Document the Artifacts While You Can

The late Ron Harr was one of Sumpter Valley Railroad Restoration Inc.'s founding members. He was an avid amateur historian and spend countless hours hiking the timber country tributary to the Sumpter Valley Ry. mapping and photographing the hundreds of miles of narrow gauge logging grades. This photo is an example of what he recorded. This was the site of a bridge crossing the Middle Fork of the John Day River on Oregon Lumber Co.'s logging mainline. Between 1918 and 1940 the mainline stretched to over 20 miles down the river with practically countless spurs that went up the side canyons to bring down logs. Years ago, this mainline and its remaining artifacts were put on the National Register of Historic Places, but as the years have gone by, remaining artifacts such as this bridge abutment have became scarce. Most probably, due to high water events, forest fires and of course wood structures on the ground eventually are reclaimed by the forest. I understand that the National Register listing has already or is likely to be withdrawn. The scan is from the SVRR Archive.