Diameter 10 feet. Falling timber at Yakima L.[umber] Co.; Yakima L.[umber] Co. [Two exceptional large albumen photographs capturing two loggers standing on springboards 10 feet above the ground

Item Details

McMillan [McMillin], Wash.:, [n.p.],, [ca. 1890]., N/A

N/A, VG

Two mounted albumen photographs sized 7.25 x 9.75 in., on 10 x 12 beige-coloured studio board, location identification & caption w/in the negative, w/ 1 featuring faint pencil annotations on verso (minor dustsoiling, edgewear to studio boards, chipping at 1 corner, slight over-exposure to 1 image), still VG bright photos with excellent contrast.

Two very scarce albumen photographs depicting the logging operations of the Yakima Lumber Co. along the Puyallup River in Pierce County near McMillin, Washington at the end of the 19th Century. The first image captures two young loggers standing on springboards, with enough detail revealed to indicate very worn caulk boots for the pair, a burned out tree next to the giant 10 foot circumference they are felling, and fellow logger standing below holding an axe. The other image features a 4-oxen team hauling logs into the sawmill with loggers and family members standing, steam from the engine on the left hand side, and mist spreading out into the surrounding hillside. Although unsigned, or marked, these images do have the visual and physical characteristics of early unsigned John Fletcher Ford (1862-1914), before he shifted primarily to photographing logging camps along the Columbia River from Portland & Vancouver area up to Astoria and Ilwaco. 

The Yakima Lumber Co. was owned and operated by Charles P. Wilcox whose operations were initially based in Pierce County, Washington Territory around Tacoma and Puyallup, before later moving the company to Yakima, where he built the historic Queen Anne home still located at 220 North 16th Avenue in Yakima, WA. See: Historic Houses of Yakima Thematic, National Register of Historic Places Inventory, National Park Service, Feb. 18, 1987.