Gamble Lumber Douglas Fir Region

and Talbots Dates Back to ory Doys

Pope, is one of the directors, and vice-president in Southern California. Charles L. Wheeler is vice-president and general manager. Hillmann Lueddemann is vice-president and Northwest manager at Portland. J' A. Lunny is vicepresident, in charge of operation of the steamships' Other officers are Talbot C. Walker,-acting president,.and a son of the late Cyrus Walker, former general manager; Fred C. Talbot, a grandson of Capt. William Talbot, who died in 1881, and Joseph L' Paiva, secretary.

Establishment of Port Gamble Operation

The story of the founding of the William C. Talbot & Co. mill at Port Gamble, the oldest lumber operation of the Douglas Fir region, is the story of one of the great American pioneers. The history of the establishment of this operation is a part of the history of the hardy founders of Puget Sound's industries, who allowed no obstacle to deter them from accomplishing what they set out to do'

Before he went to Puget Sound on the Julius Pringle to look for a site for the new mill Captain Talbot had never visited the Northwest, and while he had heard a good deal

Aericrl view ol the St. Heleng, Ore., mill. al>out the country most of the information was not reliable.

Equipment for the Port Gamble mill was ordered in Boston by Captain Talbot before he ieft San Francisco. The machinery for the mill and the saws were purchased in Maine, and an engine and boiler in Boston.

E. W. Wright, a millwright, and James White, a machinist and engineer, came from Bangor, Maine, to help build the mill. Before the Pringles left for the Northwest the party was joined by Cyrus Walker, also from Maine, who later became general manager of the Pope & Talbot timber, mill and shipping interests.

Some time was spent by Captain Talbot and his party looking over possible mill sites before it was decided to locate the mill at Port Gamble. Traveling by canoe the party inspected a mill being built at Port Ludlow by W. P. Sayword and J. R. Thorndike. They later stopped at a place on Hood's Canal that bore the Indian name of Tekalet, and named Port Gamble by the white settlers.

They were impressed by the suitability of Port Gamble, but before making their final decision visited Appletree operated by the Puget Sound Commercial Co., and the tugs belonged to the Puget Sound Towage Co.

Cove, where a mill was being built by J. J. Felt, and also the sawmill being operated at Seattle by Henry Yesler.

Eastern lumber, carried by the Julius Pringle, was used to build the bunk house, cook house and store building. Soon after this work was completed Captain J. p. Keller, a partner in the firm, arrived from Boston with the schooner L. P. Foster, which he had sailed around Cape Horn, with the machinery.

The schooner Pringle then went to Seattle and loaded a cargo of lumber and piling for San Francisco, inaugurating the traffic in lumber from Puget Sound to San Francisco.

Cyrus Walker was general manager of all the Puget Sound activities, and E. G. Ames was.assistant general manager. William Walker was engineer, and Fred Drew was log and land agent. Mr. Ames later became manager of the Puget Sound interests and activities.

Nine sailing vessels carrying lumber to all parts of the world were owned by the company in 1903. They had interests in 80 other ships.

Holdings of Pope & Talbot in 1925, including 80,000 acres of Puget Sound timber land, were estimated to be worth $20,000,000.

Sell to Chas" R. McCormick Lumber Co.

The Pope & Talbot lumber and shipping interests were sold on March n, 1925, to the Charles R. McCormick Lumber Co., another giant Pacific Coast concern, organized and built up by Charles R. McCormick.

McCormick established the St. Helens Shipbuilding Co. at St. Helens on the Columbia River, built a sawmill there in 1909, and a creosoting plant in l9l?.

Captain Keller was resident manager at Port Gamble until 1861. His wife and daughter, who accompanied him on the voyage from Boston, were the first white women to arrive at Port Gamble.

The first sawmill was 4O by 7O f.eeL, with a daily capacity oI2,W board feet. The saw had a half inch kerf. In 1854 a "live gang" from Maine was put in, and with an edger the cut was increased to 15,000 feet a day. The mill shipped 3,000,000 feet the first year on the schooner Foster.

A new mill was built in 1858 with a double circular rig, an edger, scantling machine, three trimmers and a planer, with a daily capacity of 60,000 feet. In l8Z0 the company bought the old Alberni mill on Vancouver Island and moved the equipment to Port Gamble. By IBZZ the daily capacity was increased to 110,000 feet and by 1903 there were two mills cutting 220,000 f.eet. In 1925, when the McCormick company took it over, the plant capacity was 375,000 feet daily.

In 1878 the Puget Mill Co. purchased the Amos & phinney mill at Port Ludlow. They had bought the Grannan and Cronnie mill at Utsalady in 1876 and operated it until 1890.

The interests of Pope & Talbot had grown tremendously. The Puget Mill Co. was incorporated in 1874. The mills at Port Gamble and Port Ludlow were operated by the Puget Lumber Co. The merchandise business by the Puget Sound Trading Co. The ships were owned and

At this point in the story Charles L. Wheeler, a native of Wisconsin, where he had grown up in the lumber business, comes into the picture. He went to Seattle in 1908 to gather material and write about Pacific Coast industries and resources for an encyclopedia. He liked the Coast and decided to stay. He opened an office in portland, where he did land settlement work, and also acted as property agent for a number of lumber concerns, one of which was the McCormick company. He became associated with the St. Helens Lumber Co. of the McCormick organization in 1911, and took an important part in building the city of St. Helens. By l92l Mr. Wheeler was vice-president and general manager of the McCormick Steamship Co., which had been organized to take over the vessels of the McCormick firm.

Soon after the sale of the Pope & Talbot properties to McCormick, the latter interests held 2,850,000,000 feet of merchantable timber, four sawmills with an annual production of 300,000,000 feet, lumber yards in Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Oceanside, Calif.; a sales office in New York City, terminal docks at Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tacoma and San Diego; and the largest fleet in the coastwise trade of the Pacific.

The McCormick ships handled 45 per cent of the total trade between the Pacific Coast and the east coast of South America, and in one year the company ranked fourth in the total tonnage passing through the panama Canal.

Pope & Talbot were always represented on the board of directors, William H. Talbot, who was a son of Captain William C. Talbot, having been president of the McCormick company when he died in 1930. Ife was succeeded by George A. Pope, who remained president until the McCormick properties were again taken over by pope & Talbot in 1938.

The Present Organization

The Pope & Talbot Lumber Co. was incorporated in (Continued on page 38)