The Woods Come Back to Life Around Newport
Logging camps and river drives restart, with a million feet coming down the West Branch and Victor Pierson set to run the main-river drive.
The Tin Saddler logging ramp, located between this city and Spirit Lake, is again in full blast. Most of the camps in this vicinity are also operating again, and things in the woods are livelier than for a long time.
The West Branch drive for the Fidelity Lumber Co. started this week. About 1,000,000 feet will come down from that section, the product of the cut of one of the contractors. The drive on the main river will be started in about a week. Victor Pierson will have charge of the drive on the main branch.
“Things in the woods are livelier than for a long time.”
Logging was the engine of the Newport economy, and its seasonal drives set the rhythm of work and pay. Today the woods are quieter, but the tension between resource jobs and the land's other uses remains.
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