Mason County’s Timber heritage
From Alaska to Northern California, logging towns are an iconic part of the Pacific Northwest. Mill towns, log sorts and boom towns all have their roots in this historical legacy. With Mason County’s Forest Festival fast approaching it is a good time to reflect on Shelton’s distinctive forestry heritage.
Felling trees with a crosscut saw
The crosscut saw, a key tool for felling trees and settling the Pacific coast, appeared in Europe in the mid-15th century and was made in America by the mid-1800s. It was used by two workers, known as “fallers,” who each held one end of the saw. This tool had a thin blade with teeth designed to cut against the tree's grain. The fallers would carve notches into the tree and place supports called springboards to help them saw. Large axes would create an undercut, ensuring the tree fell in a chosen direction. Cutting down a big tree could take up to a week, followed by the difficult job of cutting the log into movable sections.
From the 1880s to the 1930s, two-person saws, 4 to 16 feet long, were essential for loggers to cut down many firs and cedars. They were largely replaced by chain saws by World War II and nearly disappeared. However, the Wilderness Act of 1964 revived crosscut sawing by requiring their use for maintaining wilderness trails.
Undercut in a Washington Cedar, 16’ diameter, Olympic Peninsula 1906 | Darius Kinsey,1869-1945
TOLLIE, THE SHAY
Invented in 1879 by Ephraim E. Shay, shay locomotives use a gear drive powered by three cylinders connected to a line shaft that drives all the wheels on one side. At 10 mph, the exhaust sounds like an old-style train moving at 70 mph.
Shay #700 was built in 1924 in Ohio by Lima Locomotive Works for Phoenix Logging Co. “Tollie” was first called “The Ted Elliot” after the first superintendent of Simpson’s railroad.
The Engine that Could.
The Shay locomotive could do what other engines could not. It handled steep hills and tight curves and could grip rails on floating ties over thin layers of soil. It safely crossed shaky wooden bridges over rivers and deep valleys in the woods. When other trains couldn’t reach it, the Shay was used for the job. It operated in the deep woods until 1949 and was used in Shelton and McCleary until it was retired in February 1958.
In 1959 the name was changed to honor Sol Simpson’s wife, Mary, also known as “Tollie.” The same year Simpson Lumber Company donated the hard-working little Shay to the City of Shelton for the 15th Mason County Forest Festival.
Initially in Brewer Park, it was moved to the Post Office on Railroad in 1983, for the 39th Forest Festival in a joint effort by City of Shelton & Shelton Chamber to celebrate railroad timber history.
Volunteers spurce up Tollie, 2024
Spar Trees & Donkey Engines
Tall, sturdy tree were selected as spar trees for their height and location. A climber limbed the tree and attached a block and tackle to the top as the anchor point in a high-lead logging system. Wires to the ground stabilized the tree and pulleys were attached to the tree to drag the logs from the forest.
A steam-powered donkey engine was consisting of a wood-fired engine and gearing on a skid that turned winches containing wire rope. Designed to lift, drag, and move logs from the stump to a sorting area, donkey engines were also used to load logs on train cars that transported logs to mill sites. John Dolbeer of the Dolbeer and Carson Lumber Company of Eureka, California, is generally credited as the inventor of the donkey engine. He first tried out his invention in 1881, and the device was patented in 1882. Many innovations followed, including the use of wire rope, the addition of more cylinders, and multiple drums.
Darius Kinsey Seattle” #8787 North Olympic Heritage
Bert Kellogg Collection Darius Kinsey,1869-1945
Dinky displayed at Forest Festival, 1946
Engine No. 1, built by H. K. Porter Company, arrived in Shelton in 1885 for the Satsop Railroad, later the Simpson Logging Co. It was officially named “C. F. White” but was affectionately called Dinky.
Dinky was Mason County's first steam locomotive, used for hauling logs and switching duties. It also served longer trips as a supply train and worked in logging camps to handle extra tasks without disrupting regular engines and crews. To prepare for a locomotive display at the second Forest Festival, Simpson Logging Co. restored Dinky. “Old No. 1, the famous C. F. White, was rebuilt by Simpson Logging Company under George Drake's direction, who used Porter Company records for plans and new parts.” After the festival, Dinky was moved to Camp Grisdale, a new logging community, where it was displayed for around 40 years.
In 1985, Camp Grisdale was demolished, leaving Dinky without a place. Dave Skagen, a locomotive engineer, and Bill Parsons restored the locomotive. The restored black and red Dinky was displayed in downtown Shelton during the 1989 Forest Festival. In 1995, at 110 years old, Dinky was moved to Auburn, where it was displayed with a caboose and ballast car outside the Supermall of the Northwest. Dinky stayed at the mall until around 2013, when it was transported by truck to the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad in Elbe.
Dinky, 1889 — Mason County Historical Museum
Shelton, 1946 — Mason County Historical Museum
Bridging the way int the forest
In Washington State, logging railroads were instrumental in transporting logs to mills and connecting to mainline tracks, as well as transporting equipment, workers, and camp facilities. These railroads played a significant role in the state's early logging industry and have been preserved in some cases as heritage railroads.
In the late 1880s, logging became a major industry in Washington, with railroads being used to transport large quantities of lumber to mills.
The goal was to find the biggest trees to send to the mills, and log trains would stretch for miles.
Simpson Logging Company operated an extensive network of 80 miles of track in Mason County, using the High Steel Bridge and Vance Creek Bridge to reach timber in the Olympic Mountains. These bridges are among the highest railroad bridges in the world.
At 347 feet (106 m) in height, Vance Creek is the second-highest railroad arch in the United States after the nearby High Steel Bridge. It was decommissioned in the 1970s, during the decline of logging on the Olympic Peninsula.
High Steel Bridge is accessible by vehicle. Vance Creek is not open to the public.
A Simpson Logging Company train crosses the bridge sometime before the 1950 road conversion. There were once hundreds of logging railroad companies in the Pacific Northwest. Simpson Logging was the last one running in the United States.