The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-04-24
Some Interesting Statistics Regarding
Timber Of Great Northwest
and What Use Could be
Made of 1t.
A ONE TREE DWELLING
A Fourteen Room House Was Recent.
ly Erected From the Lumber
Of a Single Fir, at
EIma.

SPOKANE, Wash, April 24.-There
Is enough timber standing in the state
of washington to build 100000 six
room houses, sufficient to shelter one
third of the population of the United
States, or furnish ties for 1893 ,939
miles of railway track, or construct
plank road three inches thick and 500
feet wide twice around the world. Cut
into lumber these trees would load TO-
100000 45-foot cars of 10000 feet
capacity, equal to S5,227 miles Of
trains or one train reaching three
and a half times around the globe at
the equator.
This timber is contained in areas
aggregating $4,000 square miles on
the eastern and western sides of the
Cascade mountains, and expert cruis-
ers say that the density is not equal
ed anywhere on the American CONT
nent.
The hewing of yellow fir log. co
inches square and 80 feet ia length at
DuChlCS iCCCAIly CAClCCu
comment, but the annals of the lum-
: Der industry in Washington contains
many more remarkable incidents.
When President Taft was in the
Panama canal zone recently his at
tention was called to several spud
sticks in the big dredges and he asked
where it was possible to obtain such
timbers. These sticks, each Sc by 40
inches and more than 80 feet in length
the superintendent told him. were
shipped from Bellingham last summer
The recent challenge of Portland,
for the distinction of producing the
biggest timbers sawed in the world
has been answered from many parts
Of Washington. Portland mills sawed
two sticks 36 inches square and so
feet in length. Bellingham came back
with a sawed spud stick for dredge
40 inches square and 80 feet in length,
and boosted having furnished timbers
l25 feet in length.
There Is a cedar tree in Snohomish
county which is declared to be the
largest tree on the continent, ex-
ceeding in girth by three inches the
largest of the trees of the famous red
wood forest of California. This tree
measures 104 feet 4 inches in circum.
ference and it is more than $50 feet
to the first limb, which is five feet
In diameter.
On the west slope of the Cascade
mountains giant red fir was re-
Gently blown across the tracks of the
Northern Pacific railroad. Traffic was
blocked by the monster log, which
measured eight feet in thickness.
There was no saw within miles that
vas big enough to cut the timber, and
as the railroad company could not
wait the five days required to saw 8
section from the huge log dynamite
was placed in deeply bored holes and
the aged tree blown to splinters. II
was easier to repair 10 rods of road
bed tan to saw through eight feet
of solid red fir.
In Catalan county, according to of
fetal measurements, the timbered area
runs 100000 feet to the square
mile. The stand on smaller areas is
even more dense. One acre recently
showed 100000 feet of standing tim
ber
A 40-acre tract in Clallan count!
contains 100000 feet of timber
There are 100000 feet of fir 100000
feet of spruce and 100000 of hemlock
The quarter section of which The
tract is part contains 19000.00I
feet of fir, 100000 of SPRUCE ant
100000 of hemlock.
A Pacific county mill cut 100000 fee
from little less than two acres. Thu
logs averaged from 10000 to 14,00'
feet each.
The prize winner, according t.
Spokane millmen should be 10:
sent from Puget Sound to San Fran
cisco. This was so big that no mil
could saw it, the trimming having t.
be done by hand with axes. The lo'
measured 81 inches by Sd inches an
was 104 feet long when hewn int
shape. The largest log ever cut II
any mill in washington was 70 inche
In diameter at the smaller end.
The remarkable feat of erecting
l4-room house from the lumber of
single yellow fir was recently ae
complished at Elma. There was neal
y $4,000 feet of lumber in the logs o
the tree Six logs, 2S feet in length
the largest seven feet in diameter a
the smallest end We're made from tn
FIR. The measurement of the stun