TACOMA is the largest lumber manufacturing point on the Pacific Coast. The manufacture of lumber is the most important industry in the Pacific Northwest. In 1900 there were twelve lumber and shingle mills in operation in TACOMA. In 1903 there were twenty-two in operation, employing an average of 2,682 wage-earners. The increase in the lumber and shingle output since 1900 may be shown by the following figures, based upon reports from the local mills.
Year. Lumber, feet. Shingles. Total value. 1900 185,414,130 178,386,000 $2,517,967 1901 219,150,000 251,000,000 2,695,700 1902 303,654,557 347,565,000 4,069,000 1903 361,522,766 376,935,500 5,110,398
[Illustration: St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company’s Mill and Wheeler-Osgood Company’s New Sash and Door Factory.]
The increase in three years in the number of mills engaged in the lumber and shingle industry at TACOMA is at the rate of 83.3 per cent.; in the lumber cut at the rate of 96.6 per cent.; in the output of shingles at the rate of 94.0 per cent.; and in the value of the product at the rate of 103.0 per cent.
The St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company’s plant on the flats between the City Waterway and the Puyallup River, is the largest saw mill plant in the United States and probably in the world. It was established in 1888. Its original capacity of 300,000 feet per diem has been increased to 500,000 feet by the erection of a second mill since 1900, and during the year 1903 the company cut 122,348,562 feet of fir, spruce, hemlock and cedar and sawed, dried and packed 63,822,000 shingles, its output for the year being valued at $1,761,698. The company operates five logging camps along the Northern Pacific and Tacoma Eastern railways and employs 1,500 men.
The Tacoma Mill Company’s plant on the waterfront at “Old Town” is the second largest lumber plant at TACOMA in capacity, number of men employed and the value of its output. This company is the successor of the firm of Hanson & Ackerson who established a mill in 1868 on the shore of Commencement Bay where the present plant of the Tacoma Mill Company now stands. The first settlement at TACOMA was due to this mill. Its original capacity was 40,000 feet per diem, which has been increased to 300,000 feet, the output for 1903 including 85,824,204 feet of lumber and 42,738,500 shingles, valued at $1,000,000.