Historically, the timber industry has been an important part of the economics of the Pacific Northwest. Exhibits in the Washington State Museum in Tacoma show both logging and the lumber industry.
As the non-Indian settlers poured into Washington, they viewed the old-growth forests as a resource to be harvested and used by the growing U.S. economy. Vast timberlands, once used by Indian nations, were now owned by corporations.
Commercial logging in Washington actually began in 1827 when the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver realized the economic value of lumber. Their first mill, powered by water, produced about 3,000 board feet of lumber per day.
Sawmill
At the sawmill, raw logs were processed—that is, cut—into dimensioned lumber to be used for building houses, factories, and other structures. In 1869, the 14 sawmills in the Puget Sound area produced more than 170 million board feet of finished lumber.
Logging tools
The men who came to Washington to fell the great trees came from all over the world. In general, loggers tended to be rather transient: many would join a crew and work until they got their first paycheck. Then they would quit and spend the money on alcohol, gambling, and women. When broke, they would join another crew and start the cycle again.
Richard Williams, in his book The Loggers, writes:
“Booze was the breath of life to him, and so urgent was his thirst that he would down anything from grain alcohol to horse liniment if nothing better could be had.”
With regard to cutting down the great old-growth forests, Richard Williams writes:
“They seldom spared a tree that was worth chopping down, and they never stopped to plant one amid the graveyards of stumps they left behind. Year after year, they pushed back the forests’ perimeters.”
Shown below are some of the logging tools which are on display.
More Museum Photo Tours
Museums 101: Ranch and Sawmill (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: The Timber Industry on the Oregon Coast (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: The Timber Industry (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: The Miller Lumber Sawmill (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Logging (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Sawmill (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Logging Train (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Mining (Photo Diary)