History Corner

When Charles Seymour and David Van Hoesen arrived at Mesa, they almost literally hit the ground running. They immediately embarked on a building campaign. Calling it “ambitious” would be an understatement.

Myderse remembered:

“It was during this period, commencing in the spring of 1919, that an extensive building program was undertaken. The store and Post Office were greatly enlarged. Harry Mills, assisted by his good wife, Lyda, had complete management of the store during the entire Van Hoesen era at Mesa. My brother, Enderse, assisted by Lillian Pettit, a sister of Clyde Rush, was the postmaster. Lillian also did all of the book-keeping for the entire operation, including payroll records, and assisted in the store during rush hours.

“The packing house and fruit storage buildings were enlarged and the equipment modernized, and a separate warehouse for storage of orchard machinery and equipment was constructed. A well was drilled in the center of the townsite, after Bill Lynch, our head carpenter, located an underground stream with the use of a willow wand. A nearly adequate supply of excellent water for domestic purposes was obtained, and we thereafter enjoyed the luxury of good water under pressure, and no longer had to melt snow in the winter for cooking, washing and bathing.”

A 60’ X 100’ repair shop with a community center on the second floor was erected. The upper story had a hardwood floor and a stage. This was the scene of many dances, church services, movies and other social events. The houses that were built for Van Hoesen and Seymour seemed like mansions compared to the average local dwelling. Several smaller houses were erected for the year-around employees.

Mynderse: “In our early days at Mesa the Van Hoesen and Seymour wives, and later Mrs. Woodmansee conducted religious services each Sunday in the School House. The services were well attended in spite of the fact that usually there had been an all night dance with supper or breakfast in the dance hall above the garage, or a late movie with the hand operated moving picture machine. Bill Evans, who for many years drove his team of mules to Council and back every day except Sunday with the mail and supplies, used to occasionally bring movie films on Saturdays from the theater in Council. After running them we would put them on the early morning stage coach for delivery at Weiser. I don’t think anyone connected with the consignment knew that the films had been hi-jacked for showing in Mesa.

“During all of the Van Hoesen ‘era’ at Mesa there were a few ‘outside’ owners, most of them the original investors who had ‘stayed with the project’ and owned one, two or three ten acre tracts in the Orchards. These Orchard tracts were cared for and operated under contracts with the owners along with the balance of the Orchards under our management. In addition there were several ‘local’ owners who lived on their tracts and cared for them individually. Some of these were Clyde Rush, Gus Keckler, Peter Dahlgren, John DenBoer, H.L. Brooks, Stephen Nock, the Messingers, Ed Hart and perhaps one or two more.”

Tramway

Mynderse: “One of the unique facilities conceived by my father, and constructed during this period, was the aerial tramway running from the packing house over the rolling country about three and one-half miles down to a new siding, ‘Mesa’, on the ‘Pin’ road where we also built a storage facility.

“While quite a tourist attraction, the tramway was an absolute necessity during those next few years. the roadway was almost impassable in the winter months when much of the fruit was shipped, even for the teams of horses and sleighs, and it was difficult to keep the fruit from freezing on the long haul to the siding. We could cover the tramway carriers with heavy water-proofed canvass which protected the boxes and baskets of fruit during the shorter trip from rain, cold, and sleet. Also the tramway could load cars at the siding twenty four hours a day without the resulting mix-up when one sleigh load of fruit would arrive out of sequence, and destined for a different car than the one being loaded.

‘The tramway received a lot of publicity. I recall a couple of fellows arriving at the Orchards one day and asking if they could inspect the tramway. It turned out they were from Honolulu and had been sent to Mesa by some Hawaiian Pineapple interests to ascertain if a tramway would be feasible to transport pineapples from the fields to the cannery. Incidentally, we thought they would be impressed when we told them we had about 1250 acres in fruit trees, but upon being asked their acreage they replied that the small area they were thinking about contained about 12,000 acres.”

Continued next week.

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