Vintage logging – log dump – WoodchuckCanuck.com

Each Saturday morning I review 10 vintage logging, forestry and saw milling photos. This week’s review of vintage logging is about log dumps, the area where logs where brought and dumped into the waterways.

Click on the images to view larger pictures.

1930 Crew at loading site below railroad trestle, camp 3, Clemons Logging Company, near Melbourne.

Clemons Logging Company was organized in 1903. Charles H. Clemons was the first president. The company had a logging camp in the Melbourne area. In 1919, the company was consolidated with the Melbourne and North River Railroad Company, an eight mile logging railroad extending from Melbourne to Montesano. In 1919, the company was reorganized as the Clemons Logging Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company. The company operated a 75 mile logging railroad in the Montesano area. In 1936, the company was merged into the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company. Its locomotives were later sold to the Murphy Lumber Company, Discovery Bay Logging Company, Craig Mountain (Idaho) and West Fork Logging Company. The company was dissolved on June 29, 1937. In 1941, the original logging site was dedicated as the first tree farm in Washington.

Melbourne was a logging center on the Chehalis River seven and a half miles east of Aberdeen in south central Grays Harbor County. It was named for Melbourne, Australia, by Reuben Redmond when he platted the town in the late 1850s. Redmond was a father-in-law of Samuel Benn who founded Aberdeen in the same period.

1932 Green Point Logging Co. Ltd. "Shay" locomotive working at log dump. — 1932 Green Point Logging Co. Ltd. “Shay” locomotive working at log dump.

Crew at log dump location with 0-4-0 Ny. El. tank locomotive and flatbed railroad car with logs. Lake Sawyer Lumber Company was in business ca. 1922 to ca. 1934, headquartered in Issaquah and with logging operations near Kent.

A log dump is a section of water where logs are sorted. Logs are easier to sort in the water because they can be pushed around. Generally, they’re shipped to a mill from there, via booms hauled by tug boats. Sorting is done according to grade, species, etc.

1938 Cumshewa Inlet, BC. Log dump; A.P. Allison Co.

Mack truck, 1917 AC Model; owned by Dave Burrowes; first logging truck in Clallam County; Raymond “Ray” Phillip Doran (5/1/1895-4/26/1943), driver, parked at Johnson Creek log dump on Sequim Bay; truck with license #155816 facing toward left; Large log loaded on trailer; man standing beside load on one large log and small logs to hold in place.