The National Lead Titanium Mine Construction

  When construction started in 1941, several buildings from the former Frank Smith store at North Creek were leased for a construction warehouse.  This acted as a base of operations at the southern end of the line.
  The mill buildings at Tahawus started going up in 1941 while at the same time, a new rail yard was being built at North Creek. The mill buildings started going up in the cold winter of 1941-42, at one point hitting 40 below zero.  The first load was dumped into the crusher in 1942 and hauled out by truck to the yard at North Creek in July of 1942.  Actual construct-ion of the railroad extension to Tahawus was started in August. 
 On June 19, 1944, the first train went to Tahawus for a load.  Costs for the line, which were estimated at 2.5 million, ended up totaling 4.5 million due to extra costs in the mountains. 

Construction Office & storage at North Creek - 1941

Crusher Building Foundation - 1941

Wet Mill Bins - 1941

Smoke Stack  - 1941

Wet Mill - 1941

Dry Mill - 1941

Finished Mill - 1942

First Dump in Crusher - 1942

Sinter Plant - 1941

Yardmaster's House at the Wye - 1942

Patton Collection all photos

Here is the same building in 1996

Stillwater Siding in 1942 (north and south end photos)

Patton Collection both