Has anyone today any conception of the grandeur, the extent, the million board feet a day productionthe entire meaning of the forests of the Pacific Northwest-the "Big Woods"? The photographs alone in this absorbing book will instantly transport the reader into this former world. Here was the greatest stand of Douglas fir timber in existence and here was labor for the Poles, Finns, Swedes and Norskies lured out of the Midwest to convert the mammoth trees into the lumber that helped build the West Coast cities. Ralph Andrews presents a fascinating subject-the hope, courage and tragedy in the lives of the men and women who opened up the dense native forests or as the loggers said "brought daylight into the swamp," and converted the trees into the lumber which built the West Coast cities. Here are many nostalgic scenes showing high climbers, fallers balanced on high springboards, yokes of oxen and up to eight spans of horses dragging logs on skidroad, yokes of oxen and up to eight spans of horses dragging logs on skidroads to flumes, rivers and salt water, early donkey engines, railroads on steep grades, logging camps as well as devastating fires. Andrews' style of writing is graphic and spirited with strong emphasis on human interest.
Reader Reviews
From the late 1950s into mid-1960s Superior Publishing provided an outlet for Ralph W. Andrews to publish a number photo books of working men of the Pacific Northwest. Timber is one of those books. If one has only a passing interest in how logging used to be then probably one or two books would suffice. On the other hand if you're like me and enjoy collecting all of his works you can still find most of them still available. "Timber" has a number of great photos from when logging started with oxen and then later with donkeys (the mechanical kind not the animal) but it also has some great stories and photos about the terrible fires in Idaho during 1910. There's also the background about the Tillamook Burn of 1933 in Oregon. Most of these books by Andrews have a similar approach which is a number of black and white photos combined with stories told to Andrews or which he's gleaned from periodicals long since discontinued. While Andrews has had his critics for his approach, thankfully there was a person such as he willing to do the work in collecting the photos and Superior willing to publish them.
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