Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1909-04-16
TIMBER OF WASHINGTON.
Thirty-fve Thousand Square Miles Of
Dense ForeSta.

Dense Forests.
There is enough timber standing in
the state of Washington to build 5,O00,-
900 six-room houses, sufficient to shelter
one-third of the population Of the
United States, or furnish ties for 1885,
939 miles Of railway track, or construct
a 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 ca
pacity, equal to 1927 miles of trains,
or one train reaching three and a half
times around the globe at the equator.
This timber is contained in areas ag-
gregating $4,000 square miles on the
eastern and western sides Of the Cascade
mountains, and expert cruisers say that
the density is not equaled anywhere on
the American continent.
The hewing of yellow fir log, 60
inches square and 90 feet in length, at
buckley recently excited considerable
comment, but the annals of the lumber
industry in Washington contains many
more remarkable incidents.
When President Taft was in the
Panama canal zone recently his atten-
ton was called to several spud sticks in
the big dredges and he asked where it
was possible to obtain such timbers.
These sticks, each SO by 40 inches and
more than 90 feet in length, the super
intendent told him, were shipped from
Bellingham last summer.
There is q cedar tree in Snohomish
county which is declared to be the
largest tree on the continent, exceeding
in girth by three inches the largest of
| ha Of ha foY
Of California. This tree measures 104
feet inches in circumference and it is
more than $50 feet to the first limb,
which is five feet in diameter.
In Clallam county, according to Of
fetal measurements, the timbered area
runs 2O,00O,000 feet to the square mile.
The stand ON smaller areas is even more
dense. One acre recently showed $780,
900 feet of standing timber.
A 40-acre tract in Clallam county con
tains 100000 feet of timber. There
are $500, 900 feet of fir, 100000 feet of
spruce and 10000 of hemlock The
quarter section of which the tract is a
part contains 100000 feet of fir
2,700,000 of spruce and 100000 of hem
lock.
A Pacific county mill cut 100000 feet
| Ii
logs averaged from ~ 900 to $4,000 feet
each.
The prize winner, according to Spo
kane millmen, should be log sent from
Puget Sound to San Francisco. This
was so big that no mill could saw it
the trimming having to he done by hand
with axes. The log measured "a inches
by 81 inches and was 104 feet long wher
| s-+a
cut in any mill in Washington was rs
inches in diameter at the smaller end
The remarkable feat of erecting 8
14room house from the lumber of 6
single yellow fir was recently accom-
plished at Elma.
Not far from Snoqualmie Falls
giant tree was blown across a precipi
tOus canyon a year ago. The trunk
ferns footbridge 10 feet wide. The
llog has been levelled and teams are
often driven across it by venturesomt
drivers.
A mammoth cedar tree was blown
down near South Bend few weeks ago
1t measured sc feet inches around
three feet above the bulge of the root
The cedar was II feet in diameter z!
feet above the earth.
mere ID q ceuar tree 10 1eeC IN dlame
ter at South Bend. At Montesano il
another cedar 10 feet inches in diane
ter. On the Johns river there arr
groves of cedars that vary from 10 fee
to "a feet through and only few arr
hollow.
There are also large trees in Yakima
Okanogan, Ferry, Asotin, Spokane
Stevens, Whitman and other eastern
counties. The largest stand of whit,
|, pine left intact on this continent il
partly in Whitman county and extend
into northern Idaho. The largest fl
trees on the east side are in the Sulli
van lake district in Stevens county.