The High-Tech Logging Boom on the Deschutes

One day last week, the editor of the Standard visited the logging camp of Geo. W. Foster, on the Deschutes River, six miles from Olympia, and connected by rail with the Olympic and Chehalis Valley road. The present camp buildings, on the south and east edge of Bush Prairie, are temporary structures built of poles and shakes, but of ample size, and afford about all the essentials for comfort. The cookhouse and dormitory is about eighty feet long and of corresponding width, capable of sheltering from 50 to 75 men. A long table in the center, at the hour of noon, was covered with a profusion of well-cooked substantial food, equal to that usually spread in our first-class hotels. On either side of the men's quarters are the cattle sheds, capable of stabling five teams of five yoke each. This indicates that although the logging may be mainly done by rail, much heavy work remains to be accomplished before the immense timbers are placed on the cars. At the site, operated on land belonging to Mr. Chas. E. Weed, we witnessed the loading of immense sticks, ranging from 40 to 90 feet in length, as easily as the 'back log' was placed in an old-fashioned fireplace. Mr. Foster’s contract with the railroad is for hauling 40,000 feet of logs daily from May to October. This gives constant employment to forty or forty-five laborers, with teamsters receiving $80 to $90 per month, choppers $60 to $70, and boys $1 per day—board and lodging in all cases included.