The small now-ghost-town community of Palmer, Oregon, was located in the Columbia River Gorge at Columbia River Mile (RM) 133, east and up the hill from Bridal Veil. The community was on the flanks of Larch Mountain.
"... Palmer post office was in service near Bridal Veil Creek in the hills about three miles east of Bridal Veil from February 21, 1898 to December 15, 1919. Idona A. Pulley was the first postmaster. The office was near the mill and logging railroad of the Bridal Veil Lumber Company and was named for the president, Loren C. Palmer. ..."
Bridal Veil evolved as a company mill town in the 1880s when one of Oregon's first paper mills was established on Bridal Veil Creek. A small community developed around the papermaking mill for the families of the workers. It was followed by the Bridal Veil Falls Lumbering Company that consisted of a logging operation and saw-mill on Larch Mountain [Palmer], and a planing mill at Bridal Veil.
In 1886, the Company started construction of the mill buildings and residential dwellings east of the paper mill. A saw-mill and logging town, later known as Palmer, was built one and one-half miles south of Bridal Veil on Larch Mountain. It was located up Bridal Veil Canyon, on Bridal Veil Creek and was connected to Bridal Veil by Palmer Mill Road and a two-mile, wooden, v-shaped flume. Timber was rough-cut and then flumed down the mountain to the planing mill at Bridal Veil.
The Bridal Veil and Palmer communities and mills worked in tandem, dependent upon each other, for nearly fifty years until fire destroyed some of the planing mill buildings at Bridal Veil in 1936. As the timber supply on the mountain was nearly depleted, and the country was in The Depression, a decision not to rebuild those buildings was made.
In 1937, the mill buildings and town were sold to "Wood Specialties Company", later named "Bridal Veil Lumber and Box Company". This company produced wooden cheese boxes for the Kraft Food Company.
Includes ... Palmer ... Brower ... Palmer Mill ... Palmer Mill Road ... Bridal Veil ...