The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-10
THE LOGGING REVIVAL.
Activity at the Camps on the Gulf
Georgia.


Georgia.
BLAINE, March Especial. THE log
ging business in this section is reviving,
though prices seem to De nothing start
ling. An operator in that line informs me
that IS to $3.50 is now the going price,
which would hardly be an incentive to
rush the business. However, there are no
less than three new camps in operation in
this locality at present. employing together
about thirty-five men. Besides there are two
other cedar camps which have been get
ting out material for several months past,
which employ quite large number of
men.
few years ago it was quite common for
three or four million feet of logs to be
towed away from this point to be sawed at
the large mills farther up the Sound, but
for the past two years there has been little
enthusiasm in this line of business owing
to indifferent prices, and, in fact, almost
no sale for products, and besides, the in
fated state of the real estate market had
its influence on the logging industry as
well as other works. No logs were towed
south, and our small mills here used only
limited quantity. One or two booms
found their way to Bellingham bay and a
few crossed the gulf to Victoria, though
prices over there are never very good. Log
gers always grumbe about the British
scale, and the duty is inconvenient.
The lumber timber of Northwest What
com county, however, is in small tracts,
making it not very convenient to get at
by any very complete or extensive arrange
ment, unless located near the water or
line of railroad. Probably between Lyn-
den and the Gulf of Georgia, north of the
Nooksack, there are 1000 acres of good tim
Der in tracts averaging so to 100 acres each.
In that same territory there are probably
half o dozen small sawmills, which, as
home consumption demands are whiting
away, and in this way uncovering the soil
for the agriculturist, for whom it is most
perfectly adapted when cleared.
While there is only limited supply of
fir timber, though probably enough for
home use for the next three generations,
there is millions upon millions of feet
of fine shingle cedar, and no less than
three of the camps in this locality are en-
gagged upon that material which it is ex-
pected will be mostly worked up at our
own mills,
1t is learned today that in addition to
the International mill, which cuts 10000
shingles daily, that }. A. Martin and
Perley Bros. are about to start shinSle
mill, for which they have the machinery.
and will cut $4,000 daily, while the George
Davies project for a double Textbook mill
is progressing favorably. The Stops mill,
near Custer, and the Ferndale mill, each
of a capacity of $1,000 daily, complete
quite a respectable list for working up the
cedar. Most of this material will be sawed
by what are known as bolt machines, and
the timber will be furnished by farmers,
who collect it while clearing their land.
being paid by the cord for the same, and
thus being able to realize all the cost of
clearing away for pastures and fields.
The logging camps now operating within
radius of three miles of this point are
the Royal City, on the British Columbia
side, employing fifty men; Thomas Tyler,
cedar camp. ten men; ]. n. Lindsey, cedar
camp; C. Whitcomb, cedar camp, and II.
Henspeter, about eight men each.
Added to these, a large number of farm
ers are piling up bolts for the shingle
mills, making quite respectable showing
in the numbering business on the shores
OF the Gulf of Georgia.