Eighty Men, a Night Crew, and a Forest of Logs: Newport's Timber Boom in Full Swing
New rail spurs and new mills put scores of men to work across the Pend Oreille country — until the cold snap and the frozen lake threaten to slow the saws.
NEWS OF THE MILLS Increased Activity All Along the Line Means Work for Many Men
At the present time 80 men are engaged in the construction of the spur to the new mill site of the Fidelity mill. A night crew will be added as soon as arrangements can be made to furnish electric lights. Nearly all of the work has been sublet to small contractors, who are doing what is known as station work. The continuous and heavy blasting on the work does not bother Newport people, as they have been accustomed to that during the past two years.
The mill of the King Sash & Door Co. at Penrith has closed down on account of a shortage of logs. The roads have been so soft that it was impossible to haul logs. The present cold snap has improved the roads and the teamsters have been hauling this week. The mill will resume as soon as a supply of logs has been delivered.
The Long mill at Hardscrabble will resume operations within the next ten days on a four months' run sawing timbers for the I. & W. N.
The W. H. Graham Lumber Co. will erect a new mill this winter on McCloud Creek, west of the Westfall ranch down the river. A spur will be placed on the extension of the new railroad for the accommodation of the business from the mill. A portable sawmill is being installed to cut the timbers for the larger plant.
The work of framing the timbers for the Fidelity mill has been started. There are at present 10 millwrights getting the timbers ready. The foundations have been completed and the cement beds for the engines would have been completed but for the recent cold snap.
The Panhandle Lumber Co. at Spirit Lake has found it necessary to increase its lumber yard and has men grading and laying out an addition to the yard north of the present yard. When completed it will be possible for the company to pile 35,000,000 feet of lumber in the yard. Up to this time the weather has been mild and the mill has been running night and day and will continue as long as the weather will permit. The last few days have been cold and the lake is beginning to freeze over, and it is doubtful whether the mill can continue to saw more than three weeks longer. Since the mill commenced operations the latter part of June it has cut 27,000,000 feet. President F. A. Blackwell, of the I. & W. N. and Panhandle Lumber Co., left Monday for a three weeks' business trip to New York and Chicago.
“The continuous and heavy blasting on the work does not bother Newport people, as they have been accustomed to that during the past two years.”
The 1908 timber boom — driven by new rail spurs and mills — made Newport a company town whose fortunes rose and fell with the saws. Today the mills are gone, but the question of whether a rural economy can rest on a single extractive industry still echoes across the Pend Oreille country.
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