Libby, Montana

With the construction of the transcontinental railroads across the United States, it became possible for western timber to reach beyond regional markets and become a part of the national economy. Lumber companies of the Great Lakes region began speculating in western timber as their supply dwindled in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Many recognized that if they were to survive, they would need to find new stands of timber. The Rocky Mountains area and the Pacific Northwest had large tracts of virgin timber and offered logging companies the opportunity to purchase timberlands outright or illegally cut timber from federal land with minimal government interference. The migration of the industry began in the late 1880s and continued on through the first two decades of the 20th century.

This method of logging was continued when the industry arrived in Montana. Initially, the timber industry developed in conjunction with mining. During this embryonic phase of timber production in the West, the fortunes of the logging industry fluctuated with the mining industry. The timber industry peaked during the placer period and underwent adjustment as quartz mining developed, placing different demands on the industry. The industry found its niche within this economy by providing rough-cut lumber to miners and mining companies and later branching out to provide finished lumber for building construction. However, it surfed on an almost continual boom and bust cycle, resulting in an unstable, highly speculative industry that created communities struggling on the margins of economic existence.

The migration west of the nation's lumbermen created a stir of conservative rhetoric. The companies touted new logging policies that moved away from past practices of “cut and run.” The lumber companies claimed they had learned their lesson in the forests of [Page 400]Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan—they predicted their redemption in the West, with careful management and active pursuit of perpetuation, not annihilation, of western forests. Once lumber companies such as Weyerhaeuser, Potlatch, and the J. Neils Lumber Company migrated west, the realization struck in the 1930s that they had no other place to move. These companies needed to manage differently if they expected to survive. Logging companies such as J. Neils began tailoring their logging operations to maintain a sustained yield of merchantable timber. This also meant the employment of company foresters to help them manage their timberlands.

Despite the conservative verbiage adopted by many of the western lumber companies, overall industry habits stayed true to form, resulting in overcutting on privately held timberlands, overproduction, and, ultimately, the abandonment of lumber mills and their supporting communities. Lumbermen still had not grasped the notion of replanting their cutover lands. The practice of harvesting all the merchantable timber and then pulling out still remained the preferred method. Industry recessions during the 1920s and the Depression of the 1930s held in check for two decades the cutting of private timberlands. This changed drastically during World War II and the postwar construction and housing boom. By the 1940s, the nation depended on privately owned timberlands for 90 percent of its timber. Lumbermen continued to practice a “mining” rather than “cropping” philosophy, and timber on private land quickly diminished.

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