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183 stories matching fir
- Hewing the Great Fir: A Seattle Ship's New Mast
A local carpenter is hand-crafting a massive 84-foot fir mast for a visiting ship, showcasing the immense timber resources of early Seattle.
- The Battle for the Paving of Pacific Avenue
Tacoma business owners hash out a heated, two-hour debate over whether to use locally sourced fir blocks or imported vitrified brick for the city's main street.
- The Railroad That Came for the Fir
A Chicago, Burlington & Quincy official tours Puget Sound mills and says his line may soon build freight cars from Washington fir.
- The Logging of a Giant for the World's Fair
A massive fir tree from Lewis County is destined for a grand role as an office exhibit at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
- Australian Tariffs Hit Washington Timber
A new trade duty on Oregon and Washington fir puts local lumbermen on alert.
- The Power Struggle Over Pavement
Tacoma's city council faces internal deadlock as officials fight over who gets to countersign checks and which material should pave the city streets.
- A Ghastly Discovery Near Sugar Creek
A set of skeletal remains, pinned under a decayed fir tree, suggests a lonely, long-forgotten death in the remote mountains.
- Tragic Logging Accident at Skamokawa
A well-known logger is crushed to death by a falling fir tree in plain view of his crew.
- The Sound’s Secret: How Deep Waters and Giant Trees Built a City
A reprinted editorial from New York reveals why Puget Sound is the 'Mediterranean of the West,' detailing its impossible depth, massive timber resources, and the strange phenomenon of forests with only small and giant trees.
- A Heroic Sacrifice in the Woods
A 12-year-old boy in Yagar dies while saving his sister from a falling fir tree during a windstorm.
- When Puget Sound Timber Built the World
In 1890, Seattle and Washington’s mills weren’t just fueling local growth—they were exporting millions of feet of fir to every corner of the globe.
- The Industrial Ambition of the Seattle Waterfront
An 1877 editorial champions the Puget Sound as the inevitable future global hub for shipbuilding, driven by the unmatched quality of local yellow fir.
- A Rancher, a Falling Fir, and a Daughter's Terrible Discovery
F. O. Hall was clearing land at Vaughn Bay when a lodged tree came down; his nine-year-old found him beneath it.
- The Unsung Strength of Washington Fir
Local engineers are pushing for a government-funded laboratory to scientifically prove what loggers already know: that Washington timber is superior to Eastern pine.
- The Mill Owners Set the Price: A Quiet Hotel Meeting to Fix Lumber Rates for the Season
Owners of the Port Gamble, Tacoma and Port Blakely mills met at the Rainier-Grand to agree on a price for lumber — just as orders pour in and California discovers native fir is as good as oak.
- The Great Northern's Building Boom
New bricks and stone are transforming the downtown core as the Great Northern Railway’s arrival spurs a flurry of commercial construction.
- Chamber of Commerce Bounties for Frace Murderers
Business leaders offer $500 for the capture of the man who left James A. Frace dead under a fir tree.
- The Forest Empire That Built Washington
A sweeping 1900 survey of the state's lumber industry counted billions of feet of standing timber, 250 sawmills, and $7 million a year in wages—proof that the trees, not the cities, came first.
- The Search for Washington's Greatest Timber
As the state prepares for the World's Fair, officials scramble to verify reports of legendary forest giants—only to find that some don't quite measure up to the legends.
- Mount Vernon's Dikes Held—Barely—as the Skagit Rose
The Skagit River broke a dike near Fir, covered bottomlands, cut trains and mail, and left Mount Vernon watching its new levee seep.
- The Secret Syndicate Attempting to Control the Pacific Timber Trade
A covert effort by lumber barons to establish a monopoly by paying smaller mills to shut down.
- A Deadly Souvenir of the Battle of Seattle
Twenty-one years after the 1856 Battle of Seattle, a local man struck a hidden relic in a fir tree that could have turned lethal.
- The Road to Nowhere: How Seattle’s Leaders Left Lake Washington Residents Stranded in Mud
In March 1877, residents living between the city and Lake Washington found their commute impossible. The city council ignored petitions for a proper road, offering only fir boughs and gravel dust as solutions.
- The New Frontier on the Shores of Lake Washington
While the city worried over mysterious prowlers, settlers were carving out orchards and gardens from the old-growth forests near Lake Washington, marveling at the land's hidden potential.
- A Steam-Powered Solution for Aberdeen’s Winter Fuel Needs
As Aberdeen grew into a bustling timber town, J. B. Haynes introduced a steam-powered saw to streamline the labor of residential wood-splitting.