I’m not sure what is more amazing about this Eatonville logging photo: the hard rubber tires, the fact that this vehicle only has three tires, or the size of the log, which looks like it could easily crush this early logging truck.
Logging trucks started showing up in the early 1900’s. I don’t know anything about this particular model, but it shows up on other history sites, like one about nearby logging in Sammamish.
Interesting fact: Many of the early logging trucks had no doors on the driver’s side. Why? Because early trucks had almost no brakes. If a truck suddenly lost control coming down a hill, the driver needed to be able to quickly bail out.
Another interesting fact: Loggers were cutting more spruce trees in the 1910s because that’s what airplanes were made out of then. Spruce logging for airplanes became particularly important once America entered WWI in 1917.
Photo courtesy of Pat Van Eaton.
Click on image to enlarge.
The boy in the bib overalls is Robert Fyfe. The man in the white shirt with his back to the photographer is Robert’s dad, Andrew Fyfe. The log is from Andrew and Charlie Boettcher’s logging job. The truck was hired.
Thanks SO much for the details.
That’s a Knox-Martin Tractor, Minnesota Historical Society :
http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/image.cfm?imageid=94244&Page=1
Thanks!