American Forestry 



VOL. XXII 



MARCH, 1916 



No. 267 



Western Red Cedar 



Idcntificatiun and Characteristics 

 Bv Samuel B. Detwiler 



ENTHUSIASTS have 

 called western red 

 cedar "the world's 

 overcoat wood," because its 

 wood has extraordinary 

 ability to resist decay. An- 

 other name, "Shinglewood." 

 is appropriate, because it is 

 the greatest shingle wood in 

 the United States, furnish- 

 ing more shingles than all 

 other American species com- 

 bined. It is widely known 

 in the West as "canoe 

 cedar," because the Indians 

 of the Pacific Coast used it 

 in making immense canoes. 

 War canoes, made with 

 crude implements from a 

 single cedar log, were often 

 si.xty feet or more in length, 

 eight feet across at the wid- 

 est point, and capable of 

 carrying a load upward of 

 thirty tons. So faultless 

 were the lines of these craft, 

 when made in the perfection 

 of the Indian's art, that ca- 

 noes taken to the Atlantic 

 Coast by early traders be- 

 came the models from which 

 Boston and Xew York 

 shipbuilders constructed the 

 famous clipper ships. The 

 West Coast Indians still 

 fashion cedar "dug-outs" of 

 a beauty and symmetry sur- 

 passing the canoes made by 

 white men. 



The wood is soft, straight- 

 grained, and easily worked, 

 so durable and little subject 

 to checking, that the sav- 



TlIE WESTERN RED CEDAR 

 Sliowing the characteristic appearance of the foliage, cones, and seeds 

 of the western red cedar. The small, scale-like leaves overlap each 

 other so as to completely cover the flat twigs. The brownish cones 

 (a) are borne in dense clusters or several together. They are com- 

 posed of a few overlapping scales, which spread apart when the cones 

 are ripe and liberate the tiny pale-brown seeds (b, natural size and 

 enlarged three times), which bear a very thin, paper-like wing on two 

 sides. The wings assist greatly in disseminating the seeds. 



ages found it admirably fit- 

 ted to their primitive needs. 

 With rude tools of stone, 

 bone and shell, they split it 

 into beams and boards. 

 From the fibrous inner bark 

 they manufactured blankets, 

 ropes, dog harness, fishing 

 lines, mats and baskets. 

 They even baked the beaten 

 pulp of the innermost bark 

 and served it with salmon 

 oil as an article of food. 

 Western red cedar is, in 

 truth, the "family tree" of 

 the "Siwash" Indians," for 

 from it thev have carved 

 most of their massive totem 

 poles, which sometimes ex- 

 ceed in size the great col- 

 umns of European cathe- 

 drals. These weird em- 

 blems, fantastic family 

 crests, so to speak, are some- 

 times forty to fifty feet 

 high, and are skilfully 

 hewed into grotesque fig- 

 ures of men and beasts so 

 cleverly and strikingly col- 

 ored that they never fail to 

 attract the attention of the 

 beholder. 



Next to Doliglas fir. 

 Western red cedar is the 

 most important timber tree 

 of the northern Pacific Coast, 

 Experts estimate that it 

 comprises about one-third of 

 the forest resources of Brit- 

 ish Columbia and one-eighth 

 of the standing timber in 

 the State of Washington. 

 As a lumber-producing tree. 



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