A STUDY 



OF THE EEDWOOD. 



17 



LUMBEHING: ITS HISTORY AND EXTENT. 



The Spaniards, near San Francisco Bay, were the first to loi^' the 

 Redwood forests, but their cuttings were very small. I^ate in the 

 eighteenth centur\' a Russian colony cleared a tract of Redwood, which 

 has since grown up to good timber and again been cut over; but no 

 considerable amount of logging was done until long after the Russians 

 had left. About the year 1850 small mills started up in Santa Clara 

 and Santa Cruz counties, at Albion, and at the mouth of Big River, in 

 Mendocino County, at Areata and Eureka, on Humboldt Ba}', and at 

 Trinidad. At first the mills on Humboldt Bay cut chiefly Red Fir 

 and Sitka Spruce, as Redwood was not valued; and the other mills cut 

 very little Redwood, since the tree was without a market and the mill 

 men were handicapped by the lack of improved machinery . In those 

 days logs were usually driven to the mill in the rivers, and the strong- 

 freshets carried many out to sea. As soon as the growth of San Fran- 

 cisco and the settlement of the southern counties developed a market, 

 more companies and better methods came in. Logging railroads 

 superseded driving, and donkey engines did the work of teams. By 

 the early nineties mills were employing about the same number of men 

 as now (1900) and had about their present equipment. ' 



PRESENT OPERATIONS. 



Redwood lumbering is now narrowed to northern counties in Cali- 

 fornia. In Santa Cruz Count.y all the large stands of Redwood will 

 be made into a park. In Marin County Redwood has long since dwin- 

 dled to a few isolated groves, used mosth^ as picnic grounds. In 

 Sonoma County Redwood holdings are reduced to a few scattered 

 claims. Large operations begin in Mendocino County. The ten saw- 

 mills in this county had in 1900 cleared 150,000 acres, or 25 per cent 

 of the total acreage, including the largest and best stands. In Hum- 

 boldt Count}'- the mills had cleared 65,000 acres, and in Del Norte 

 County two mills had cleared 3,000 acres. It is unsafe to estimate 

 "what proportion of the original stand these cuttings repi-esent. 



QUALITIES OF THE "WOOD. 



Redwood possesses qualities which fit it for man}"" uses. In color it 

 shades from light cheriy to dark mahogany; its grain is usually 

 straight, fine, and even; its weight is light; its consistency firm, yet 

 soft. It is easily worked, takes a beautiful polish, and is the most 

 durable of the coniferous woods of California. It resists decay so 

 well that trees which have lain five hundred years in the forest have 

 been sent to the mill and sawed into lumber. 

 12478— No. .38—03 2 



