assent, Som Clifts
S. 75° W. 1 mile under a high hill with a bold rocky Shore, high assent
river about 1 mile wide
West 1 mile under a high Steep hill bold rockey Shore, Encampd
under the hill on Stones [near Cape Horn of Wahkiakum County]
Scercely land Sufficent between the
hills and river Clear of the tide for us to lie. Cloudy & rain all
wet and disagreeable. this evening made large fires on the
Stones and dried our bedding.
...
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