Camas-Washougal Post Record
Nov. 22, 1972
Strike-Breaker Time
Old Timers Recall Early Days At Camas Inn
Auction bidders and building materials scavengers have reduced the Camas Inn interior to rubble in the past two weeks. Atlas Building Wreckers of Portland expects to begin demolition of the 50-year-old building in early December.
Banquets, dances and social events in the old hotel are remembered by most Camasonians. Old-timers Grant Waldorf and Roy Trutton can recall back to the early 20s when they lived in the hotel built for Crown Willamette strike breakers.
Then, the Inn was “rougher than the dickens,” Waldorf remembered. He moved into the hotel in 1920 when he was 20 years old, and lived there for three years.
The atmosphere at the Inn was one of animosity rather than friendliness, Waldorf said. The hotel housed Filipinos, Bulgarians, Greeks, Chinese and a handful of Americans. Filipinos filled the third floor of the Inn in those days, with Bulgarians and Greeks scattered on the second floor.
“The Filipinos had guitars and banjos and howled like coyotes so we couldn’t sleep,” Waldorf said. He descrived the Greeks as “real dear people.” Some eventually were able to send for their families while others returned with their savings to Greece.
Good food at the Inn depended on the manager, Waldorf said. Hot lunches were sent to the mill and those working overtime could have a hot meal delivered to them.
“Oh, we were mean and ornery,” Waldorf recalled as he told a tale of the Chinese cooks at the Inn. One evening when baked potatoes were on the menu, Waldorf and three others sneaked into the kitchen, grabbed up some of the rock-hard vegetables and retreated from the room, throwing them at the cooks.
When Waldorf moved from the old hotel into an apartment, he was told to move back to the Inn if he wanted to keep his job. Room and board payments were taken from the men’s paychecks.
Despite the rough early days in Camas, Waldorf has a soft spot in his heart for the old hotel.
“Camas is losing a great landmark by losing that inn,” he concluded.
Roy Trutton came to Camas in 1919 at age 27 when he heard at a Portland employment office that men were needed to work at the Camas mill. He and his brother started work that year thinking they would leave after working a short time.
His brother eventually returned to their family home in Orofino, Idaho, but Trutton stayed to work at the mill for over 38 years until his retirement.
The brothers paid $12 monthly rent for their combined room at the old hotel. Meals were served in the east dining room for 35 cents each. Trutton had the job of carrying the cash from the Inn till to the Crown office when he went to work.
The men staying at the hotel “were a pretty orderly bunch. They didn’t make any disturbance, ” Trutton said. He remembered the hotel as a quiet place since the men on different shifts were always sleeping.
Big dances held by the Masons and Veterans were remembered by Mr. and Mrs. Trutton. At first the bands consited of a pianist, violinist and drummer. Later professional bands played a the Inn and admission was charged.
Women were first allowed to stay in the Inn about 35 years ago, Mrs. Trutton recalled.
“Before that it was purely a man’s joint. We didn’t mix the sexes in those days. Of course women were such prudes then,” she said.
His happiest moment living at the Inn was “when I moved across the street and got married,” Trutton said. The Truttons have lived across from the Inn ever since that date in 1922.
