Vintage logging – Bridges
Each Saturday morning I review 10 vintage logging, forestry and saw milling photos. This week’s review of vintage logging show bridge construction methods and some of the ways bridges were used in the logging industry.
Click on the images to view larger pictures.
Rights Information: Feb 28 2019 Special permission granted by the owning institution, California State University, Chico, CA, US, to WoodchuckCanuck.com, for use of this image for historical logging special collection review. Source: cdlib.org
High bridge on the Ouray Stage Line between Ouray and Silverton ca 1890s
Photograph shows logging train on trestle. Sierra Lumber Company, CA, US.
Rights Information: Feb 28 2019 Special permission granted by the owning institution, California State University, Chico, CA, US, to WoodchuckCanuck.com, for use of this image for historical logging special collection review. Source: cdlib.org
Transporting logs by rail and cable system.
Construction crew with pile driver and railroad trestle under construction, camp 15. In the 1880s, the North Western Lumber Company built a mill in Hoquiam, becoming a significant player in the Grays Harbor timber industry. The company was in business until ca. 1944.
Vesta is a settlement on the North River nine miles south of Montesano in south central Grays Harbor County. It was named in 1882 when a post office was established by pioneer Milton Dwinelle for his wife, Vesta.
1890-1945 Construction crew and 80 foot trestle under construction. Schafer Brothers Logging Company got its start in 1893 when brothers Peter, Albert and Hubert Schafer began logging on the family homestead 6 miles upstream from the mouth of the Satsop. They logged with oxen and horses for 20 years. The company’s first donkey engine was purchased from Washington Iron Works. Hubert went to work at the factory to learn how donkey engines were made and also to have all of his wages, except for living expenses, applied toward the cost of that first donkey engine. In 1913, they bought a 45-ton Heisler locomotive and laid tracks into the woods from Brady to begin their railroad logging operation. A shingle mill was purchased in Montesano in 1919, the first of many manufacturing plants the company would own throughout Grays Harbor County. At the peak of operation, the Schafers were running one of the largest logging, milling and shipping concerns in the lumber industry of the Pacific Northwest. Their properties and equipment at that time, not counting ships and tugs, included five sawmills in operation, served by six camps sending logs over 100 miles of rail. This required 18 locomotives, both geared and mainline types, and a total of 70 donkeys and 325 logging cars. To operate all of this equipment called for approximately 3000 employees. Simpson Timber Company purchased Schafer Brothers Logging Company in 1955.
Construction crew on trestle under construction with pile driver in background. Schafer Brothers Logging Company got its start in 1893 when brothers Peter, Albert and Hubert Schafer began logging on the family homestead 6 miles upstream from the mouth of the Satsop. They logged with oxen and horses for 20 years. The company’s first donkey engine was purchased from Washington Iron Works. Hubert went to work at the factory to learn how donkey engines were made and also to have all of his wages, except for living expenses, applied toward the cost of that first donkey engine. In 1913, they bought a 45-ton Heisler locomotive and laid tracks into the woods from Brady to begin their railroad logging operation. A shingle mill was purchased in Montesano in 1919, the first of many manufacturing plants the company would own throughout Grays Harbor County. At the peak of operation, the Schafers were running one of the largest logging, milling and shipping concerns in the lumber industry of the Pacific Northwest. Their properties and equipment at that time, not counting ships and tugs, included five sawmills in operation, served by six camps sending logs over 100 miles of rail. This required 18 locomotives, both geared and mainline types, and a total of 70 donkeys and 325 logging cars. To operate all of this equipment called for approximately 3000 employees. Simpson Timber Company purchased Schafer Brothers Logging Company in 1955.
Construction crew with pile driver and railroad trestle under construction. The Saginaw Timber Company incorporated on March 18, 1908 and organized in 1909. The company was to be capitalized at $100,000. The organizers were A J Morley and W G Hopkins. The company constructed and operated a 40 mile logging railroad in the Aberdeen area. In 1919, the company merged the E H Lester Logging Company, a two mile logging railroad in the Montesano area. In 1933, the company merged the Gray’s Harbor and Pacific Railroad Company, a 9.25 mile railroad in the Aberdeen area. The company also merged the Saginaw Southern Railway Company. By 1934 the company was known as the Saginaw Logging Company and operated in the Brooklyn area. In 1947, the company acquired the Bridges to Vesta track from the Gray’s Harbor and Puget Sound Railway Company. In 1946, the company was reorganized as the Saginaw Lumber Company. On February 14, 1947 the company was dissolved.
