Slide 217

Shipping Lumber, Washington.

Drawer 5



Negative Number: 20027

Latitude: 48.0

Longitude: 122.0

Geographical Classification:
North America: United States and Possessions (Except Asiatic Possessions): Pacific States: Washington

Card Front:

Here you directly back of the greatest lumber mill in the world. This is at Port Blakely, near Seattle, on Puget Sound. This big mill has dozens of band saws which rip the large logs into all forms of lumber. From the saws the lumber is shoved out on rollers, into the yards. In some cases it is run directly out on little push cars, and loaded on the big sailing vessels. In other cases the lumber is piled carefully in the yards to await the coming of more ships. You will observe that the yards are equipped with electric lights, so that night and day shifts of workmen can be employed. In this harbor you will see, perhaps, a greater proportion of sailing vessels than in any other port of the United States. Three of these here shown have 3 masts. Two others have 4 masts each. These ships may have come from the other side of the world. Lumber is shipped from these mills to far-away south Africa. Japan and

Card Back:

other countries of eastern Asia get part of their lumber from the Puget Sound. For weeks and weeks, sea freighters, heavily loaded with fir and spruce lumber, plow across the Pacific on their way to Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney in Australia. Still others turn their prows southward when they reach the Pacific, and unload their cargoes at South American ports. The Panama Canal has shortened the distance for the lumber vessels bound for Europe. It is estimated that about 21% of all our lumber comes from the Pacific States, chiefly Washington and Oregon. While the cutting in the forests of these states is very heavy, there will be a lumber supply here for years to come. Great sections of timbered land are now in the National Forest Reserve, where practically no cutting is allowed. In other places trees are being set out to supply our future needs.