On skid road

At the turn of the 20th century, logging in Washington was a primitive proposition, all-man- and animal-powered, as evident in this scene from the Stillaguamish Valley. Then, loggers used a "skid road" to haul logs out of the woods. "Grease monkeys," such as the man with a bucket in the foreground, would "grease the skids" so logs would roll along quickly.

A transaction in 1900 would take take things to a new level, establishing Washington as one of the nation's leading lumber states. The deal was consummated in St. Paul, Minn., between next-door neighbors Frederick Weyerhaeuser, who had made his fortune logging the virgin timber of the Great Lakes area, and James J. Hill, renowned as the "empire builder" for his role in developing the Northwest through the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railways.

According to the official Weyerhaeuser story, "Timber and Men," the two talked for years around the fireplace of Weyerhaeuser's home. Or rather, Hill talked, hardly noticing that Weyerhaeuser frequently nodded off.

Weyerhaeuser was hungry for a fresh supply of logs as timber stands in his area dwindled. He had made small forays into Washington, buying forest land in Skagit County and a shingle mill along Puget Sound. Hill had vast timber holdings as the result of government right-of-way grants. What he needed was ready cash to expand his railroad empire and a sure cargo for his trains headed east.

Hill made a proposal. Weyerhaeuser stayed awake.

The result: Weyerhaeuser would buy 900,000 acres of timberland from his old friend at $6 an acre. Hill would pocket $5.4 million. Weyerhaeuser's company soon set up shop in Tacoma.

The deal started the nation's timber industry and changed for all time the course of lumbering in North America. The year of the big transaction, Washington was the fifth largest lumber-producing state. By the middle of the decade, it had become No. 1.

Excerpted from "Washington: The First One Hundred Years," by Don Duncan, The Seattle Times, 1989