Mason County’s Timber heritage
From Alaska to Northern California, logging towns are an iconic part of the Pacific Northwest. Mill towns, log sorts and boom towns all have their roots in this historical legacy. With Mason County’s Forest Festival fast approaching it is a good time to reflect on Shelton’s distinctive forestry heritage.
Felling trees with a crosscut saw
The crosscut saw, a key tool for felling trees and settling the Pacific coast, appeared in Europe in the mid-15th century and was made in America by the mid-1800s. It was used by two workers, known as “fallers,” who each held one end of the saw. This tool had a thin blade with teeth designed to cut against the tree's grain. The fallers would carve notches into the tree and place supports called springboards to help them saw. Large axes would create an undercut, ensuring the tree fell in a chosen direction. Cutting down a big tree could take up to a week, followed by the difficult job of cutting the log into movable sections.
From the 1880s to the 1930s, two-person saws, 4 to 16 feet long, were essential for loggers to cut down many firs and cedars. They were largely replaced by chain saws by World War II and nearly disappeared. However, the Wilderness Act of 1964 revived crosscut sawing by requiring their use for maintaining wilderness trails.
Undercut in a Washington Cedar, 16’ diameter, Olympic Peninsula 1906 | Darius Kinsey,1869-1945
Spar Trees & Donkey Engines
Tall, sturdy tree were selected as spar trees for their height and location. A climber limbed the tree and attached a block and tackle to the top as the anchor point in a high-lead logging system. Wires to the ground stabilized the tree and pulleys were attached to the tree to drag the logs from the forest.
A steam-powered donkey engine was consisting of a wood-fired engine and gearing on a skid that turned winches containing wire rope. Designed to lift, drag, and move logs from the stump to a sorting area, donkey engines were also used to load logs on train cars that transported logs to mill sites. John Dolbeer of the Dolbeer and Carson Lumber Company of Eureka, California, is generally credited as the inventor of the donkey engine. He first tried out his invention in 1881, and the device was patented in 1882. Many innovations followed, including the use of wire rope, the addition of more cylinders, and multiple drums.
Darius Kinsey Seattle” #8787 North Olympic Heritage
Bert Kellogg Collection Darius Kinsey,1869-1945