National, Wash. was an active logging area for years. A widely known photographer, Clark Kinsey, who documented the Northwest logging industry took some amazing pictures of the logging sites.
Here is a Kinsey shot taken around 1920. You have to look closely to see the logger. He probably wouldn’t get high marks from OSHA today, but it definitely looks exciting.
The photo is entitled High Lead. High lead logging, a method of cable logging, was pretty common during that time. In fact, you can see the cables strung to the top of the tree. If you’d like to read more about high lead logging, just click here.
Photos are courtesy of Laurie Anderson Osborn.
Click on images to enlarge.
Eatonville To Rainier 
One response to “Logging in National (ca. 1920)”
Holy moly! What a picture! I wonder if my great grandfather did stuff like that. He was employed by the St. Paul lumber company during this time. Have a photo of him and 3 others in the process of cutting a huge tree. Was told stories that they settled in National for a while then moved to Kapowsin.
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