LOGGING ENGINEERING 



r>v Geo. M. Cornwall, 



liiiitor The 'riuihi'iDuiii, l\>rtland, Ortujon 



^^^I IE need creates the man. The de- 

 C^) velopnicnt of tlie lumber Inisiness 

 ^^■'^ of the States of Cahfornia. ( )re- 

 Cfon. W'ashini^ton, Idaho, ^h)nta^a and 

 the I'rovince of liritish Columbia, has 

 necessitated a type of ruoii^ed woods- 

 men for the removal of the timber from 

 the hills and valleys to the mill pond 

 at a minimum expense. Nature grew 

 lavishly a timber cnip in the great West. 

 Here are approximately the figures 

 which denote Nature's generous gift : 



r.ritish Co]umbia_:ioooon,ooonoo to 



4()<t,UU(),U()U, ()()(» ft. 



Washington 391.000,000,000 ft. 



Montana- 65,000,000,000 ft. 



Oregon 545,000.000,000 ft. 



Idaho 129,100,000.000 ft. 



California 381,000,000,000 ft. 



Total 1.811,100,000,000 ft. 



These figures indicate that the lum- 

 ber business .of the Pacific Coast States 

 will endure for a long time, the present 

 output being in the neighborhood of 

 about eight and one-half billion feet 

 annually. 



The timber of the West is found for 

 the most part in comparatively inac- 

 cessible rugged mountain ranges, thus 

 involving difficult engineering jirob- 

 lems. In the early stages of the indus- 

 try when the timber lined the banks of 

 the numerous water courses, logging 

 was rendered a comparatively simple 

 and cheap operation. But this condi- 

 tion has passed forever. 



The enormous size of the tim1)er lying 

 directly along the Pacific Coast, includ- 

 ing the towering redwoods running up 

 to 300 feet without a limb, and a di- 

 ameter of 18 feet and over; the Douglas 

 tir (Oregon pine), Menzies" tideland 

 spruce, cedar and hemlock of the Coast 



regions of California. Oregon and 

 Washington; and the pine family to be 

 found east of the Cascades and Sierra 

 .Vevadas, in Northern California, Cen- 

 tral and Eastern Oregon, Eastern 

 Washington, Idaho and Montana, and 

 the interior of I'ritish Columbia, present 

 topographical features that require a 

 bold, daring, aggressive brain to suc- 

 cessfully convert Nature's forest cover 

 to the uses of mankind. 



The primitive picturesque ox team 

 has given way to the steam road. There 

 are approximately 450 logging roads in 

 the \Vest, with an aggregate mileage of 

 about 3500 miles. The number is con- 

 stantly increasing. These roads cost 

 with equipment, from $10,000 to $15,- 

 000 per mile, thus indicating the enor- 

 mous investment in logging railroad 

 equipment, and the necessities fur the 

 future. The cost of building these 

 roads has a most direct bearing on the 

 profit of the operation. Here is where 

 the practical logging engineer is invalu- 

 able. His experience enables him to 

 gauge with certainty the factor of safety 

 required, yet keejiing the initial cost 

 down to a minimum. The railroad en- 

 gineer generally fails when assigned to 

 this task, as experience has abundantly 

 borne out. He was trained in a differ- 

 ent schdol. His factor of safetv would 

 si)ell fuiancial ruin to many an ojjcr- 

 ation. He forgets to take into account 

 the temporary character of the time he 

 is building; for. outside of the main 

 lines, the roads are temporary, l)eing 

 moved from time to time as occasion 

 requires. 



These natural conditions have re- 

 sidted in the creation of a type of log- 

 ging engineering unknown anywhere 

 else in the world. There are no 

 ])arallels. The systems have evolved 

 through sheer necessity. lirawn has 



G17 



