Clearwater County, Idaho’s Ties to Timber

Oddly enough, the growth of the timber industry in the Clearwater River Basin started because of a totally unrelated reason. In the 1860s, miners were flocking to the region in hopes of wealth and fortune from gold lying at the bottom of the Clearwater River.

It turns out that there wasn't a lot of gold to be had, but soon people realized the area was loaded with another type of gold. It was referred to as green gold, or timber. Let's look at the history of Clearwater County, Idaho's ties to timber and the logging industry.

Timber's Beginnings

As people hoping to strike it rich during the 1860s gold rush navigated along the Clearwater River, homesteading of the area began. These people needed to build houses and heat their homes. A vast supply of timber was literally right outside their front doors.

Towards the end of the 1890s, as prospects of striking it rich with gold from the Clearwater River waned, another tremendously valuable commodity took over. Wealthy timbermen envisioned profiteering from a different product.

The Clearwater River Basin may not have been rich in gold, but the surrounding area was packed with valuable timber. Charles Brown, an experienced timber authority, heard about the wealth of timber potential in Idaho.

At the urging of Idaho Governor, William McConnell, Brown took a trip to Idaho to see for himself what was envisioned as an inexhaustible supply of timber. In 1894, Brown arrived with his son and an experienced German logger Theodore Fohl.

The first thing they noticed was the quantity of low-level white pine available to harvest. Brown didn't have the finances to take on such huge logging aspirations, so he began to petition timber barons from the east.

Frederick Weyerhaeuser was so impressed he hired Brown as his agent. Weyerhaeuser came to Idaho to settle his purchase. The Clearwater Timber Company was started in November 1900, with its first office at the Pioneer Hotel in Pierce City.

The company applied nearly $500,000 in capital to expand the original 50,000 acre purchase by more than five times. Weyerhaeuser and his son Charles formed three separate timber companies, the Clearwater, Pine Tree Lumber Company and the Potlatch Timber Company.

By 1903, all three were operating with access to one of the most massive timber stands in the United States. The timber industry had launched in the Clearwater River Basin, but things were only getting started.

The Timber Boom

Most had hoped the prospects of gold in the Clearwater River would make them rich. With a pan in hand, hundreds of hopeful homesteaders eventually gave up and moved farther west. However, these were hardy individuals made for the logging industry.

As developments in the timber industry began to unfold, many were hired on to newly formed logging crews. Many of the operations started as suppliers for small sawmills in the area. These were established at locations along the 75-mile stretch of the Clearwater River.

The first official logging camp was formed a few miles above Ahsahka. This camp would supply the logs for the Potlatch Timber Company. The Potlatch was a mill with a single-belt saw driven by steam.

The steam-driven design proved slow and inefficient. In 1911, the first electric-powered sawmill was built at the Elk River facility. The amount of timber that could be harvested at the modern mill was amazing. It triggered a boom in the area's timber industry.

Logging camps around the Clearwater River Basin grew over the next decade. The first full-scale log drives started in 1928 and would continue for over 40 years. Two types of camps were needed to complete the timber harvest process.

Camp T logging camps handled the log drives that moved the freshly cut timber down the rivers to the mills. Camp 60 workers would then transfer the processed logs to railcars and trucks to be shipped to mills where the logs were cut.

There was only one break in the steady log run operation from the upper North Fork of the Clearwater River down to the sawmills. Loggers continued to push valuable timber using the same process until 1971.

The Loggers

Without the manpower to get the timber to the mills, there would not be a timber industry. Hardy men worked tirelessly to get a massive tree from where it grew to where it was loaded for shipment.

Timber executives would choose stout young men with as much attention to their sense of level-headed judgment as to their physical build. One lapse in mental judgment on the icy Clearwater River could cause serious injury or even death.

The first log drive in 1928 operated without a camp. However, the following year the first wanigan was built. These stations were built a few miles apart along the river. The kitchen crew and minimal belongings were moved down the river from wanigan to wanigan as the crew moved the logs.

It was not easy to shift these floating wanigans down the frequently rough waters of the Clearwater River. Sixteen foot long poles had 2-inch thick paddles called sweeps were at the end to maneuver the cumbersome floating stations.

Eventually double sweeps were added at both ends to help guide the wanigan from spot to spot. This new design was much easier to navigate through the tricky whitewater. Each wanigan was set up to house 34 crew members, including the priceless cook.

These cooks provided hundreds of hot meals every day from a space smaller than a single home kitchen. Workers used wool blankets and a wood-burning stove to stay warm at night. The conditions were harsh and the work difficult, but these men loved the challenge of being a logger.

When the ability to build roads to bring trucks into the logging areas, the log drive era of the timbermen ended. It is a time when the hardiest of workers lived in the Clearwater River Basin. From what started as a hope for a windfall of river gold, the logging industry in Clearwater produced the real mother lode. You can venture back in time and see how the logging industry worked by visiting the Clearwater Historical Museum in Orofino.