ing years timber cutting became more widespread, 
but real industrial development did not begin 
until transcontinental railroads provided a link 
with the East and a large market for Montana 
products (fig. 2). 
Since the time of the first sawmill, a total of 
nearly 20 billion board feet of saw timber has been 
logged.” That volume is about one-third as great 
as the total commercial stand in Montana today. 
Most of the 20 billion board feet went to saw- 
mills where it was cut into boards, planks, rail- 
road ties, and mine timbers. 
All together, 434 active sawmills produced 598 
million board feet of lumber in 1948. In addition 
to the sawmills there are several smaller but, never- 
theless, important forest industries. Year after year, 
about 450,000 pieces of round mine timbers are 
produced for the metal and coal mines. ‘Since 
World War II Montana’s pole industry has_pro- 
(1947) . 
pulpwood 
duced as many as 325,000 poles annually 
1949, 53,000 
shipped to Washington and Wisconsin. A Christmas 
During cords of were 
tree industry that began a quarter of a centry ago 
‘All of the board-foot stand, growth, and drain figures in 
this report are based on the International 14-inch log rule, 
which is considered the equivalent of lumber tally. 
has grown until Montana now leads all other 
States with its annual production of more than 3 
million trees. An estimate of the value of Mon- 
tana’s forest products in 1948 follows: 
$44,500.000 
1,500,000 
1,100,000 
Fuel wood 1.000,000 
Posts 3 800,000 
Pulpwood : 700.000 
Poles ; 3 600,000 
Lumber See heey ea er 
Round and hewn mine timbers 
Christmas trees 
Total $56,200.000 
The importance of the forest industries differs 
greatly by localities. On the eastern prairie thev 
play an insignificant part in the local economy. 
Even on the eastern slope of the Rockies where 
there 1s a substantial timber area, the forest indus- 
tries are as yet small. West of the Continental 
Divide, or in western Montana,’ however, the forests 
occupy 81 percent of the land area and furnish 
a large part of the local income. The 1940 census 
> 
of agriculture showed that 28 percent of the people 
classified as farm operators in western Montana 
‘In this report the area west of the Continental Divide is 
called western Montana and that east of the Divide. eastern 
Montana. 
ANNUAL LUMBER PRODUCTION 
MONTANA 
1910 
i 
1869 79 89 99 1904 1920 
Million (Veil ! Febf 
1930 1940 1945 1948 
FIGURE 2. 
k Forest Resource Report NOs 220: 
S. Department of Agriculture 
