New-York tribune., 1909-03-28
THE BIG TREES
OF WASHINGTON
FOURTEEN ROOM HOUSE
FROM ONE FIR.
-. .ZE4S
Giant of Pacific State. BlO5cn Across
Canyon, Forms Bridge Ten
Feet Vide.

Seattle March 23.-The recent hewing of a yellow
fir log at Buckley, measuring 90 inches square and
IS long has aroused considerable comment, but
the annals of the lumber industry OF Washington
contain more remarkable incidents. When
President Taft in the Panama Canal Zone
Gently his attention called several huge spUd
sticks in the big dredges. and he asked where It
possible to obtain such timbers. The identical
timbers we're shipped from BeIlingham. Wash last
summer Each measured Sc inches by 40 inches and
over 80 feet long
The recent challenge of Portland. Ore. for the
biggest tinbers sawed In the world has been
8wered from many parts of Washington. Portland
mills sawed two sticks for Panama IS inches square
and 50 feet 10 inches long Bellinsham. Wash.
came forward with claim for sawed spud stick
a dredge measuring 10 inches square and 81 feet
long and laid further claim to furnishing lumber
rs feet long.
The prize winner. according to local miIImen,
should be a log sent from here to San Francisco
which was too big-so big that no mill could IL.
the trimming having De done by hand with axes
The log measured 81 inches by 81 inches and was
Io4 feet long when hewn into shape The largest
log ever cut In any mill in the state was q inches
in diameter at the smallest end
Near EIma, Wash. the remarkable feat of erect
ing a fourteen-room mouse from the lumber OF a
single yellow fir recently accomplished There
were nearly $500 feet of lumber in the logs Of the
tree Six logs Is feet long the largest feet in
diameter at the smallest end were made from the
fir The measurement Of the stump of the tree
inside the bark exactly feet. The trunk was
straight and FOR over one hundred feet not a limb
appeared the total length Of the tree being over
three hundred feet The lumber of this tree was
worth close TO $1,000 The corporation owning the
land furnishing this has hundreds of such frs,
many Of them too big to be handled by the equip
rnent now possessed by Washington sawmills-
Near Snoqualmie Falls year giant tree
was blown across a deep canyon The huge trunk
OF the former monarch of the forest forms a foot
bridge ten feet wide. The log has been levelled
and teams are often driven across it by venture
some drivers. A monster cedar measuring IS feet
2 inches around above the bulge of the root was
blown down a few weeks ago South Bend.
The cedar was Ii feet 'n diameter 70 feet above
the ground At South Bend great cedar is stand
ing Is feet In diameter. At MOntesanO Is another
cedar IA feet inches in diameter. On the Johns
River there are groves of cedar trees that vary
from 10 to "a feet in diameter Very few Of them
are hollow.
There is a cedar tree in snohomish County
owned by the Weyerhaueser Timber Company
which is declared the largest tree on the con-
tinent exceeding in girth by three inches the
largest in the famous redwood forest of California
This cedar measures 104 feet inches in circum-
ference and 1t is over 150 feet to the first hiho'
which is believed 10 be five feet in diameter
On the west slope OF the Cascade Mountains a
giant red FIR was recently blown across the tracks
of the Northern Pacific Railroad Traffic was
blocked BY the monster log, which measured elght
feet in diameter. There was no saw for miles Dig
enough to cut the timber, and as the railroad com
pany could not wait the five days required 10 saw
out a section from the log dynamite was placed
in deeply bored holes and the huge log blown into
splinters. II easier and cheaper to repair ten
rods of roadbed than to saw through seven feet OF
solid fir wood
The density of the timber of this state is IN
eouaIIed in the world. In Claliam County. accord
ing TO official measurement. the timbered area runs
100000 feet the square mile 1he stand on
small areas is even more dense one acre recently
crused showed 100000 feet of standing timber y
Pacific County mill 100000 feet from a little
less than two acres. A fortyacre tract in Clallam
County contains 9.SO0OOO feet of standing timber.
There are $500 600 feet of fir $4,000 feet of spruce
and $4,000 feet of hemlock The quarter section of
vhich this tract is a part contains 100000 feet OF
fir. 27s0OO0 Of spruce and 100000 of hemock
There are 35 OO0 square miles of timber standing
in this state. This would make plank road three
inches thick and 500 feet wide twice around the
worl