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| Former Apiary School |
One of the most remarkable names in Oregon geographic history is Apiary, for a place about 8 miles southwest of Rainier. Apiary post office was established Aug 28, 1889 with David M. Dorsey first postmaster. The office was closed on March 24, 1924. The office was so named because Dorsey had a bee ranch. Apiary School District # 38 operated a sturdy 2 room grade school at Apiary for many years before it was merged into the Rainier School system in 1972. Dorsey's bee ranch was East of the Apairy school and was reached by a trail which was an extension of what is now known as 'Hammond Road'. Ultimately Dorsey sold out and W. L. Brown acquired the post office and moved it and a related store to his farm which was to the southwest of the school.
The original Apiary school opened for business in fall of 1890 with Nettie Mae Jones (later to be King) as the teacher, as it is reported that she married a school board member, William C. King on January 6, 1891. Will King was killed in a logging accident in Apiary on July 20, 1898 and is buried as 'Will King' in the Apiary Cemetery. Little is known about the building used or if it was on the same site as the later school, though this writer was told more than 50 years ago that the former building was on the same site as the existing one. There is general agreement that the present structure went to bid on April 25, 1918 with the winning bidder being Otis Kellar, who along with his brother,Homer Kellar, who was the district clerk, actually constructed the building. The following year they built an identical building for the Stehman School District. A hand dug well about 30 feet deep behind the school provided running water beginning in 1926. In 1940 electric power arrived and in 1948 the school got a telephone.
Apiary had a steam driven sawmill as early as 1911 according to newspaper reports. The precise location is a bit confusing to this writer as the mill was also said to be on the Clatskanie River which except for the North Fork of the Clatskanie is several miles away.
Today the Apiary Road is better known than the community itself. The Apiary Road is a north-south link interconnecting the Nehalem Valley to U.S. Highway 30 just West of Rainier. In the grand scheme of things the Apiary Road is a vital link in the only westerly bypass of Portland and all points north in Washington State. Traffic is able to depart I-5 and Longview, cross the Lewis and Clark Bridge to Rainier and proceed south to the Nehalem Valley, Vernonia, and ultimately all points in the Western Willamette Valley. Wood products moving to market points along the east side of the coast range use this route extensively meaning that chip trucks, lumber wagons and log trucks travel this road in herds. The Apiary Road, some 17 miles in length traverses a number of watersheds. Starting from the North, it climbs a small rise after leaving Old Rainier Road which follows the main stem of Beaver Creek and soon joins the South Fork of Beaver Creek and follows it up to its source just short of the Apiary School. It then crosses the North Fork of the Clatskanie so near its source that it is seasonal in flow, at at the intersection of Fern Hill Road clears a pass and heads down Buck Creek and finally reaches the main stem of the Clatskanie River near the confluence of the Little Clatskanie River. It then follows the Clatskanie River upstream for several miles crossing it in the process, finally breaking away and heading for the Enterprise summit. The it breaks over the divide departing the Clatskanie River and heads downhill quickly finding Oak Ranch Creek which it follows to the Nehalem River where it ends with in intersection with the Nehalem River Highway there also known as Oregon Route 47.
As a main travel route from the Nehalem Valley north to the Columbia River, the Apiary road effectively replaces the 'Enterprise Trail', which was an early settler route from Goble to the Nehalem Valley. In the late 19th century Goble was an important rail head and the ferry crossing for rail traffic to Tacoma making it a significant transportation link. The Enterprise trail was opened in the late 1880's to connect the Nehalem Valley, to the Enterprise Landing, which was the name of a river boat landing near what is now Goble or more precisely probably closer to "Reuben" a mile or so upstream from the townsite of Goble. The name "Enterprise Landing" dates at least back to 1879, and did not have a post office as people simply went accross the river to Kalama to get their mail. As such it predates the arrival of the railroad which arrived in Goble from Portland on October 1883. (Rail service was extended to Seaside on May 7, 1898). The first Post Office in the Goble area was 'Hunters' (also known as Hunter's Point) established May 28, 1888 with Pete Hunter as postmaster, which was closed to Reuben in October 1893, whereupon Reuben Foster became postmaster. "Hunter's Point" is also referenced at the location of the Northern Pacific Railroad ferry slip.
The development on the Kalama side of the river started much sooner. The Northern Pacific Railroad got congressional land grants for a transcontinental Railroad to tidewater on Puget Sound. They began building in two places---Minnesota west, and at Kalama north in 1870 or 1871. By 1874 they had reached Commencement Bay (now Tacoma) where they established the 'tidewater terminus' and rail service from Kalama to Tacoma began on January 5, 1874. One way service was $6 and $1 more for the riverboat to Portland, about the time that the Northern Pacific went broke and was taken over by Henry Villard who also controlled the Union Pacific. Construction was started on the Portland-Kalama section of trackage in about 1882 but lagged to to labor shortages. The contractor for the Hunter's Point-Portland section of track sent a famous telegram to Henry Villard on September 13, 1883, declaring that "You now have Rail" though it is unclear if the track was actually completed (The Eastern and Western Divisions of the Northen Pacific had previously joined on August 23, 1883 50 miles west of Helena, Montana, making the belated completion of the Portland-Hunter's Point (Goble) section, the actual 'completion' of the Minnesota to Tacoma Northern Pacific Railroad. The great celebrations of the completion of the Northern Pacific were held in Montana, not Goble, however. Ironically, Villard's control of the Northern Pacific collapsed immediately thereafter and by January of 1884 Villard was out. The Northern Pacific had gotten down the Columbia River Gorge at the time with a joint operating agreement with the Union Pacific, which they wanted to bypass, and in the summer of 1887 Northern Pacific opened their tracks over Stampede pass effectively bypassing Goble and Kalama with direct service over the Cascades from Eastern Washington to Western Washington, though it would be December 25, 1908 before Goble was completely bypassed by a railroad bridge across the Columbia River at Portland.
Though there was no 'Enterprise' the Enterprise trail name stuck, and that route started out following the Nicoli road generally to Shiloh Basin where it took the route of the Clark road past the Coble cemetery eventually getting to the Meisner Road at the Clark road, then taking Hollywood road, and generally reaching the Clatskanie river about where the Apiary road departs the Clatskanie River and heads for the Enterprise summit. Though the exact route is not recorded, the Enterprise trail went west along the divide between the Clatskanie and Nehalem Rivers, and then turned south near the Enterprise Lookout and went down the ridge between Oak Ranch Creek and Cedar Creek, arriving at the Nehalem River very nearly where the Apiary Road does. For what it's worth the South end of Apiary Road used to be called Oak Ranch Creek Road, but somehow the named changed in the latter part of the 20th century.
See also The Columbia County Historian's take on Apiary and Apiary School history
The historic Deer Island Logging Company Camp 9 was located in the hills just south of Apiary and was active in the late 1920's. Logging history is in another section of this web site, and includes a photo of Camp 9.
Note: The only known apiary in Apiary now is one maintained by Fred VanNatta which has been continuously active since 1950.