Carlsborg’s Founding Father
Anna E. Anderson Erickson (1852-1940) and Charles J. “C.J.” Erickson (1853-1937)
Carlsborg history is unique. A good portion of it still remains oral. Stories passed down through the generations. An intriguingly woven web of tales about horse gangs, brothels and whiskey stills. There is one thing that can be confirmed, particularly through an article featured on the front page of the ‘Carlsborg Annual Review’ printed in December of 1925.
Carlsborg was founded in 1915 by C. J. Erickson. Named after his hometown in Karlsborg, Sweden. Located in the southern central part of the country in Västra Götaland County along the western shore of Vättern, the country’s second largest lake.
Charles J. Erickson arrived in America around 1885 and established himself in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the late 1880s he migrated to Seattle. By all accounts he became a very wealthy businessman under the name Erickson Construction Company. During which he was principle in eliminating some of the Seattle hills and constructing sewer system networks. He also built one of the largest dry-docks in the United States while working for the U.S. Government in Bremerton, WA.
Founder of Carlsborg Washington, Charles J. “C.J.” Erikson
Erickson became interested in the Olympic Peninsula. In 1914 he began building railways stretching from Port Angeles to Port Townsend. Rumors have it that proposals were made to the infamous Milwaukee Railroad but they declined, leaving Erickson to privately fund his interests. The first passenger train from Port Angeles to Sequim departed on July 21st, 1914. It continued to run until 1931, though freight continued to be shipped via barge from Port Townsend. He later sold his stretches of railway and invested in large timber holdings south of Sequim in the Lost Mountain district and in Indian Valley between Lake Aldwell and Lake Sutherland.
In the summer of 1915 Erickson broke ground on the Carlsborg Mill and Timber Company. The first all-electric sawmill in the northwest, which generated its own electricity. The 87 acre site, located where the Carlsborg industrial park is today, was originally designed to produce a daily output of 50,000 board feet per day, but later would be upgraded to produce 100,000 bf per day. The additional shingle mill produced 175 M per day, mostly sent to the Midwest.
The town of Carlsborg during this era featured a 13 mile logging railway up to the Lost Mountain district and a theatre, built in the 1920s, that showed movies on Saturday and Sunday evenings. In 1925, 300 people lived in the town but would soon increase to 500, with 280 of them employed at the mill. Company houses were built along Carlsborg and Runnion road.
In 1936, 21 years after establishing Carlsborg, Erickson sold his interests to a Seattle firm with the intent of scrapping the mill but it was overhauled and reopened on January 1st, 1937. After many transitions throughout the years, the Carlsborg Mill and Lumber Co. permanently ended its run in 1967, though the pond that was fed by the irrigation ditch remained for decades. With respect to the delinquent youth of the day we will save those details for another chapter.
