About Fifty Houses Already Erected at McKenna
Lumber is Being Cut for 200 More-Town Laid Out With Broad Streets and Buildings Are Being Erected With View of Architectural Neatness
Tacoma Daily Ledger June 7, 1908 (p. 11)
(Special Dispatch to the Ledger)
Olympia, June 6 – – A model town in the making is in the way Fred Carlyon of Yelm described the new city of McKenna, now being built by the Salsich Lumber Company on the Nisqually river near Yelm. The bog lumber mills and the greater part of the town are on the Pierce county side of the river, but a number of the houses are going up on the Thurston county side, the company’s intention apparently being to divide the town. The townsite itself and the water-power in the river was sold to the company by Fred Carlyon and save for a small tract that he owns near the town, the company owns both sides of the river for a distance of about two miles and for a mile back from the river.
McKenna is to be a corporation town. The company owns every foot of ground and so is every building and land improvement. As yes no street improvements to any extent have been undertaken. The town is laid off with broad streets and everything done so far is with a view of permanency. There is not a single shack in the town and every frame residence or building is well constructed and at least with a view of architectural neatness. Every structure has cement pier foundations and permanent brick flues. About fifty houses have already been completed and plans have been, made and lumber is being cut for 200 more, indicating that the lumber company expects McKenna to be quite a town.
Hundred Men Engaged in Mill
The big mill is not completed and there seems no disposition to rush it, doubtless owing to the present condition of the lumber market. A smaller mill employs about 100 men, most of the product being used in building the new town.
McKenna will be a dry town. The company will allow no liquor sold on its property and, owning so much of the adjoining property, can easily keep saloons at a safe distance.
The spur track from the Tacoma Eastern has been in operation for some time, giving rail communication by way of Tacoma. McKenna is one the line of the projected Puget Sound extension of the Union Pacific and also the Thurston County and Grays Harbor line of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, and the building now going ahead is in anticipation of the business in store for the big mills when these roads are in operation.