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Crew with little girl at shingle mill, Skagit Mill Company, Lyman, n.d.
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| Title | Crew with little girl at shingle mill, Skagit Mill Company, Lyman, n.d. |
| Photographer | Kinsey, Clark |
| Date | n.d. |
| Notes | Caption on image: Skagit Mill Co., Lyman, Wash. Kinsey Photo, Seattle.
PH Coll 516.4053 |
| Contextual Notes | Immediately to the northeast of Sedro Woolley lies a significant hill of some 4,100 feet of elevation. This landmark remains known today as Skagit Mill Hill, named for the last logger to lay steel rails high in its timber. Skagit Mill Company began corporate life February 10, 1906. Following its inception, Skagit Mill immediately began construction of a sawmill on the northeast edge of the town of Lyman. The mill produced turned wood columns, car builting materials, and shingles.
During the next three years, the bustling company built a logging railroad north from the mill into nearby timber. A two-truck Shay locomotive was purchased in 1908 (nicknamed The Goat); another larger Shay was purchased the following year. The railroad entered the timber by way of a rocky gorge and a precipitous climb up to the top of the mountain, using a series of switchbacks. In 1917, Skagit Mill purchased a McFarlane Sky Line donkey to work the high timber. This aerial cable yarding system became the only one of its kind in the state at the time.
The company operated north of Lyman until about 1923. After the company holdings were logged out at Lyman, the firm moved to fresh timber north of Cokedale. They began building railroad near Wiseman Creek, extending their rails toward the area around the old Cokedale coal mines. Over the next few years Skagit Mill logged steadily, and their railroad grew at a complimentary pace, eventually reaching high up on Skagit Mill Hill, and a camp was built for the loggers.
In the spring of 1936, a wage dispute arose between Skagit Mill's sawmill crew and management. A five cent per hour raise was asked by the union and refused by the company. A union meeting was held, and although negotiations continued most of the night, the confrontation ended in deadlock. The company then closed its sawmill, never to run again. A labor agreement was reached, however, for Skagit Mill railroad operation and for some 45 men at the Lyman shingle mill. The shingle mill continued to run for several months, then shut down itself as the company's cedar production dwindled. The railroad remained for an additional two years, with the two-truck Shay leaving each morning to take the crew to work in the woods. Skagit Mill ran its last train in 1938, closing the railroad. The big sawmill at Lyman was dismantled in mid-1939, erasing a major landmark for the town. [Thompson, Dennis Blake. Logging Railroads in Skagit County. Seattle: Northwest Short Line, 1989.]
Lyman is on the north bank of the Skagit River five miles east of Sedro Woolley in northwest Skagit County. At one time, it had a large sawmill. In 1880, it was named for B. L. Lyman, first postmaster. In the period of Skagit River steam boating, it was called Williamson's Landing, for A. R. Williamson, a local settler.
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.]
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| Subjects (LCTGM) | Men--Washington (State)--Lyman
Girls--Washington (State)--Lyman
Benches--Washington (State)--Lyman
Skagit Mill Company--Facilities--Washington (State)--Lyman
Skagit Mill Company--People--Washington (State)--Lyman
Group portraits
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| Subjects (LCSH) | Shingle industry--Washington (State)--Lyman
Shingle industry--Washington (State)--Lyman--Employees
Shingles--Washington (State)--Lyman
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| Location Depicted | United States--Washington (State)--Skagit County--Lyman |
| Digital Collection | Clark Kinsey Photographs
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| Order Number | CKK0829 |
| 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 4053
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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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