I’ve been typing the life story of a dear couple of 90-year-old friends of mine who are legally blind. Yes, they full well realize that they should have done this sooner but alas, they didn’t. (Are YOU taking notes here?) He was from the logging/lumbering area in the north Idaho panhandle and I must admit that I’ve learned much more about that industry than I would have ever guessed. Did you know that in these deep piney woods of the Pacific Northwest, which is latticed with streams and lakes, that lumber camps would be built on a stream site for only 2-3 years or until they had cut down all the nearby trees. Then they would pick up and move the mill ten miles or less to another site and begin the process all over again. They land they logged was purchased by a timber company and when the mill and men moved on, the “logged cut” acres were then sold to settlers and homesteaders. Railroads were vital to the hauling of the timber and then to the settling of the area. Small towns already established by a nascent logging camp would grow when the railroad arrived for not only would they be improved as supply centers for the people already established around them but they would be the collecting centers for the products shipped out. And these same values would cause new communities to be established.
(Did you have ancestors involved in the timbering or logging industry in the Pacific Northwest?)
My Dad logged and cut poles for the US Army and was deferred until May 1945. He then worked in sawmills in Whatcom and Skagit Counties. He then moved to logging, hauling logs in a GI 4X4 when I was 5-9, then gypo logged. Bought timber and hauled short logs in Skagit County. Back to long log hauling until 1968!Then we moved to Lewis County. They owned American Timberman & Trucker Logging Magazine for years. They also serviced saw shops in WA, OR, ID with suspenders, gloves, hickory shirts, pants, socks and Pemerals shoe grease until retirement.
The attended Logging Shows from MN, CA, OR, MT, ID & WA.
They were lead a truck parade to Washington DC to protest closure of logging. I’m very proud to be a Loggers Daughter!