Bridal Veil, Oregon facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bridal Veil
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Train load of larch as seen from cab. Bridal Veil Lumber Company, Oregon, 1910.
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 Bridal Veil
Location in Oregon
Bridal Veil
Location in the United States
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| Country | United States |
| State | Oregon |
| County | Multnomah |
| Elevation | 118 ft (36 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-8 (Pacific (PST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-7 (PDT) |
| ZIP codes |
97010
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| Area code(s) | 503/971 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1138601 |
Bridal Veil is a small, quiet place in Multnomah County, Oregon, United States. It is sometimes called a "virtual ghost town" because most of its original buildings are gone. The town started in the 1880s during a time when logging was very popular. A logging company built a sawmill here to cut down trees from nearby Larch Mountain.
Bridal Veil was a "company town," meaning the company owned most of the homes and businesses. For about 50 years, it worked closely with another logging town called Palmer. Today, only a post office and a cemetery remain. Bridal Veil is located near the western end of the beautiful Columbia River Gorge.
Contents
History of Bridal Veil
Bridal Veil was officially started in 1886. The main business was the Bridal Veil Falls Lumbering Company. This company built a sawmill about one mile (1.6 km) up Larch Mountain. The company worked in Bridal Veil and the nearby areas from 1886 until 1936.
Logging and Mills
About a mile and a half up the mountain was another logging town called Palmer. Both Palmer and Bridal Veil were owned by the same company. They worked together to produce lumber. Trees were cut down on the mountain and taken to the sawmill in Palmer.
After the wood was roughly cut at Palmer's mill, it traveled down to Bridal Veil. The wood moved along a special V-shaped log flume. This flume carried the wood about a mile and a half to the finishing mill in Bridal Veil. This close working relationship between the two towns ended in 1936. That's when the mill in Palmer closed down.
Changes Over Time
In 1936, a fire damaged the mill in Bridal Veil. Around this time, most of the valuable timber on Larch Mountain was gone. The Bridal Veil Falls Lumbering Company stopped owning the mill after the fire.
In 1937, a new company bought the entire town and its mills. This company became the Bridal Veil Lumber and Box Company. They started making wooden boxes, especially for Kraft Food Company to hold cheese. This company operated until 1960 when it closed. Today, the wooden boxes made in Bridal Veil are considered valuable collector's items.
From 1955 to 1960, the company president, Leonard Kraft, wrote a newsletter. This newsletter shared business news and also local gossip. It talked about potluck dinners, who was sick, and who was visiting. It was like the local newspaper for the company and the town's 100 residents. The mill continued to operate under different owners until 1988.
Why the Name "Bridal Veil"?
There's a story about how Bridal Veil got its name. A long time ago, a passenger on a sternwheeler boat called the Baily Gatzert was traveling on the Columbia River. They saw Bridal Veil Falls and said it looked like a "delicate, misty bride's veil."
Over the years, people started calling this spot "Bride's Veil, Oregon." When the first post office opened around 1886, and a small train station was built, the community was officially named Bridal Veil.
What Remains Today
In 1990, a group called the Trust for Public Land bought Bridal Veil and its buildings. A local historical society tried for ten years to save the old mill houses and buildings. However, the trust had them torn down in 2001. By 2006, the trust was planning to sell the land to the United States Forest Service.
Preserving the Cemetery
On Memorial Day in 2006, the Bridal Veil Historical Preservation Society held a special service. This society had managed to get the legal ownership (deed) to the Bridal Veil Cemetery. The last burial in this cemetery was in 1934.
Volunteers, including the society's president Geri Canzler and her husband Rod, work hard to keep the cemetery in good condition. To find the owners of the cemetery, who were the descendants of the original lumber company founders, the society needed help from volunteer lawyers. With the land title, the society can now protect the cemetery. The old gravestones show how diphtheria and smallpox epidemics affected the town over a century ago.
Canzler and other local residents are also working to get the deed for the Bridal Veil Community Church building and land. They hope to eventually gain ownership of the post office too. However, on October 27, 2011, the Bridal Veil Community Church was torn down. This means only the cemetery and the post office are left from the original town.
The Special Postmark
One big reason Bridal Veil still exists is its very popular postmark. Thousands of people, especially brides, send their wedding invitations to Bridal Veil. They want the special postmark from this unique town.
During spring and summer, which is wedding season, the post office is very busy. It fills with thousands of wedding invitations waiting for its special stamp. This wedding business, along with strong support from local people, has helped keep the Bridal Veil post office open. This is true even when the government has considered closing it. The post office helps keep the town going long after the logging industry left.
Notable People
- Hershel McGriff, a famous NASCAR Winston West Series champion in 1986, was born in 1927.
