Historic Notes & Letters

North Brightwood Improvement Association (NBIA)

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Historic Notes and Letters

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This Story was written by James Hicks and with his written permission on January 12, 2022 offered the NBIA to publicly publish on our webpage.

We offer his story in its entirety and without editing.

We hope you will enjoy this bit of history or our water system.

By James Hicks:

A few comments on the North Brightwood Improvement Association. Let me know this is the sort of thing you want. And if it is, edit away at it anyway you think fit. I’ve included jpegs of an original “Certificate of Membership,” an original dues statement, and the Minutes from the 1974 Annual Meeting, which is pretty funny, actually.

Before water and the NBIA:

Our family has been coming to the Mountains for a long time. Our Cabin on Broken Bridge Lane has been in the family for 5 generations now, beginning with my grandparents in 1928, when grandpa Howard Hingley built the house that still stands there.

For 32 years, until 1960 and the creation of the NBIA, the Cabin had no running water, and for that matter, no electricity either. The water we brought to the house was from Hackett Creek only, and I remember clearly, as a boy in his early teens, that one of my chores, several times a day, was to take a big metal bucket down to the Creek, fill it, and haul it back up to the kitchen to place on the wood fire stove so the heated water could be used for bathing and for washing dishes. Not that I minded doing the work, but I do remember imagining how adding such a modern convenience as running water would impact our lives up there.

Creation of the NBIA:

Talk among the neighbors about putting a well up the hill from Hackett Creek must have begun in the late 1950's. The principle movers behind the idea and project were probably my father, Leonard Hicks, and most certainly George Walker, whom I remember as almost always the voice and the natural leader of the NBIA for many years. George, with his shock of white hair and his inherent captaincy, would shepherd the lively conversations and, with a couple of others, would bring order to the work and to the group. Other early, prominent members were Bob Torson, Lee Cutler, Bill Mcfarlane, and Larry Severson. Work on the well began in the year 1960.

The Work, the Well, and the Plumbing:

The NBIA in the early days was primarily a work group. At least once a year the members would gather for a work weekend to do the physical labor needed to care for and to augment the system. As with later projects, the initial system, that is, the well, the trench digging, the pipe carrying, and the plumbing itself with all the cutting and threading, was done by the members themselves. The work was labor intensive, even arduous. Carrying galvanized pipe (there was no PVC then) up and down the hill itself meant for long, hard days.

As far as I know, none of the men were professionals at any of this work, but in those days you certainly had to be your own jack-of-all-trades just to maintain your property, which is a reminder that Brightwood was pretty remote, relatively, in those days. Some of the work took improvisation–for many years our water came to us in an overhead, exposed pipe perched about 6 feet above Hackett Creek.

Occasionally, as is usual on the Mountain, emergencies did arise, and then it was all hands on deck. We lived in Salem back then, and I remember that on several occasions my father having to make a “speed run” to the Mountain. The members, very simply, were also the caretakers, the labor force, the water masters- all issues were resolved by themselves. To be a member of the NBIA meant, literally, that you were occasionally going to get tired, wet, and dirty.

Annual Meetings:

The Annual Meetings of the NBIA then took place in the residents’ houses, rotating each year from one cabin to the other. I was a teenager then, and I liked to accompany my father to the meetings, mostly to see what the insides of the other houses were like. Having the Annual Meeting at your cabin was a big deal–food and drink was brought and provided by everyone. The feast, as it was, was a loud and communal affair, and only after the lunch was done and the beer consumed was the actual meeting begun. An idea about how lively and convivial the meetings were can be culled from the 1974 Meeting Minutes (included here), where the secretary states: “There were so many members talking all at once it was almost impossible to follow the conversations among the members.” She resigned her post that day.

Annual Meetings would never have included “reports,” as such, in any formal way. All the work creating the initial building and the subsequent maintenance was done, as far as I know, without any government check or oversight. There were certainly no chemical analyses, plumbing permits, building codes, or water quality inspection by the State or County. The official part of the meeting consisted mostly about making plans for the annual work weekend, hearing what the treasurer had to say about what money was left in the till, and the usual discussions over next year’s administrative duties.

Dues:

In 1960 it would cost you $85.00 to become a member of the NBIA. Annual dues were put at $12.00.

NBIA Management notes:

Photos of Documents may be found in our Photos Tab

Addendum, by James Hicks

Jim offers an Addendum to his original letter and is again dated January 12., 2022 with his permission for the NBIA to edit and print.

Some personal notes have been deleted from this publication

My James Hicks:

Here’s a little addendum to the first letter:

I wonder how many of our members know, that by Oregon law, that Hackett Creek is a designated wild stream. Which means you can’t block, change or interrupt its natural flow, or for that matter, fuss with it any way.

Said grandfather, Howard Hingley, was the force behind this. He worked first with the State Water Engineer, got his blessing, and then took the bill both to the House and Senate in Salem, where in 1935 Senate Bill 311 passed. I think of this when I appreciate how pristine our little bit of paradise has been for all these years and thank him for his role in preserving it.

There is an aspect of the bill that has intrigued for me some time. Grandpa Hingley first began his quest by going to the Fish and Game Commission, who supported him and his bill to protect the fish in Hackett Creek. When I was a boy, I did used to fish on the stream, either from the bank or the old bridge on Broken Bridge Lane, and I caught fish pretty regularly. So, this begs a question. When is the last time anyone saw a fish in Hackett Creek? And if not, then why not? What’s happened? With the force of law behind us, I’ve wondered if we could discover what damage or change is keeping the wildlife out of our wild stream and do something about it. What do think?

I’ve included an original copy of the bill and one of my grandfather’s letters that helped make it happen.

Cheers!