By ELIZABETH LAVAL
In 1921, talk began that a major lumber mill, which would employ 1,500 people, would soon be built somewhere in the San Joaquin Valley.
Initially, Madera emerged as the likely location but a group of enterprising Fresnans, led by J.C. Forkner, C.H. Cobb, Speed B. Leas and others, launched an intensive campaign to bring the facility to Fresno. Forkner approached the Fresno County Chamber of Commerce with the idea of staging a community fund drive to purchase a large section of land north of the city and then donate the property to the fledgling mill. Chamber members eagerly embraced the proposal and, by December of that year, $200,000 had been raised.
The Chamber’s generous offer was gratefully accepted by Sugar Pine Lumber Company president and owner Arthur Fleming, and in early 1922, 574 acres were deeded to the company. With a substantial personal investment by Fleming, construction rapidly began on the mill complex which was comprised of fifteen structures and utilized an all-electric layout: unheard of in American logging at the time. The main building housed an enormous four-band saw, able to process four huge logs simultaneously. Sugar Pine Lumber Mill had an initial daily capacity of 600,000 board feet of lumber, with two work shifts, and its drying yard could store 75 million feet of lumber over 140 acres. Just east of the mill, the community of Pinedale emerged as housing was needed for the substantial workforce.
Sixty-four miles of first class, standard gauge rail line delivered logs from Central Camp to Pinedale via Bass Lake using 10 locomotives and 220 railcars. By June 1923, the mill was virtually complete at a cost of more than four million dollars. Workmen at the Sugar Pine Lumber Company mill were generally reliable, family-oriented men who put in long, hard days while earning modest wages.
In July of that year, a six-hundred-acre site nine miles north of downtown Fresno became the talk of the valley. A huge lumber plant, one of the largest in the world, went into operation. The latest equipment, a site on the San Joaquin River and a railroad nearby all but assured the Sugar Pine Lumber Company great success. Taking its name from the company, the community of Pinedale began to develop. The townsite, situated northeast of Blackstone and Herndon avenues, was subdivided and developed by the Gorham Land Company of Santa Monica. A large store—with a meat department that was declared fly proof—the Mill School, a service station, an ice plant, and a number of new homes were being constructed. A post office was established.
For the next 10 years, Pinedale was a successful lumber town. Unfortunately, the initial monetary outlay left the operation short of working capital and, even boasting six seasons of more than 100 million board feet each, the mill lost money every year and the Sugar Pine Lumber Company was pronounced bankrupt in November of 1931.
In 1937, Cecil White bought 68 acres of the lumber company site, and built a cotton compressing plant that employed a number of Pinedale people.
Buildings of the deserted mill were eventually used to house more than 4,000 people of Japanese ancestry during mid-1942. Following their “evacuation” to tarpaper barracks further inland, Camp Pinedale was established on August 1, 1942, at the former site of the Sugar Pine Lumber Company Mill and the Pinedale Assembly Center.
The military post began receiving soldiers selected for training as Army Air Forces signal technicians in December of that year. The base was the first Army Signal Corps school in the nation to be devoted entirely to the task of supplying personnel for the Army Air Forces. The favorable and varied terrain of the Fresno area made the location ideal, and the base eventually became the largest signal aviation training center in the world.
The facility was dubbed the Western Signal Aviation Unit Training Center, or WSAUTC. Under the auspices of the Fourth Air Force, more than 25,000 men were trained to become specialists in all phases of vital communications work including teletype operation, maintenance and repair, radio, telephone and telegraph line construction, aircraft warning service and aircraft radio. Clerks, truck drivers, chemical warfare and camouflage specialists, ordnance technicians and cooks all learned their skills at Camp Pinedale. Signal companies for aviation, radio intelligence, construction battalions and mobile radio squadrons comprised the units organized at the WSAUTC for deployment in the allied war effort. The men of Camp Pinedale served on every war front from Belgium to Burma.
Those stationed at the WSAUTC were well known by their unit call-signs such as the Code Breakers, the Tech-Necks and the Liberators. Sports teams for both men and women quickly formed and competitions between the Interceptors of Camp Pinedale and other area base teams, including the Hammer Field Raiders, were always fierce. Trainees found the 85,000 residents of Fresno unusually friendly towards them and soldiers were able to enjoy a large variety of local recreational activities and fine restaurants.
In a bittersweet irony, Camp Pinedale ended up becoming the first location on the West Coast that received soldiers of Japanese descent following their evacuation and internment after the outbreak of war with Japan. The contingent trained as communications specialists and went on to greatly assist with the interception of Japanese intelligence signals in the Asian theater throughout the remainder of the war.
By July of 1944, Camp Pinedale had also become home to the 840th Army Air Forces Specialized Depot which stored clothing, parachutes, equipment, office supplies and salvage materials for use by the United States, Canadian and British militaries. The camp was deactivated in February 1947, when the Corps of Engineers assumed custody of the sprawling base and began preparations for the disposal of the post’s buildings.
The last remaining structure from the Sugar Pine Lumber Company mill, Building 8, also known as the Retail Shed, stood abandoned and dilapidated just prior to its demolition. As a condition of removal, the developer responsible for the property agreed to donate land for a Remembrance Plaza.
Although the historical site has been cleared of all original buildings, buried beneath a fountain that stands today is a capsule containing items from the original mill, the Assembly Center and Camp Pinedale, thus providing a “heartbeat from the past” for the memorial.
Elizabeth Laval is the president of the Fresno City and County Historical Society.