of western pine timber south of the 

 North I'ork of the Clearwater River, 

 which up to that time had been barely 

 broached. The largest timber cut in 

 this district (up to 1940) was 408 million 

 board feet in 1929. The 1938 mill 

 production was 207 million board teet. 

 The mills in this locality now have a 

 greater capacity and also produce more 

 lumber than those ot the Coeur d'Alene- 

 St. Joe district. 



Little significance can be attached to 

 the timber-production figures for the 

 Idaho County district, because of the 

 present lack of sawmill development in 

 this area. Although 21 percent ol the 

 commercial saw timber is located in this 

 county, only 2 percent of the western 

 white pine resource lies within its 

 boundaries. 



Another group ot lumber plants has 

 figured prominently in the history ot 

 northern Idaho. These are the mills in 

 the city of Spokane and in Pend Oreille 

 County, Wash., which have relied upon 

 the forests of Idaho for a large part ot 

 their raw material and in 1938 sawed 73 

 million board feet of Idaho logs (fig. 25). 

 Also, a small volume of logs is shipped 

 annually into Montana for manufac- 

 ture. Offsetting these exports to a 

 certain extent are the log shipments 

 into Idaho from Washington and 

 Montana. The balance in million board 

 feet (lumber tally) is in favor of north- 

 ern Idaho by the considerable margins 



I 



Figure 26. — Logs in the I'ricsl Kiier (luting the sunimer tailing the high'Wiiler t^thejollmcing spring. 



of exports over imports shown in the following tabulation: 



1934. 

 19.15 

 \9^h . 

 19,17 

 1938, 



Million 

 feet 



7.1 

 ^4 

 (.4 

 67 



Cedar Prodiwts Industries 



F.vcn bctorc the lumber inilustr\ began to expand, the 

 ccdar-shingic industry ot northern Klaho was inarkctini» 

 some ot its product in other .States. Records of early 

 years show that there were a number of shingle mills 

 .scattereil through the area north of the .St. )oc River. 

 In 18'>'J approximately Id million shingles were cut in 

 northern Idaho. Dat.i are lackmg tor some of the follow- 

 ing years, but the available statistics indicate that produc- 



tion rose steadily to 1907, when the output totaled 64 

 million pieces. The high demand for the Idaho cedar 

 shingle began to lessen following 1917, and thereafter 

 production coasted generally downward tor several years. 

 During the 1925-34 decade the average annual shingle 

 proikiction was approximately 1 1 million pieces, or about 

 one-sixth ot the 1907 figure. During the 4-year peritxl 

 1935-38, there was a marked revival in the shingle industry. 



Cedar pole ai\il pile proiiuction has also been an activity 

 of major im{H)rtance in northern Idaho and has been 

 carried on more or less in conjunction with lumber opera- 

 tions. The forests ot this area have been one of the prin- 

 cipal centers }^n>ducing the large number of poles useii by 

 the power and communication systems of the Nation. In 

 the period I ''25 2*>, the commercial output of poles in 

 northern Idaho was almost one-tenth of the total numlxir 

 ot poles produced in the Unite*.! .States. 



In contrast to the detaileii statistics of luml>cr cut, «l- 



27 



