The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-01-01
e. Of the Superiority of
Puget Sound Fir.
STRENGTH AND DURABILITY.
.arisons With Other Woods of
the United States.
...x.s Of Practical, Scientific Tests
~...s Accuracy Cannot Be Doubted
80 Facts in Connection with the
x..her Trade of Washington.

s q .ccount of the equable climate of
IN Washington, the lumber industry
-.,ved on steadily the year round
rsafher is never severe enough in
{ - 10 interfere with the cutting of
- and the getting of logs to the
~ Puget sound never freezes. All
nils are supplied with electric lights,
q 8 large days work can be done in
"a r;pfer as in midsummer. The
-mometer has reached zero but once
,Ae memory of living man. Every
: "a i located on some arm or bay of
- sound in sheltered place where
- lie against wharves in the
"a stormy weather without
& snrr to themselves or to the
7 sevves All mill companies
5 =, their own powerful tugboats, and
- cargo is slowed, the vessel always
I, ouirk despatch to sea- Large capital
nyested in these enterprises and the in
IN never suffers from lack of money.
.sase the timber supply is practically
limited and very accessible, logs are
a.xn Most of them are fioated down
q many small streams emptying into
~ sound during the spring and fall
-hets and then towed 10 the mills.
sryal logging railroads have been built
he west side of the Sound into the
rsest body of standing timber in the
Es;.ed States outside of Alaska. As vet
longest haul over logging roads
tide water on the Sound is
q than thirty miles and not to
reed one-nftieth of the timber
been removed. Here is a district
anded by the Straits of Fuca on the
Nth, Gray's habor and the Chehalis river
4 The south, Puget sound on the east and
s V PACING ocean on the west, containing
or than 1900 square miles, and fully
seshiris of it covered densely with fir,
ruce and cedar, mostly nr. Lumbermen
Kustomed TO the forests of the East and
* Great Lakes and unfamiliar with
Washington, can form no idea of the ex-
II and value of our timber when its linn
y are stated in measurements of the
aths surface. Fir timber runs from 10000
10000 feet per acre-averaging perhaps
500 feet. The trees grow thick and their
he Is enormous. A log thirty-six inches
diameter is considered small, and 1t is
cannon thing TO see many logs in mill
buns six to eight feet in diameter. Fir
Enber, too, reaches extraordinary height.
. mother place mention is made of some
Fecisl timber cat this past season, and
om these lumbermen can form some idea
fthe size of trees. The timber supply is
lOtconnned, by any means, to the west
DE Of the Sound. Vast forests cover the
1sst slope of the Cascade mountains, and
Ne value Of logs every year noated down
is Snohomish, the Skagit and smaller
dreams is enormous. This timber supply
% the mountains extends uninterruptedly
ION the Columbia north to the British
Columbia line. distance of go miles.
I 1t must not be inferred that the lumber
interests of Washington are confined to
Puget sound, though the largest mills are
heated here. Lumber is the chief indus
nv of Gray's harbor. Willipa harbor and
he lower Columbia river, all of which ex-
port most Of their product by sea: and
here are numerous mills on the line of
he Northern PACING between Seattle and
The Columbia river which cut for local de-
nand and rail shipment.
OPENING OF NEW MARKETS.
Until three years ago, Puget sounds
market for lumber was confined to Cali
hrnia and to foreign ports. Occasional
shipments of spars and deck plank were
nsde TO the Atlantic seaboard by ocean,
Oat until the completion of the Northern
facihe railroad across the Cascade noun
kns to Puget sound, the markets Of the
Mississippi valley and the great West
could not be reached. Favorable freight
nfes we're made by the Northern PACING,
ind last year lumber was carried across
ne continent from ocean to ocean by rail.
Two years ago the St. Paul and Tacoma
Lumber Company was established for
I've special purpose Of supplying
nsikets reached only by rail. Their
|eis for 1890 was IS. 000. 900 feet and most of
! vas shipped East. 1t found ready
ha'set whereyer lumber of great strength
vas needed; in Butte and Anaconda. Mon
ana, Tor mines and smelters; at Chicago
D' warehouses and railroad work; Ut Lake
superior ports in Wisconsin for shipbuild-
asi and for general use throughout Mon
VIVA and Dakota. 4 lot Of 10000 feet was
Sht to Keokuk, Iowa, for the new bridge
aeioss the Mississippi, built by the Keokuk
y. = Hamilton Bridge Company. This was
ae hrsi Puget Sound hr used by the COM
tshy and the manager has written that the
saaiiiy Is fully up to his expectations.
/, me same company bought cedar ties on
saset sound for the bridge.
me Tacoma Mill Company began ship
fas lumber East by rail during the past
ssaf, the export through that channel be-
1g 10000 feet. Markets were found in
eeAeago, st. Louis, Omaha, Kansas City,
svhser and other cite Among other
sipnents were two entire trainloads, one
y J. Twelve ears to New York, consisting of
" plank averaging forty feet long. clear
~ vertical grain, and another of thtr-
-. ~ cars 10 Newport News, Va.
.AS mid, on April Odd, 1880,
=, :. the Keel piece for the steamer Alice
: blanchard, 2ix32, ISIS feet long. The cargo
y The Norwegian ship Thor for
y sss's'emunde, Germany. consisted of AGO.
- :. leet and inch clear plank. averaging
1yehes wide and s. feet long. and 10000
: - VI lumber i6xi6 10 24x24, 70 70 i50 feet
sag This cargo shows what Puget sound
lis can Go in the way of dimension tim
N1 As illustrating what mill can do
saen II tries, this mill made a cut, July
= ioss, Of 465.91s feet, the largest on
word. Their new planer viii surface four
tss long.
The tsro.. 80. a...,. ~.
go were those of the British steamship
LOIS and the British steamship Aigoma,
~ melbourne, both loaded by the Puget
Al tompany, at Port Gamble and Port
:. aiaos. The Suffolk carried ], 10000 feet
: 'ohg iumaer and enough lath and pick
] - % rring her total cargo up 20 i.9oZ.oev
r. d NE largest single cargo that ever ieif
- sound. The total cargo Of the Al
s94lA Was over /, 750, 600 feet, Both steamers
s ss.. 70 San Francisco with sugar from the