Logging in WA (OLD PICS) very cool and sad

[PolarBear]

Cool pics, thanks for sharing!
One of my cousins (he is long gone now) use to log Hood Canal and the Sound for huge sunken old growth logs.  He dove off of a barge wearing the old fashioned brass helmet and gear.  He said that he was getting them from a couple hundred feet deep and that he was weighted down so much because of the depth and the current that he had to be hooked up to a cable and winch to get him back up.  He also talked about hooking into logs that swam away (monster ling cod).  He was a tough old *censored*.

[jackmaster]

could you imagine falling one of those big ole boys and accidently fall it across a big ass stump

[jryoung]

Man, what I would give to be able to walk through that old-growth nowadays. I know there is still some back in the deep country but the entire west side was like that at one time.

 Great pics...as a bit of a history buff I always enjoy lookin' at the old photos. Those were some hardy men, that's for damned sure.

No doubt, kind of bittersweet looking at these in that I would have loved to walk though these forests 120 or so years ago.  But, had they not done what they did, the PNW would not be what it is today. 

[NW-GSP]

amazing! thank you for posting!

[Sumpnneedskillin]

Go to the Tacoma Public Library image archives

http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images/defaultn.asp

If you enter the word 'logging' in the keyword search you will get over 300 photos.

If you enter 'St Paul' (as in St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company) in the search you will get over 400 images.

I've spent many hours surfing the website and I'm sure once you get in there many of you will too.

[timberghost72]

Those pictures are awesome. Would have been cool to be in this area 100 years ago.

[elksnout]

Them 'ol boys were just doing a days work and hadn't the slightest idea guys like us would be drooling over their pictures and not see the day when those trees were gone. Very nice.

[Skyvalhunter]

The University of Washington has alot of Logging photos on their historical photo web page and photos can be ordered from there.

[Oneshot1Kill]

I wish i could've walked through the forests back than just once! It would've been like walking in a prehistoric place! Those trees are HUGE!

[zackmioli]

absolutely amazing photographs. thank you for posting them. incredible to think about what those guys and horses went through to provide for themselves and their families.

[Idabooner]

Does anybody know what the whiskey bottle in the first few pictures is used for? 

Every sawyer had one.  It's got a wood plug with a small hole or groove in it, a wire hook on the neck to hook on your belt or in easy reach, it's filled with coal oil (kerosene) to fling onto the misery whip (cross cut saw) to cut the sticky pitch so the saw would pull easier.  Dad was a faller when I was young, him and I logged the ranch (East side), nothing big enough for a spring board.   So I got to spend one summer on the end of a saw.  I know why they called them misery whips.  Another interesting thing, look at the lean figures on those men, they ate all they could and didn't go to the gym.  Love those old pictures, I can remember the end of those days.