As the History Channel Advertises: "History's Mysteries"

by Eric Erickson

(An edited version of this article was published in the Summer 2000 Edition of "Issaquah Living", a quarterly publication of the Issaquah Press.  This text is directly from the source document as submitted by Mr. Erickson)

Monohon was named after Martin Monohon who homesteaded 160 acres on the east shore of Squak Lake in 1877. Many early maps and some maps being produced today, continue the misspelling of the name Monohon as Monohan. But let us look at how the name Monohon got on the map.

In the 1870's a Mr. Donnelly and a Mr. McMahone built a sawmill and set up sawing lumber on the shore of Squak Lake. The location of the mill was called Donnelly. One might ask where is Squak Lake and where is Donnelly? Today Squak Lake is now Lake Sammamish and the former mill site of Donnelly, is now the area near the mouth of Lewis Creek and the Timberlake King County Park, on the south west shore of Lake Sammamish.

The mill was acquired in 1883 by Watson Allen and Albert L. Nelson, partners in a railroad construction and pile driving business in Seattle. Allen had previously built and operated a sawmill from 1872 to 1879 at the mouth of Tokul Creek below Snoqualmie Falls. In 1889 following completion of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway along the east shore of Squak Lake, they shut down the mill and moved the machinery across the lake to the Monohon homestead site. Here Watson Allen, James D. Houghton and James H. Watson form a new company called the Allen & Nelson Mill Company.

The new mill site provided access to the railroad which allowed for fast shipment to Seattle for the large increase in demand for lumber to rebuild the city. Previous shipment from the Donnelly site required a long water trip down Squak Lake, through the Slough, then down Duwamish Lake (now Lake Washington) to Renton, then down the Black River to the Duwamish River, then north to Seattle or via numerous wagon roads and overland routes to Seattle.

In addition to providing lumber for the rebuilding of Seattle they now had markets available for lumber shipment by rail, as well as using the heavy timbers sawed in the mill in their railroad and pile driving construction business, most of which was on the Seattle waterfront.

After the rebuilding boom was over and following the 1893 depression, the mill operated for several years on local orders. As the turn of the century approached business increased as did the need for more equipment and employees, to meet lumber sales which were now reaching as far east as Minnesota and north to Alaska and the Yukon. The northerly demand was the result of the gold rush to the Yukon Territory. 

Equipment purchased for use in their expanded logging camps included three steam donkeys from the Washington Iron Works in Seattle, one each in 1897, 1898, 1899. As with many sawmill and lumber towns that grew up alongside of railroads the communities took the name of an early land owner or mill owner, which in this case the community assumed the name of Monohon. As we have yet to determine what happen to Monohon, let's continue with its history.

In 1906 Charles P. Bratnober of Minneapolis, Minnesota, John E. Bratnober of Seattle and C. S. LaForge of Snohomish purchase the company and retain its name of Allen & Nelson Mill Company. The new owners continue expanding and add a 75,000 board foot per day planing mill in 1906, and in 1907 purchase a new Climax logging locomotive. As the community continues to expand a new business called the Monohon Canoe Company and owned by John D. Sunderhauf and Aden Kingsbury is building canvas boats and wooden canoes in 1908.

Sunderhauf along with A.F. Alford a contractor, in 1908 build a two story, 36 foot wide by 78 feet long meeting hall, for the Monohon Building Association. By the end of 1909 the mill company has completed a new water system for the community, added 30 new company homes, bringing their total to 50, built the new 20 room hotel called the Lake View, added a new sawdust burner and provided electric lights for the mill store, office, hotel, cook house and manager's residence. The mill office building also contains a post office with 125 letter boxes. 

A large steam powered derrick to load heavy timbers on rail cars has also been placed in service. The mill employs 80 men and the Foresters of America establish a lodge branch at Monohon. In early 1910 the Modern Woodsmen of Monohon hold a dance in their newly completed Locust Hall and the 1910 census shows 94 employees working at the mill in jobs ranging from blacksmith, carpenter, carloader, engineer, filer, gagger, lathe runner, lumber piler, sawyer, slab loader, teamster and the usual assortment of foremen, bosses and managers. The Butschke Brothers also operate a post turning mill in their wood turning plant.

By 1911 the company operates a pig growing operation in conjunction with their farm and barn, used in providing shelter and feed for the company horses. The company houses are being redecorated and the Norwegian Club of Monohon has been formed.

During the early months of 1915 the mill closes and a major overhaul is completed including the installation of a new Mershon resaw, which increase the capacity of the mill to 100,000 board feet per 10 hour work day.

Following an agreement with the Western Washington Sawmill & Logging Companies, the Allen and Nelson Mill Company and most other western Washington companies, start eight hour work days on March 1, 1918. This signals the end of ten hour days. The company also purchases a fourth logging donkey and starts selling off it teams of logging horses during this year.

1921 and 1922 bring continued expansion with the acquisition of the fifth and sixth logging donkeys for their logging camps.

The Company changes it name to the Bratnober Lumber Company, in February of 1924 and purchases a large 70 ton Climax logging locomotive, the first of its kind to use cast steel wheels.

On June 26, 1925 the community of Monohon is mostly destroyed by a fire which starts in the sawmill. After the fire all that remains is the large steel sawdust burner and about 10 of the company homes and the horse barn building. The mill buildings, hotel, meeting halls, canoe company, post office, railroad depot, about 50 houses, docks and lumber awaiting shipment are all a total loss. If it had not been for a change in the wind the few remaining buildings would have been destroyed.

In July of 1926 the company reorganizes as the Bratnober-Baty Lumber Company under the direction of John E. Bratnober, Guy C. Baty and Ira L. Hunter. They start partial rebuilding of the sawmill and resume logging operations.

The Dunn Lumber Company of Seattle takes over operation of the sawmill and responsibility for lumber sales in October, 1927. Bratnober-Baty continue to operate the logging camps supplying logs to the mill. Frank Dunn is manager of the mill and the company starts making improvements. By April of 1928 the mill and new planers have been operating and the new kiln dry sheds are nearly complete. At the end of June, 1928 the kiln dryer, new lumber sheds, loading crane and an additional 200 feet of railroad siding are in operation. The mill shuts down in December of 1929 due to the start of the great depression and in July of 1931, Bratnober-Baty again assume responsibility for the mill and lumber sales. The mill is not restarted until July of 1933.

In March of 1936 Bratnober-Baty lease the mill to the newly formed Sammamish Lumber Company under the direction of Roy J. Sharp of Tacoma, R. G. Wright and Thomas L. O'Leary of Olympia. The mill is now equipped with a nine foot band saw, resaw and produces 70,000 board feet of lumber per day. Contract loggers provide logs to the mill by truck. In September of 1939 the lease is cancelled and the mill is sold to Abe Levey of Everett who dismantles it and sells the machinery.

Following the fire which destroyed their Issaquah Lumber Company mill south of Issaquah, in May of 1940, Eric Erickson and Carl Pearson owners of the Company, acquire the mill buildings and site. They bring in machinery from a mill in Bellingham and restart operations of a sawmill, planing mill and kiln dryer. Due to shortages of men during the Second World War the company employs many women in the mill.

On May 23, 1944 fire again strikes the mill destroying the sawmill portion. Eric Erickson sells his half interest in the company and Carl Pearson is joined by his son Erland and renames the mill the Custom Planing Mill. They continue to operate the planer and kiln dryers until 1954. They sell the mill to the Issaquah Cedar and Lumber Company who continue to operate on the site even though several of their operations were to be destroyed and rebuilt after fires. Following the last fire on the site in 1980 the Company moves to it current location at 5728 East Lake Sammamish Parkway S. E.

So what happened to Monohon? The community of Monohon is now called the Waverly Hills Community area and is located on both sides of East Lake Sammamish Parkway in the vicinity of S.E. 33rd Street, in the new formed City of Sammamish, Washington. A few of the original Allen & Nelson Mill Company built homes that were not destroyed in the 1925 fire, still exist today on the east side of the Parkway.

By: Eric Erickson, June 6th, 2000 

Note the Eric Erickson part owner of the mill at Monohon from 1940 to 1944 was my grandfather.