Maxville

The Logger's Daughter

Students and teachers stand in front of a Maxville school circa 1926. "Maxville's Segregated Schools, C. 1926" image courtesy of Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center.

Oregon Public Broadcasting's Oregon Experience television program explores the experiences of hundreds of loggers and their families who trekked from Missouri and Arkansas to a logging camp in the remote hills of Wallowa County in the 1920s.

Dozens of the new Maxville citizens were African-American. The community had the only segregated school in Oregon and the Black residents lived across the railroad tracks from the white residents.

By the early 1930s, the Bowman-Hicks Lumber Company officially closed the camp but some residents stayed on into the 1940s.

Watch The Logger's Daughter documentary (27:16).

The extraordinary logging town of Maxville was created in 1923 by the Bowman-Hicks Lumber Company out of Missouri. Originally known as Logging Camp #5 near Wallowa, it gained new titles as the camp grew. Called Mac’s Town after the first camp boss, it grew to a small town and renamed itself Maxville. Rather than draw workers from the Pacific Northwest, this southern company recruited loggers from the South. Unusual for the times, many of these timber workers were African Americans, even though state law excluded many people of color from living in Oregon.

Maxville was the most populous town in Wallowa County in 1923. It had a whopping 400 people - some 40 to 60 of whom were African Americans. The town was racially mixed but certainly not racially integrated. Maxville was a heavily segregated town in the southern Jim Crow style. Residents were mandated to live in separate parts of town, divided by race and marital status.

A rusty barrel with what looks like bullet holes in it lies in a field of yellow grass. Evergreen trees surround the field. — This rusted barrel is one of the few possible remnants of the community of Maxville in remote Wallowa County. The Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center in Joseph has artifacts and much more information. (Oregon State Archives, 2019)
Get a high resolution copy of this image from the Oregon Scenic Images Collection.

Logging jobs were also split up by worker ethnicity. African Americans felled trees with crosscut saws, worked as log loaders, log cutters, railroad builders, tong hookers and Black section foremen. A population of Greek immigrants built railroads for the town, while native born Anglo-Americans served as white section foremen, tree toppers, saw filers, truck drivers, and bridge builders.

In keeping with Jim Crow standards, Maxville educated its children separately. The town had two schoolhouses at either end. One was for white students, and the other for Black students. Maxville also boasted two racially segregated baseball teams. These two normally played against each other but combined for tournaments with other towns.

Maxville’s sudden creation proved a boon for farmers and other northeast country-dwelling Oregonians. The needs of the town, especially for food, brought a number of extra jobs for locals and fresh goods for Maxville. Unfortunately, the jobs did not last. When the Great Depression hit and lumber sales fell, the Bowman-Hicks Lumber Company cut its losses and closed the town in 1933. After the town shut down, its African American families dispersed. Some sought other manual labor jobs in Oregon, others went south to take logging jobs in California. Today, virtually nothing survives from this once thriving community.

More Maxville Photos

14 Afican American and 10 white men stand for a photo amid a forest. Some hold saws and other tools.

Maxville loggers pose for a company photo in 1926. "Maxville Logger Company Photo, C.1926" image courtesy of Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center.

3 white women and 2 black women pose with their children for a photo.

Black and white residents of Maxville pose for a photo. "Friendships say no to Jim Crow" image courtesy of Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center.

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