Clark Kinsey Photo Archive of Logging Operations In Oregon and Washington c. 1920's

Kinsey, Clark. A superb archive of large sepia-tinted silver gelatin photos of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., Tidewater Timber Co., Flora Logging Co., and the Sunset Logging Co. by one of the two famed Kinsey brothers who documented West Coast logging in Oregon and Washington during the high-ball era of the 1920s to the eve of World War II. These images show steam locomotive logging railroads, yarders, donkey engines, loggers, loading rigs, spar poles, camp scenes, along with logging town and mill sites. Seattle, WA: Clark Kinsey, Photographer, ca. 1920-1935. Thirty-four large silver gelatin photos, 29 sized 11 x 14 in., 5 11 x 7 in., sepia-tinted, excellent contrast, photographer’s caption in negative at lower fore-edge of most images (slight lightening of contrast, very slight sunning to a few images, 1 hand-colored), still an excellent archive of images in vg cond. These scarce images record logging crews just after World War I for five different logging and lumber companies, all of which were operating in the northern portion of the Coast Range in Western Oregon. The group opens with a number of images showing the logging operation of the Tidewater Timber Company which was a railroad logging operation based primarily in Clatsop County, OR from 1923 to 1941. The next group focuses on the Flora Logging Co. which was known as one of the most dangerous high-ball era operations in the Pacific Northwest in the 1930s. Joe Flora had purchased the holdings of the Carlton Consolidated Lumber co. in 1923, and hauled logs out of Yamhill, Tillamook, and Washington Counties, OR until the 1939 Tillamook fire burned him out. The historic fire destroyed over 26 logging railroad trestles, equipment, virgin timber, and left locomotives, donkey engines, and other equipment stranded throughout the burned-out area. Flora later declared bankruptcy that same year. The Connacher Logging Co. was formed when Peter Connacher purchased the holdings and equipment of the Beaver Creek Logging Co. in the mid-1920s. Although headquartered in Portland, OR, their logging operations were based out of Vernonia in Washington Co., and would later become absorbed into the Oregon-American Lumber Co. The Sunset Logging Co.’s was incorporated in 1923, and their operations were centered around Timber, OR. By the time the company closed in 1949, they were operating 18 miles of logging railroads in the Coast Range. Kinsey (1877-1956) first practiced photography with his brothers Darius and Clarence, and during the Yukon Gold Rush operated a studio in Grand Forks. Shortly before World War I he began documenting logging and milling camps across the Pacific Northwest, shooting over 50,000 images before retirement in 1945. His logging photos possess remarkable clarity and detail, because he largely shot with a 11 x 14 in. view camera. See: Kamholz, Blain & Kamholz, The Oregon-American Lumber Company: Ain’t No More (2003); Clark Kinsey and the Documentation of the Pacific Northwest Logging Industry, Photograph Collection, University of Washington Libraries.

The photos shown are #1, 14, 50, 13, 11, 16, 25 and 27:

1. [Tidewater Timber Co.] #1 [Crews posted in front of two logging locomotives]. 2. Tidewater Timber Co. # 2 [Overview of camp in logged-off area]. 3. Tidewater Timber Co. #14 [Loading railroad trucks with a hayrack boom]. 4. Tidewater Timber Co. # [Loggers standing on huge loaded logs with hayrack boom end overhead]. 5. Tidewater Timber Co. #50 [Overview of logging camp -- different from 2]. 6. Tidewater Timber Co. # 65 [Crews posed in front of two logging locomotives]. 7. Tidewater Timber Co. # 66 [Crews posted in front of two logging locomotives]. 8. Tidewater Timber Co. #10 [Logging locomotive with Astoria Southern Railway Co. on tender]. 9. Tidewater Timber Co. No. 33 [Two timber fallers on springboards after chopping undercut (hand-colored)]. 10. [Tidewater Timber Co.] No. # showing [loading logs on railroad cars]. 11. [Tidewater Timber Co.] No. 7 [Topping a tree for a spar pole]. 12. [Tidewater timber Co.] No. X showing [Spar pole and donkey engine at landing]. 13. Weyerhaeuser Timber Co./ Longview. No. 13 [Crew posed with donkey engine]. 14. Weyerhaeuser Timber Co./ Longview. No. 15 [Men posed in front of logging camp building -- possibly bunk houses or cook houses]. 15. Flora Log Co. No. 1 [Yarding logs using a donkey engine in a high lead operation]. 16. Flora Log Co. No. 9 [Two pairs of loggers hoisted up the rigging on a spar tree]. 17. Flora Log Co./ Carlton, Ore. No. 11 [Men posted in front of logging camp bunk houses or cook house]. 18. Flora Log Co. No. 16 [Men posted alongside a large donkey engine]. 19. Flora Log Co. No. 24 [Crew at high lead landing with donkey and several railroad trucks (minor scuffing & light damage to 1 portion of image)]. 20. Flora Log Co. No. 25 [Crew on log being hoisted up from a spar tree]. 21. Flora Log Co. No. 27 [Crew posted with large donkey engine or skidder]. 22. Flora Log Co. No. 30 [Men dressed in Sunday best and two women posed by railroad track in front of logging camp buildings]. 23. Flora Log co. No. 34 [Large donkey engine]. 24. flora Log Co. No. 35 [Crew setting on and around a Willamette Iron Works donkey engine]. 25. Flora Log Co. No. 40 [Men posted in front of logging camp house in a logging skid camp]. 26. Consolidated Connocher [sic] Log Co. #69 [Hayrack boom loading logs on a railroad]. 27. Consolidated Connocher [sic] Log Co. # 73 [Crew posed in front of two donkey engines in a high lead logging operation]. 28.Consolidated Connocher [sic] Log Co. # 75 [Crew posed with lunch boxes alongside a railroad track with logged area in background (minor soiling lower fore-edge)]. 29. Sunset Log Co. # 4 [Logging crew posed sitting on empty railroad trucks]. 30. Sunset Log Co. # 6 [View of high lead logging operation with crew, donkey & spar tree]. 31.Sunset Log Co. # 8 [Crew posed alongside of large donkey engine]. 32. “The High Climber does his stuff.”/Kinsey Photo/Seattle/ 23X [Topping a spar tree]. 33. Duplicate view of photograph Tidewater # 65 34. [Snoqualmie Falls] Copyrighted in 1923 by C.K. Kinsey. No. 111