St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. had three logging camps located near Tacoma. St. Paul and Tacoma lumber company provides enough lumber and plywood to build 48 homes per day. They were one of the largest lumber companies in the Pacific Northwest. View of cleared land near one of the logging camps.

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

Douglas Fir Plywood Association. A man is marking three large logs with a tool. They are on a raised platform, possibly a railroad car.

Logs; Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950;

In July of 1946, a young logger, holding an adze, leans against the base of a newly cut old growth douglas fir. The base of the tree is almost 14 feet in diameter. A section from the trunk of this tree was shipped to the Northwest Door Company in Tacoma where it was displayed. The tree was found southwest of Mt. Rainier in the center of western Washington at 1,050 feet elevation. Its lowest branch was 95 feet above ground level. However, the tree had been damaged by natural causes and was shattered 198 feet from the base and beginning to rot. Its rings showed the tree to be about 586 years old. (TNT 8/21/1946, pg. 1)

Logs; Forests--Washington; Lumber industry--Tacoma

On July 30, 1946 seven children including Shirley Maras (now Walcott) (far left), Kenny Schumaker (third from left), Sharon Maras (now Gregg) (standing at top) and Marilyn Maras (now Cade)(far right) were photographed with a huge tree section that was cut from an old-growth Douglas fir that had been felled by loggers working for the Davis and Maras Company. The tree section which weighed 18,567 pounds and was over 13 feet in diameter was on its way to the Northwest Door Company in Tacoma owned by Herman E. Tenzler. Once there a gigantic slice was cut from it and put on display outside the Northwest Door entrance. Some years later the display slice of Douglas fir was moved to the Tenzler Library in Lakewood. (TNT 8/21/1946, pg. 1) (names supplied by Anthony "Spike" Maras) TPL-8386

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Children playing outdoors--Tacoma--1940-1950; Logs; Northwest Door Co., Inc. (Tacoma); Tree stumps--Tacoma--1940-1950; Schumaker, Kenny; Maras, Shirley; Maras, Marilyn; Maras, Sharon;

The Richards Studio 1946 Ford "woody" station wagon sits at the far end of a temporary rough-cut log bridge that extends across a shallow river. The bridge is part of a logging road in a Washington forest area. (This photograph was scanned from a 4X5 proof print. The negative is not available.) TPL-9427

Logging roads; Bridges--Washington--1940-1950; Forests--Washington;

Sharon Maras (now Gregg) stands on top of a section cut from a very large, old growth douglas fir. The section of tree is laying on the bed of a large logging truck. The number 14 has been written in chalk on the tree section. The number indicates the diameter of the section, later measured at 13 ft 4 inches, a record size. The truck delivered this large chunk of douglas fir to the Northwest Door Company in Tacoma where it was displayed. It was cut by the Davis & Maras Co. from the Northwest Door Co.'s timber holdings 7 miles west of the Cowlitz River at an elevation of 1,050 feet. Sharon Maras was the daughter of company owner Percy Maras (TNT 8/21/1946, pg. 1) (identification supplied by Anthony "Spike" Maras)

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Logging trucks; Logs; Northwest Door Co., Inc. (Tacoma); Tree stumps--Tacoma--1940-1950; Maras, Sharon;

St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. Several railroad carsloaded with logs are standing in the yard at the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. The City of Tacoma can be seen in the background. Since the company had their own rail spur they could deliver the logs to whatever part of the plant they needed or they could even dump them into the waterway which was nearby.

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

St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. Several railroad cars loaded with logs are standing in the yard at the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. Large off-highway trucks, too large for state highways, brought logs down from forests to reload centers where logs were shipped to mills by railroad cars or on smaller trucks. This site of St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber was used as a large pulp mill.

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

St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. Several railroad cars loaded with logs are standing in the yard at the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. The railroad tracks run from further inland directly to and through the plant.

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

St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. Several railroad cars loaded with logs are standing in the yard at the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. The waterway can be seen at the right. The St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company was founded by Col. Chauncey W. Griggs in 1889. He had been working in Minnesota with coal and railroad concerns when he came to the Northwest. He was interested in starting a lumber producing operation so he purchased 80,000 acres in 1887 and another 20 acres on the tideflats one year later.

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

St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company. Railroad cars have brought logs to the log pond in this August of 1946 photograph. The railroad cars have false bottoms that can be lifted by the crane allowing the logs to plunge into the log pond.

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

Founded in 1888, the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company located on Tacoma's tideflats was one of the largest lumber companies in the Pacific Northwest. Railroad cars have brought logs to the log holding area, called a log dump, in August of 1946. The company's plant is seen in the background. To the right of the buildings is a long ramp that conveys the logs into the facility from the holding pond. Lumber was still king in the late '40s among Tacoma industries. About 100 plants were involved in the production of raw lumber or finished lumber products. Lumber was needed to build millions of homes and buildings. The plywood industry was progressing with more and more uses found for the product and pulp was used for heavy wrapping paper, explosives and rayon. The lumber industry provided employment for thousands including the 1,000 working for St. Paul & Tacoma. (T.Times 8-30-46, p. 12-article on lumber industry)

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

Aerial view of Puget Sound Plywood, Inc., other plants, and the waterways on the Tacoma tideflats. Philadelphia Quartz has a new plant to make silicate of soda, a liquid mineral adhesive used extensively in manufacturing plywood and composition board. Puget Sound Plywood opened in March 1942. They were the first cooperative plywood plant in the city, organized by a group of Tacomans and others connected with and interested in the lumber industry. The plant occupied 3 1/2 acres at the head of East F Street and East E Street between the City and Middle waterways. With rail facilities direct to the plant, there were switching facilities to all railroads. (T.Times, 2/25/1942; Ledger, 1/25/1942)

Puget Sound Plywood, Inc. (Tacoma); Waterfronts--Tacoma--1940-1950; Plywood; Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Cooperatives--Tacoma;

St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company. A Rucker Brothers truck loaded with plywood is parked outside the retail yard for St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber. St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company bought this facility from the John Dower Lumber Company in 1942.

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

A workman at the Northwest Door Company kneels on the top of a huge section of an old growth douglas fir. He is using a long buck saw to slice off a section from the piece of wood. This 12ft 9 inch diameter slice of trunk will be on display at the door company. The tree was cut on the company's holdings west of Packwood.

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Northwest Door Co., Inc. (Tacoma); Logs; Tree stumps--Tacoma--1940-1950;

Industrial Avd. Sealer treatment machine. A man works with a conveyor belt moving doors coming from the sealer machine, stacking them for delivery to another location in the plant.

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Conveying systems--Tacoma--1940-1950; Machinery; Doors & doorways--Tacoma--1940-1950;

Industrial Avd. Sealer treatment machine. A worker loads doors into the sealer treatment machine. He loads them in at an angle and the machinery holds them vertically. A conveyor system moves the doors into the chamber where the sealer is sprayed onto the doors.

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Conveying systems--Tacoma--1940-1950; Machinery; Doors & doorways--Tacoma--1940-1950;

Industrial Avd. Sealer treatment machine. Treated doors are traveling out of the treatment machine and will be loaded on the carrier in the foreground. The doors are different sizes and different styles. A worker watches to be able to make sure all goes well.

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Conveying systems--Tacoma--1940-1950; Machinery; Doors & doorways--Tacoma--1940-1950;

Douglas Fir Plywood Association, stages of plywood prefabricated panel manufacturing taken at Tacoma Lumber Fabricating Company. The panels were used to build prefabricated houses. Here workmen are placing one of the panels in a steel pressure press. This press is one of six the company owns. The company took over the location of the earlier Henry Mill in 1944. (T.Times, 11/6/1946, p.7)

Plywood; Building materials industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Tacoma Lumber Fabricating Co. (Tacoma);

Douglas Fir Plywood Association, stages of plywood prefabricated panel manufacturing taken at Tacoma Lumber Fabricating Company. A framework for a one of the prefabricated panels is sent through a roller before being placed on a piece of plywood which will be the covering of one side of the panel. The prefabricated panels were manufactured in standard sized for floors, walls, ceilings, partitions, and roofs. They are freely adaptable to contractors' specification for all grades of houses. (T.Times, 11/6/1946, p.7)

Plywood; Building materials industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Tacoma Lumber Fabricating Co. (Tacoma);

Douglas Fir Plywood Association, stages of plywood prefabricated panel manufacturing taken at Tacoma Lumber Fabricating Company. Men add another plywood cover to the side of the milled lumber frame interior of the prefabricated panel. The company's goal is to complete 1,000 panels per day, enough for 10 complete homes per day. (T.Times, 11/6/1946, p.7)

Plywood; Building materials industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Tacoma Lumber Fabricating Co. (Tacoma);

An elevated view of the Defiance Mill saw line for I.W. Johnson Engineering. The gang type saw mill the Doud brothers built in 1929 was particularly adapted to sawing smaller logs. The gang mill cut with greater precision and left the lumber much smoother. A person who ran a gang saw was called a "gangster".

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Defiance Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Saws; Mills--Tacoma--1940-1950;

An elevated view of the Defiance Mill saw line for I.W. Johnson Engineering. I.W. Johnson Engineering Company had produced three 8 x 60 sawmill edgers this year and then had three sizes of edgers available: 4 x 24, 8 x 60, and 10 x 72 for distribution in California, Oregon and Washington. (T.Times, 10/2/1946, p.3)

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Defiance Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Saws; Mills--Tacoma--1940-1950;

The Defiance Mill saw line for I.W. Johnson Engineering. Definace mill was started by three brothers, the Doud Brothers, from Wisconsin in 1901 when they built a mill in Buckley, Washington. Four years later they moved to Tacoma - 22 acres on Ruston Way. In 1929 they built a gang type plant to cut 75,000 feet in 8 hours.

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Defiance Lumber Co. (Tacoma); Saws; Mills--Tacoma--1940-1950;

Douglas Fir Plywood Association. A young girl looks up at the enormous log section. The annual rings show the tree was 586 years old. It would have provided much good lumber even before Columbus landed in America. Long over-ripe, rot had begun to appear just inside the bark at the base of the trunk and much of the upper part was decayed. (T.Times, 10/16/1946, p.4; TNT 8/21/1946, pg. 1)

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Logs; Girls--Tacoma--1940-1950; Northwest Door Co., Inc. (Tacoma); Tree stumps--Tacoma--1940-1950;

In this photograph from October 1946 for the Douglas Fir Plywood Association, a young woman on a step ladder, Shirley (Mrs. C.E.) Magarity, measures a large cross section of a log that is almost 13 feet in diameter. It used to stand outside the Northwest Door Company at 1203 East D St. when Herman E. Tenzler was president of the company. You can still see this section of a giant Douglas Fir standing by the entrance to the Lakewood Branch of the Pierce County Library system. It was moved there in 1965. (TNT 8/21/1946)

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Logs; Women--Tacoma--1940-1950; Measuring--Tacoma--1940-1950; Bathing suits; Magarity, Shirley; Northwest Door Co., Inc. (Tacoma); Tree stumps--Tacoma--1940-1950;

Douglas Fir Plywood Association. Two women measure a 12 foot, 9 inch log section. This was the biggest cross section ever felled by man as of this date. It was cut in the prime forests southwest of Mount Rainier in the center of western Washington. This short butt section of the tremendous tree was on view at Northwest Door Company, a local plywood and door manufacturing firm in whose logging operations the tree was brought down. (T.Times, 10/16/1946, p.4, TNT 8/21/1946) TPL-7962

Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Logs; Women--Tacoma--1940-1950; Measuring--Tacoma--1940-1950; Northwest Door Co., Inc. (Tacoma); Tree stumps--Tacoma--1940-1950;

For I.W. Johnson Engineering Company. An interior view of a sawmill near Packwood, Washington. A large, radial-arm saw, upper center, cuts lumber to length. A narrow conveyor belt seen in the foreground moves lumber through the mill.

Saws; Mills--Packwood--1940-1950; Logs; Lumber industry--Packwood--1940-1950; Woodcutting--Packwood--1940-1950;

For I.W. Johnson Engineering Company. An interior view of a sawmill near Packwood, Washington. Logs just delivered to the mill have already been cut into convenient lengths (usually 32 feet) for the machines that will have the next go at cutting the logs into lumber. (Fortune Magazine, April 1934)

Saws; Mills--Packwood--1940-1950; Logs; Lumber industry--Packwood--1940-1950; Woodcutting--Packwood--1940-1950;

An interior view of a sawmill near Packwood, Washington. Large logs are stacked on the left while two men operate the "head-rig", one to the right and one in the center, background. The log is being broken down. Running the "head-rig" is a two person operation. The "sawyer", in the center right, stands beside the carriage on which the log is clamped and as the carriage swings the log into the teeth of the saw he signals, with hand signals, to the "setter", on the right, operating the carriage, where and how much to cut. For I.W. Johnson Engineering Company. (Fortune Magazine, April 1934)

Saws; Mills--Packwood--1940-1950; Logs; Lumber industry--Packwood--1940-1950; Woodcutting--Packwood--1940-1950;