Madera Sugar Pine ComPenY, Pioneers

Speaking of pioneers in the lumber inclustry of California, rvill interest every lumberman in the state to know that up in the mountains at the logging camp of the l\fadera Sug"r Pine Company, there is still in active service, the first logging locomotive ever used in the State of California' It is a peculiar little seven-ton saddle tank locomotive, and is afiectionately knolvn as "Betsey"'

For the l\fadera Sugar Pine Cornpany is truly a pioneer in its line of business. Its history is decidediy interesting, and some of the fundamentals to rvhich its offrcers credit much of its success are unique, as rvill be hereafter stated'

First, a terse historY.

Its predecessor in business rvas started in 1876, rvhen the California Lumber Company built a savi'mill in the Soquel Basin and flumed their lumber clown the Fresno River Valley to Madera. Their logging was done rvith ox teams' The venture was not a financial success, and the property was eventually taken or,er by a San Jose bank, an<l the company reorganized as the Madera Flume & Trading Company.

- By the late 9O's the Madera Flume & Trading Company had cut out all the timber available to its rnill, and the operation came to an eud. At that tinle NIr. Elmer H. Cox, fated to play a dominating part in the Pine inclustry o{ Cali- fornia for the next generation and nlore, got jn-touch rvith thelttmberbusinessbykeepirrgthebooksofthislumberi;; ;;;;; ai a side iine, his irain business being that 9f ."!ni", "i the local bank. When the mill quit business JVIr. Cox conceived the idea of moving the plant over s-p,ecker*"" tllo""tain to the present sitelf the mill oI the Madera Susar Pine Company,^where there rvas a tremetrdous stand of ivonderful timber that ran very heavy in percentage to Susat Pitte. He planned to locate the mill there, and flume tt"-iu*U., dorvn the valley of Lewis Creek to its junction *lin ttt. Fresno River, "tti th.tt to l\fadera over the original flume line. This plan would make available a great timber holding or,vned -by Arthur Hill, F' M' Fowler and E. N. Briggs,lich eastern capitalists and lumbermen' \\rith this idea in his brain, 'Mr. Cox made a trip east and laicl this plan before these capitalists, and so irnpressed n,ere they r,vith the plan, ancl rvith the outstanding abjlily of this young man, that they not only accepted and fully financed the icheme, but they took him in with them, made hirn manager of the operation, ancl macle it possible for him to secrlre a large block of their stock. Frour here Mr. Cox's great lumber career began, for his work rvas {rom the start i decided success, and the Nladera Sugar Pine Company has been one of the best paying venttlres in California lumber histo11..

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:MADERA SUGAR PINE COMPANY, Continued

i Of the early ventures and adventures of the company' much might be written. Suffice is to say that in one year's time Mr. Cox had moved the sawmill plant, torn down and rebuilt on the new line sixty miles of flume, constructed.a planing mill and lumber yard at the foot of the flume in Madera, and started cutting logs.

From that time on the Madera Sugar Pine Company operation established a rgputation, not only as a maker of fine lumber, but as a "go-gettem" organization par excellence. As an example of the latter characteristic, get this: in the fall of 1922 the mill was destroyed by fire.It is located 6O miles from the railroad, at an elevation of 450O feet irr the.mountains, the only connection with the outer world being dirt roads. In the dead of winter, with much of the