Lumbering was the first industry of Washington Territory. Even food was
imported for a time. Logging began on Puget Sound, and went up such
streams as afforded transportation and water-power. Steam-power soon
became the chief reliance for sawing, but water-power will be largely
used when the railroads penetrate inland.
Logging and sawing are separate branches of business, which may or may
not be carried on by the same parties. And so with transportation to the
mill and to market. Large concerns carry on all the branches, even to
the building and owning of ships.
[Sidenote: Magnitude of the lumber business.]
Governor Semple gives the capacity of the Washington Territory saw-mills
in 1887 as 645,500,000 feet of lumber per annum, of which the Puget
Sound mills produce 344,500,000 feet. Of this, they (Puget Sound mills)
sent 200,000,000 feet to California; 2,600,000 to Boston, Mass.; 500,000
feet to other Atlantic ports, and over 100,000,000 feet to foreign
ports. Among foreign ports, London received 551,500 feet, and the rest
went to Mexico, South America, China, Australia, and other Pacific
Islands.
Mr. Cyrus Walker, of the Puget Mill Company, Port Ludlow, in a letter
which I have from him, says:
[Sidenote: Vast extent of the lumber market.]
"It is safe to say that the lumber market of the Sound may be considered
all countries and ports on the Pacific Ocean."
But it may make a more vivid impression of the Pacific market for me to
give a list of the ports to which shipments have been actually made in
the last year by the lumber dealers of Puget Sound. This list I get not
only from public documents, but directly from the millers and port
officials:
Melbourne,
Callao,
Sydney,
Guaymas,
Iquique,
Taku,
Hilo, H. I.,
San Francisco,
Townsville,
West Coast,
Brisbane,
Sandwich Islands,
New Caledonia,
Mollendo,
Montevideo,
Honolulu,
Valpa,
Suava, Feejee Is.,
Kahalui,
Cadera, Chili,
San Diego,
San Pedro,
Hong Kong,
Enseneda, Mex.,
Falmouth,
Shanghai,
Autofogasta,
Rio de Janeiro,
Broken Bay,
Adelaide,
Coquimbo.
This is not a complete list of all the ports visited by the lumber ships
of Puget Sound, and by no means represents the business of the future,
which will increase as fast as the mills can be built to furnish the
lumber.
[Sidenote: The great saw-mills.]
No one without seeing it can have an adequate idea of the magnitude of
the operations of one of the great saw-mills of Puget Sound. The Puget
Mill Company, for the first ten months of last year, sawed on an average
290,000 feet every day of ten working hours. I visited the Port Blakely
Mills, just across the Sound from Seattle. There I found a fleet of
ships in the harbor, owned chiefly by the company; also, ships building
on the stocks; railroads going out to the logging camps; a basin for
receiving the logs, and a mill, with four separate tracks, bringing the
logs in at one end, and carrying out the lumber at the other. A high
iron trestle carried off the slabs to an enormous fire which never
ceased to burn, where all this waste was consumed.
Around the mill was quite a town, in which a large number of races and
nationalities were represented. This mill cut about 59,000,000 feet in
1887. Up to the 10th of November it had shipped as follows: To
California, 32,464,763 feet; to South America, 6,847,427 feet; to
Sandwich Islands, 1,799,891 feet; to Australia, 6,681,668 feet; to
Feejee Islands, 511,815 feet; and used at home for ship-building,
railroads, etc., 2,312,000 feet.
The Tacoma Mill Company and the Washington Mill Company produced the
following lumber, etc., during 1886 and the first ten months of 1887:
LUMBER. LATH. PILES.
FEET. NO. LINEAR FT.
Tacoma Mill 103,448,350 28,815,095 642,385
Washington Mill 42,195,478 8,772,800 266,403
There were other large mills whose statistics I was not able to get in
time. Mr. Walker thinks that the cut of all the mills on Puget Sound
averages 1,200,000 feet per day; all of which finds ready sale.
[Sidenote: Profits and prices.]
I was not able to ascertain the profits of these mills, but there can
be no doubt that, with proper management, the profits are very good. The
Seattle wholesale prices were as follows:
Lumber, common, per thousand feet $12 00
" sized, " " " 14 00
" Flooring $15 00 to 20 00
Dressed lumber, per thousand feet 14 00 to 30 00
Laths 2 00 to 2 25
Shingles 1 50 to 2 00