Heritage series chronicles early logging in Priest Lake

Editor’s note: This is the first of five stories following the Priest Lake Museum's Heritage Series, as well as the museum itself. The series details the history of Priest Lake, beginning with the early history of logging.

By MARY MALONE

Staff writer

COOLIN — It was the summer of 1897 when Howard Gumaer and Gifford Pinchot set the stage for logging in Priest Lake.

Gumaer was a Wisconsin timber cruiser and Pinchot was in Priest Lake at the bidding of President William McKinley. Pinchot was assigned to study the economics, and what that looks like in a place like Priest Lake, which had just been declared a timber reserve, said Priest Lake historian Kris Runberg Smith.

"Howard Gumaer just thinks these are great white pine forests out here," Smith said. "... (Pinchot) is convinced he can change the timber industry in America, that they need to move from their practices of 'scorched earth,' into something more of what we would call conservation methods."

The Priest Lake Heritage series, a four-part event hosted by the Priest Lake Museum, kicked off last Wednesday at the Coolin Civic Center with Smith's presentation on the early history of logging in Priest Lake.

Smith is the author of "Pioneer Voices of Priest Lake," and co-author of "Wild Place: A History of Priest Lake, Idaho." Smith said as a historian, she usually talks in third person. However, during last Wednesday's talk, she revealed that Gumaer was her great-grandfather, as was C.W. Beardmore, who entered the story a short time later as one of the pioneers of the industry.

In those early days, the biggest hurdle facing those who wanted to log the area was how to get the logs out of the Priest Lake area. The U.S. Forest Service would have liked to see a railroad run from Priest River to Priest Lake, and began selling tracts of land to small regional timber companies in hopes they would build the railroad. In 1912, the Forest Service awarded the largest contract to Dalkena Lumber Company.

"But they weren't going to build a railroad," Smith said.

Instead, they "blasted" their way down the Priest River, which also allowed other loggers to drive their logs down the river, she said.

It was around the same time that Beardmore took over the White Pine Lumber Company after it burned down and was subsequently rebuilt.

"C.W. Beardmore, he is like all the rest of these folks," Smith said. "He is from the Midwest, from Wisconsin. Beardmore comes out here and he gets timber claims, and then he creates logging camps ... In 1914, he's got enough resources to buy the mill."

So camps were set up and logging operations continued, she said, with horses, gravity, water and a "whole lot of lumberjacks."

"The problem is, Priest Lake is so remote, and they have to be really innovative about how they go about it," Smith said.

They would log in the winter, in the snow and ice, as fires were a threat in the summer, and the ground was too soft for the wagons loaded with logs and pulled by the horses. In the era of flumes versus chutes to get the logs down the steep hills. Flumes were "really" expensive, Smith said, so most of the Priest Lake operations used chutes. 

As the logs reached the Pend Oreille River, crews would sort and brand them — they even had someone with the title, "stray log inspector," Smith said. Over time, however, the streambed was damaged by the operations.

After the Industrial Workers of the World, known as "Wobblies," began to strike in 1917, camps were upgraded to better suit the needs of the lumberjacks. Following World War I, she said, besides the changes in the way the lumberjacks were taken care of, more mechanized vehicles, heavy enough to carry logs, began to surface. The 1920s were a "heydey" for Priest Lake logging, Smith said, right up until the last big profit year of 1926. The industry had already slowed down, and then America entered the era of the Great Depression in 1929.

In 1925, crews logged 236 million board feet out of Priest Lake. Seven years later, in 1932, they logged 11 million board feet. Only two logging companies survived the Great Depression — the Kaniksu Cedar Company, which later changed its name to Schaefer-Hitchcock, and Diamond Match Company. Diamond Match bought out "almost everybody," she said, as people will still need matches.

"But that is a story for another night," Smith said.

The Priest Lake Heritage Series continues today, July 18, with the history of Hill's Resort, presented by Teri Hill, in the Priest Lake Library. The following Wednesday, July 25, the series will return to the Coolin Civic Center with "Get Lit: Diamond Match Company," which will continue with the history of logging after World War II. The final presentation on Aug. 1 will again be at the Priest Lake Library with the history of Elkin's Resort, hosted by Bob Davis. All presentations are at 7 p.m.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.