1925 Carlsborg Annual Review

100 years ago today, the Carlsborg Annual Review, December 21st, 1925. Vol. 1, No. 2. 

While contracting to build one of the country’s largest dry docks in Bremerton WA for the U.S. Government, Carlsborg’s founder C.J. Erikson, conceived the idea to open up the Olympic Peninsula with an outlet by railroad. According to the Carlsborg Annual Review, this ambitious project had more to do with the development of this district than any other thing. “Since the arrival of the railroad, there has been introduced pulp and paper manufacturing and the lumber and agricultural development has been greatly intensified.” During the time of the railroad construction, known today as the Olympic Discovery Trail, Erikson’s interests led him to the lumber industry. Carlsborg proper along with the Carlsborg Mill and Timber Company were established in 1915. Named after Erikson’s hometown in Sweden.

The roaring 20’s were a time of economic and cultural prosperity. The ending of WW1 and Spanish Flu pandemic gave way to a blossoming decade of jazz music, flapper fashion and the fast rise of modern technologies such as automobiles, radio, telephones and film. Fiscal conservative and Republican Vice President Calvin Coolidge assumed presidency after the death of President Warren G Harding in 1923. Coolidge was a strong supporter for women’s suffrage and in 1924 signed the Indian Citizenship Act which granted U.S. Citizenship to all Native Americans. He was widely admired for his support of racial equality though there is still much debate amongst historians about his laissez-faire approach to economics contributing to the onset of the Great Depression.

This 2nd issue of the Carlsborg Annual Review and the previous 1st issue, which was printed on December 15th 1920, both focused heavily on real estate and optimistic Carlsborg living propaganda. Advertisements showcasing Carlsborg’s amenities, property listings and many insightful testimonies from and about the residents.

“Charles Johnson the yard foreman and shipper, believes that more cars of lumber going out means more money coming in.”

“Mrs. W. E. Stevens in co-operation with other ladies gave a social dance here last week. Free music was supplied by the Vautier boys. The proceeds were for the benefit of the children’s clinic.“

These pages are filled with literary delights. Several articles describing why Carlsborg is the ideal place to live, Clallam County Fruit Growers Association’s loganberry statistics, space fillers about Homer’s “The Iliad” and basic music theory lessons, anonymous quotes and winter encouragements reminding us “only a few months more till bathing girls will be back on the magazine covers”.

The 1925 Carlsborg Annual Review is best summarized by the editor himself.. though if Vol. 3 was to miraculously rise again today, French critic and journalist Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr said it best in 1849. “The more things change, the more they stay the same”.

“GOOD PLACE FOR A HOME

Carlsborg, Wash.
Dec. 10th 1925

Editor Carlsborg Annual Review:

Carlsborg is a good place for a man to make a home:

The land is very productive;  the irrigation water the cheapest in the state;  climate can’t be beat;  a great place for berries and poultry;  plenty of good land at reasonable cost;  also this land will produce alfalfa and clover in abundance, potatoes, in fact the best all-round country I ever lived in.

For a man making a start to get a home, there is plenty of work in the mills and camps at good wages.

In my estimation, this district is hard to beat.

Respectfully
A.B. Amerman”