A look back: Puget Sound Logging

Logging has been a big part of the Pacific Northwest for as long as there has been non-natives up this way.

Here's a gaggle of pictures I found on various historical sites in the area, as well as some interesting tidbits (to me) I've found out about them, that have to do with the profession that essentially got this area started: the first major company in Seattle was a sawmill. 

Before 1900 | After 1900

1852

Henry Yesler surveyed Puget Sound during the summer of 1852 looking for the best site for the area's first mill. In early October 1852, Dr. David S. Maynard, one of the first settlers in the area, persuaded him to choose Seattle by donating a waterfront lot called "the Sag" and a corridor down which logs could be dragged from upland forests. This strip was originally named Mill Street but most called it Skid Road; today it is Yesler Way.  (Dragging logs is commonly referred to as "Skidding"... Since logs are commonly drug down the middle of the street, the lots along it were pretty cheap, and shops and houses along the road are normally not the greatest, which started the whole idea of "Down on Skid Road") 

Drawing of the mill.

In 1878, Yesler told an interviewer working for Hubert Howe Bancroft, an early historian of the West:

My mill was the first steam saw mill put up on the Sound. Lumber sold for $35. a thousand then; now for $10. As there was no wharf the lumber had to be rafted from the mill to the vessels. In unloading the machinery for the mill we had to throw it all into the water & let it float ashore. The boiler was floated in this way, but the engine was placed on a raft. After the establishment of this mill which was commenced in ’52, the town grew rapidly. We commenced sawing wood under a shed in March ’53 – the saw dust we filled swamps with, and the slabs we built a wharf with. The wharf where you now land is all filled in with slabs" (Yesler narrative).
 

Seattle was settled in 1851, and Yesler's mill pretty much guaranteed its success.

1881

Here's a picture of John Dolbeer, with his invention, the Steam Donkey.  This machine revolutionized the logging industry, providing for the first time enough machine power to effectively manage timber out in the field.

A single-cylinder steam engine is connected to a horizontal capstan and they are mounted together on several log skids. By wrapping cables around the capstan, the engine can pull huge loads that would otherwise require animal power. The skid road and the ox team are rendered obsolete and the era of ground-lead logging begins (Ground-Lead is a fancy name for a long rope pulling the logs to a central location, called a "Yard").

I took this picture of this donkey engine, later called a "Skidder", in May 2003, at Camp 18, near Mist, Oregon.  Built in 1888 by Tacoma Steel (I'm pretty sure - I can't remember if its Tacoma or Willamette), its basically the same design as John Dolbeer's, only much larger, and it is still fully operational.

On Dolbeer's first model, he wrapped a 150-foot, 4½ inch manila rope several times around a gypsy head ( a horizontally mounted spool) and attached the other end to a log. The donkey pulled the log toward the engine. The engine was moved by attaching the line to a tree and pulling it along on its log skids, which acted like skis. Similar pieces of machinery appear with names such as Humboldt, Tacoma, Willamette, Seattle, Crackerjack, Duplex, and Halfbreed.

1882

Yessler's Mill was first, but it wasn't long after that several milling companies too advantage of the excellent Location, and started their own mill in the growing town.  This is the Stetson & Post Sash and Door Company Mill... one way to compete in the milling industry was to specialize, and manufacture specific products that people would need.

1889

Smaller operations couldn't afford the relatively expensive Steam Donkey, and they were forced to do it the old fashioned way: hauling trees with horses.  This is a team pulling a log to a yard somewhere north of Seattle, using a contraption called a "Big Wheel" for obvious reasons.  You can see the log tied below the axle.  The Large wheels held the nose of the log off the ground, making the log easier to drag.

Milling yards were normally near two areas: in a port city, near the docks, and near a rail line... both locations provided effective transport opportunities, as that was a major expense, and it cut into profits considerably.  Here is a larger mill operation near what is now Sultan, Washington.

1890

Logs were BIG back then!!!  This log is marked "3000 feet", which (I think) means that they estimate that one log to be 3000 board-feet (a board foot is a piece of wood 8 inches wide, one foot long, and one inch thick).  This picture, taken in Seattle, shows a couple of horse teams transporting logs to a slough, which is a backwater area of a river or the Puget Sound, so that they could be lashed to a large raft, and floated to a mill.

1894

Here's where the logger's job made them strong, or broke them down... In the early days, nearly every tree was more than 300 feet tall, and some 40-50 feet in diameter!  Cutting these huge trees down to a manageable size occupied the majority of the logger's day.  Here, loggers pose, probably glad for the break, during "Bucking" operations, as cross-cutting the logs is referred to.

Today, not only are the logs smaller, bucking is done with powerful chain saws, and in larger operations, its often done by a machine that will grab ahold of the tree, cut it, move it to a trailer, measure it for length, buck it, then drop it right into the trailer itself, neatly stacked for transport.  The "logger" never has to get outside his air-conditioned cab.

The terrain around this area is often-times quite extreme, with huge canyons, steep gullies, and regions so broken that its nearly impassible even by walking, let alone a team of horses.  Where dragging a log was impossible, guy lines were strung high in the air across gullies, and logs were transported by dragging a pulley along the lines, with logs attached to them in a sling.  This was called "Highlead" logging, and it was made available in the introduction of the Skidder (Steam Donkey), which you can see on the left of the picture.

This is a typical "Yard".  The pole you see on the left with the logger climbing it is referred to as the "Yard Pole"... a sturdy tree is selected, topped, and delimbed.  Its then used to provide the anchor for the guy lines spreading out into the logging camp, which are then used to drag, or in this case carry, the logs to the yard.  Once in the yard, the logs are prepared for transport, and sent on their way.

Skidders and yard poles have since been replaced by a machine called a "Yarder", which is a trailer with a large hydraulic telescoping pole attached to it.  The trailer also has a diesel-powered engine that provides the power for the winch to pull the logs to the yard.

1895

Here's the Bordeaux Brother's Logging Camp #1, in Mason County, Washington, near the Big Skookum River.  The Bordeaux family ran logging operations in the Shelton area from the 1870's until the 1940's, producing, at one point, more board feet in a year than anywhere else in the USA.

The town of Shelton owes its existence to the logging industry.  In the town, they have the first locomotive purchased by the Bordeaux Logging Company, and above the large mills that still line the shoreline of the Puget Sound, there is a large bandsaw display, taken

from one of the mills in the town, which you can sort of see behind the saw; the largest such bandsaw ever in operation in the US.  Now, with the increased ability of alloys to resist heat, milling operations are done with circular saws.

1896

Before the days of the chain saw, felling a tree was a lot of work!  Especially since the loggers had to deal with trees that are what we call "old growth" today.  In this picture, two loggers take a break after cutting a notch.  This notch sets up where the tree will fall... a notch on the other side of the trunk finishes the deal, and the weakened trunk will break in the direction of the first notch.

Its hard to imagine just how much work this must have been!  Look how neat the notch is... Loggers took a lot of pride in their work, cutting with the skill and deftness of a sculptor almost... and check out the pile of woodchips! They seem to have taken a lot of wood with each hit, too!  They're also on Springboards, to lift themselves over the top of the root swell... yet ANOTHER thing the modern Logger rarely thinks about.

Smaller logging companies would 're-log' an area after a larger company came through.  The larger trees were cut into lumber, and shipped to the larger cities up and down the coast, while the timber cut by these companies were often used in fences, log homes, and other small-log uses.

These gleaning companies often made a decent amount of money, as most of the real heavy work was done by someone else.  Tops of trees were the most common source for these loggers, as well as the smaller trees, whose growth was stunted by the now removed larger trees.

This picture, from the Snohomish area, shows a fairly organized yarding operation.  Trees were buried in the ground around the log preparation area to make dragging and moving the logs easier.  You can see a skidder in the yard, which would indicate a larger logging company, also.

1898

Transporting logs took up a sizeable portion of the logger's duties.  Here, a large team of oxen drag a log along a "skid road", which is a series of logs partially buried in the ground.  They were sometimes referred to as a "Corduroy Road", because of their resemblance to the material.  The logs distributed the weight of the timber over a wider area, and prevented it from being mired in the soft ground.  They also provided a foot hold for the oxen when they were pulling.  

This road must have been heavily used... you can see the woodchips from the skid logs almost "paving" the skid road.

Another method of transport was a chute, which is similar to a log flume, only they are dry.  These chutes were often miles long, and could quickly deliver a log from the high country down to the plains.  

Care had to be taken in the design of the chute so as to not let the log go too fast or too slowly... too fast, and the log would fly off the track, or the friction the log caused could start a fire... too slow, and the log could stop before it hit the bottom, resulting in a log jam, and a whole lot of work for the loggers.

The person who took this picture was a photographer, not a logger.  Even with the assumed better education, check out the spelling of "log chute".  I'm not sure where that section number is, but I THINK that 20.t is in the Nisqually area.

1899

Here's an example of a high-lead yarding operation.  In this instance, the primary yard is a half-mile away.  Logs were stacked into piles, called "Cold Decks" in intermediate yards, then transported to the primary yard, usually at the camp, to be finalized for transport.

Here, loggers pause before sending a log along its way in a hi-lead sling.  It seems the owner made an appearance, and looks quite out of place amongst his crew.

While it rains quite a bit down in the lowlands, as you get higher into the foothills of the Cascades, snow becomes more and more common.  Logging was a year-round operation, which made things more difficult at times for the loggers.  Apparently, this photograph was taken at a fairly large operation, as the logger is wearing a helmet.  Safety and logging didn't travel well together, mostly because the loggers themselves resisted the additional weight of the safety gear.