Dee is an unincorporated community and former company town in Hood River County, Oregon, United States, on Oregon Route 281, about 11 miles south of Hood River.[1]

History

The Oregon Lumber Company built a sawmill at Dee in 1906 and named it for Thomas Duncombe Dee, a stockholder and business associate of board member David Eccles.[2] Dee was also a station on the Eccles-owned Mount Hood Railroad.[3] In addition to the large sawmill, Dee had a privately owned water works and electric lighting system, as well as a general store, shops, and a hotel.[3][4]

Dee had a population of 250 in 1915; 200 in 1919, and by 1940 the population had declined to 100.[3][5][6]

Dee was sold to the Edward Hines Lumber Company in 1958 and they dismantled the town.[5]

Besides logging, Dee's economy is also tied to the fruit-growing industry of the Hood River Valley. The area was one of the primary communities in the Hood River Valley farmed by Nikkei—Japanese migrants and their descendants.[4] The first Japanese in the area were hired as laborers on the Mount Hood Railroad.[4] They also worked at the mill and lived in the company housing on both sides of the East Fork Hood River, which passes through the town.[4]

About 35 Nikkei families lived in Dee in the 1920s and they founded the Dee Japanese Community Hall.[4]

Geography

The area's fruit orchards lie between the east and west forks of the Hood River in an area known as Dee Flat.[7]

Economy

Oregon Democratic State Senator Wayne Fawbush operated a blueberry farm in Dee for 20 years, which is still in operation.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Dee". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. November 28, 1980. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
  2. ↑ McArthur, Lewis A.; McArthur, Lewis L. (2003) [1928]. Oregon Geographic Names (7th ed.). Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. ISBN 978-0875952772.
  3. 1 2 3 Friedman, Ralph (1990). In Search of Western Oregon (2nd ed.). Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd. pp. 343, 594. ISBN 0-87004-332-3.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Nikkei Farmers of the Hood River Area". Discover Nikkei. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
  5. 1 2 Carlson, Linda (2003). Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle: University of Washington Press. p. 219. ISBN 0-295-98332-9. Archived from the original on February 22, 2012. Retrieved January 14, 2010.
  6. ↑ Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Oregon (1940). Oregon: End of the Trail. American Guide Series. Portland, Oregon: Binfords & Mort. p. 298. OCLC 4874569.
  7. ↑ "Dee Flat". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. November 28, 1980. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
  8. ↑ "Team—Wayne Fawbush—Program Officer—New York". Ford Foundation. Archived from the original on June 17, 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2010.

45°35′17″N 121°37′36″W / 45.588173°N 121.626742°W / 45.588173; -121.626742

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