KLAMATHON
December 28, 1953
Klamathon was a busy little town before the fire in 1902 destroyed the most of it, including the sawmill.
The logs for the mill came from around the Pokegama area. They were hauled to the rim of the canyon south of Shovel Creek and were released into a chute made from hand hewn logs that extended from the rim of the canyon to the Klamath River. The logs were floated down the Klamath to the town of Klamathon, where they were sawed into lumber.
What little remained of Klamathon after the fire soon dwindled away, although the post office remained for a few more years in the store of I.H. Small, who was also the postmaster.
Jap Crenshaw operated a blacksmith shop on the north side of the river, and he continued to remain in the business for many years after the fire. The old wooden wagon bridge across the river was almost in front of the wagon shop. The bridge was used until the mid-twenties, when the County built a new bridge upstream from the old one.
The dam across the river at Klamathon that held the logs for the mill had a fish ladder, and I can remember before the town burned how the salmon would hang along the river below the dam by the thousands. People for many miles would to there to get the salmon to salt or dry for the winter's food supply.
I can remember the log drivers along the river. In later years some of the old drivers told me a lot about the log drives and some of the things that happened in old Klamathon Town. The log drivers whom I recall include Rod N. Frain, W.L. Frain, Fred Frain, Frank Woods, James White and Henry Hoover.
There used to be a cemetery on the hillside a half mile or so up the river from the town. There is not any sign of it now except a post and a tree. Some of the graves were moved, but some still remain. The cemetery seems to have outlived its usefulness after the town and mill burned, and probably at this time is all but forgotten except for a few old timers.
