Before and during lunch, the guests signed up with a specific student group to take a walking tour of various points of historical interest in and around town.  Each tour was led by a mixed-grade group of students accompanied by a teacher or a school staff member.  Some of the tours stayed in town, going out to the east as far as a well-defined logging spur, while other tours crossed the highway and the river.  At each point of interest, a student guide would describe its historical significance.

This house trailer occupies the site where the tiny temporary housing some called “cheese-boxes” once stood.  Visitors listened carefully as their guide described the cheesebox houses.

The cheeseboxes were tiny yellow houses to provide temporary housing for families.  People called them cheeseboxes because they reminded them of the cheese that used to be sold in little yellow boxes.  They didn’t have indoor plumbing, so people had to use the outhouses in back.

Student guide at cheesebox site.

Visitors stand on the now-vacant south side of the logging road once lined with bunkhouses.

The student guide explains that the bunkhouses provided a bit more spacious living than the cheeseboxes, but families hoped a house would soon be available.  (It is thought that the bunkhouses were only for single men;  as the BV lodge wasn’t built yet .)

Student guide at bunkhouse site.


In front of this unoccupied boxcar house, visitors listened to their student guide describe how two or three boxcars would be put together to build a house.

Student guide at boxcar house

A student guide describes this very well-maintained house built of three boxcars.

Student guide at Pace boxcar house.


Homeowner Linda Pace guided the group through each boxcar portion of her house.  In this living room photo, you can see the original curve of the boxcar ceiling.

Scattered throughout town are boxcars in use as sheds and shops.

The former union hall is now the city hall and volunteer fire department.

Student guide at union (city) hall.

Carine Williams was the company nurse of Seneca.  Whenever a Hines worker or someone in his family was sick or injured, Carine would help them.  People came to her for tetanus and tick shots.  She lived in this house, and had her office in the back.

Just east of the city limits is one of many roads that were once logging spurs.

A happy group enjoyed their walk back in time on such a fine day.


Big Tree was once a gathering spot for picnics and parties.  It met its end after years of vandalism.
The group walked as far as this very well-defined cut in the old logging spur. 

A little further up this spur to the north is a very well-defined fill.  Younger students enjoy walking this stretch in train formation hollering “cut” and “fill” at the appropriate spots.

Student guide at spur.

Looking up the logging spur to the north.


A student guide on the porch told the story of the company-built boarding house, the Bear Valley Lodge.  It was built in 1944 to house the single male workers.  It is the best remaining structure to remind us of the glory of Seneca’s logging history.

This tour group stands at the bottom of the deep end of the company swimming pool.  Located near the shops west of the Silvies River , it was heated with steam.  Bits of blue-painted concrete are all that remain.


This tour group stands on a rail still embedded in the concrete of the once-massive shops area.

There were lots of buildings in this area, which is just called the shops.  The repair shop was a very big building.  This is where they worked on the trains and other equipment.  Nearby was the power house where they burned hog fuel to heat water to make steam to heat the buildings, the swimming pool, the hotel, and the store.  The only thing left here is a great big slab of concrete.