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M/CLEAR Temp: 76 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Friday, August 16, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Cyberchef E The People Golf Job Network Headbone Zone Wellness Connection Movie Times Newspaper in Education Oregon CarZone Outdoor Journal Personals Prime Times Real Estate Tempo A & E TV Times W3 Magazine CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Destinations Automotive Communities Employment Entertainment Publications Real Estate Recreation Shopping Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Jobs @ Mail Tribune Email Story to a Friend July 28, 2002 Opal Hodgen, right, and her daugter, Gayel Ward, stand next to the Hilt Church, where Opal was a Sunday school teacher Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Hilt: A company town like family The Fruit Growers Supply sawmill closed in 1974, but those who lived in Hilt retain warm memories of the town By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune HILT, Calif. — Not much is left of the timber town that Opal Hodgen once called home. Gone is the Hilt Hotel where many of the single employees of the Fruit Growers Supply Co. lived. Gone are the rows of wooden frame houses occupied by employees with families. Gone is Warrens’ Diamond Saloon, where thirsty workers bellied up to the mahogany bar on Friday nights. Gone, too, is the sawmill that pioneer John Hilt, the town’s namesake, built in the 1870s. But memories of this once thriving company town a mile south of the Oregon state line live on. "It was like one big family," said Hodgen, now 83 and a longtime Eagle Point resident. "Even the general manager, he and his wife were never above everyone else. We were all the same. "We only paid $10 a month for rent," she adds. "People look at me like I’m smoking something when I say that now, but it’s true. A loaf of bread was 5 cents. A dozen eggs was a dime." Hodgen, who lived in Hilt for more than 21 years, beginning in 1939, will be among the former residents gathering for a reunion in Yreka on Sunday, Aug. 4. "We’re hoping this won’t be the last one," she said, referring to the fact that many of the former residents have died over the years. It was 30 years ago this year that the company, which supplied Sunkist with wooden orange crates before the advent of cardboard boxes, announced that the sawmill it had operated since 1910 was closing. The sawmill would continue to operate on a limited basis until 1974, milling logs that had already been cut from its nearby timberlands. The company continues to manage those lands. Hodgen, a popular storyteller in the Jackson County Library System for years with her accounts about growing up in rural Siskiyou County, was born on the Klamath River near Hornbrook. After graduating from Yreka High School in 1935 at age 16, she would marry in 1939, settling in Hilt where her husband worked in the box factory. His father worked as a saw filer at the mill, a job her husband would learn. They were among the roughly 700 people once employed by the firm during the town’s booming years. With their families, the population was estimated to be close to 2,000. Now perhaps two dozen people live in the area, depending on how far out one places Hilt’s boundaries. "It was a good place to raise kids," said Hodgen, who is twice widowed, raising four children. "We always had Christmas plays put on by the school," she said. "They would hold them at the community hall. A group of the girls would sew up potato sacks to make Christmas stockings." Christmas invariably brought a 10-pound bag of oranges, apples, candy, popcorn balls and nuts for Hilt’s children, courtesy of the company. The local volunteer fire department provided a social bond, holding an occasional dinner and dance for the adults while always staging a Halloween party and Easter egg hunt for the youngsters. The four-room Hilt school with its four teachers provided education through the eighth grade. A two-bed company hospital had a doctor and a live-in nurse. But it was the people that made Hilt special, Hodgen said. She recalled the section of town she knew as "Little Italy," a place settled by folks who had emigrated from Italy. "The Italian community was very important to me,’ she said. "It was situated on the west hills. You could hear them play music." In her mind, she can still see the gardens they raised on the terraced hillside. "And they made their own wine," she said. "They would ship in a (railroad) car of grapes." It was always a good vintage, she said. "They were very hospitable," she said. "Everybody cooked on wood stoves back then, even on hottest days of summer. They would invite you in. You would sit down by the wood stove and they would bring you a glass of wine. "You were pretty happy," she added. Hodgen taught Sunday school at the Hilt Church, established in 1925. "Church services were nondenominational, and the building served both Protestant and Catholic faiths," she said. The church is one of the few buildings from that era that endures. Hilt’s post office closed on Jan. 4, 1974, marking the official end of the town. "The company store and the post office are all gone," Hodgen said. "The (railroad) depot is gone. But those of us who lived in Hilt will never forget what it was like. "It was a good place to live," she added. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Thirtieth reunion set Former Hilt residents will hold their 30th reunion Sunday, Aug. 4, in Yreka. The event begins at 10 a.m. in Greenhorn Park at the south end of Yreka. Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. 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