The Lumberjacks Who Felled California’s Giant Redwoods

Oct 19, 2012 36 comments

This series of photos from the 1915-era capture lumberjacks working among the redwoods in Humboldt County, California, when tree logging was at its peak. The photos are part of the Humboldt State University Library Special Collections, a series of pictures from northwest California from the 1880s through the 1920s by Swedish photographer A.W. Ericson.

When Euro-Americans swept westward in the 1800s, they needed raw material for their homes and lives. Commercial logging followed the expansion of America as companies struggled to keep up with the furious pace of progress. Timber harvesting quickly became the top manufacturing industry in the west.

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When gold was discovered in north-western California in 1850, thousands crowded the remote redwood region in search of riches and new lives. Failing in efforts to strike it rich in gold, these men turned toward harvesting the giant trees for booming development in San Francisco and other places on the West Coast. These trees are the tallest and one of the most massive tree species on Earth. The size of the huge trees made them prized timber, as redwood became known for its durability and workability. By 1853, nine sawmills were at work in Eureka, a gold boom town established three years prior due to the gold boom. At that period of time, redwood forest covered more than 2,000,000 acres (8,100 km2) of the California coast.

The loggers used axes, saws, and other early methods of bringing the trees down. Rapidly improving technology in the 20th century allowed more trees to be harvested in less time. Transportation also caught up to the task of moving the massive logs. Railways started replacing horses and oxen. Land fraud was common, as acres of prime redwood forests were transferred from the public domain to private industry. Although some of the perpetrators were caught, many thousands of acres of land were lost in land swindles.

After many decades of unobstructed clear-cut logging, serious efforts toward conservation began. In 1918, the Save-the-Redwoods League was founded to preserve remaining old-growth redwoods, and their work resulted in the establishment of Prairie Creek, Del Norte Coast, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Parks among others. By the time Redwood National Park was created in 1968, nearly 90% of the original redwood trees had been logged.

Today, the Redwood National and State Parks combined contain only 133,000 acres (540 km2) of redwood forest. In addition to the redwood forests, the parks preserve other indigenous flora, fauna, grassland prairie, cultural resources, portions of rivers and other streams, and 37 miles (60 km) of pristine coastline.

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Sources: Wikipedia, NPS, DailyMail

Comments

  1. That's a shit ton of wood

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  2. I have to say, this is really sad.

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  3. Replies
    1. you have no respect.

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    2. You, sir, are the one who has no respect if you find this type of history any other way

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  4. My great grandparents were glad the wood built them a house, so were my grandparents, so were my parents and so am I.
    My kids, on the other hand, would rather live out in the elements UNDER a tree instead of in a house built FROM a tree.
    Hail Gaia, I guess.

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    Replies
    1. My grandfather was one of those loggers, and he worked his butt off to supply the wood that was demanded by the country. It was growing at an amazing rate. It was the building material of choice. There were no alternatives that people were aware of. It is easy for people to criticize the past because of their "tree hugger" mentality today. The government did not fill their pockets with free handouts. They had to work. What a concept.

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    2. I understand that making a living was hard but surely they could have logged the smaller redwoods and left the large ones. It would have taken less effort as well. These massive trees are some of the wonders of the world and now they are endangered.

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  5. Giant redwoods over pasture... Twisted living!

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  6. What would they have done without animals to do this work? Would those trees still be there I wonder?

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    1. People would have moved the trees using another method which would have probably involved more people than you see animals pulling the thing, and increased use of log rollers. The increased labour would have driven up the price of each redwood.

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  7. I've pedaled through all of this on my journey and I assure you all that the redwoods are in fine shape right now and Humboldt county and the state have done a wonderful job of preserving them

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, a TINY proportion of them!

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    2. Portion of them, only a portion remain.

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  8. Honest old timey swindlers

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  9. Yep WW1 and the 1918 flu pandemic were great times and greed was something in the future.

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  10. I only wish - at least - more pictures existed, if not the trees themselves

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  11. I think they worked their ass off to take care of their family they are awsome

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  12. Times were different then and these men didn't have the luxury of unemployment and other government handouts to feed their families. It's called a work ethic, and they had it. So please excuse me if I look at these pictures and reflect with pride for what these men did rather than weep for the trees. It sure beats looking at pictures of starving children in the street!

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    1. Killing life has nothing to do with work ethic. Western "culture" misunderstand existance complitely. That country was bulit on the BIGGEST GENOCIDE ON HUMAN HISTORY. Man can live in harmony with Nature, it is more then meets the eye.
      Starving children and cutting wood has no realtion mister.

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    2. These trees were nearly eradicated! What these men did was greedy and evil! I'm sure you agree with Fracking too - hey it puts people to work!

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  13. I'm amazed ..... I think they should of just used slaves and saved those poor ole beast ! Which brings the question .... Wouldn't it be better if we would just leave all the trees until they died and rotted... Slaves and rot ... That would be best .

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  14. The point is, it's not the lumberjacks that benefited, it was the greedy lumber companies who would have felled the entire state if not stopped. Sustainable practice was ignored.

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  15. How many of those who oppose logging live in a home made from wood? and how many wood products do they use?

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    Replies
    1. Homes are built from Pine, not Redwoods - and nowadays the pine is sustainable sourced.

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  16. What a team, that steam donkey made the show soon.

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  17. Good honest people? Are you kidding me? Cutting down trees that take hundreds of years to grow with reckless abandon! These people were opportunists who didn't give a toss about anything but their own fortunes.

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  18. Alot of hard work. Glad some people had the foresight to set aside land as National Parks.

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  19. Designlucas, pine is a horrible wood,btw.

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  20. Nothing against the work done to provide for family, I see a lot of black and white in this comment thread. Yes they did work very hard but I am sure the large portion of profits went to the owners and not the laborers. These people were cutting down trees that sprouted from the dirt before the savior they likely believed in was supposedly alive on earth. They were older than the recorded family history of the men felling them. It is sad what man does with no respect for the world he lives in. As someone stated earlier, the natives lived on this land and respected it. Many of the large trees blew to pieces from the force and weight of them hitting the ground accompanied with the splits that grow vertically in them. It was ignorant, wasteful, careless, and greedy; end of story.

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  21. Some of these trees that were cut way back then can still be bought even today! There are companies that are raising submerged logs from the fresh water rivers were they sank and they are as good today as they as they were 150 years ago! They mill them into lumber and the quality is beyond belief. Old growth lumber, slow, natural growth rings, truly beautiful to behold! Makes masterful grade furniture to pass on to your grandchildren! http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-sinker-wood-20140713-story.html

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    1. No it's not beautiful to witness the death of these beautiful trees. Houses and furniture can easily be made with different varieties of wood. Buying redwood lumber is helping the industry that endangered these amazing trees. You have no sense of wonder for this world besides your own self interest and greed. Absolute parasite you are.

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  22. I hope these greedy people that cut these majestic trees down burn in hell as we speak... I hate greedy ignorant people and it was wrong end of story

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  23. Before it became impossible to get redwood, I built a deck with 2x6x20' redwood. It was built in 1982 and still looks great! The current owner sent me some photos, I was amazed! https://photos.app.goo.gl/pwbAc8Ug4NXbc1aw8

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