Pacific Northwest Logging--Past And Present

By Executive Vice President, H. V. Simpson West Coast Lumbermen's Association

As long ago as the last century it was the timber of the Pacific So"tt which really caused the eyes of veteran loggers to widen. They never had seen timber to match it. Loggers reported, according to Stewart H. Holbrook, that it took "two men and a boy" to look to the top of a giant Douglas fir.

What was more, they were growing in unbelievable abun- ' dance. There were five times as S*many board feet to the acre as '. ever had been found in Maine or the Lake States. This West Coast timber had another quality which was not apparent to the early lumbermen. No area reproduces so much timber so fast. It is gradually becoming apparent that the more remote areas probably never will be logged-it is cheaper to take advantage of the soil's regenerative potvers and grow the needed timber on land handier to the manufacturing plants.

The size of the Douglas fir, to say nothing of the Sequoia, meant new logging problems. The big sticks couldn't be handled with the ease of the white pine logs; there were too few rivers which lent themselves to driving, and not enough snow to make the use of sleds feasible. The answer in the West was skidroads. These were simply paths swamped out in the ,woods; small trees were felled at intervals across the paths and half buried in the moist ground. These made natural skids, along rvhich the rnammoth logs could be dragged.

The motive power required was greater than the traditional team of horses could supply. The loggers employed oxen, rvhich they ,called ",bull" teams, hitching up as many as ten yokes of the animals to haul long turns of the big sticks. For decades, bull team logging \\'as the rule orr the Pacific Coast.

The bullwhackers were privileged men, highly paid, ancl the most colorful woods workers of their era. To get the most out of their teams they relied primarily on invective of a distinctive sort, but logging legend records that, in a pinch, a bullwhacker might spring upon an animal's back and walk in his calked boots down the length of the team.

Mechanical inventiveness was at rvork in the woods, as elservhere. In the 1880's on the West Coast; men who were impatient with the deliberateness of oxen devised the logging donkey engine. This consisted essentihlly of an upright boiler for the generating of steam, and a drum from which a line was run out into the woods. Mounted on heavy log skids, the donkey engine could be maneuvered wherever desired in the timber. When the first log came booming out of the woods at the end of a length of wire rope which wound up around the donkey engine's drum. the days of the oxen were numbered.

This method of pulling in the logs, or "yarding," was known as ground lead logging. A natural development was high lead logging. The principal was the same, and the power was supplied by the same donkev engine. The difference was that a pulley was rigged some 150 or 26 feet in the air at the top of a spar tree. These pulleys often rveighed more than a ton. Their installing, as well as the guying of the spar tree so it could withstand the tremendous pressures of a dragging log, created the job of.the high climber or high rigger. Few sights are more dramatic than the sight of a high climber, a midget figure against the sky,, bringing down with ax and saw the green top of a Douglas fir. High lead logging is being used to a far lesser extent than it was a decade or two ago, largely because of the greater economy of tractor operations.

Both the speed-up in logging and the sparsity of rivers contributed to the development of logging railroads. These rvere at first of the most elementary sort'; the rails were of rvood and the cars were pulled by horses. As their value became more apparent, the roads became complicated and modern affairs, requiring the investment of hundreds and thousands of dollars. Lumbermen sent their steel rails probing into remote timbered areas, and the one and only purpose of the roads rvas to haul out logs. N{any of these abbreviated railroads are still in every-day use.

Modern logging, however, is distinguished by a greater flexibility rvhich has come to it as the result of two comparatively recent innovations-use of crawler-type tractors and logging trucks. The'first to a large extent have supplanted the complicated ground and high-lead installations; the second, more and more, are replacing the expensive logging railroads.

It rvas rvith dififrculty that the tractor won its place. Old-time loggers resisted the change, viewing the plunging, chugging monsters with suspicion. It soon became clear, however, that a tractor could operate in rough country, on half a road or none at all. The snorting machine had the big sticks down out of the wood and cold decked in less'tirne than it would have taken to set up the traditional

NTOYO,

CHIEFOF THE I \ RED\rooDS, symbol

of Service for Union Lumber Company, extends heartiest greetings to California Lumber Merchant, celebrating its Silver Anniversary. J< Itself a yeteran of over 6o years in the Redwood industry, Union Lumber Company was very much on the job to welcome this real friend of the "Iumberman" when its first issue was launched a quarter of a century ^go.

Today, Noyo products span the nation, while California Lumber Merchant enjoys an enviable position in the hearts of all the lumber folks throughout California. From one " Old Timer " to another . . congratulations and best wishes !

spar tree rigging. Its job done, the tractor could ramble under its own power to the site of the next operation. A tractor was versatile, too. Anchored and equipped with a drum, it could yard logs as well as a donkey engine.

Economy is one of the big advantages of tractor logging. The first tractors, powered by gasoline engines, resulted in reduced expenses; Diesel-powered machines were able to operate at still lower cost. Perhaps the most important contribution of tractors is that they permit the logging of small, hard-to-reach stands of timber which otherwise could not be logged at a profit. They also are invaluable in selective logging.

As useful as the tractors are the logging trucks. These are heavy-duty machines, costing from $10,000 up, but they too help to simplify modern logging.. A truck road is far less costly to install than a railroad, mainly because it seldom needs to be as long as a railroad. This is because trucks can operate on steeper grades than locomotives. Five or six per cent is about the maximum grade for a logging railroad, while a truck road may often contain grades of fifteen and twenty per cent.

Another innovation of modern logging concerns the saw, long spoken of in the woods as a "misery whip" because of its effect on the muscles of the back and arms. The power saw is far speedier than the hand-operated instrument, although it has by no means come into universal use. It has been found most valuable when the lay of the land permits easy access to the butt of the tree. Although the power saw is capable of producing logs faster than the hand-operated cross.cut, the expense of maintenance makes logging costs approximately equal.

So far as present and future production in the Douglas fir region of Washington and Oregon are concerned, it is interesting to hote.production figures for recent years.

In 1931, the total was 5,310,000,000 board feet; in 1935, 6,736,000,000 board feet ; 1940, 7',472,000,W board feet : and in 1946,6,300,000,000. It is probable that 1947 production will exceed 7,000,000,000. Timber experts have estimatecl that future production from the region can be maintained at a level of 8,500,000,000 forever. With more and more emphasis being placed on improved logging practices and on better utilization and manufacturing processes, there can be no doubt that the economic contribution of the Douglas fir .region will increase rather than decrease in the years to come.

From PhiI Gosslin

"In less than a month you will be'publishing the Silver Anniversary of THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT, and I want to join the horde of friends who will be congratulating you. Your magazine has been, is, and will continue to be most valuable to us, and we look forward to each issue. ft is an institution." Phil Gosslin, Gosslin-Harding Lumber Co.. Oakland.

Eventful Day

The day we hail is like a gem Upon a rosary of years, And in its calm, pellucid depths A pattern of the past appears; A dream, a plan, a task assumed, By one who in his wisdom knew, The powelof creative thought When coupled with the will to do.

Some who shared the leader's vision Came with eager hands and hearts, To enhance the new adventure, With their various crafts and arts: So of old were temples builded, So today are guerdons w'on, Dreamers, artisans and craftsmen Marching on from sun to sun.

This smiling day illumines for us, The pathways of our earlier years, And as we follow them in thought, With quiet smiles and wistful tears, We vvalk through olden scenes again Of serious work and care free play, We greet the friends of long ago And sing the songs of yesterday.

The day goes by, but other gems Will grace the rosary oT our years, And we shall welcome them, each one, With reminiscent smiles and tears; With dreams for all the days to be, With courage, faith and wisdom too And gifts of rare creative thought, Linked ever with the will to do.

Adeline Merriam Conner.

From Bert Brycn

"Each time I read one of your Vagabond Editorials (and I read them all), the thought comes that I should tell you how much I enjoy them. Your editorial, 'Luke, the Beloved Physician,' is a masterpiece: my copy is still circulating among my friends, and will come to rest in a permanent and prominent place in my scrapbook. A hearty hand-shake to you, my friend." B. E. Bryan,.Oakland.