Mill City is a city located in Linn County, Oregon. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 1,537.
A local writer, J. D. Adams, has posted a story about Mill City called Phantom Trails of the Santiam Canyon. For our users' enjoyment, we've decided to include it here on the site.
Phantom Trails of the Santiam Canyon
By J. D. Adams
Unfolded before me are Willamette National Forest maps from 1937 and 1948, rescued from obscurity with knowledge unleashed like the first beams of the solstice through the portals of Stonehenge. Here was a world ruled by trails, where the glacial power of Mt. Jefferson flowed unchallenged through a towering expanse of old-growth forest. To complete this picture, I have gathered memories from generations who lived and worked in the historic landscape of the Santiam canyon.
The Santiam Highway was a single track, treacherous and forbidding, perched on the canyon wall where the Detroit Dam is today. The view dropping off into the canyon is still etched into the minds of old-timers. Turnouts were few, driving and negotiating skills were honed when two cars had to pass each other.
Detroit, originally named logging camp 17, was the hub of an extensive trail network that connected the Little North Fork with the North and Middle Santiam drainages. The Volcano Trail came northward from Quartzville Creek, offering spectacular views as it topped the ridgeline, descending to Blowout Creek and moving past the old Box Canyon Shelter. One of the suspension bridges that were used on this trail is still intact. The Byar’s Peak Trail has been largely bypassed by logging roads, but a faded tread still exists on the highest, windy reaches of the peak. Rising from a road now gated on the back streets of Detroit, the old Boulder Ridge Trail connected the Outerson Mountain Lookout with the Triangulation Peak Lookout, and continued into what is now the Jefferson Wilderness. The popular Tumble Creek Trail is a remnant of a route that allowed access to three fire lookouts and the Opal Lake Trail. Phone lines came down from the many fire lookouts in the area into Mill City, Detroit, and Idanha.
The town of Mill City began in 1887 with a sawmill relocated from Stayton, growing to become one of the largest mills on the west coast. I remember Mill City in the 50’s as a place of busy shops and growing families, vibrant with the wealth carried by rumbling log trucks. We lived in a neighborhood on the southwest edge of town, where houses had been built for engineers of the Detroit Dam project. The trail from the old Thomas Cairn Lookout came down almost into our backyard.
Idanha is an Indian word meaning Spirit of the Healing Waters, according to Lewis A. McArthur in Oregon Geographic Names. This town was the eastern terminus of T. Egenton Hogg’s Oregon Pacific Railroad line. The original name of Idanha was Muskrat Camp, later changed by the owner of a resort hotel formerly at the site. The name is mysteriously linked to an old Idan-Ha Hotel and Bottled Mineral Water Company in Soda Springs, Idaho.
The Santiam River had a trail on the south bank starting at Detroit that went up as far as Pamelia Creek. From here the Pamelia Lake Trail forked eastward. According to local legend, pack strings of horses carried hay bales in to the lake to dam the subterranean outflow and raise the water level. Also leaving the Santiam, the Minto Mountain Trail zigzagged up to Grizzly Lake and Lizard Lake, high on the top of Minto Mountain. Early generations of Oregonians found it a good camping spot with the mountaintop meadows and spring of water. In the early 1900s this trail merged with the Skyline Trail; famous author and drama critic Walter Eaton describes a journey along the trail in the book “Skyline Camps”, c1922. Mountain guide Dee Wright scouted a northern section of the Skyline Trail, the predecessor to the Pacific Crest Trail, in 1896. Premier northwest photographer Fred H. Kiser, who did the photographs for Eaton’s book, also blazed the Skyline Trail from Mt. Hood to Crater Lake in 1919. Prior to the 1964 designation of wilderness, you could drive within ½ mile of Marion Lake, where there was a boathouse, docks, and rustic cabins. Ornithologist Dr. A. G. Prill had a cabin on the north side of the lake of which only the fireplace hearth remains.
Many of these pioneer trails were old Indian trails, some still in use today. Underneath the Santiam Highway lies an Indian trail, a haunting presence felt in twilight moments, when past and present merge into the timelessness of the canyon. In the wind is the sound of a forgotten traveler, cresting a ridge of long ago.
Mill City is located at 44°45'7" North, 122°28'42" West (44.752049, -122.478386).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.0 km2 (0.8 mi2). None of the area is covered with water.
As of the census of 2000, there are 1,537 people, 565 households, and 422 families residing in the city. The population density is 751.2/km2 (1,940.4/mi2). There are 629 housing units at an average density of 307.4/km2 (794.1/mi2). The racial makeup of the city is 86.27% White, 0.26% African American, 2.34% Native American, 0.85% Asian, 0.20% Pacific Islander, 6.70% from other races, and 3.38% from two or more races. 11.39% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 565 households out of which 35.6% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.0% are married couples living together, 11.0% have a female householder with no husband present, and 25.3% are non-families. 20.4% of all households are made up of individuals and 8.0% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.72 and the average family size is 3.13.
In the city the population is spread out with 30.1% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 26.7% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 13.3% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 36 years. For every 100 females there are 102.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 96.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $32,321, and the median income for a family is $36,736. Males have a median income of $30,197 versus $20,625 for females. The per capita income for the city is $14,595. 13.0% of the population and 10.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 19.9% of those under the age of 18 and 2.2% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Source:
MillCityOregon.com
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