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Shingle mill crew, Pacific National Lumber Company, National, n.d.
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| Title | Shingle mill crew, Pacific National Lumber Company, National, n.d. |
| Photographer | Kinsey, Clark |
| Date | n.d. |
| Notes | PH Coll 516.2588 |
| Contextual Notes | The Pacific National Lumber Company was established ca. 1905. By 1922, it had its headquarters in Tacoma and sawmill and logging operations in National. The company apparently went out of business ca. 1942.
The town of National is on the Mount Rainier Highway 7 miles west of the Nisqually entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park in southeast Pierce County. It was a company town established by Pacific National Lumber Company. It once housed 300 people who worked for or were dependent on the sawmill and logging operation. A post office was established December 3, 1910. The sawmill and a large part of the town burned May 13, 1912, but was rebuilt. In 1940, a writer for the WPA described National as a town of small, red, boxlike cottages crowded onto crooked, planked streets and dominated by the large red sawmill.
The "shingle weavers" as they were called, depended for their livelihood on the dexterity of their hands. They juggled the freshly sliced shingles which fell from the flashing blades of the saws in a manual ballet which the director of a symphony might have envied. They caught the pungent cedar boards in the air, flipped them from one hand to the other and "wove" them into finished bundles ready for shipment. A journeyman shingle weaver could handle 30,000 singles in a ten hour shift. Each time – 30,000 times a day – when he reached for one of those flying pieces of cedar, he gambled the reflexes of eye and muscle against the instant amputation of his fingers or his hand. [Source: Prouty, Andrew Mason. More Deadly Than War: Pacific Coast Logging, 1827-1981. New York; London: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1985.] |
| Subjects (LCTGM) | Men--Washington (State)--National
Pacific National Lumber Company--People--Washington (State)--National
Pacific National Lumber Company--Facilities--Washington (State)--National
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| Subjects (LCSH) | Shingle industry--Washington (State)--National--Employees
Shingle industry--Washington (State)--National
Shingles--Washington (State)--National
Sawmills--Washington (State)--National
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| Location Depicted | United States--Washington (State)--Pierce County--National |
| Digital Collection | Clark Kinsey Photographs
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| Order Number | CKK0470 |
| Ordering Information | To order a reproduction, inquire about permissions, or for information about prices see: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/services/reproduction-info Please cite the Order Number when ordering. |
| Negative Number | C. Kinsey 2588
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| Repository | University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division |
| Repository Collection | Clark Kinsey Photograph Collection. PH Coll 516
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| Object Type | Photograph |
| Physical Description | Silver gelatin, b/w ; 11 x 14 in. |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned from a photographic print using a Microtek Scanmaker 9600XL at 100 dpi in JPEG format at compression rate 3 and resized to 768x512 ppi. 2003. |
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