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September 2013
THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW
3
NoDetroit inGresham
ByANNE ENDICOTT
Pamplin Media Group
In the early 1900s, Portland businessman
P. A. Combs put Gresham on the map as a
major player in the automobile manufacturing
business. He built a factory, a prototype
vehicle and developed a prospectus to attract
investors.
But a shroud of mystery followed Combs
and his company.
The dream to make Gresham the “Detroit of
the West” ended with lengthy litigation, the
loss of investors’ money and the biggest
question of all —were any cars ever produced
in Gresham?
It’s the stuff that gives birth to local legend.
Combs was a pioneer with the notion of
buying locally made products. The former
vice president of an auto supply firm
concluded that his fellow Oregonians would
purchase automobiles manufactured here if
someone made and marketed them.
Combs designed and built the Beaver Six
Car in 1912, which he promptly took to driving
around Portland and Gresham as advertising
for his venture. He collected a handful of
Portland executives and founded the Beaver
State Motor Company with 300,000 stock
shares valued at $1 per share.
In the company’s 1913 prospectus issued
to potential investors, the group described the
Beaver Six as, “a high-class car with beautiful
lines.” The vehicle was powered by a six
cylinder, 45-horsepower engine and was
equipped with the “latest accessories,
including self-starter, lighting system, etc.”
Timing is everything in business, so a
couple things helped pave the way for Combs’
vision of challenging Detroit’s domination in
the car manufacturing market.
First, the good roads movement had picked
up speed since Americans found motoring
through the countryside far more pleasurable
than riding a bicycle or a horse. Plans for the
Columbia River Scenic Highway were on the
drawing board and for the rst time, a national
paved highway system appeared possible.
Secondly, Combs had a convincing sales
pitch. Auto manufacturers had factories in
several eastern and mid-western states, he
said, and a factory in Oregon would save
shipping costs for buyers. Enthusiasm in the
project was high, making investors plentiful,
and included H.L. St. Clair, The Outlook’s
publisher.
Combs purchased land on the corner of
what is now Northwest Eastman Parkway and
Division Street. Beaver Motor Company’s
factory, completed in March 1914, was 204
feet long, constructed of reinforced concrete,
and contained a brick curtain that cost nearly
$7,500.
“A very striking and commendable feature
of the building is the large amount of window
area,” The Outlook reported in 1914, “there
being over 4,000 cubic feet of glass in the
side and end walls, which admirably adapts it
to the use of fine machine work and
assembling.”
The Beaver Six touring car appeared in an August 1913 issue of The Outlook, after the announcement that a factory would be built in
Gresham to manufacture the cars. This historic photo is one of very few to illustrate the mystery vehicle. OUTLOOK ARCHIVE PHOTO
A prototype vehicle and a plan -
but were any cars built in Gresham?
See “Auto” / Page 5
