A worker at the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. retail yard walks on top of a large piece of timber, preparing to hook up the hoisting machinery to it, and move it from the truck to a stack of lumber. St Paul's three mile long lumber yard was believed to be the largest in the world by the 1940's. St. Paul was a pioneer in the plywood industry, and also in reforestation.

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Hoisting machinery;

Rucker Brothers lumber truck at St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. sawmill. Photographer, possibly from Richards, is standing on top of the truck cab probably photographing the other pictures in this series. Work seems to have stopped as lumber employees stand and watch the show.The hoisting machinery used to move the timber off of the truck can be see at the right rear of the picture.

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Trucks--Tacoma--1950-1960; Photographers--Tacoma;

St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. lumber yard where hoisting machinery moves a long piece of lumber from one location to another. St. Paul & Tacoma, established in 1888, was one of the first sawmills on Commencement Bay.The company prospered until its MIll "C," located on the Thea Foss Waterway, became the largest in the world, cutting a million board feet of timber a day.

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Hoisting machinery;

An aerial view of St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company. Colonel Chauncey Griggs, Addison Foster, Henry Hewitt, Jr. and Charles Hebard Jones purchased 83,000 acres of timber in 1888 from the Northern Pacific Raillroad company in the largest purchase of timberland in the nineteenth century. Then they built a giant sawmill on "The Boot", a low island off the main tideflats, bordered by branches of the Puyallup River and Commencement Bay. They built the first standard-guage logging railroad and introduced the band-saw to Pacific Northwest lumber operations. They built the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. (The Mill on the Boot, Murray Morgan)

Aerial photographs; Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma);

Plastic plywood being applied as siding in dry kiln at St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co., DFPA, Hal Dixon.

Building construction--Tacoma--1940-1950; St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma);

Plastic plywood being applied as siding in dry kiln at St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co., DFPA, Hal Dixon.

Building construction--Tacoma--1940-1950; St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma); Building materials--Tacoma;

Plastic plywood being applied as siding in dry kiln at St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co., DFPA, Hal Dixon.

Building construction--Tacoma--1940-1950; St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Douglas Fir Plywood Association (Tacoma);

Truck loaded and dumping lumber, St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber, Helgeson. Three large logs are loaded on the trailer of a Rucker Brothers truck. The enormous logs are on their way to the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. Robert G. Helgeson was a forester with St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. TPL-8290

St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Rucker Brothers (Tacoma); Logs; Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950;

A huge log sent spray flying into the air when it plunged into the large log pond next to the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company on the tide flats in this photograph from June, 1949. Logs were dumped into one of the three log ponds at the waterway near St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber. The log ponds had a total area of 75 acres and combined log storage capacity of 15,000,000 feet. The logs would later be removed from the water when it was their turn in the lumber mill. Other parts of the lumber mill facility are seen in the background. Ordered by Helgeson. (American Lumberman, 5/21/1921)

St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Logs; Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950;

A man inspects a large stack of Hemlock boards in the yard at the St. Paul Lumber Company. The boards are ready for dry kilns where they would remain 2 to 4 days. Each tier of lumber is stripped to separate the pieces, which allows heat and steam to circulate freely when the load is in the kiln. After drying, the load is ready to be unstacked and sent to the planers. (Tree Life Hemlock, St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co.)

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma);

A large stack of lumber in the yard at the St. Paul Lumber Company. The lumber is separated at even intervals to insure even drying.

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. (Tacoma);