The copper era. (Clifton, Graham County, Ariz.) 1899-1911, 1907-02-07
RICHER THAN ROCKEFELLER.
How Weyerhaeuser Has Reaped a Bill
lion From the Forests.

Norcross declares that Frederick
Weyerhaeuser, the northwestern
lumber magnate, is millions richer
than John D. Rockefeller. His ar
ticle we abstract as follows:
Even in his own town, few know
Frederick Weyerhaeuser. He shuns
society. His home is quiet and not
out of the ordinary. AS silently and
patiently as one of his giant trees,
he has grown. He is master of vast
forest from Wisconsin waters to the
Pacific coast, after fifty years of toll
along lines of telling organization.
He works in the dark, and is a man
of thousand partners. One partner
has no idea of what his relations with
another partner are. His hand
reaches the uttermost wilds of the
northwest When any knotty problem
arises in the lumber trade, his de-
cision is final.
SPENDTHRIFT WASTE OF FORESTS.
Weyerhaeuser wealth and oppor-
tunity grew out of a national crime
our spendthrift waste of forests.
Born in a land where forestry is an
exact science, he realized that our
methods would bring timber famine
that would cause forest lands to ap-
preciate. Fifty years ago he started
to acquire timber tracts, and as
shrewdly as the first Astor accumu-
lated New York City property, he
secured the best of timber properties.
Nothing is growing in value like
these. The pinch has come; the
famine isn't much yet, but, possibly
within a score of years, according to
well-informed lumbermen, the real
supply will be greatly diminished and
prices will soar even more than in
the last ten years. If Weyerhaeuser
lives twenty years longer, he will be
wealthy beyond all compution.
One piece of yellow-pine land held
ten years ago at $4,000 is today I'M
obtainable at S75O,OOO. A West Vir-
GINA tract bought five years ago for
SI2, 900 has been sold for $500,000.
Such cases might be continued in
definitely.
Weyerhaeuser' closest lieutenants
can only speculate as to how much
timber land he owns. There are 5O,-
1000 square miles of timber land in
Washington alone 100000 acres.
Pretty much everything outside the
| iS ffih l1f
Weyerhaeuser. Such is true of
Oregon's great forest lands also. In
Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Missis-
sippi river district he has reigned for
years undisputed. Fully 100000
acres are under his control-50, 900
square miles, six times as large as
New Jersey. Recently the Weyer-
haeuser interests sold one square
mile in Washington for $4,000
nearly S120 an acre. 1t would be safe
to say that the land is worth close to
81 ,OOO, 900, OO0-and it is increasing in
value faster than any other public
utility.
In 1872 Weyerhaeuser started in to
create the indefinite, all-powerful or
ganization known as the "Weyer-
haeuser syndicate" He was elected
president of the Mississippi River
Boom & Logging Co. This has al
ways remained the central body, and
it's qualifications reach every camp in
the northwest. About this time he
paid 81, 100000 for the c. N. Nelson
plant at Colquet, with 100000, 900 feet
of standing timber.
He formed new partnerships. He
bought more lands. The annual cut
ran over 1,OOO,OO0,OOO feet. AS his
business grew, his secretiyeness grew.
CRAFT IN TIMBER LANDS.
With the recent revelations as to
graft" by various captains of in
dustry," one naturally wants to know
whether Weyerhaeuser and his associ-
ates have builded this monumental
fortune with clean hands. Unfortu-
nately not. The game of homestead
ing and getting government land by
fraud was just as familiar to the
Weyerhaeuser interests as to others.
Possibly Weyerhaeuser never per-
sonally conducted any of these illegal
operations, but hundreds of thous-
ands of acres taken in by his COM
panies for timber purposes were
stolen under the old formula.
1t is necessary to record, however,
one of the most stupendous steals
ever engineered in this country. 1t
was done legally; there is no redress.
1t was the. footing of the United
States government of lands worth
probably S1OO,OOO,OOO. The scheme
was engineered for the benefit of the
Weyerhaeuser companies, and while
others made millions, the Weyer-
haeuser interests probably benefited
more than anyone else.
1t was the Northern Pacific that
turned the trick. An item was slip
ped through congress in 1897 pro-
viding that the owner of d tract cut
off by forest reservation definition
might, in place thereof, select a
vacant tract open to settlement of
no greater area. Under this pro-
vision fell about 100000 acres of