RAFTS OF LOGS, COLUMBIA RIVER, WASHINGTON
One of the
greatest lumbering district in the United States is in extreme northwestern
part. There are great forests of redwood, fir, cedar, larch, spruce, and
hemlock. Some of these trees are easily 300 feet high and 30 feet in
circumference. These forest giants are often free from limbs up to a height of
100 feet from the ground. The state of Washington leads all other states in the
production of lumber and shingles. The amount of lumber annually cut from its
woods is more than 4,500,000,000 feet.
The view
here suggests what happens to many of these logs. The timber cut in the upper
reaches in Columbia or along its tributaries is hauled to the water’s edge and
placed in great rafts. The construction of one of these rafts is here
beautifully shown. The logs are built up into piles that resemble a whaleback
steamer on the great lakes. They are held together by heavy chains, and usually
several such rafts are floated down the river in a group. The method of loading
the logs is suggested by the half dozen that you see on the left. Little
engines often furnish the power to drag them on a raft. Horses, hitched to a
capstan, are sometimes used. Again, if the logs are not too large, and the
rafts are not to high, the logs may be handled by the men with pike poles and
cantilever hooks.
For days
and days these huge rafts glide down the Columbia River toward the Pacific.
When they reach the milling city, they are towed inside a great boom where
hundreds of other rafts are moored. Nearby are the large sawing and planning
mills. Here gang-saws, a number of saws placed side by side in a steel fame,
rip them into boards, sawing as many as 20 boards at a single passage.
Copyright by The Keystone
View Company
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