Category Archives: Logging history

It takes a Forest. Part 2

In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben presents a multi-generational perspective on the “old” forests he manages in Germany. Much of the scientific inquiry that he conducted was done under the aegis of Aachen University (RWTH Aachen). In this book … Continue reading

Posted in Animal lore, Logging history, Mushroom Hunting, Mushroom lore, Plant lore, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

It takes a forest. Part 1

Mr. Wohlleben has been asking us to reconsider the true nature of trees. They’re more than just a source of building materials. They’re a community of beings that look after each other with all the tenderness and foresight we attribute to mammals. Continue reading

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The chaos at the end of Belding Road.

The Belding road is an old logging road that descends way down to the Salmonberry River. No one I know (and that includes forestry types) have been down this abandoned road that crosses back and forth for 11 miles as … Continue reading

Posted in Coastal Trails, Logging history | 5 Comments

“Animals to Avoid”

I recently was given a treatise on “Logging Road Layout and Related Subjects” hand typed by “Bull” Durham in 1997. Here was a candidate for the New York Times best-seller list, I thought, as I began to sort through the … Continue reading

Posted in Animal lore, Logging history, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The Wreck of the 104

About 46.5 miles out of Portland on the Sunset Highway (US 26) we reach an important junction on the way to the coast. Most people go flying by the rest area located there, unless the kiddies in the backseat are … Continue reading

Posted in Logging history, Nehalem Valley Trails, Railroads, Salmonberry Trails, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

The first big environmental battle in Oregon’s brewing timber wars.

If you rummage around the Internet like so many of us do, you might stumble across the website for the Alsea Clinic, a modest community health care provider for a remote logging community deep in the Oregon Coastal Forests. Listed … Continue reading

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Lumberjack Legacies 3 – The unstoppable meets the impenetrable

When the first loggers arrived in Oregon they were daunted by the overwhelming vastness of the forests that they beheld. The pine forests of Maine and Minnesota had not withstood their onslaught, but here before them lay a swatch of … Continue reading

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Lumberjack Legacies 2 – Dr. McLoughlin’s Hawaiian lumber trade.

No doubt it was a blustery winter day, with the cold drafts seeping through the chinks in the log cabin walls, when Dr. McLoughlin decided that Fort Vancouver needed a sawmill to produce proper planks and board.  Since it’s establishment … Continue reading

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Lumberjack Legacies 1 – Letting Light into the Swamp

In the words of one 19th century  pundit, “You have to let daylight into the swamp before corn and potatoes can grow.” Through most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Americans idolized loggers as symbols of the rambunctious American determinism … Continue reading

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When Bullwhackers reigned supreme

If you drive out of Portland headed north towards Scappoose and the Oregon side of the Lower Columbia, you are likely to travel along Yeon Avenue. The pronunciation of this road is usually a foolproof way to tell longtime Portland … Continue reading

Posted in Logging history, Uncategorized | 3 Comments