The Boom Era (1890's to 1920's) 



Railroad logging spurs, 

 steam log skidders, and 

 double-band sawmills 

 ushered in the South's era 

 of large-scale lumbering in 

 the late 1 9th century. While 

 200 years of animal logging 

 had made little impact on 

 the region's woodlands, 

 two decades of mechanized 

 operations left most of the 

 original forests from the 

 Atlantic Ocean to the Great 

 Plains cut over. 



The situation was simply 

 symptomatic of the Nation's 

 prevailing attitude during 

 the period: America's land 

 and resources seemed 

 inexhaustible. Land was up 

 for grabs, and timber was 

 there for the taking. The 

 government acted as 

 disposal agent as the public 

 domain was shared with 

 States and homesteaders. 

 The lumber, mining, and 

 railroad industries benefited 

 from free parcels of public 

 domain, all in the cause of 

 geographical expansion. 

 National optimism blinded 

 most citizens to the dangers 

 of such land policies. 



A 1 933 Forest Service report 

 to Congress, entitled "A 

 National Plan for American 

 Forestry," describes the 



geographical movement of 

 the lumber industry this 

 way: 



In softwood lumber 

 manufacture, the 

 depletion of available 

 virgin timber supplies 

 has marked an industrial 

 cycle in each forest 

 region. Local industries 

 developed, dominated 

 the consuming markets 

 of the country, and 

 declined at last so far 

 as to be unable to 

 meet even the regional 

 requirements. This 

 cycle has been 

 characterized by a 

 transition from light 

 culling to clean cutting 

 of good timber and 

 poor alike, and by a 

 shift from the more to 

 the less desirable 

 species. 



The report goes on to state 

 that softwood lumber 

 production moved 

 successively from New 

 England to New York, to 

 Pennsylvania, and to the 

 Lake States, culminating 

 there in the early 1890's. 

 The industry next moved to 

 the South, reaching its 

 peak in 1909, when more 

 than 16 billion board feet 



