The timber industry has a long and storied history in northeastern Washington. The first sawmill in Pend Oreille County went into operation in 1888 in the Calispell Valley. County resident Tony Bamonte noted that “[f]rom then on, sawmills began to steadily appear throughout Pend Oreille County—wherever settlers began to establish homestead sites.” Approximately 250 sawmills have contributed to the timber industry throughout the county’s history. These mills have produced a variety of products, including railroad ties, cedar poles, matches, and lumber.

The Pend Oreille River was used as a transportation route for forest products during the first part of the twentieth century. Various methods were used to transport the logs from logging operations to the river or to the railroad, such as the use of flumes and logging railroads. The river pilings here, as well as at other locations along the river, are remnants of the intricate system of “piling, wingbooms, bagbooms and floating catwalks” used by workers to sort and transport logs to their destination.

Pend Oreille County experienced its most active period of lumbering between 1900 and the 1930s. Some of the major companies in the county included Panhandle, Phelps, Fidelity, Diamond, and Dalkena. Large mills once operated at Cusick, Ione, Dalkena, and Newport. Many small mills also operated during this time and were usually located closer to the forest resources.

During the 1930s, there was a drastic slowdown in the industry due to the Great Depression. By the 1940s, though, production increased because of World War II. While the number of mills has diminished from the early days, logging and lumbering remain important economic forces in the county.

Credits and Sources:

Bamonte, Tony, and Susan Schaeffer Bamonte. History of Pend Oreille County. Spokane:

Tornado Publications, 1996.

Billings, Roger W. “Ancient River Pilings.” Big Smoke, 1984.

 

Fandrich, Blain. Pend Oreille River: An Evaluation of 23 Historic Sites Located Between Albeni

Falls Dam and Box Canyon Dam. Billings, Montana: Ethnoscience, Inc., 2002.

Photographs courtesy of the Pend Oreille County Historical Society and Historical Research Associates, Inc.