Camas, Washington

The City of Camas was incorporated on June 2, 1906. Camas is located at the western entrance to the Columbia Gorge, on Washington Highway 14 in eastern Clark County.

The town originated over 100 years ago as a paper-mill town, which still has a paper mill operated by Georgia-Pacific Corporation. The west side of the city sits atop Prune Hill, an ancient and dormant volcanic hill named for its earlier prune orchards.

LaCamas Colony Company selected townsite of LaCamas for their new paper mill. Mr. Henry L. Pittock, the owner of the Oregonian newspaper of Portland needed plenty of water to power paper-making machines for his newspaper and found it in the lakes behind the LaCamas region. The name "LaCamas" originated from the "camas roots used by the Indians for food" as written in a letter dated April 1909 by Mr. H. MacMaster, Councilman. In 1883 Aeneas MacMaster opens the first store in LaCamas. In 1884 First school and post office was established in LaCamas. In 1889  Washington becomes a State of the Union. In 1906 Camas was incorporated as a town. In 1908 The LaCamas Post, forerunner of the Post-Record newspaper, was created.

Blossoming with clusters of showy deep blue flowers, something like a hyacinth in habit, the Camas Lily was eagerly sought by Columbia river valley Indians, since its bulb was an important part of their diet.  Grown in meadows and marshes, it was harvested in mid-summer and prepared for eating, cooking in primitive baking pits, first being wrapped in swamp grass before contact with hot stones.  When the cooked bulbs were dry, they were reduced to a flour from which bread could be made.  When boiled in water, the bulbs yielded a molasses that was treasured for use on important festival occasions.  Indians called the flower the KAMASS.
Source: City of Camas website

History of Camas

     The city of LaCamas was created by a group of investors who saw the potential in the natural resources of the land; timber and water.
     One person who came to LaCamas in these early years was George Washington Bush, who was one of the first African-Americans to try to settle in the LaCamas area. Bush moved west when his home state of Missouri passed a law barring free blacks from setting up residence. The state had made an exception for Bush, but he decided it was time to look for a place where he and his family would not be subject to prejudices.
     At the age of 60, Bush helped finance a wagon train west but half way to Oregon the party learned that the state had enacted a black exclusion law. Bush and his party, who were originally headed for the Willamette Valley, settled in Washington Territory just east from Ft. Vancouver, in what is now Camas, for the winter of 1844. Bush and his friends created the first industry of the area, cutting cedar shakes to sell to Ft. Vancouver. In the spring of 1845, the temporary settlers headed north to the Puget Sound area.
     The first major attempt at industry was by Jacob Hansacker in 1846, who had a sawmill built on the banks of LaCamas Lake close to the Columbia River. Within a few years this sawmill was completely destroyed by fire and Hansacker never rebuilt.
Ft. Vancouver was a thriving trading post that had many employees, and many of them preferred to live with their families outside the fort. Some of these employees would live as far out as Grass Valley, Fisher’s Landing, and in the LaCamas area, where they would build temporary housing. When their employment was over with the Hudson’s Bay Company, they would abandon their homes and move on.
     The first permanent settler, Richard Ough, arrived in LaCamas in 1849, three years after the Hansacker mill was established. Working as a seaman for the Hudson’s Bay Company, Ough met an Indian woman, White Wing. Soon after, they were married with Dr. McLoughlin, factor of Ft. Vancouver officiating the ceremony. Ough and White Wing, also known as Betsy Ough, made their home near what was later to become the town of LaCamas.
      In 1851, two years after Ough’s arrival to the LaCamas area, the Hudson’s Bay Company built a sawmill to supply the fort with lumber. The Hudson’s Bay sawmill had no better success than the one built for Hansacker, for it, too, burned a few years after its construction. A third attempt was made, this time by H.J.G. Maxon in 1852 to establish a successful sawmill. This sawmill, built close to LaCamas Creek, was also destroyed by fire.(4) No other attempts were made to establish an industry in this area until 1883.
     Henry Pittock, owner of the daily newspaper, The Oregonian, started searching for a site to build his own paper mill. He wanted to replace the outdated mill on the Clackamas River in Oregon City that had been supplying the paper for his newspaper. On May 12, 1883, after inspecting the area surrounding LaCamas Lake, Pittock and his group of investors, The LaCamas Colony, purchased 2600 acres on which to build their new paper mill.
     By May of 1884, the Columbia River Paper Company put out its first sheet of paper, soon after the mill was producing up to 4 tons of newsprint daily from local timber, straw, rags from China and old clothing.
     Prunes played a large role in the agricultural economy of the area. Vancouver businessman Arthur Hidden was the first to bring in the Italian prune trees that would soon make Clark County famous. By the 1930’s and 40’s the prune industry of Clark County began to decline.
     The main method of transportation to and from LaCamas in the early years for people, paper and crops were sternwheel steamers like the Portland trader ships Traveler and the Dixie Thompson. The settlers had access to these steamers as early as the 1850’s from Parker’s Landing. In 1880, a wharf was built in Washougal, and when the paper mill was constructed, the steamers made regular stops in LaCamas, but the residents would have to row out to collect passengers and mail deliveries. The mail was usually delivered twice a week, dropped off by the mail steamer as it was heading up the Columbia River.
Source: The Early Years of Camas, Washington

City of Camas
616 NE 4th Avenue
Camas, Washington 98607
info@ci.camas.wa.us
360-834-6864
http://www.ci.camas.wa.us/

Downtown Camas
www.downtowncamas.com

Public Works
360-817-1560

Camas Public Library
360-834-4692

Parks & Recreation
360-834-5307

Non-Emergency/Police
360-834-4151

Non-Emergency/Fire
360-834-2262

911
Emergency Police & Fire

Camas Washougal Recorder
25 NE 4th Ave., PO Box 1013
Camas, WA 98607
(360) 834-2141

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: Family History Centers
www.lds.org
(360) 944-5773

State of Washington: Center for Columbia River History
http://access.wa.gov 
(360) 992-1821