Burn BarBee Burn

The Bar Bee Mill was a long time landmark in Kennydale. It was the last of many lumber mills historically on the shores of Lake Washington and was a serious operation, at one point processing up to 100,000 board feet a day - mostly fir and hemlock. A lot of local residents, including my brother Jim, found employment and walked to work there at one time or another. It was also something of a playground for me and my friends. While we never went into the mill proper we fished from the loading and dumping docks and log booms, messed around in May Creek at its mouth and walked the Burlington Northern railroad tracks skirting the property. The mill buildings were all-wood construction with corrugated sheet metal roofs, crummy looking or "picturesque" depending on ones sensibilities. We didn't have "icons" in those days, but if we had, I suppose the Bar Bee would have been one.

On September 22, 1957, a very warm clear day,when I was 15 going on 16 I was working in the back field on a 1942 Nash we'd brought home to fool around with when there was a commotion out front and Jim's announcement that "the mill's on fire!" Indeed it was. The whole lakeshore was obscured by shooting flame, billowing smoke and flying sheet metal roofing panels. Very soon it was obvious that the several fire engines in attendance would be for mop up and post conflagration activity only. The Bar Bee had burned to the ground on a sad but also exciting day.

We all wondered whether the Cugini family would rebuild. They did, and fairly quickly, too. The new "old Bar Bee Mill" which literally arose Phoenix-like from the ashes was of integrated design and modern (read: steel frame, aluminum siding) construction. Most would agree it was in many ways more aesthetically pleasing to the eye than the old, but it definitely lacked the personality. The renewed operation was successful for many more years. During the late 80's it gained some bit of fame when it was revealed to be just about the only mill in our country that was exporting finished product (pre-cut pillar and post framing) to Japan. George H W Bush visited Kennydale and the mill during his presidential campaign in 1988 touting it as one of his "1000 Points of Light". In the past ten or so years, however, realities of the forest products industry made it clear that it was on the way out and it was finally was razed a few years ago.

A lot of people didn't like the mill like I did because they thought it depressed property values around here. There have been a plethora of proposals for site "re-development" over the last 20 years and one of them finally came to fruition. That would be Connor Bar Bee Homes, now in the last stages of development on the abandoned mill grounds. Most think this is a far better use of the area. To me, though, gazing out the window of 3810 today, the lakeshore doesn't look any nicer than it did when the water tower with the _ BEE logo dominated the view. In fact, if I squint and use a bit of imagination a what I see is shooting flame, billowing smoke and flying sheet metal on a warm clear September day.