LOGGING CAMPS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST- 

 PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. 



C. R. POPE, '11, 

 Logging Engineer, Northwestern Lumber Co. 



THE LOGGING INDUSTRY has developed through various marked 

 evolutionary stages. We are all familiar at least with the general 

 principles of the industry in each of the various stages of develop- 

 ment. The logging camp referring in this discussion particularly 

 to that part of the camp directly affecting the men employed has hardly 

 kept pace in this developing process. In recent years, however, it has 

 claimed considerable attention and is, we may say, at the present time 

 undergoing its first decisive stage of evolution. 



The Camp of the Past may be characterized as a heterogeneous group 

 of rough, cheaply constructed buildings. The men's quarters usually con- 

 sisted of one or two large bunk houses. These were equipp'ed with home- 

 made double or three-deck bunks which were filled with hay or straw. 

 Provisions for light, ventilation and general sanitation were conspicuous- 

 ly absent. 



The progressive and enterprising ideas which have permeated the log- 

 ging business generally during the past few years have reached the camps. 

 As a result we find in the Camp of the Present a great variety of changes, 

 and in most instances decided improvements over the Camp of the Past. 

 So recent are these developments, however, that the various improvements 

 have not yet become standardized. Consequently the Camp of the Present 

 is not a definite quantity. Some companies are making conservative 

 changes, trying out and improving one feature at a time, while others are 

 making sweeping changes throughout. It is an established fact, however, 

 that some form of a permanent portable-camp is the most practical and 

 economical type. Opinion at the present time appears about equally di- 

 vided between two general forms of this type. The one, known as the 

 car camp; the other, ordinary buildings of a good substantial type about 

 the same size of cars, but mounted on skids so they may be loaded on cars 

 or trucks for moving. The complete car camp is adapted to the larger 

 operations. As the small operator is gradually disappearing, the car camp 

 seems destined to become the prevailing type of the future. A great variety 

 of special features designed for the comfort and convenience of the men 

 in the camp are everywhere evident. The extent to which it is going to 

 be practical to carry these developments is not yet very definitely deter- 

 mined. In many ways the Camp of the Present is in an experimental 

 stage. Some improved features are, however, already quite universally 

 established and will be found in the Camp of the Future. One of the im- 

 provements, and one that has come to stay, is the reduced unit of the 

 men's quarters. At present one will find nearly every sized unit from the 

 single large room to a four-unit bunkhouse. The tendency appears to be 

 toward a medium unit accommodating from ten to twenty men. Along 

 with the reduced unit has come improvements in lighting and ventilating. 

 In the Camp of the Past from two to four windows, these often only half 

 size, served a single bunkhouse. With a hot fire, a room crowded with 

 not over-cleanly loggers, each contributing an outfit of wet clothes, socks 

 and boots to dry around the stove, with a mixture of tobacco fumes as 

 the only fumigant, it does not require a vivid imagination to analyze the 

 condition of the atmosphere. While it can hardly be said the logger of 

 the present is any more healthy or sturdy than the logger of the past, yet 



12 



