Washington County Heritage Online

John Labbe oral history recording on lumbering and logging Part 1

Part one of an audio recording of an oral history of John T. Labbe recorded on January 26, 1978, on logging in Washington County, Oregon, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Labbe had worked in logging since he was a kid during the summer and he has written a book called Railroading in the Woods. In this recording, he tells the history of logging operations, the mills, and the railroads, and how they got started in Washington County. He describes different people in the field and how they were involved including Mr. Jones of Cedar Mills, C. H. Wheeler of the Timber and Cochran Mills, John DuBois who owned many mills including the Wheeler Lumber Company; Tony Laussman of Stanley-Smith Timber Company and Sunset Logging Company; Mr. Miller of Cox-Miller lumber company; and David Eccles who built railways throughout Washington state and Washington County. He talked about gyppo loggers and describes the most and least successful ones- Lyda, whose operation was likely the one that started the Tillamook Burn, and Max Meyer, a former baseball player who used old and used equipment. He mentions that the Tualatin River was not only once used for logging but for boats as well. He finishes with describing the life of loggers and how the Tillamook Burn affected the logging business. There is a typed introduction and a full transcription of the interview.

Labbe, John

Washington County (Or.) -- History

Forestry

Labbe, John

Washington County (Or.)

1 sound cassette (52 min.)

English

WCM_OH_434a

In Copyright

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Five Oaks Museum

Meyer, Lloyd

Audiocassettes

Sound