The Forest Empire That Built Washington

Washington's chief industry is lumbering. From the time of Whitman's crude sawmill in Eastern Washington and the little rattletrap, toggle-jointed affair at Tumwater, whose machinery and equipment were brought around Cape Horn from Maine, until today the lumber industry was paramount. So it will be in the future until the great forests yield to man's necessity, and nothing is left but the stumps and the sawmills become ruins over which the iron and stone generation will hold high revel. But that time is far off.

Take the map and draw a line at the Alaska border and another at the California line, and you will see the greatest forest belt in the world spread before you. It comprises 120,000,000 acres of timber land and is the most remarkable timber body in existence. It is, in fact, the last stronghold of the forest, and when the Eastern and Southern states become denuded this timber belt will be the only one remaining.

Several estimates have been made as to the amount of standing timber in this belt. The government estimated the standing timber in Western Washington and Oregon at 300,000,000,000 feet, and the Puget Sound Lumberman two years ago made an estimate which has been pretty generally accepted, although there are some who believe the amount has been overestimated. However, those figures, which are conservative, are given herewith. According to that journal there are 11,971,792 acres of timber land in Western Washington, containing 303,310,094,000 feet of standing timber, and in Eastern Washington 11,616,720 acres containing 106,978,041,000 feet of standing timber. This gives an average for Western Washington of 25,339 feet to the acre, and in Eastern Washington an average of 9,209 feet to the acre. In Oregon the amount of timber standing on 19,195,330 acres is estimated at 236,893,250,000 feet. No estimate has ever been made of the standing timber in British Columbia, but as the timber area is larger than Washington and Oregon, the amount must be still larger. Chehalis County, in Washington, contains the greatest amount of timber, followed by Jefferson, Whatcom, Snohomish, Lewis and Clallam. Tillamook County leads in Oregon, followed by Lane, Coos and Curry counties. The stumpage value in the two states, at present prices, is estimated at $239,561,329 for Washington and $86,681,709 for Oregon. Add to this the forests of Alaska, those of Montana, Idaho and Nevada, and the redwood forests of California, and it is readily seen that the most valuable heritage ever bestowed upon the Pacific coast consists of her timber wealth.

The varieties of timber in Washington having a commercial value are red fir, yellow fir, noble fir, white fir, red cedar, Alaska pine (or hemlock), larch, Alaska cedar (or yellow pine), bull pine, tamarack, alder, maple, oak, yew, cottonwood, curly maple and madrone.

The uses of the fir tree are many, but the main qualification is its extreme strength, making it valuable for certain construction purposes. For ship's timbers, decking, derrick work, flooring, bridge work, car sills and construction purposes where strength is required, no soft wood known will equal it. Railroad builders generally prefer fir to any wood known for bridge work because smaller timbers may be used and not so much lumber is required as where ordinary white or yellow pine is used. The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul and the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha roads, which traverse the finest pine and oak belts in the country, come to the state of Washington for bridge timber because of the enormous strength of fir.

Several years ago Engineer C. R. Talbot, of the Northern Pacific railroad, conducted a test of the three varieties of wood, with the following result: fir 4,320 lbs.; Eastern oak 1,428 lbs.; Eastern pine 1,610 lbs. At the same time officials of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul road made tests of fir at the mill of the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company, at Tacoma, and from a number of tests found that the greatest deflection in any of these sticks was three and a half inches. The least deflection in any was one and a half inches. In all these tests the center load was applied.

Fir flooring, vertical grain, has no equal; fir for sills is superior to other kinds on account of strength and length. Washington fir is the best ship-building material in the world, and almost every country under the sun obtains ship masts from Puget Sound. On Windsor Castle, the Victoria's residence, is a staff cut on Puget Sound; the tallest flag staff at Liverpool, Maine, once grew in the forests of Washington, and many other towns, military forts and ships are supplied from this state.

Next to fir, red cedar is the most important tree wood in the state. It is of distinct variety from other cedars, being closely allied in color and grain to the fir. Red cedar is soft and coarse-grained, of reddish hue, and has a peculiar aromatic odor. It is indestructible where exposed to the weather, and is an ideal shingle wood. When once dried it will stay in place without curling up, warping or shrinking—a peculiarity not possessed by other woods. At present it is manufactured into shingles, siding, fence posts, tank stuff and doors. Red cedar shingles are sold in thirty-two states and territories, Iowa alone taking in the neighborhood of 200,000,000 per year, with Illinois second. Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland and West Virginia on the Atlantic coast; Kentucky, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Indian Territory in the South; and California, Arizona and New Mexico in the West are new purchasers this year. The shingles are wide, clear and vertical grain and will last a lifetime, but they are practically given away today by the manufacturers in this state. The future of cedar will be in the manufacture of doors. Wheeler, Osgood Co., of Tacoma, pioneers in the sash trade, have introduced cedar doors in Maine, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado and Utah, and in Hawaii, Japan and South Africa. Owing to the cheapness of raw materials, red cedar doors can be sold in Europe in competition with any door made in this country; for pails, tanks, vats, etc., cedar will also be in demand in the future.

Spruce is third on the list of woods. Of milk-white color, and of light weight, it has sprung up as a competitor of white pine in the East. The greatest bodies of spruce are from the Columbia river to the straits of San Juan de Fuca; it grows to great height and is used for building material, and is especially durable for boat building, and as it communicates no taste of resin to the contents of barrels, it is used for barrels.

Alaska pine (hemlock) is a fine-grained wood. It is useful for structural purposes, and its bark yields the best and strongest tannin of any hemlock in the country. The Willapa Tannin Extract works at South Bend turn out a large quantity of this extract.

Larch is a wood growing in limited quantities in Eastern Washington, but tamarack is a coarse-grained wood used mainly for rough work. The native oak is fine-grained but rather brittle when dried. Maple is a fine wood. Ash is very good and so is alder. All are used to a limited extent in furniture making. Cottonwood occurs in limited quantities in Eastern Washington. It is fine for casket making, match making, and the manufacture of paper, barrels, etc. Juniper, or pencil cedar, is found scattered through the state, reaching perfection, it is said, on Orcas Island. Alaska cedar, one of the most valuable woods on account of its scarcity, grows in the mountains. The most extensive bodies are found in the Olympics and at the head of the Nooksack. Of a light yellow color, it is exceedingly fine-grained and takes a beautiful polish. So fine-grained is it that it ought to be an excellent substitute for boxwood for engraving purposes. It is excellent for light boats, oars, musical instruments, etc.

These are the principal woods. Now for the commercial side of the industry. There are about 250 sawmills, 134 shingle mills and nearly 100 sash, blind, door, pail, cooper, casket, desk, box factories and other establishments utilizing wood as raw material. These mills and factories turn out finished material valued at about $15,000,000 per year, giving employment to nearly 11,000 persons direct and many others indirect, to whom are paid in wages nearly $7,000,000 per year. This is a brief summary of the total. For comparison the different branches of the lumber industry are treated separately.

The first sawmill, established long before Seattle and Tacoma were cities, was a small affair as compared with the mills of today. With crude power provided by water, nature's gift, the saws wheezed and jogged along through 2,000 feet per day of manufactured lumber, or one-fifth of the amount of lumber needed in the construction of an ordinary cottage. The lumberman would sit around of an evening and prate about it and the boss would make a mental inventory and send by the next conveyance an order to San Francisco for a jug of Forty-nine whisky for his crew. What would these old fellows think of the big Port Blakely mill turning out material in one day to build forty houses, or enough, as in 1892, for 300 cottages—more than enough to build a large city? Or what would they think of one shingle mill, the Stimson Mill Company, of Ballard, turning out enough shingles for 6,500 houses in one year? There are three classes of mills: cargo mills, rail trade mills and local trade mills. The former export to the foreign and Eastern trade. Among those doing exclusive business in this line may be mentioned the Port Blakely Mill Company, of Port Blakely, and the Puget Mill Company.