Here are a few incredible shots taken in the 1920s of the loggers in Mineral and National, Wash.
The first shot is of the guys at Westfork Logging Company of Mineral, Wash. The picture was taken September 1928. Looks as though safety equipment hadn’t even been invented yet.
The second picture was taken around the same time. Take a look at the size of the logs they are shipping out and the saws sprinkled throughout the crowd.
The third shot was taken in National, Wash., in 1926. You can see the steam donkey in the background.
The photos were all taken by Kinsey, a famous photographer who was able to capture the early logging scene.
Photos courtesy of the South Pierce County Historical Society.
Click on images to enlarge.
Eatonville To Rainier 
5 responses to “National Loggers (1926 – 1928)”
The top picture reminded me of when I was a kid living at Clearlake and playing king of the log. Lake residents would anchor a 20′ log in the lake so it acted like a boarder fence between neighbors. The logs could still roll back and forth, so we would stand on the log and see who could stay on the longest. It was a very safe game, since you would just fall in the water if you fell off the log. The log was usually kind of slimey from moss, etc. and then with it being wet, it was a challenge just to stand on the log. Imagine, fun and exercise without a Wii game !!!
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Yeah, we had a similar game in the valley, only you were usually falling into mud. 🙂
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Check out the hillside behind them! Driving down Mountain Hwy you would never think the whole area was strip logged like that 80 years or so ago.
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Absolutely! There are pictures of Eatonville too back then and the place looks bare. Trees definitey came back. 🙂
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What wonderful pictures! I have no pictures of my childhood, so I am searching for pictures of the town I was born in and the surrounding area. I was born in National, WA in 1952. We moved to Woodinville in about 1958 I think. My relatives lived in National until it was finally no longer a town. Their names were Charles and Viola Sheppard, Earl and Jenny Sheppard and my grandparents Charley and May Layton. We visited all the time until no one lived there anymore.
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