October; 1882
1 8a
THE WEST SHORE.
I . . .1 -J efarf a ffamo.
H r ranuai was ucu itM""-
mm n iumwit. r - .m
MrAIH.ter Stout hearts and stalwart arms were
'P'1- ,u ... ,.,,1. and always with success when
built a saw mill at Nesquaiiy, on wiw j -i -" ' WB u,, t0 the
, M.AlliMcr's creek, and from this mill the first economy ano 7""' "'T"
awed lumber was dipped from Puget Sound . lea .aoor o, " " n.
,h fall of the same year. Pile, and hewed Um- , ' ' .. "r '7. Some of th
be, we sn.pped -me yea, at v.nous places a gre. improve "
on Puget Sound from Neah Bay to O.ymp.a. more aar ng on .
pi.- . ... mill . hu It at Seatt e bv loe to tne snores u. uic
HenryLYeslerin 1853, which turned out from bovine adjuncts they penetrated the forests with
' ........ j MAAeA maHs. and soon the wilderness became
1
of Oregon, aid started a law
ne.r Olvmoia. In 1851, Mr.
10.000 to 15.000 feel per day,
. tl.it mall commencement a Great indllS
try has sprung up which, with the exception ol
coal, it the greatest and most immrlanl of all
..1 1,.,. tint hive liren dcveloMcd on PuL'et Sound
The primitive methods of logging and sawing the
timber into merchantable product! has been super
seded by the mott modern improvements of the
eastern states, altnougn 11 nas been lounci
that the fir it tougher and a more difficult
wood to cut than the soft pine of the eastern
states; and requires in some degree a different
treatment. Fir is radically different from eastern
nine and should never be confounded with
il by being tilled nine. The fir of the Baltic
always soken of commercially as fir, and more
closely resembles the fir of Puget Sound than any
other coniferae.
The mills of Puirel Sound at uresent have a
capacity for turning out the following number of
teet ol lumber per diem:
MilL Feet.
Port Gamble 150,000
Port Ludlow 150,000
Utsalsdy 75,000
Port Madison '. 92,000
Port Blikely 150,000
Tacotna 150,000
Sealwck 6?,ooo
Milton 30,000
Port Discovery 60,000
New Tacoma it ooo
Stetson k Post al Seattle 20,000
Cotmans' at Seattle 30,000
. A small water mill has been started at What
com which cuts about 13,000 feet per day
Most of these mills are run at their full caoa
city, a great demand for lumlr having sprung
up since the close of the Chilian war. This. anl
the great demand for railroad supplies, has made
the lumber traile very prosperous durint iftfh
with a prospect of an increased business nest vear
It is Inteiesting to see the change which has
taken place In the logging business which is the
first commencement of the process of turning the
forests into boards and other building materials.
IUaU3. tttix owwt.
. 1
resonant with the loud cries ol tne-mui-puncners,
as the ox drivers are termed, urging their slow
stepping teams to more activity. Hand logging
.1:11 lni os (hp trees alone the imme-
31111 v-v7i 1 l 1 11 j " " ' - a
diate shores became scarce, the method was aban
doned, and from i860, during the war, and to tne
present time, logging is done by camps consisting
r I. ...!.L - i,nraB nf
01 six or eicm men wuu iu w uu
1 uiliiih have heen increased to camDS of
twenty men with five or six yokes of cattle. In
cnm. nUrei skiilded roads run into the timber
two or three miles. In other places, tramways of
five or six miles have been built, and horses,
mules or steam engines are used to haul the cars
laden with huge logs and timber. At Tumwater
logs are brought by the Tenino branch railroad
any required distance, and at Tacoma by the
steam cars from the Puyallup valley and on the
line of the Northern Pacific Railroad. At Port
Discovery, Ackerson, Moore & Co. are building
a railroad eight miles lone to extend southward to
Quilcene bay, and on the Snohomish river, Black
man & Brothers have a railroad five miles lone
with a steam engine to haul their cars.
AN UNEXPLORED TIMBER REGION.
The finest timber region in Western Washing
ton, at present but little known, is the vast coun
try lying west of the Willamette meridian which,
commencing at Portland, runs due north past Port
Townsend. Between this meridian and the Pa
cific ocean is an area nearly as large as the six
ivew England states, composed of the mountains
of the Olympic range, rich in mineral resources,
ami a vast rolling country densely covered with
the most magnificent growth of statelv firs that
can be found on the American continent. A rail
road along the west side of Hood's canal, mm.
mencing at some point on the Northern Pacific
near fckookum Chuck and continuing on to Port
iuvtry ana rort Townsend, will make the
whole of the vast region of Western Washington
available to commerce, bv branch rnA. .u.
- j .vHua ivi MIC
Chehahs valley, and from Quilcene bay by the
north slope of the Olvmnir.
foothills, which terminate their northern shores
The fir logger, found the timber trees RrowinJ t lCrminate thcir aot& sh
mil. to ih. ..1... ..... .,. mK on ca Strait. This ereat timh., :.
thr, men with . boat for transportation, and J? c forests the eastern side
with only axe. and handspikes, and perhap,. 7 ,a' mil"on feet oftim
cncul saw, ft tools, would select such timber c " rr0ln lhe dens growth
as suited their purote contiguous to the water
Ttv Urn mi .1 fir.1 1. L r .
. , , ,Itn 0, j)ueii bu(
iikj ni iu.ny 01 me trees large enough at the
butt fur mill lop they could generally iecure a cut
.unHaomy ,ong 1 a MU ,Ut, nJ , w. ; au me rivers named are capable of
.bl Hle of the remainder U the tree. The pile, e ? M f log5 ,0 th" ters of Pueet
mldtomseU which conveyed them lh, are actively .t work on most
.-re ihlPrUi,nf- Poducto, their
gigantic firs which line th. k.-i.. -r .
T:ITAV -amish
'Cnd e"' to the snow line of t he C.scad
Rimini ... au . v aV-Ui
. nvers named are capable
float no miltu-. 1.. . . ":-apaDie
loaded, the mill Ion were made lm
lh lU, hen wiodwU
lair. by dirt of hard labor wuh sweep, and w
plcs oly wosUd U the rea,e null Very
r, b, owed" in , " .T" N
roads to the interior will add new markets to the
great foreign demand of the present, the question
naturally arises, "How long will it be, with this
great and increasing demand upon the timber re-'
sources of Puget Sound, before the stock of mark'-
etable timber will be exhausted?" We see that the-
vast pine forests of Maine have been shorn of
their strength', and that whole districts of thtf
finest pine lands of Michigan and other western
states have been entirely cleared of their timber;
and we also see the fact that in almost every in
stance where the pine has been cut off, the suc
ceeding growth is of deciduous trecsy such
birch, maple, beach, oak and other hard wood.
In fact the great lumbermen of the states east of
the Rocky mountains already have turned their
attention to the forests of Western Washington
and pronounce them to be the source from whence
in the near future the world must derive its sup
ply of fir timber as well as other coniferous
woods. This question has already attracted the
attention of careful observers, and it has been
computed that perhaps a hundred years will
elapse before the present growth shall have been
cleared off by the woodman's axe, even allowing
no new growth to occur. But it is very doubtful
if the fir of Washington Territory will ever b
exhausted. It possesses not only a wonderful vital
ky but is different from the pine growth in the '
east, in that it perpetuates its own species
While the pine of the eastern states, as has been
stated, is succeeded by a growth of deciduous
trees, the fir of Puget Sound is always succeeded
by a growth of fir, and so rapid is this growth
that instances are not rare where fields, cleared
from the forest for cultivation, and afterward aban
doned, are covered in a short time by a growth '
of young firs which spring up like weeds, and in
two or three years produce an impenetrable
thicket, which in twenty years will grow treei
from twelve to fourteen inches in diameter.
THE WASTE OF LUMBER AND HOW IT CAN BE
UTILIZED.
The waste of lumber at the saw mills is enor
mous. With the mill men the question u not
how to utilize the saw dust, slabs and other refuse,
but how to get rid of it. Some of the slabs are
sawed into laths, some into firewood for the steam
tugs, and the balance burned up in kilns of never
ending fires. In all the mills the sawdust it
utilized as fuel, and the surplus, of which there it
much, is used for filling low places in the tlreets..
Slabs and sawdust are used for building piers, and.
wherever the sawdust comes in contact with the
salt water mud on the bottom of the bays, ill de
composition generates sulphuretted hydrogen g
of most unsavory smell, and baleful influence to
health. It is probable,' however, that many year,
will not elapse before this waste will be remedied. :
The saw dust will be utilized by reducing it to a
pulp for paper stock, a use for which iti tough
fibre is peculiarly adapted, and the slabs converted
into a variety of small wares.
A few yean ago it was announced in scientific
journals that a French chemist had discovered
that good brandy can be distilled from fir sawdiu
after it has been treated with a solution of wlphuric
acid. It is not probable that at present there will
be any distilleries on Puget Sound to put the
Frenchman's discovery to a practical test, but it
an evidence that fir sawdust may be put t? "
profitable use other than as paper stock or '
packing crockery ware, or making roads and pi' '