PH Coll 430.A45

This is the plant in Somervell, Texas where railroad ties were treated with creosote. The Pacific Creosoting Company was a company founded on Bainbridge Island that treated logs with creosote as a preservative. It began operations as the Perfection Pile Preserving Company in 1904, then moved in 1905 to Eagle Harbor at Winslow in the city of Bainbridge Island. The company was taken over by Horace Chapin Henry in 1906 and renamed. After Henry died in 1928, his company and its competitor, J.M. Colman's creosote company (located in West Seattle), were combined in 1930 to form the West Coast Wood Preserving Company. In 1947, Walter Wyckoff bought out the Colman family's interest and, after joining with J.H. Baxter in 1959, renamed the company the Baxter-Wyckoff Company. In 1964, Wyckoff bought out Baxter and renamed the company the Wyckoff Company. The Eagle Harbor site was one of the largest producers of treated wood products in the United States. Treated wood from the site was used to build wharfs in San Francisco, flood control channels in Los Angeles, and the Panama Canal.

• Subjects (LCSH): African Americans--Texas--Somervell; Railroad ties--Texas--Somervell; Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad Company; Railroad trains--Texas--Somervell