You might say the city of Winlock is responsible for the founding of the Chehalis Industrial Commission.
In the 1920s, Chehalis had been one of the wealthiest small towns in America owing to the logging industry. By the 1950s, that had changed, according to Gail Shaw, a founding member of the commission. Though the town had industry, it was still largely reliant on the shrinking timber industry.
"It was active but not growing," said Shaw. "Things were dying as fast as they picked up."
In 1952, the Perma Products mill on State Street burned down. The loss of jobs had a large effect on Chehalis.
"The community was concerned about rebuilding the mill at that location," said Shaw. "In a period of indecision, Winlock suggested the mill be rebuilt in their community because they had had a community development study, and were looking for growth and new job opportunities."
The mill rebuilt in Winlock. The Chehalis Chamber of Commerce attempted to attract new industry, but was unsuccessful. In 1955, the chamber heads decided to take a look at the Winlock study, which had been done with the help of the University of Washington's Bureau of Community Development in Seattle.
The chamber and community leaders asked the university for help. The technique was a community-wide self-help program (not just those interested in industry) where the community would study itself, decide its priorities and help itself.
"The participation was unbelievable," said Shaw. "The community was ripe for that sort of operation. There were meetings of 300 to 400 people several times a month in the high school."
With the help of UW experts, organizations — schools, churches, labor unions, banks, garden clubs, 4-H, PTA, Boy Scouts and the chamber — and individuals studied 28 aspects of the town, figured out its resources and came up with a list of 10 priorities. Topping that list was development of new industry.
An industrial committee was formed by the Chehalis chamber. It soon became its own entity. Along with Shaw, who was the manager of the I.P Callison plant, the commission was formed of the city's business and professional leaders. The first directors included four industrial executives, three bankers, three store owners, two insurance agents, a hotel owner, an attorney and the mayor.
The Chehalis Industrial Commission hired a man (though, because it had no money, the chamber actually paid his salary) named Floyd Hobein, who had done industrial development in Ohio. Hobein suggested targeting the railroads for prospects.
"That's where industry went to avoid being identified, but to find out about potential industrial sites," said Shaw. "Lo and behold, within six months, the Great Northern rep said he had a well-known corporation interested in an industrial plant for the Portland-Seattle area."
That corporation turned out to be Goodyear, which was looking to build a retreading plant. The Chehalis Industrial Commission incorporated in 1956, sold stock at $50 a share and purchased much of the land in what became the industrial park. It did so while keeping Goodyear's interest quiet, so as not to raise land prices.
Bringing in Goodyear offered two main challenges. The first was building a 10-inch water line of sufficient pressure that it would operate sprinklers in the plant. The commission approached city attorney Lee Campbell, who at first said the city wasn't allowed to build a water line down Market Street to Bishop Road to the plant.
"Then Campbell caught the spirit," said Shaw. "He said the city could build, the state would chew (Shaw) out, I will get cited by the attorney general and they will never make you dig up the water line up."
The other challenge became getting a railroad spur of .75 of a mile to the property. The four railroads agreed to put in a track at a cost of $27,000. The then cash-strapped commission, however, came up with a better idea: recruit the townspeople.
They formed a committee called the "gandydancers" who "sold" the railroad ties at $4 each, or $7.50 for two, with the promise of having the buyers' names put on the ties (they never were). In April 1957, the people of Chehalis went to work under the supervision of railroad representatives.
"They formed weekend work parties with donated trucks and drivers," said Shaw. "The women of the community provided lunch."
The successful project, over the next few years, brought national attention to Chehalis with both the Christian Science Monitor and, in 1961, Readers Digest, writing about the commission and the city's efforts.
After that, it became a matter of buying land.
"The main thing we were working on was obtaining a reasonable amount of property, contiguous developable property," said Shaw. "It was all land acquisition."
The next company to come in was Western Gear in October 1957. Over the years, it brought in a number of other large industries, including Conrad Industries, which had a payroll of 890 workers and paid $3 million annually in salaries.
It also looked into its share of projects that didn't turn out. One was for a company wanted to produce fiberglass coffins. It secured options on Plummer Lake in Centralia to gain water at what it thought would be a cost of $25,000. After securing the options, it found the water would actually cost $250,000. It had talks with Sunoco for an operations center that never came to fruition.
Overall, the commission has been remarkably successful, bringing in dozens of companies to the industrial park that have employed thousands of people.
Mark Lawton covers economic and energy issues for The Chronicle. He may be reached at 807-8231, or by e-mail at mlawton@chronline.com.
