The Steam Engine Enters the Timberlands

For some time past there has been quite an interest manifested in building railroads into the forests surrounding Puget Sound. The Puget Sound Company is employing about 120 men on the logging railroad now building from the head of Hood's Canal into the timber between the Canal and Port Orchard. The Satsop Railroad Company, S.B. McDonald, president, is pushing its railroad toward Skookum Lake. The Port Blakely Mill Company is pushing the Puget Sound and Gray's Harbor road on towards Skookum Lake, and will soon have eight miles of the road completed. The Snohomish Company, Dudley Esbenshade, manager, is working a force of men on its road, headed toward Snohomish and Whatcom Lakes. It is stated that J. B. Bailey, formerly proprietor of the New England Hotel, is at present engaged in organizing a company to build sixteen miles of railroad, commencing at tide water on the Snohomish River and running up the west and east forks of the Snohomish, toward Snohomish and Whatcom Lakes. That section of country around Snohomish and Whatcom Lakes, and on both forks of the Snohomish River, has for a long time been reported as being covered with a dense body of timber. These locomotives are rapidly taking the places of ox teams in the woods, and the time is not far distant when the logging on the Sound will mainly all be done by railroad, practically doing away with the old style of hauling logs from one to three miles on skid roads.