The Unclaimed Wealth of the Alaska Cedar
A Seattle lumber firm tests the market for a mysterious, golden-hued wood from the Monte Cristo wilderness.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Some samples of Alaska cedar have recently been sent East by Stetson & Post, with a view of ascertaining whether there is a market for that kind of lumber. The firm is interested in a tract near Monte Cristo containing 30,000,000 feet, and the samples have been sent to car builders. Although a great deal has been heard of the Alaska cedar, very few people have ever seen any or know much about it. The natural color of the wood inside the sap is a deep yellow; it is very fine and close-grained and takes a high polish. Mr. Stetson thinks the wood will be used for finishing, furniture making and cabinet purposes. He had also understood that the teredo would not work in it. The lumber is worth $40 per thousand. It may be some time before the tract in question is logged, as it is on unsurveyed land and it would have to be surveyed and a mill built there for the purpose.
“Although a great deal has been heard of the Alaska cedar, very few people have ever seen any or know much about it.”
The 'Monte Cristo' region was a notorious boom-and-bust mining site, now largely reclaimed by the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. This story captures the era's frantic drive to commodify the Pacific Northwest's raw natural resources, a precursor to the massive logging industrialization that shaped modern Washington.
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