History at a Glance

From the Aug. 10, 1939, Journal

"The Phoenix Logging Company, Mason County's second largest logging railroad operation, recently hauled out its last logs and closed its camps for good, having cut during its life of nearly 40 years nearly all of the private timber in the Lake Cushman region (about 1½ billion feet of timber). The Phoenix operation has cut all timber available on lands owned by the company in the foothills west of the canal extending from the bend in the north fork of the Skokomish River through to the back hills of Lilliwaup and around the original Lake Cushman, now flooded under Tacoma's power reservoir. There is probably timber mature enough and under normal conditions subject to removal in the North Fork region to carry on for another 40 years, but it is being held for recreational purposes in the Olympic National Forest and hence the last and most important industry on Hood Canal must go out of business.

A small crew is being retained to take up the railroad steel and bring out all the equipment, which will be loaded at Potlatch and sold wherever possible. The camp buildings will be available to anyone who would dismantle them and remove the materials. The townsite of Potlatch, owned entirely by the Phoenix Logging Company, will, when all operations are closed, be offered for sale with its buildings and houses to the public and will make desirable houses on the waterfront. Ernest Carlson, a long-time employee, who has been general manager of the Phoenix operation for several years past, will continue in charge of the removal and shipment of the equipment.

There is a ray of sunshine for canal residents in a contract between the Phoenix Logging Company and Don McKay, one of the largest truck loggers in Mason County, covering the logging of some 40 million feet of timber still owned by the company. The McKay fallers and buckers are already at work and the McKay Cats and donkeys are being moved to the new works from Tahuya."

The Phoenix Logging Company was organized in 1900 by A. H. Anderson, Sol G. Simpson and Joseph Bordeaux, and the first track up the steep hill was built the following spring. Because of the heavy grade, the original plan was to plank between the rails, "dog" 18 logs at a time end-to-end on the tracks, and use a locomotive to drag them between the rails down to the wharf on the canal. The drag of the logs braked the engine enough to slow its downhill trip. A year later, the company had 150 men, some with families, living at Camps 1 and 2 (some distance apart and 10 to 12 miles back in the hills from Potlatch) and was grading a new road from Potlatch farther back into the timber and not as dangerously steep. The new railroad would have a 3% grade and would zigzag instead of coming straight down. Since skidding logs down the tracks hadn't been ideal, railroad cars would be used to haul the logs out.

To house its operations, the company created the town of Potlatch, on the waterfront site of what had once been the location of Indian gift giving ceremonies. Here they built company offices, the Phoenix Hotel, L. K. Munson's store, a livery barn, the log dump wharf and a warehouse, a blacksmith shop, engine house, a school and housing.

In June 1966, Ernest Carlson's widow, Hulda, in her early 80s and still living at Potlatch, was interviewed for a story in the Tacoma News Tribune. Before becoming general manager and moving into the "manager's mansion" at Potlatch, Ernest was a foreman at Camp 2, where the family lived for a couple of years. Hulda remembered camp living fondly. "Those were good years," she said, "The married loggers had their families, and were contented." But logging was a hazardous occupation, and from time to time fate struck down an unfortunate family's loved one. "There was a common bond of sympathy among the families and when tragedy struck, we shared each other's grief and sorrow." Hulda believed that one of her husband's greatest achievements while running the Phoenix Logging Company was building railroad bridges. One of them, in 1914, was the highest single-pile (pilings of 70 to 80 feet long were driven from the top and braced for strength) logging railroad bridge in the state, and was still in use in 1966.

The Tribune also interviewed Matt Karrs, who had been head blacksmith for the Phoenix. "A man of muscles, Matt likes to take you back to an era when he was nailing shoes on logging oxen and horse teams. He said some of the big logging horses tried to kick or bite him, and some oxen, if they couldn't hook him, tried to lie down on him. It was nip and tuck at times, but not one ever left his shop without new shoes. Matt and his helpers also made bull-hooks, choker hooks, and other paraphernalia for donkey engine logging."

For 40 years, the towns of Potlatch and Hoodsport saw their fortunes rise and fall with the operations of the Phoenix Logging Company. When the camps ran at full capacity, the towns were prosperous. If prices for logs fell so low that operations stopped, or when there was too much snow or hot, dry weather, times were harder in the towns.

The Phoenix was one of the steadiest operations in the Northwest, with 30 miles of main line and spurs, four locomotives, 10 donkey engines, six Caterpillar tractors, 95 connected logging trucks, and a machine shop at Potlatch in which all equipment was kept in good order. However, in the 1930s, the era of large railroad logging operations was coming to an end, due to costs of building and maintaining roadbeds and rolling stock, increases in taxes and wages, and government regulation. A. H. Hillier, president of the Phoenix when it closed, claimed its crew was the best in the Northwest and he regretted that "the pleasant relations of the past years must now be severed as the company closes its operation and winds up its affairs."

■ Jan Parker is a researcher for the Mason County Historical Museum. She can be reached at [email protected]. Membership in the Mason County Historical Society is $25 per year. For a limited time, new members will receive a free copy of the book "Shelton, the First Century Plus Ten."