Picture Star's Graphic Description of Hammond's Redwood Operations

A Motion Picture Stat's aeorrrt of a visit to thc Redwood Fo'reste of thc Harnmqd Lurnber Coropany in Hurnboldt County and hcr impressirons of the logging and manufacturing of Rcdwood Lurnhcr.

As c4neascd in a letter rritten to Ar H. Crrcnod, Assigtant Managgr of the Harnmro'nd Lumber Co.

Since arriving at Eureka and being introduced to thc wonders of the logging opcra- tions of that scction of California, I havc boen wondering, as thc magnitude of thosc opcrations unfolded itself to me, whether an expression from.me would in any way scrvc to convcy my personal gratitudc to you-not alonc for the opportunity you havc givcn our Company to secure othcrwise impossble scencs-for their productions-bu,t for thc op.

portunity you havc givcn me to gain a emattering kno,wledgc of an indusfir to which I havc heretoforc given scant attcntion and of given which I now find I knew absolutely nothing. Or pcrhaps I shoutd say I knew less than nothing, fc what I thought I knew I find was all wrong.

Like most pcoplc who havc nev6 followed a log fro,nr thc cutting on Orrough the various gpcrations that finally result in its bcing turnod out nniehed for building pu.rlro6es, I had always had a hazy eort of idea that trces grew in grows; that tb€y wef,e cu,t down somc way (I never paused to figure out just how) and that they werc put on trains by a means I had nevcr stoppcd to thin& about and that eventually they werc received at the mill. As I recall my ideas of a rnill, I sc€m to sec a building about thc sizc of an ordinaty planing mill and if I had bcen callcd upon to guess at the nunxber of mcn qnployed in it, I lxesume I shordd have estimatcd not more than thfufy or forty. How thcy got the logs moved around to bc sawcd had ncvcr occurrd to tnc, but it would not havc bothered me, for I had always imagincd a log was a stick of wood that could be lifled and ewung around by one or two average mclt. firis was as n€ar my idca of the industry as I can cxl[ess up to the time of our arrinal at Eurcka and subsequent visit to yorrr carnpe and mills. Then camc thc awakening. And what an awakeningl

On ttre day following our arrival, in the company of a Hammond Lumber Company repreeentative who acted as guide, several of the mcmbers of our party motored out to ttrc woods. It was on this ride that I fust bcgan to got some sight conception of the size of a real log. I looked at the base6 of several and tricd to readjust my mental attitude. For thesc did not resemble any logs I had ever seen- They were not logs, but vcgbtablc mountains. I paced around one of tho averagc size and found that it took more than thirty pa.ccs. Then I looked up ator rather say tovards-its top. Standing besidc the trunk it could not be done. I could not bend my head back far enough. It is com,mon custom in thc city to smilc at our cormtry cousins who percist in craning their necks to lok at our tall buildings. In the woods I found the situation renrerscd as I caught scvcral .men srniling at our inclination to crane our necks towards the top of the trccs.

We were lead to a prece of virgin forest whiich had not bcen rcached by thc cuttins crews and we werc left to feast our errei on it. Hills upon hills covered with ihe torirering rodwoods. Trees, trees, trees,-f had ncrrer imagined thcre were so many trees in the urorld. Even now. I wo,nder if I can possibly havc bccrr rnistaketr; if it might not have been an optical illueion. And yct I know it was not for thcy sard Ham,mond Lumbcr Company has scventy thousand accs just like it; enough to kcep their mills busy for nearly one hundred years.

From these trec covered hills, wc movcd on to the scencs of 'the cutting. Then, for thc first time, I bcgan to realize how laughabh had been my conccption of the industry. Somewhcre I had secn pictures of men swinging axes at trces which looked as though thcy would fall after a few minutes cutting; hcre I found they planncd the cutting of each trce alnrost as carefully as thcy plan the launching of a ship. They studiid-the grain of thc wood, thc position of its branchcs, thc topograp,try of the ground and cvcntually carn to a decision as to thc proper way to allo,w it to &op. To rne this sccmcd a frishtful wastc of time un:il I was told that felling a tree impropcrly might rncan a loss of several hundred dollars cithcr in damage done to other trccs or in damage done to th: trcc itsclf.

"Scveral hundred dollarsl" I saiC. "For heaven'g sake. How much are thcse trees worth?"

Our suidc lauchcd.

'Vdl," he replied. '\ll/c have cut thcm that rperc worth as high as $5000 in finishcd lumber."

Wc werc fortruratc in b:ing present at thc felling of one of the larger trees. f say we llccre fortunate for it is a sight worth sceing, yet I hope never to see it again. Perhaps a smallcr tfee would not affect onc so. but this giant waa more than ten feet through ihc trunk. and f cannot guess how many fect in. hcight. At first there was sound of cracking and splittirfg. Thcn canne a reDort or two ttrat sounded like rife shots. Then to me, as f stood on a rise of grormd, it seqned as though the whole forest was sobbing. There was a moaning, a sighing and a whining that rose from the woods and made one's hair stand straight up. By this time the trce was leaning well-over and gaining in momentum. Thc low moan rosc to a wail. the wail to a whine and the whine to piercing strrick Minglcd urith thc shriek came a crash beyond my feeble powers of description, and the monarch lay like a drnng thing on its sidc. guivering. and the echoes of that last shri.k came driftins back from thc silent hills like voices raised against its death, f was filled with a rnixture of emotions which beggar deccription. For it is good to stand in awc of a work of nature as that scene made mc stand in awe of a tree.

Beforc the echoes were stilled and almost before the trde had finallv scttled the crew was swarming o\rer it like ants, clearing awav the broken lirnbs and making readv to "snake" it cut. Then camc thc cutting uo of the log into lengths capablc of being hauled on flat cars. Not until I had been heloed,upon the frunk did I truly rcalize its cnormous size. Then I began t6 wonder how it was possible to move it to the cars. Cortainlv no human power could do it. I ask.d about it and was takcn tc anothrr scction or the wnods. whcre th.v wcre doing the "snaking." Then f saw. Men rrerc tug- ging at a stecl cable. They cventually belted it about onc of the sections of tree. I looked at the cablc, followed it with my eye to thc point of ite disap,pearancc around a finger of thc hills and saw no cnginc at the othcr cnd. I glanccd at thc mcn in the gang and wondered if they plarured to takc hold of that cablc and haul out thc log by hand. Thcn camc a scries of signals and suddenly thc line tightcned. The section of log rnovcd slightly, tlesitate4 then rollcd partly orrer and finally lcapcd clear and startcd lu,rrbcr- ingly forward, half-sliding. half-rolling towards the point of hille afound rhich it disappcared.

Wc followed and thcn I found it was a donkey engine that had been doing work and I was glad I had not voiced my question aa to whethcr thc rnen would haul the log by hand. That is thc slogan of the lumber industry. Let no work be donc by musclcs that can be done by steam. It was a hoict that liftcd the log to a fat car. It ras nor practically gqitting timc and thc train wae rcady to lcave for the mills.

Our party entered thc machinc and startcd back to Arclta and the hotel. It was a qui,ct crowd that rnadre the rcturn trip. It nray secm to Itou that the most natural thing would have been for us to talk about whal we had sccn For thc othcrs I cannot ansrcr, but I know that I had all I could do to think about it, without attcmptins to discuss it, It was all too big to 5c ulcd as a topic of light conversation'. That day had mcant for me thc shattering of conceptions I had since a child. An industry I had nevcr errcn considcrcd seriously I now found was bigger than anything I had cver irnagined.

On thc following day we visited the Hammond Mills across thc bay from Eureka, to watch the rcnrainder of thc operations anil to lcarn what was in store foi the loss aftcr they had left the woods. Perhapc -trt,y ctpcricrrce of the day before should have prcpa.red rne for what was to follow. But it did not. I could still imagine the little plant I had always had in mind as a saw millprobably the relic of some picturc I had seen of an old-fashioned water whecl concern thcy uscd to use to decorate calendars and valentincs with. You who are familiar with thc.industry g3n inagrne my feelings when r, stcplted rnsrdc.

I found the establishment so big as to be divided into depa.rtments, departments ao widely removed from onc another that men working in one might never come in contact with men of anothcr though they worked for the sarne concern a year. My recolloctions of that day's sights are confilsed. There rras too much happening at the same time. For variety of interest, it was worse than a three ring circus. I would just become interested in one thing when something else would attract me and within five minutes after entering the rnill, I was completely lost, wandering about, vagrrcly listcning to my guide and his recitation of figures, facts and statistics, and wondering how the mind of a man could havc conceivcd and accomplished the pcrfect system that handled the -thousands upon

(Continued on Page 88)

To lhe lumber truck operator, time is money. Lost time always meana lost profits. Hence dependable service counts.

The t{rree convenient locations of Truck Tire Service orlr corps of skilled mechanicr . . and modern service facilities are solving the problem of overcoming delays for a large number of lumber truck operators here in Los .dngeles.

It is enabling them to keep their trucks rolling on regular schedule, with t{re least possible loss of trucking time.

(Continued from Page 85) thousands of feet of lumber that daily passed in at onc door of the mill as tcn foot log8, and camc out chutes on the othcr side of thc mill markctable lumber, sawed, sized and, save. for the seasoning process, ready to beconrc walls qf houses,

There were the saws that cut through thc ten and fifteen foot pieces of wood like so much checse and left thcm in rathcr shapcless Blab!. Thcn came the carriers to lift these slabe and run them through other saws which cut therr into other picces, still ernaller and rnorc nearly t$e shape desired. Nor was this wo,rk done by otrc saw at a time. A log would be shovcd mcchanically into the tceth of a wholc gang of saws that would make half a dozcn pieces of it at onc swoop. Smaller saws would take thesc picces and handlc them thc sarnc way. Over hcad carricrs whizzed back and fort[ a man riding in each and dirccting the motion by a lever. And the shinglc bolts pickcd up and tocsed around like nratchcs and finally thtown where they belonged. Then a zzzzz+rtrrtringt--and what had been a "chunk" of wood wae now a sholper of fying shingles and in thc samc brcath these shingles were no longer fying, but were liftcd by machincry, balcd and lcft in thc shape I had been uscd to sceing thcm in the city.

To attempt to go into the dctails of that da/e sights is too great an undertaking. As I look back on it, the most wonderful part of it dl ir thc fact that from the tinr the logs enter the rnill, until thcy cornc out lumber they are practically untouched by human hands. Thc whole process is no longer one of muscle, but rather one of mentality. Mcn sit quictly savc for their eyes whichr arc alwaya buay. Thcrc are key-boards and levers to bc manipulatcd and tiese levers and keyboards pcrform sontc Bilent function that tcts a machine to lifting the wood and placino it wherc it bclongs. And the pulling of other lcvers and the punching of other keyboards cause othcr pieccs of rnachinery to do to it what is rcquired by the man at thc levcr or keyboard of the machinc. Ncwr bcfore had I been so kecnly awarc of man'g advanccment as on that day. Ncver before had I been able to appreciate the extent to which man has made things his sl-ave. I saw him lift, with his mind, what hc and an army like birn could not have liftcd with their rnuscles, handle it like a feather and bring it out exactly as dcsircd.

My experiincc sincc coming to Arcata and visiting Itour carnip has been a libcral educatiqn. I havc a grcatcr rcspcct for rnan and his ability in thc making of picturcs during thc past four years, I have workcd in many intercoting placca; among the rnines of Ncnada: on cattlc ranchce'in Arizona and California; wc have had access to and havc used cvcry departrncnt of rarlroad; b-efore ooming wcst, I had been through the Chicago pacLing houscs; fascinated, I have gazed at thc strange sights of the Hawaiias and clse' wherJ, but_I fccl that I can say without re!ervation that tfic most stupendous single in' dustry, the most Srippins scries of sights I havc ever seen arc those attendant upon the felling, hauling, and milling of redvoods on the Hammond Lumber comp:rny's propcrties at Samoa.

Whcn you so kindly volunte€red to Slant us permission to use your property here for our serial production, I was grateful to you in a mi1d. conventional sort of way, I felt it was vcry nice of you and all that sort of thing. I am writing you norr to rclteat that sratitude, raised to the nth power so far as the film production is concerned, and personally plact myself in your eternal debt for thi o-p'portunity you have grven me as an individ'ual to see with my own cyes a rcal worh the wo,rk of real men, and a work which mearrs so much to civilization. It hag broadened mc, I think, for it has nradc mc rcalize the smallness of a lonc human and his powerlessness. It hag made me undcrstand something of what real power ia and for that I than[ you It is good for thc average lrcrson to be brought face to facc with such a powcr occasionally that he may roal' ize how frightfuly small he' aa one pelson' really counts in the Grand Schcme of thiqp.

GENERAL SALES OFFICE, For

Red Cedar Shingles

Muufecturod By tcbrftr Bror thhrlc Co.

Nrtlood Lurbc I Mlr. Cc.

Jo CrcL thhgb Co.

Rlpby Crdrr Go.

Uldcra Shlldr Co.

Mortaarlo, WaaL Hoqulen, lVuh. Atoh. Werb. Abrodo, WerL. Abrrdm, WoL

We are in position to furnish your requircmcnts in all kindr of Shinglcs, either Grccn or Kiln DriGd' for alt rail or watcr shipment, and in order to better serve you havc opened a gencral sales office in the Finch Building, Aberdeen, Washington.

'Wc manufacture: 6/2 Extra *A*'s

5/2 Extra *Af's

Extra Oears

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