North Cascades

TIMBER RESOURCES: LOGGING

Dam Construction

Skagit basin above Rose Dam site, prior to flooding, n.d.
View from Little Jackass Mountain near Hozomeen, looking south.
(Thompson Collection, Washtucna, WA)

The greatest physical impact upon the North Cascadian wilderness, of which logging was a direct result, was Seattle City Light's (SCL) initiation and implementation of its Skagit River hydroelectric project. In the late 1910s SCL began working on the first of three dams to be constructed on the upper Skagit. The tremendous influx of SCL employees and supplies resulted in an immediate need for a sawmill. This would be the only large-scale sawmill ever to operate in the upper Skagit valley. Originally steampowered and later converted to electricity, this mill produced lumber for houses, offices, and storage buildings, as well as rough lumber for the concrete forms used to construct the dams. [63] No longer in existence, the sawmill was sited just west of Goodell Creek, on the north side of the river. [64]

In connection with the construction of its hydroelectric dams, SCL built a railroad from Rockport where the tracks of the Great Northern Railroad terminated, to Newhalem, the site of SCL's first work camp. This rail route was located along the north bank of the river, and a swath of land was logged before rails were laid down. A few years later the railroad extended as far as Diablo, necessitating additional logging along that route.

The Skagit valley did not see much logging activity again until the construction of the SCL third dam was under way in the late 1930s. The projected 1725-foot height of Ross Dam would inevitably flood the upper Skagit River past the Canadian border, inundating an estimated 340 million board feet of marketable timber. [65] In 1945, SCL awarded a contract for the sale and removal of that timber to what eventually became the Decco-Walton Logging Company of Everett, Washington.

The harvesting of this tremendous amount of wood required careful consideration. Decco-Walton planned to fell the timber, float it as the Skagit River backed up (forming Ross Lake) and then boom it together and haul it out through Canada on a road from Hope, British Columbia. From there the timber would be towed down the Fraser River to a commercial sawmill in Anacortes. [66] Anywhere from 70 to 200 men were employed by the Everett company to remove the trees from the old shoreline to the anticipated new shoreline. [67]

The company established a floating log camp which provided housing for employees and an office for a timekeeper. These small, wood-frame structures could be relocated easily as water level in the basin fluctuated and as logging operations progressed. [68]

Skagit River basin logged, n.d.
(Thompson Collection, Washtucna, WA)

Clearing was a slow and tedious process. Nearly ten years after the award of the contract approximately thirty million feet of good timber remained to be brought down. [69] By 1958, essentially all of the cutting that would ever be done was complete, leaving much timber to be permanently covered by Skagit waters. [70] Evidence attesting to this enormous logging effort can be seen today. Though most of the stumps are submerged beneath Ross Lake, whenever the level of the lake drops below full pool, stumps along the rim of the lake can be seen. The haul road through Canada built for this operation extended about a mile past the international boundary, and today it is still in use as an access to the lake and northern section of the national park. Two of the wood-frame buildings from Decco-Walton's floating camps remain in use by the National Park Service as seasonal guard stations. Ross Guard Station is moored in proximity to Ross Dam, and the Lightning Creek Guard Station is tied up at the confluence of that creek and Ross Lake. Other Decco-Walton buildings remain at Hozomeen, still in use and presently owned by Seattle City Light. Another structure was moved north of the international boundary and lies in ruins.