Inside the Mammoth Port Blakely Sawmill
A reporter visits the industrial powerhouse of Bainbridge Island, where steam-fed saws and massive shipments connect the Pacific Northwest to the world.
A reporter from the Post-Intelligencer visited the Port Blakely lumber mill, a mammoth facility employing 160 men and processing over 200,000 feet of merchantable lumber daily. Mr. James Oldfield, the mill boss, showcased a new steam-feed re-saw, touted as the only one of its kind on the coast. The mill, owned by Captain Kenton, is shipping lumber to nations around the globe. The reporter also visited the Bainbridge Hotel, run by D.J. Jackman, noting the facility served 150 steady boarders and provided a private billiard hall for guests. Life in the mill town is bustling, with a school, a massive company store, and a machine shop keeping the complex operational as it prepares for further expansion.
“It is a steam feed re-saw, and was built for Captain Beaton at Marionette, Wisconsin. It has a capacity of 40,000 feet of lumber per day, and is a great success for short logs.”
Port Blakely was once the site of the largest lumber mill in the world, a central engine of Seattle's early economy. Today, the bustling industrial site is a quiet residential enclave and park, showing how thoroughly the region's 'timber-boom' era has been reclaimed by the forest it once leveled.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.