Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/464

 house, this ship

carried lumber enough to build one hundred and twenty-five large dwelling houses.

COLUMBIA RIVER OUTPUT.

The cut of lumber in the Columbia river district which embraces the counties of Klickitat, Skamania, Clark, Wahkialkum and the portion of the Pacific border- ing on the Columbia, in the state of Washington; and the counties of Hood river, Multnomah, Columbia and Clatsop, in Oregon, have cut approximately one bil- lion feet during 1909. Of this amount the city of Portland cut approximately 600,000,000 feet. New mills and enlarged facilities of old plants between Port- land and the mouth of the Columbia makes available an additional 250 million feet capacity over 1909.

These figures have not accounted for the lumber shipped east over the dif- ferent lines of railway, centering at Portland. At every one of the mills at Portland and her suburbs, long lines of side track are found to accommodate the mills in loading cars. Lumber in all forms is shipped to the eastern states and as far east as Boston. Sawed timbers, rough sawed plank, dressed lumber, all forms and sizes, car timbers, cross arms, telegraph poles, doors, shingles, laths, everything but hard wood, are cut and dressed at the Portland mills and shipped all over the world.

The amount of lumber shipped by rail is found by deducting the total shipped (180 million feet) from the grand total of 700 million feet cut by the Portland mills which leave 520 million feet as used in buildings in Portland and shipped by rail to California, Nevada, Utah and the eastern states. The immeflse value and importance of this business to the city of Portland may be judged from these statistics.

LOSSES BY FIRES.

State board of forestry issued this past season as a warning against fire losses the following trenchant points :

Would you set fire to any man's house in your town?

If you saw his house afire, would you pass by without doing anything?

Do you realize that timber is quite as valuable to the owner and much more so to the community and to you? He can build a new house, but not a new forest. As for your own interest, think over the following facts :

Oregon now sells $20,000,000 worth of lumber a year. Of this, $14,000,000 is received by employes who put it in local circulation ; in other words, you, whatever your business, share in it.

About a billion feet is destroyed by fire in Oregon annually which, if manu- factured, would bring in $13,000,000.

On every thousand feet of timber burned, the stumpage owner may lose $2, but the community loses $8 in wages.

THE LESSON OF IT ALL.

It is a far cry in performance, within the short period of time, since Cyrus A. Reed and General Coffin were, in 1850, struggling to erect the first little steam sawmill at the river's edge at the foot of Jefiferson street. So limited was their field of operation, and so few their prospective customers, that after rallying all the men they could get, both in Portland and Oregon City, they were unable to raise the frame of their little mill, and resort had to be made to block and tackle to elevate the timbers. The total output of Reed's mill in one year was probably as much as half a million feet, as against seven hundred million feet produced here last year.

Oregon possesses more standing timber than any other state in the Union. And there is directly tributary to the city of Portland in the valley of the Co- lumbia river, and within the haul of local railroads leading to the c