Woodard Station Traditional Cache
Wiild Country Girl: Time for someone else to place a new cache in this area.
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This is my first cache, so I thought it was appropriate to place it in the town where I have lived my whole life.
Please park safely out of the way on the south side of the road. There are many large trucks serving the mill through here each day and they need room to make the turn from Argonne.
Many people drive down Argonne each day without ever realizing they have passed through a town with a long and interesting history. So, when you stop to find this cache, take a few extra moments to stop and look around at the amazing architecture of the mill and the surrounding homes and try to imagine this town in days gone by.
In the decade between 1900 and 1910, the population of the rapidly developing city of Spokane, Washington more than doubled. It was probably inevitable that the broad, fertile Spokane River Valley located east of the city would also attract serious developers.
When a newly-formed Coeur d’Alene-Spokane Railroad Co. was planning an electric rail line in 1903, early setters Seth Woodard and his father, Joseph Woodard, enticed the company with the promise of free right-of-way through their land. In gratitude, the railroad company located Woodard Station on the edge of Seth Woodard’s land.
A north-south road was established through Woodard Station in 1908. The following year, a new bridge across the Spokane River connected Woodard Station to the vast agricultural regions to the north.
The transportation and river attracted industry. In 1909, W.A. Brazeau convinced Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Co. of Appleton, Wisconsin to invest in building a paper mill at Woodard Station. The new mill began producing paper in September, 1911.
The mills’ management wanted a town name that would promote the mill, Millwood was chosen as a name that would represent both the Mill and the Woodards.
Businesses soon located in the fledging “company town.” They sought to serve both local residents and farmers, as well as mill employees. By 1911, Millwood had a lumber yard, restaurant, barber shop, general store and the Wiley hotel. 1912 brought the Millwood hotel and the first Byram building.
Mill workers and their families flooded in from the Midwest. Very little suitable housing existed in the area. In 1923, the Paper Mill management established a revolving home loan fund to help their employees build their own quality homes. The company offered lots for sale and provided books of house plans for a reference.
In 1928, the Town of Millwood became the first incorporated Town in the Spokane Valley.
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