Talk:Spruce Production Division

My ears were burning

Like magic, eventually the psychic pull of Wikipedia pixels and the collective energy of WP:ORE somehow alerted me I should log into Wikipedia today. I guess my tinfoil hat stopped working. Nicely done! Valfontis (talk) 21:31, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

The development seems to be going pretty quickly. Move to mainspace soon, after moving the notes into article info.? Jsayre64 (talk) 23:49, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Now that the article has been reviewed by Valfontis, I'm much more confident it may be ready for primetime. tedder (talk) 16:47, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

I didn't actually review it, but it did pass a spellcheck! Valfontis (talk) 17:51, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

OK, it's now copyedited. I need to reread it for sense--I get the impression there is some unnecessary repetition. Valfontis (talk) 18:50, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

I have a couple things I want to put in about the LLLL and my fave old dead guy but I can always do that in the mainspace if we want to move this over soon.

And of course, we can just move the notes to the talk page if we don't get them all incorporated.

We do also need to have some fancy commemorative banner on the talk page. Here's a start. It should be more fancy pantsy, like Aunt Betty's bloomers. Candles, cake, etc? --Esprqii (talk) 20:02, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

(moving left). Yes, we need candles on a cake. Valfontis- the "notes" section are references that I parsed that need to be integrated. I think you've dealt with those in a previous life. I'm hoping someone who is good at writing text will do so. Otherwise, I think it needs to be resectioned. tedder (talk) 20:59, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

This image or this one, slightly different have a candle on a cake. But that might associate this milestone with a birthday. We're treating it like one, though! :-) This is more casual/common, but maybe it would work:

—Jsayre64 (talk) 02:55, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

First, shouldn't this get moved over to mainspace soon? Second, the Dictionary of Oregon History's entry says John B. Yeon was one of the folks who conceived of the idea, and here are the sources it lists: Oregon Journal Magazine 8/30/1931 p 4; Oregonian Sunday Magazine 11/5/1939 p 4. Aboutmovies (talk) 08:33, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

User:Steven Walling sent an email out to the PDX Wiki group about the Wikimedia Foundation's 10th anniversary coming up on January 15. Since it's their 10th...and our 10,000th article...what if we held off until January and released it then as our special present? Might be kind of a cool tie-in. Maybe we can try and get some peer review/good article review/featured status?? before then? I'm sure that in honor of the anniversary people could look at it in the project space. I dunno. Just a goofy thought. --Esprqii (talk) 01:10, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Like AM, I would prefer to move this to the mainspace soon so we can get on to another great collaboration. It's a cool idea, but "They didn't finish that until mid-January? What a lazy group!" is not what we want people to think. This might work instead is if something goes terribly wrong and truly takes so much work that we can't release it until then. Just my opinion. Jsayre64 (talk) 03:43, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

More bits for SPD in WA

Found these searching for architect Gould's connection with the WA lumber camp design:

• http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7576
• http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=8397
• http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Curriculum%20Packets/High%20Lead%20Logging/I.html

Watch out for vampires. Though if we can work Forks, Washington into the article it may boost its page hits! Valfontis (talk) 05:23, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Other pages that link to SPD, etc.

• Agate Beach, Oregon
• Kernville, Oregon

It actually sounds like most of Lincoln County was involved in the war effort. Other search terms: "Spruce Soldiers" and "Spruce Squadrons", "Spruce Division". The guys were also called "sprucers".

History, charts, other cool stuff:

• http://swansongrp.com/spruce.html

History of the Port of Toledo has some stuff:

• http://www.portoftoledo.org/Hitchman%20History%20for%20Website%20PDF.pdf

Valfontis (talk) 05:33, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Railroads

• Spruce Production Division Railroad Nos. 1 (I)-?? Teh Google
• "Spruce Railroad"
• See also Spruce Railroad Trail

• Pics

Valfontis (talk) 05:44, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

There are also these photographs, of which I've already uploaded the first two. Jsayre64 (talk) 15:54, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Notes

Colonel Charles Van Way "returned to Vancouver in about 1920 for a job of several years in charge of disposing of the logging camps owned by the Spruce Production Division in Oregon and Washington. From about 1920 to 1922, the family lived in what is now called the O.O. Howard House. One of the colonel's daughters, Dorothy, was married there to a 1919 West Point graduate, Lt. C.B. Ferenbaugh."

Then-Colonel Brice Disque wanted "10,000,000 feet of perfect Oregon and Washington aeroplane spruce to win the war". HQ in Portland, per the Oregonian. "It is the plan not to commandeer any milling or logging plants or to use any but civilians in the woods unless it is absolutely necessary to change the program in these respects." "Colonel Disque anticipates little, if any, trouble with the IWW or other labor organizations."

Woods division "abolished" by Major General George O. Squier December 23, 1917. Chairman of the aircraft board was Howard E. Coffin, a "well-known furniture manufacturer, residing at Grand Rapids, Mich.". The division head as Major Charles R. Sligh, a "reserve officer". "The woods division was charged with responsibility of purchasing all wood required for the big American aircraft program and in part coordinating the lumber requirements of the United States and the allies." "There have been numerous reports that all was not working harmoniously in the woods division." Rumors began even before Sligh was involved.

References:

Articles Tedder has for someone else to consume, email me

• "Spruce and the Airplane", SF Chronicle
• "Spruce production division is halted", CSM
• "WOOD FOR THE WAR" Columbian
• "TURN IN TIDE IS FOR DISQUE", LATimes, mentions mill in Lincoln County

Note that most information from these news articles has been used. Jsayre64 (talk) 22:32, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Jsayre! tedder (talk) 04:16, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Possible DYK Nomination

• DYK …that during World War I the United States Army recruited over 28,000 soldiers for the Spruce Production Division and used them to harvest Sitka spruce in the Pacific Northwest?
  • Nominated. Jsayre64 (talk) 21:32, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Other bits

• Ward Tonsfeldt has done some research on this.
• ISBN 9780549677390: Battle for the body: Work and environment in the Pacific Northwest lumber industry, 1800--1940 Erik Loomis
• In the Pacific Northwest Quarterly, "spruce" is on page 101 of the index.
• Look at the Spruce Production Corporation, especially this legal case
• "Andrew Hammond". The Oregon Encyclopedia. and A. B. Hammond: "During World War I, the U.S. Army identified Hammond as the single largest owner of Sitka spruce timberland in Oregon. Only the lumber from Sitka spruce was suitable for airplane manufacture."
• Pic of old tracks near Beverly Beach in 1963.

--Jsayre64 (talk) 18:19, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

architect

I added some info from this very interesting article, plus additional material on his other works, to the Carl F. Gould architect article, in these edits. Great job on the collaboratively written article, y'all! --Doncram (talk) 16:28, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

GA Review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

This review is transcluded from Talk:Spruce Production Division/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

I'll review this article now. Reviewer: Nick-D (talk) 03:08, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Comments

This is an excellent article. My only suggestions for further improvements are:

• It's stated both that total production of lumber for aircraft increased to 22,145,823 board feet and that the division produced "54 million board feet of spruce for aircraft construction from Oregon forests alone" - this seems contradictory
• The lead could be expanded to a couple of paragraphs
• Did the 'company town' in Washington State have a name?
• Were all of the division's personnel volunteers, or were draftees assigned to the unit? Nick-D (talk) 03:18, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Assessment

GA review (see here for criteria)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

Nick-D (talk) 03:21, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Yipee! Jsayre64 (talk) 04:37, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Prose

At the end of the Production section:

"And all wire rope manufactured in the west, as well as anything shipped in, was controlled by the spruce division per Colonel Disque. " 'There was a serious shortage of wire rope when Col. Disque took charge of the spruce production campaign,' he declared.""

The "and" at the beginning of the sentence doesn't really work. It seems like there are some transitional words missing here. Also, who is the 'he' who declared that there was a shortage of wire rope? ManfromButtonwillow (talk) 06:40, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Good find. I replaced the "And" with "Furthermore," as that sentence seems to support the one before it. The last sentence was quoting a quote in a newspaper article, and I just eliminated the double-quote. Jsayre64 (talk) 16:23, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

I had gone through the article, and those were my only questions. Very interesting read! Thanks! 32.175.163.247 (talk) 09:01, 15 February 2011 (UTC) (manfrombuttonwillow, reading/editing from my phone..)

Article in OHQ

I just noticed an article in the Spring 2011 Oregon Historical Quarterly issue, by Kathleen Crosman, titled "The Army in the Woods: Spruce Production Division Records at the National Archives." I've taken some notes from it and I don't have time to incorporate them tonight, but perhaps tomorrow or Saturday I will. Other OHS subscribers are welcome to help. :-) --Jsayre64 (talk) 05:09, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

 Done --Jsayre64 (talk) 00:55, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Source for expansion

• see p. 107 of this issue of Oregon Voter --Preceding unsigned comment by Peteforsyth (talk · contribs) 16:18, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Great find, Pete! This gives data for the number of board feet produced during each (well, almost each) month the division was working. And when I saw that, having not made some population graphs recently due to others' concern about doing so, I thought: line graph! So here's what I've got. Again, maybe a table would be more appropriate, so I'll wait before putting this in the article right away. Besides, it seems pretty crowded with images. --Jsayre64 (talk) 02:22, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Well, I'm going to be bold and add the graph as a link. Jsayre64 (talk) 14:57, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

FA?

Does anyone think this article might even meet the FA criteria? I've never dealt with a featured article review before, but the GA review went pretty smoothly. Jsayre64 (talk) 23:48, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Spruce Squadrons

I'm surprised the nickname isn't mentioned. I'd just stick it in without a source but since it's a good article I'll just mention it here because this is a drive-by and I got not time for refs. Proof from teh Google. Valfontis (talk) 04:00, 3 November 2015 (UTC)