Inventory   [ + ]

Guide to the Thomas T. Aldwell Papers
1890-1951

Biographical Note

Thomas Theobald Aldwell, born in Toronto on June 14, 1868, was trained as a banker and became a public official, businessman, power company executive, and civic leader. He moved to Port Angeles, Washington, in 1890 and eventually made a fair amount of money in real estate there, both through his own purchases and as a realtor. Aldwell was active in politics between 1894 and 1908, serving as Clallam County auditor, deputy customs collector, and chairman of the Clallam County Republican Party. He left politics in 1908 to pursue his real dream, the building of the Elwha Dam. Aldwell and his partners had slowly acquired many acres of land along the Elwha River, enough to accommodate a dam and the flooding it would cause. They formed the Olympic Power and Development Company and successfully raised the money for the dam, which was completed in 1913. The dam provided power to Port Angeles, Port Townsend, and the Bremerton Navy Yard.

Aldwell directed several other industrial development projects. As president of the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce, he convinced local businessmen to raise money to help pulp mills locate in the city after the construction of the dam. Aldwell and other leaders of the chamber of commerce later formed a port district. The voters elected Aldwell the district’s first port commissioner; he served from 1924 to 1932. Under Aldwell’s leadership the port district built a sea-wall that expanded the port and provided room for a plywood company to settle along the waterfront. After the creation of Olympic National Park in 1938, Aldwell was a leader in the fight to return some of the park’s land to the national forests to guarantee the region’s pulp mills a larger supply of trees. At age 82 he published his autobiography, Conquering the Last Frontier. He died four years later in 1954.

Arrangement

Arranged by type of document.

Scope and Content

This collection spans 1890-1951. It includes correspondence, clippings, writings, and notes. The papers relate to Port Angeles, Washington, history and politics, and the Olympic Power Company of Clallam County, which Aldwell managed. The correspondence, which forms the bulk of the collection and is thoroughly indexed, runs from 1901 to 1951. The letters cover all aspects of Aldwell’s career, but especially his activities as a booster of Port Angeles. Major correspondents include George A. Glines; Crown Zellerbach Corp.; Peabody, Houghteling, and Company, Chicago; the Seattle Lighting Department; and L.L. Summers and Company, Chicago. The papers also contain the texts of some of Aldwell’s speeches and writings, and Port Angeles Golf and Country Club records regarding the club’s financial status from 1940 to 1943.

Restrictions on Access

The papers are open to all users.

Restrictions on Use

Literary rights have not been transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

Preferred Citation

[Title of item], [date of item if known], [box/folder number], Thomas T. Aldwell Papers, [Accession No.], University of Washington Libraries.

Acquisition Info

Gift of Thomas T. Aldwell, May 1951.

Aldwell wrote in his autobiography ( Conquering the Last Frontier), “I have made arrangements for the newspaper clippings and correspondence, which verify the events [in this autobiography] from 1890 on, to be filed with the University of Washington.” It is not clear whether Aldwell gave all of his extant personal papers or only those which he used in writing his autobiography to the UW Libraries.

Processing Info

Four scrapbooks that were included in Aldwell’s papers were relocated to the Special Collections division's Pacific Northwest Scrapbooks Collection. The scrapbooks primarily contain newspaper clippings dating from 1878 to 1944 that Aldwell saved, apparently as a record of his career. A few telegrams and congratulatory letters also appear. One of the scrapbooks is devoted to the planning and building of the Elwha Dam, one to the activities of the Port Angeles Port District, and another to Aldwell’s political career from 1894 to 1908. The fourth scrapbook is a miscellany but contains a fair amount of material involving the fight over the proper size of Olympic National Park.

Inventory