Seattle’s Lost Lumber Yards

[@briangarrow448]

Having grown up on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, I was raised with loggers. My first jobs out of high school were as a choker setter for a helicopter logging company and the other job was rafting logs to our local pulp and paper mill to be used as either product or fuel for the boilers. My grandfather was a log rafter in the 1920’s and 30’s in the same little town where I grew up. Boys had two options for jobs- either fishing or logging. Both were extremely dangerous. I decided to get more education and joined a union apprenticeship program that would take me across North America from the Rio Grande to the North Slope. I came back to my hometown to raise my family and never regretted that decision. My kids got a great education and went to university where they excelled and now have incredible success in their careers. And yes, my hometown was filled with immigrants. Many families spoke Norwegian, Swedish or Finnish inside the family home. My friends were named Hans, or Heikki. Good times with wonderful people!

[@mrjumbly2338]

Great presentation, Seattle's ship building history may be a good topic too!

[@CyberViking27]

Seattle's mosquito fleet was world renowned. I agree, great topic!

[@EnlistedBombin]

I worked on a WW2 bouy Tender converted to a Crab Boat in Alaska we had 2 of them 1 retired in 2022 layed up in Everett and the other is still fishing. There is wooden skows from ww2 still up there tendering fish, there is a 1920's fully restored tender up there think there out of gig harbor.

[@stevebeschakis9775]

Wow...one of the few 'guy-with-a-camera' history channels I can watch without cringing! Thanks for a well-produced presentation.

[@denniscrane9753]

I almost cringed at his colonizer statement! It’s really old! You know like a couple hundred years!

[@ParmaJawnn]

@@denniscrane9753 cringing at history on a…… history channel?

[@denniscrane9753]

@@ParmaJawnn you get it!

[@craigchaytor9109]

"In Seattle, the term "skid road" likely originated on Yesler Way, where logs were skidded down the hill to Henry Yesler's mill. The area was populated by lumberjacks and mill workers who spent their pay at saloons and brothels. The district became known as Skid Road, and the nickname was later applied to other city neighborhoods that were considered last resorts for the poor, addicted, or down on their luck." Just a tiny little fun fact.

[@EnlistedBombin]

That and through out Seattles history they have had people living in tents, and the goverment trying to move them. There was on in SODO where the cops started it on fire. 100+ years and they still can't figure it out lol.

[@gregpendrey6711]

❤

[@monawilliams4916]

Wow my neighborhood “Central District”

[@CodyHomes]

Thanks for answering a question I long had on my mind. I live in a mafia and lumber area. I figured it was tied into there somehow.

[@craigchaytor9109]

@CodyHomes yeah I was blown away to learn that ours was the first but given our lumber history and the area it leads to it totally makes sense

[@danielross1033]

I appreciate you covering some of the history of logging logistics in the PNW I grew up in a small coast range town in Oregon that once was a critical part of the local economy due to old growth Douglas fir

[@davidvincent1093]

Just a note Humboldt County (where I am from) and their redwoods were the same way. It is sad to go and visit my daughter there now since the only forest left are the ones that are on federal property. I remember growing up (70 years ago) and seeing 1 tree on a logging truck because that was all that you could fit. Going down highway 101 and smelling all the fresh morning air, with the dampness in the air, fire places burning at the company housing, the mountains of REAL lumber stack to the heavens drying. I sure wish I was a young kid again I sure do miss it there

[@JHizzleinthebizzlePNW]

@@davidvincent1093 they grow back much faster then most people realize

[@oceanmariner]

Best timber bumper sticker I ever saw: Due to the paper shortage, wipe your ass with a spotted owl.

[@derekcoaker6579]

😂

[@MelW123]

I remember when that subject and all those bumper stickers 1st came out😂

[@pizzadude6615]

Hungry? Out of work? Eat a spotted owl.

[@aaroneaton4849]

My Grandmother worked for a local mill where I live in the office for forty four years. She was working when the first computerized sawmill was installed, one person could do the job of ten people now. Mills have just gotten more and more automated since. That is the biggest killer of jobs, hands down.

[@Jeff-sl8xz]

@@aaroneaton4849 that and shears, slashers and feller bunchers don't have any use for a piece cutter with a chainsaw in my neck of the woods anymore the big loggers claims that it makes their insurance go up if they even have a chainsaw on the job site for trimming loads 🤷

[@cmw184]

300ft+ tall Doug firs were found all over northern washington. Some over 400ft, hell the nooksack giant, cut down in whatcom county in 1897, was 465 feet tall.

[@mikedrown2721]

Fresh cut lumber smells good

[@TheBathrobeWizard]

I would say something snarky. However, Fresh Cut Lumber smells so good I forgot what snarky thing I was going to say.

[@motionsick]

@mikedrown2721 one of my favorite smells in the world is yellow cedar.

[@warrencarr5775]

@mikedrown2721 fresh cut lumber does smell great as long as it's Douglas fir. That pitch is sublime, Hemlock on the other hand, sawn up smells terrible even worse when the hemlock logs have been stored in the salt water. An not to forget that sweet as honey western red cedar . Peace n Love

[@JonnyRocketfuel]

It makes me sick. But it might be because it smells like work.

[@themoretruthfultruth]

I like oatmeal.

[@richardgauthier2155]

It's called a spring board. Using a sturdy piece of wood, sometimes fitted to barbed metal tree end piece, was used to overcome adverse terrain or the swell of the tree butt.

[@Thepriest39]

@@richardgauthier2155 If he is going to do a video on logging and saw mills get the names of the tools correct. Doesn’t take much research to find the correct names.

[@if5566]

Yes. Only heard it as springboard, myself, and we were taught that the holes left in the stumps from the practice are called springboard marks.

[@okboomer6201]

There is an ongoing effort to plant Sequoia and Redwood trees in the Midwest, Appalachia, in the East Coast states. I have a 11-year old Sequoia thriving in my backyard (SW Michigan). Long after society and my city has sunk into the ground, I hope that my tree will tower above the region. 🌲

[@motionsick]

@@okboomer6201 that's awesome

[@Geema2004]

@@okboomer6201 Unfortunately, they will not be allowed to grow for 100 years or more. 😢

[@rx7171]

@@okboomer6201 there is a grove of redwoods in New Zealand that was planted a hundred years ago or so as an experiment. It is now a tourist attraction.

[@HubertofLiege]

“We don’t need loggers, do we mommy, because we get our lumber from the store…”

[@paullunkes8383]

Great video…many thanks!

[@ITSHISTORY]

Thank you too!

[@rogerpenske2411]

The bogus spotted owl nonsense created one of the funniest radio bits to ever hit American airwaves: Rush Limbaugh having a spotted owl in a jar of formaldehyde, on his desk in his broadcast studio, actually brought out federal agents to check out and see if this was real. What a bunch of chadrools!

[@fredmitchel1236]

Ol Rush was quite a blowhard. Good for absolutely nothing. What did he accomplish ? I guess now with Bunker Boy in his throne we can clear cut what we have left. And make America great again.

[@airborneshadow5827]

I have a request for a future video topic. The Great Fire of 1901 that had occurred in Jacksonville City, Florida.

[@jetsons101]

Ryan, always enjoy your vid's, but this was enjoyable as well as being educational. Washington and Idaho are my two favorite states.

[@russ549]

I'm from a coastal city on a bay in northern California in the heart of the redwoods and fir forests. Growing up this city had the same sky scraper like stacks of lumber as far as the eye could see. There is a whole town owned by the pacific lumber company. Apartments, groceries, everything for their employees. Now it's all mostly shut down but thank god there is still tini little patches of old growth redwoods because what little that's left of the old growth redwood forest is trully a magical experience.

[@paladinkhan]

I wish at the very least that these incredible trees were preserved in some way, it's unfortunate to see that they are essentially all just turned into planks. Imagine if we had incredible woodworking structures of our own style like they do in Japan with these massive trunks. Of course, some would be lost to time with fire or other means, but at the very least wed have something from them. I wish there were more old grown forests in the world. I would love to live among forests that dwarf ours today

[@JohnMoore-qv4vn]

They did build incredible structures with all those planks; today we refer to them as houses, buildings, and towns.

[@d.martin7692]

When I was a boy in the 50's we would go to visit my grand uncles in north Seattle. Two of my grand uncles worked in saw mills. Both had missing fingers. Even in the 50's there were still woods around Seattle that have all disappeared now.

[@dantecrosetto6358]

one of the last of the big lumber mills was Barbee Mill located on the west side of Lake Washington. It totally shut down in the early 00s and was promptly demolished around 2007. The Seattle Seahawks training facility, an HOA neighbourhood and an EPA cleanup side are parts of the former mill. From the lake side there are still dozens of old pilings and docks leftover when they dismantled the dry docks.

[@danielescobar7618]

Dang this guy is hitting where im from in the beginning and now covering where im now at.

[@thejaxx5]

In regards to Denny & Yesler, there is a video up titled Seattle's Map, Explained by a guy named Daniel. It explains why the city is divided the way it is on one side of Yesler and the other side. Great info for those that are interested in history of cities.

[@glenlongstreet7]

When I moved to Washington, I read a lot of history about it. The account that really sticks in my mind is the washing away of Denny Hill using sea water and high-pressure water pumps. Another was the battle between the capitalists and the Wobblies.

[@PatrickJernigan]

They tried to cut them all you remember here come the brides that was about the bolt Brothers in town that they built call Seattle named after the chief of the Indian tribe that lived in the area

[@motionsick]

Timber and lumber is still big business in the PNW. I regularly go exploring on Weyerhouser and Forest Service land. The forests are endless here.

[@gregpendrey6711]

Those are plantations. Forests have layers of plant and animal diversity.

[@motionsick]

@gregpendrey6711 🤣

[@romchompa6858]

R.I.P. so many wonderful trees 🙏

[@TylerTheBassCreator]

They grow back at least lol

[@romchompa6858]

@@TylerTheBassCreator eventually yes

[@echohunter4199]

Lol, you do know that they replant after logging and in most cases the forest grows to the same size within 35 years. And if we didn’t clear certain areas of forest, disease, bug infestation and fire destroys huge swaths of the forest. Forest fires were insanely common before white men came to the region and they quickly established methods to restrict the fires and be able to harvest products. If you did a before and after comparison of lost forests to fire and logging, you’d see that the balance was equal.

[@echohunter4199]

I grew up on the Cascades in Oregon and one time a huge wind storm hit the mountains and blew down millions of trees on the west side of the mountains near the crest. Coniferous trees have weaker roots than hard wood trees and they survive by rapid growth (especially Redwoods, you’d be shocked to see how fast they grow when given open sunlight.). Then when a beetle or moth infestation hits a forest, it looks like a bomb went off, sad to see dead trees. We sometimes can’t harvest those diseased trees for various reasons, the largest being spreading the pest or pesticides were used to kill the insects and it must be left alone. We all love our forests and we know how to balance stewardship, proper harvesting and regeneration.

[@gregpendrey6711]

​@@echohunter4199😂nonsense

[@if5566]

Thanks for the great vid! Good presentation, and pleasant. I also really liked that this didnt have distracting music or AI artwork.

[@drwho5437]

Also check out the Big Blow of 1921 which blew down billions of board feet of timber.

[@xmassan20906]

Poor trees. 😥

[@smplyizzy]

They grow back!

[@BeauQuillen]

R.I.P trees

[@xmassan20906]

@@smplyizzy The giant old growth forest is gone forever.

[@kimhall5863]

SO Interesting‼️ Thank you for the education on the Seattle lumber industry❗️Really learned a lot, very well done 👍🏻

[@dwaynekoblitz6032]

Very well done. A great story.

[@Josh-yr7gd]

Nice fade, Ryan!!

[@tbmike23]

Also known as: Washington's lost old-growth forests.

[@thsreklesboi]

Thank u bro for doing Seattle where I live

[@markpreston6930]

@@thsreklesboi You live in Kent.

[@thsreklesboi]

@ I used to for a few years then went to puyallup for a bit and down in in Renton

[@markpreston6930]

@@thsreklesboi Why do you call those dumps Seattle?

[@thsreklesboi]

@@markpreston6930 because it is a borrow of Seattle and a lot of people don’t know about the surrounding cities of Seattle

[@Gizathecat2]

Very well done! Snohomish County, just north of Seattle had its own timber products industry too! These mills burped out so much pollution that when driving north on Interstate 5, that someone in your car would ask, “was that you?!?”

[@SteveSnowman]

Good watch, thanks. Lots of trees, snow and ice for sure. - N Idaho -

[@danielcote5841]

Fascinating episode, thank you 😀

[@SandCrabNews]

I found a brick with a logo on it and learned about old brick yards. Many old buildings hold secrets yet to be discovered.

[@JHizzleinthebizzlePNW]

We need more videos like this. You should do one on Raymond,wa.. massive timber town baack in the day. Its still a timber town with a mill but much much smaller

[@CosmicJib]

Bet that lumber is better than the new lumber being used today

[@atodaso1668]

The trees were so big people made homes in the stumps called stump houses

[@rx7171]

Thank god we still have some left on federal lands. If not they would all be gone.

[@user-cx4ev9fw1k]

spoiler they cut down all the trees!

[@bongwelll]

It's sad what we do for profit. If don't find a way to live more in harmony with nature we will go away. I'm from Seattle and even 30 miles outside the city it looks more like Paramus NJ (I live in NYC for the last 25 years). That area of the world isn't set up for that much population.

[@solorollo9756]

Gotta love the concrete jungle Seattle people telling everyone else in the state how to live

[@rogerpenske2411]

Don’t worry. Democrat Party policies are chasing people out, unfortunately they bring their horses ass politics with them, to Utah, Nevada, I don’t know, Tony Montana, and Arizona. Fortunately, they are slowly beginning to wake up to the shit that they used to live in, versus the peace and prosperity in which the rest of us live.

[@agapetos440]

Got your wires crossed here. Spokane is traditionally referred to as the Gateway to the Pacific Northwest not Seattle. Spokane is also the Northern-most major city in the lower 48 (47°39' vs 47°36' for Seattle)

[@strobelightbrian]

Here is a suggestion for a future video: The downfall of the Berlin NH USA mills and how the river shaped them.

[@ExploringCabinsandMines]

I see the pictures of the big trees I don't see as many big stumps in the woods.

[@zacharycolton267]

Long live lumber

[@Jonathan_O]

Ryan, look into Ybor City in Tampa. Lots of history and used to be home to the cigar industry.

[@danbowes]

Only took like what, 150 years for us to almost wipe out the oldest forest. I get it, we needed the wood but did no one back have any tiny tickle of foresight that it would never grow back as big?

[@FadingVitals]

My heart is bleeding when I see how they cut a 3000 years old tree!

[@Gnarlodious]

I grew up on a stump farm east of Redmond, stumps of a size you wouldn't believe. I'm sure they are all rotted way by now, the last evidence there were giants on the earth in those days.

[@lucmarchand617]

Thank you expose lumber business change a lot.Canada is same boat.BC change a lot too most westcoast.The book"lumber king" expose how much the business change.The important is now get better organize from bush to lumber store.Thank you expose very important industries. 😊

[@b0rd3n]

so, what is left of that? i didn't get that part

[@johnsheetz6639]

I'm from the south I've been all over the country but as far north as it is the coastal parts not near as old as the inland areas further south. Yes it's raining and rainy all the time in the winter keyword being rain not snow

[@kevinfoster1138]

OMG the thumb nail said "lost forever" of course it's lost forever we'll never see trees like that ever again.

[@pburgvenom]

This is my turf

[@Sam-sj4pd]

Ive never been the one to get in the way of making a dollar yet somehow watching these huge trees being felled kinda hurts a feeling or two.. How the hell did they allow it back then.. makes you wonder how they thought etc..

[@treetop5752]

THE EASTERN USA CHESSNUT WOULD BE GREAT TOPIC

[@ryanpenrod1859]

Great story to demonstrate how humans can unintentionally destroy entire vast swaths of nature while prospering at the expense of future generations.

[@norml.hugh-mann]

12:40 the old spar pole

[@themoretruthfultruth]

How do you lose a lumber yard?

[@AcmePotatoPackingPocatello]

Washington State forests are a disaster. Private sector-brutally monopolistic State forests horrible management. Allowing whole logs to be loaded on ships ... backstabbing the industry. The workers. Washington is beyond doubt one of theee most mismanaged AGRICULTURAL/FORESTRY in the World. Both sides of the cascades ..gutless politicians. I was a farmer and sawmill worker from 1971 thru 2019....what a disgrace. Billionaires gutted sawmills.....politicians sold out then act GREEN. HIDEOUSLY CORRUPT. State is going down...everytown is gutted with homeless like so much litter.

[@sjTHEfirst]

But when did the brides get there?

[@CyberViking27]

@@sjTHEfirst 1864

[@margemiller5503]

If tthey want to bring back a dinosaur by DNA they should have no problem bringing back owls.

[@HansOvervoorde]

1 horse power is 0.7867 oxe is what I found.

[@TheDuckofDoom.]

A lot of sloppy research here regarding details, though it gets the big picture okay.

[@markpreston6930]

Seattle without ranch dressing and Led Zeppelin will kick ass.

[@GG-jm6gi]

how about seattles lost sawmills.

[@108farley]

16:10In the 80's. I remember the bumber sticker. " I wipe my ass with a spotted owl"

[@peterchaloner2877]

Scotch pine, never 'Scottish pine.' Just like Scotch broth and Scotch bonnet. Sod the SNP.

[@geneinman4488]

They use to work those poor animals to Death

[@wapartist]

Is ironic to think about something happening in Seattle that is anti environmental and arguably macho haha

[@davidswanson5436]

12k years ? Ya, right. 100k more like it maybe more

[@Derman666]

What a waste of trees

[@rickwilliams967]

Annnddd it's already going to shit. Hasn't been very long.

[@fredmitchel1236]

The good old days. Clear cutting. Good ol exploitiation. Yah a few got rich. Now we have global warming. That was when America was great.

[@howdy627]

Star fish gone ,whales baby's life is a year if there lucky , Human waste over flowing in Seattle bay every winter

[@dazzanw5067]

Wow…..I love how the author completely ignores the absolute failure of the “endangered species act” and “northwest forest plan” now calling for the deprivation of over half million 500000 barred owls, that means kill half million barred owls to save the northern spotted owl! So let’s think about this, the timber wars of the 90s stops all logging which is part of Forest management, timber has to come out of the forest, this is integral part of proper forest management (see forest fires; which not only destroy trees/forests habitat/species but also completely decimates everything, including the soil…future of any forest! which means future generations will grow up with no sense of the PNW true environment) DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FAILURE HERE?! When emotions/propaganda deter the senses of the public, for the magnitude of their fuckery is complete ignorance for not only the environment/forests but for the future of the land/planet! Ridiculously irresponsible ignorance!!!

[@wojomojo]

Genocide. You left out genocide of the natives by the settlers.

[@dlmac]

@@wojomojo conquered

[@wojomojo]

@ After WWII, the Germans had the conscience to recognize their sins and owned up to it. We can’t possibly expect MAGA to have such morals.

[@Philip-w5l]

The main reason the lumber business has hit the skids?🤔 Maybe because they cut all the trees down???😢

[@theseventhgeneration6910]

There's only one tiny patch of original forest in the entire state.

[@jamesleyda365]

But! it is still substantial in comparison to most regions of the world. I have explored or hiked much of it and it is damn awesome🤘

[@gonelucid]

Awesome fact

[@TRIPSTTR]

@@theseventhgeneration6910 that's not true at all, where did you hear this?

[@HubertofLiege]

Haha

[@hatchetation]

They're small and patchy, but there's more than one.

[@Slippindisc]

Cant stand this preachy stuff, I gotta say.

[@jimwjohnq.public]

The environmental wackos had a whole list of species they were going to use to shut down logging if the spotted owl didn't work.

[@tylernathan7985]

Now we have the tech to log those massive trees easily, but there are no more trees to log, because the archaic tech cut most of them down. Anybody, anybody…….

[@HubertofLiege]

@@tylernathan7985 no more trees…….

[@mrpotter315]

Nice job on the history portion. See if you can get a "music supervisor" on board to help you with some underscoring. What you're using is very weak.

[@jamesleyda365]

Awesome!🤘 this is my family's history in the Pacific Northwest, I love it!!! Generations of loggers, saw mill workers..... and Sasquatch👣 👀... yep! Edit: all of them worked in the beautiful Pacific Northwest

[@ITSHISTORY]

What an amazing place to have heritage! My family was from New York / Chicago - not exactly as visually appealing

[@StephenMortimer]

MY GRANDPA DELIVERED THAT LUMBER IN SEATTLE WITH HORSES AND WAGON

[@WhiteBreadThunder-op6in]

Wait for it,… history, history, good so far, oh, let’s toss in some spotted owl political enviro Rhetoric,…. And screw up an otherwise decent content.

[@devingarrett5152]

@@WhiteBreadThunder-op6in I haven't fully watched the video and I know referring to the end of old growth harvesting. That's what happened, that's the history.

[@masskracka]

@@WhiteBreadThunder-op6in could not agree with you more

[@atodaso1668]

Sophisticated way of life? Their most advanced technology was burning out a tree to make canoe.

[@benparrish9547]

Must be hard going out of your way to say that kind of stuff

[@atodaso1668]

Sorry for calling out reality, they were basically cavemen.