Newport's Cedar Pole Trade Comes Back to Life
After a lean year, buyers return to the Pend Oreille River for cedar poles—Newport's best-known export, shipped as far east as New York.
The cedar pole industry is beginning to feel the effects of better times. One of the largest dealers in this locality has decided to re-enter the market and will have buyers down the river during the present season. But few poles were purchased down the river during the past year and most of those purchased were handled at a loss or a very close margin.
The market conditions are much improved at the present time and stocks, which have been depleted to a large extent, must be replenished. Only a limited number of poles have been made during the past year. The decision of the buyers to resume operations will probably stimulate the making of poles by ranchers and cause times to improve with them as well as the balance of the people.
Pend Oreille poles from the Newport district are considered the best produced in the northwest. They are shipped as far east as New York state. As a rule about 125,000 poles are handled annually by the firms doing business in Newport.
“Pend Oreille poles from the Newport district are considered the best produced in the northwest. They are shipped as far east as New York state.”
Newport's pole trade was an early resource economy: a local product, distant buyers, and a town whose fortunes rose and fell with commodity demand. The same tension between extraction and stability still runs through rural Washington.
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