Evidence of logging past

Logging in North Idaho has brought jobs and a living wage for more than 100 years. There are still lumber mills scattered around the northern counties, but the remains and tangible evidence of early day logging is hard to find. Those who are willing to search for the history can be rewarded with an interesting, outdoor experience.

Logging and mining has been the economic foundation in Northern Idaho since before the 1900s. Men and their machines, lumber mills, teepee burners, mill ponds and other structures were spread throughout the area. Because of development, closure of mills, deterioration by time, snow loads, looting, neglect and vandals much of the evidence of early day logging has completely disappeared. Except for exhibits and photos found in local museums real, existing logging remains and memories are hard to find. But if you know where to look, some evidence still exists.

This isn’t about effects of modern logging but rather a time when axes, springboards, two-man cross saws, flumes, splash dams, steam boats/locomotives/donkeys and horses were used. By means of what we would call primitive equipment huge trees from old growth forests were harvested. Looking at historic photos, the logging of just one of the massive trees and transporting it to a far-off mill was a major undertaking. It seems that many who worked in the woods lived up to the legendary Paul Bunyan and his blue ox.

The many streams and lakes in the area were used for the transportation of logs because there were no roads. Getting the logs out of the mountains was accomplished by horse, flumes, or something called a splash dam. Flumes were built to send logs downhill like a water slide from a wooden dam upstream or creek. Horse-drawn logs were skidded to the staging area at the flume. They were then rolled onto the flume with a hand tool called a peevee. Water was released and the logs were sent one at a time to a lake or river. Either a mill was built there and the milled wood was barged out or the logs were tied together and towed down the lake by way of a steam powered tugboat which burned wood.

Logging was done this way along Indian Creek on Priest Lake. A 3-mile wooden flume with a dam 3 miles upstream was used to send logs down to a mill owned by Diamond Lumber Company. The mill is long gone and the land is now part of Priest Lake State Park and Indian Creek Campground. There is a short section of a replica of the flume displayed in the campground. But there are parts of the original flume scattered along the creek. Farther upstream, the dam still is recognizable. Up the east shore at Priest Lake and north of Indian Creek is the state park group camp. The buildings were and are still used as a dormitory and kitchen.

They used to float on the lake near Indian Creek and were used by the loggers that worked the timber, flume and lumber mill. Floating camps were common because the entire camp could be towed to another location when the timber ran out. In the most northern part of Priest Lake State Park at Lion Head campground and beached near the boat launch is the remains of the Tyee II. It was one of the last of the wood burning steam powered tugboats. In the town of Coolin, on the south shore of Priest Lake, a retired schoolteacher has hauled up on his property and constructed a cover over an old boat used on the lake. Unlike the Tyee II this original steam powered boat is more intact and is in better shape.

On Marble Creek northeast of St. Maries a different way to move logs down to the St. Joe River was used. A wooden dam was constructed across Marble Creek. A wood burning steam generated “donkey” was used with a series of cables and pulleys to drag logs to the backed up water behind what was called a splash dam. The logs where piled up behind the dam. In the spring the dam was breached which sent the logs down the streambed to the river. The logs eventually were towed into Lake Coeur d’Alene and to lumber mills.

There now is an interpretive center with photo displays and old artifacts at the entrance to the Marble Creek drainage. Well-maintained gravel roads offer routes to over 30 remains of splash dams, sawmill sites, several still standing steam donkeys, found along historical trails. There is also an inclined railroad bed. Marble Creek offers the best site for exploring logging history.

Another more permanent reminder of a bygone era of logging can be found at Albeni Falls Dam between the towns of Priest River and Old Town. Logs used to be sent down Priest River from Priest Lake to the Pend Oreille River. Men called “river pigs” rowed boats on the spring-thawed raging river and climbed up on logjams to free the logs. As the logs were freed the men would have to jump back into the boat at risk of being drowned.

When the Albeni Falls Dam was constructed, logs were still being floated down the river. The Corps of Engineers included in the design a cement flume to allow the logs to continue floating down the river. Albeni Falls is the only dam on the entire Columbia River drainage and dam system having such a design. It is no longer used because logs are now hauled by truck. But it is another example of logging that is now just a memory.

Finally, the virgin forests are gone. But in a spot here and there have been preserved trees that are thought to be up to 2,000 years old. There still are cedar tree groves that have escaped the saw. Cedar in the old days was seen as trash wood. Loggers were specifically looking and sawing white pine forests. The trees were considered the cream of the crop because they were tall, straight and almost knot free.

When they were axing or hand sawing trees, they took the best and left the rest. In 1911 and 1926 forest fires took out most of the remaining old mature trees. However, there are small plots of older trees that have survived. Ancient cedar groves near Murray in the Silver Valley area and just west of the ranger station between the towns of Priest Lake and Nordman are remnants, including a few white pine trees, of the old growth forests that used to cover areas of the Northwest.

Seeking out some of the leftovers from the early logging days can ignite the imagination to appreciate the enormous effort, labor and ingenuity that was required to produce milled lumber. Lumber used to assemble homes in towns that in turn created the towns and cities we now live in. This can be an interesting exploration into the area’s past.