This is a weird summer, no doubt. The businesses open in Silverton right now are doing quite well and most are not bothered by no train passengers. There is a real shortage of help and if we had train passengers in addition to all the folks from mainly Texas it would be a real mess. We don't have the foreign students to work because that program was shut down by the feds and they provide about half the workers in our restaurants. The guy who works for me in the morning works afternoons at Smedleys Ice Cream Parlor and they are swamped with business. The campgrounds are full, people are camping in all the overflow campgrounds, and the hotels and motels are full as well as the house rentals--no one seems to want any more business right now.
The D&S had started repairs to the bridge and cleaned up the debris plugging it up. They had the creek back in its banks and where it had cut a new channel was dry. They were stopped short of filling in the washout and had equipment in place to do the work.
The clear cutting was extreme and was handled in a very insensitive manner. I am not sure what the derailment problem was all about. Under Bradshaw, the railroad had started thinning back the trees and underbrush in the Tacoma area and work was stopped by Bradshaw himself when he saw what was happening.They didn't push the envelope and went only about 50 feet on both sides but was more than Bradshaw would tolerate. I recall talking to Charlie about it at the time.