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844 stories matching lumber
- Free Wool, Free Lumber: Washington's Mill Towns Brace for the Tariff Shock
Seattle and Tacoma manufacturers warn that the new Havemeyer tariff will cut wages, ruin sheep raisers and hand the lumber trade to Canadian timbermen.
- The Fire That Built a City: Seattle's Timber Boom Rises from the Ashes
Three years after the Great Fire of 1889 devastated the waterfront, Seattle’s lumber mills are running at full capacity, shipping millions of feet of wood to Hawaii and beyond to rebuild not just this city, but the Pacific.
- The Shingle That Carried Washington Through the Panic of 1893
A year-end accounting of the state's sawmills and shingle mills shows a timber empire reaching twenty-two foreign countries — and a rail trade down 25 percent as the national depression bites.
- A Mill Owner's Warning: Free Trade and the Fight for Seattle's Lumber Future
Port Blakely's C. P. Holmes saw tariff-free lumber helping British Columbia, doubted the China-Japan war would rescue trade, and still believed Seattle's natural harbor would win.
- The Coal That Changed Seattle: How an Australian Strike Starved the Lumber Trade
A labor dispute halfway across the world brought Pacific Northwest shipping to a halt, sending freight rates soaring and leaving local merchants scrambling for tonnage.
- Puget Sound Lumber Sails for South Africa
A new steamship and clipper line carries Northwest timber to Delagoa Bay and the gold fields of Johannesburg.
- The Queen City’s Timber Heart: Inside Seattle’s Lumber Boom
A detailed look at the seven sawmills powering Seattle’s growth, the wages of the men who cut them, and a massive waterfront land deal that signals the city's future.
- After the Mill Burned, the Neighbors Got Their Day in Court
A Spokane judge orders White Pine Lumber to pay four homeowners for a 1905 fire, while the company's failed suit against Great Northern leaves perjury charges in its wake.
- Tacoma's 1894: Falling Lumber, Rising Flour, and a New Rolling Mill
The Ledger's year-end review found reasons for optimism in shipping, smelting, meat packing, and new rail connections—even as low prices cut into the lumber trade.
- The Lumber Trust Comes to Seattle
Seattle lumber firms move to form the Central Lumber Company of California, pooling sales to squeeze out British Columbia competition.
- Two Men Crushed Under Tons of Falling Lumber
A routine measurement at the St. Paul mill yards turned into a harrowing disaster when overhead lumber supports gave way.
- Seattle Merchants Rally to Keep the Tariff on Coal and Lumber
Meeting at the Chamber of Commerce, business men draft a memorial to Congress warning that free trade in lumber and coal will hand the Northwest's timber trade to British Columbia—then vote to put the whole fight off another week.
- 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 City's Broken Lumber Deal
When lumber prices soared in 1887, Seattle’s city contractors simply walked away from their obligations—and the city council let them get away with it.
- Port Angeles Cedar Cutters Sail for Hawaii — And Warn Puget Sound Is Losing the Trade
A Port Angeles lumber schooner returns from Honolulu after delivering 650,000 feet of cedar ties, and its manager says California is capturing the island trade that Puget Sound should own.
- The Great Rebuilding: Seattle’s Post-Fire Lumber Rush
In the wake of the 1889 Great Seattle Fire, the local lumber trade faces an unprecedented surge in demand as thousands rush to rebuild, signaling a massive shift in the city’s economy and labor market.
- The Great Seattle Sawmill Fire
A spark from a passing train ignites a massive blaze in the Seattle lumber district, consuming millions of feet of lumber and threatening to incinerate the city's waterfront.
- New Capital, New Mill: Dalkena Lumber Co. Takes Over
A Minneapolis-backed corporation buys the D. K. Mill, plans a band mill and retail lumber trade, and bets on the coming railroad.
- Railroad Monopoly Tightens Grip on Lumber
A newly formed 'Improvement Company' linked to the Northern Pacific Railroad establishes a monopoly over regional lumber trade.
- The Lumber Industry Faces a Hard Winter
Puget Sound mills struggle through the worst slump in twelve years as global markets dry up.
- The Lumber Monopoly’s Messy Breakup
A multi-million dollar lumber corporation face an attachment suit after failing to pay for timber contracts in Walla Walla.
- A Railroad Blockade Broke the Lumber Glut
Puget Sound mills had been selling below cost. Then floods and a strike cut the supply line—and manufacturers finally got the upper hand on prices.
- The High Cost of a Depressed Lumber Market
A Seattle lumberman's failed venture in San Francisco illustrates the brutal reach of the 1893 economic panic across the Pacific Coast.
- Port Discovery’s Busy Wharves and the Mill That Ran Full Time
A short steamer voyage from Port Townsend in 1876 found new wharves, a bigger engine house, and a lumber mill employing about 100 men.
- 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.
Also about this, in other words
- The Secret Lumber Pool
A clandestine plan to monopolize Pacific Coast timber shipments emerges from the shadows.
- 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 Lumber Glut of 1889
A historic surplus of timber in Seattle reveals the rapid expansion of early mill infrastructure and the cooling of the local market.
- The Lumber Lobby Scores a Panama Canal Win
Pacific coast lumbermen outmaneuvered the Panama Canal Commission to exempt deck-loads from tonnage fees, signaling the power of regional industry over federal regulation.
- The Lumber Bottleneck
High freight rates and logistical hurdles leave Pacific Northwest lumber barons desperate for new markets.
- The Lumber Boom of 1887
Seattle's bustling mills are running night and day to keep up with the frantic demand for timber, driving labor wages and export prices to new heights.
- Lumber Prices Jump as Seattle Mills Confront a Labor Shortage
Seattle lumber dealers will raise prices $1 per thousand on August 1, blaming higher wages, scarce mill hands, costlier logs—and Chinese laborers who struck for $1.50 a day.
- A New Industrial Boom for South Aberdeen
Michigan lumber investors sign a contract to build a massive sawmill, planing mill, and shingle factory, signaling a new era for the region's economy.