Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest [Paperback]

Linda Carlson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2003

"Company town." The words evoke images of rough-and-tumble loggers and gritty miners, of dreary shacks in isolated villages, of wages paid in scrip good only at price-gouging company stores, of paternalistic employers. But these stereotypes are outdated, especially for those company towns that flourished well into the twentieth century. In "Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest", Linda Carlson provides a more balanced and realistic look at these "intentional communities." Many of the later towns attracted professionals as well as laborers; houses were likely to be clapboard Victorians or shingled bungalows; and the mercantile store carried work boots, baby diapers, and Buicks and extended credit even to striking workers. Company owners built schools, power plants, and movie theaters.Drawing from residents' reminiscences, contemporary newspaper accounts, company newsletters and histories, census and school records, and site plans, the book looks at towns in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, considering who planned the towns and designed the buildings. It examines how companies went about controlling housing, religion, taxes, liquor, prostitution, and union organizers. This vibrant history gives the details of daily life in communities that were often remote and subject to severe weather - as much as 100 inches of rain a year near the coast or 10 feet of snow in the mountains. It looks at the tragedies and celebrations: sawmill accidents, mine cave-ins, and avalanches as well as Independence Day picnics, school graduations, and Christmas parties.Finally, it tells what happened when people left - when they lost their jobs, when the family breadwinner died or was disabled, when the mill closed. This lively and well-researched book will be welcomed by those interested in Northwest history, as well as students of labor and business history. An ample selection of illustrations, most never previously published, broadens its appeal. Seattle consultant Linda Carlson has written or contributed to several books on business, including "Services Marketing", "The Publicity and Promotion Handbook: A Complete Guide for Small Business", and nine job-search guides.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This remarkable survey of life in the company towns of the Pacific Northwest and their significance to the economy of the region makes an important contribution to the social history of the West. Here Carlson identifies over a hundred full-blown company-owned towns, where, in most cases, the company provided all the housing, stores, schools, recreational facilities, law enforcement, and even ministers. Her well-written story reveals paternalism at both its best and its worst."--James B. Allen, author of The Company Town in the American West

About the Author

Seattle consultant Linda Carlson has written or contributed to several books on business, including Services Marketing, The Publicity and Promotion Handbook: A Complete Guide for Small Business, and nine job-search guides.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: University of Washington Press (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0295983329
• ISBN-13: 978-0295983325
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #365,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I grew up near the sites of several company towns and worked in forest products early in my career. When I returned to school for an MBA, I spent the summer with a San Francisco-based timber company that had operated many remote camps in the days of railroad logging. I was fascinated with how families had lived in these tiny communities accessible only by company railroad. Much later, I visited Holden Village, which began life as a copper, silver and gold-mining operation in yet another remote site, this one 12 miles almost straight up from Lake Chelan, in central Washington. The result? When I finished the seventh edition of "How to Find a Good Job in Seattle," a job-search guide I had been writing since 1990, I went to University of Washington Press with a proposal for a history of employer-owned villages. After a thumbs-up from the general manager (thank you, Pat Soden!), I dove in---and 11 months later, I delivered a first draft of the manuscript. The book was published late in 2003 and in 2004 I began a four-year term with the Humanities Washington Inquiring Mind speakers' bureau, which gave me the opportunity to visit towns all over Washington state and talk about company towns as they existed in this region. Each year I also visit Cedar Falls, a Seattle Public Utilities community off I-90, to speak and show slides during its Twilight Tours. What's especially rewarding is to often meet people who lived in these communities or are the children of former residents. A few people have even spotted photos of their parents in "Company Towns!"

Besides the book on small business marketing that I researched when completing my MBA, the job-search guides and the history, I have written or contributed to an Internet safety guide, which was prompted by what I found on the Internet about my own children's classmates. I also edited and contributed to a Dummies guide on digital book printing which is available to the publishing industry through the Independent Book Publishers Association.

Although I enjoy regional and business history, I spend most of my time consulting to publishers and other small business people on marketing. This includes coaching people prior to media appearances. I also Twitter at twitter.com/carlsonideas, where you'll find promotional tips.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Company towns of the Pacific Northwest, March 24, 2009

By 

Anna Herrick (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest (Paperback)

After living in the Pacific Northwest for 7 years I find this a very well written historical accounting of the development of the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Linda Carlson's style of writing makes you feel the hardships and the poor living conditions the people endured. She also included pictures that add a feeling for the way the people worked and lived. This helps develop the setting for those who are interested in the developments as they took place. She did her homework when she wrote this book. There is great detail about the towns right down to the furniture, the paint,how they differed from other towns and how they evolved as time went on all the way to the demise of most of these towns. A highly recommended book and hard to put down once you start reading especially if you like history. 5+ stars

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book for All Generations, October 28, 2003

By 

Beatrice V. Elder (Eatonville, WA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest (Paperback)

This a book for every generartion.

The Seniors can relive parts of the life they lived earlier in their lives.

The Boomers can find verification for the tales their granparents told of early hard times and inconveniences.

The Young Ones can marvel at how real people lived without a car or TV.

3.0 out of 5 stars A Great Start to Interesting Town Histories, March 12, 2011

By 

Dusty J, Summit "Be a Skeptic" (Wonderful Washington State!) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest (Paperback)

When I think of company towns the image of control comes to mind; the past attempts at industrial-capitalists utopia culminating in Pullman Illinois and Ford Motor Co. dance halls and picnics. Company towns have been slightly romanticized in this way. My perception of employer-owned towns conjures ideas of small empires or kingdoms headed by an entrepreneurial patriarch with a tightly bound company check-book in one hand and an often cited Bible in the other. In her book Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest Linda Carlson tasks herself with addressing company towns with more detail in order to confirm some stereotypes and extract others to put them in context.

Company towns are difficult to categorize but this can be said about them - company towns flourished from the mid nineteenth century through the mid twentieth century; company towns were mostly extractive industries scattered about the wilderness; and company towns were mostly an agreeable place to live through good and trying times for the nation. Beyond that, as Carlson explains, "few generalizations can be made about company-town[s]..." (p. 35)

Company towns were a reasonably secure place to live during national economic tribulations like the Depression. The towns had inexpensive rent and the dining halls (whose quality would dictate the enthusiasm of the laborers) were adequate in their tastes and their plate sizes. The towns often had communal charities to aid residents who were enduring hardships (these hardships were often economic but just as often were the result of work related injuries). Bosses would employ old employees and provided for those who were hurt on the job. Company towns were often tied together through their isolation. They developed unique identities which were showcased through their charities and their club sports teams. Basketball and baseball were especially popular and town bosses often hired a man specifically for his skills with a bat or his agility on the court. Prices of commodities were not always inflated, living conditions were not always Spartan, and bosses were not always corrupt.

However, the fact remains, as Carlson dutifully explains throughout the book, is that the employees/town citizens were subject to the policies, politics, and desires of the employer/mayor. For example, a worker's sympathy towards unions would often result in termination and eviction (we must remember that the boss was also the landlord). Company towns, due to their authoritarian rule, were not usually havens of ethnic equality. There were few blacks in the towns if any, and if Chinese or Japanese workers were allowed in (they not always were) they typically lived on the outskirts of town and held service jobs.

The amount of research and data included in a book of such moderate length is impressive. However, the plentiful information has a few organizational flaws. Company Towns is organized into chapters based on topics; the company store, the dining hall, recreation, the bunkhouse etc. Then written is an explanation or analysis (often a mere few words) on the chapter topic of for a dozen or two different towns. The result is Carlson introducing and re-introducing certain towns many times throughout the book. This is also troublesome when the chronologies of town timelines were so different. I do not believe conditions in Port Gamble (founded 1853) should be compared to conditions in Richland (commandeered during the early 1940's). Furthermore, I do not believe it is even appropriate to place communities like Richland and the Coulee Dam which were operated by the government (though through many private contractors as well) with that of true company towns like Holden, Roslyn, and Selleck. I believe Company Towns would have benefited from a town-by-town analysis rather than a topic-by-topic analysis. This would have made more chronological sense and would allow Carlson to personalize and de-stereotype particular towns more affectively; as this was stated goal of the book.

Even still, Carlson, a Harvard Business graduate, has produced an interesting and unique piece of Pacific Northwest history. Company Towns would serve well as a starting point for scholars and recreationalists who wish to examine the strange circumstances surrounding the hundreds of company towns of the Pacific Northwest, many of which no longer exist.