Driving through Hobart today, it's hard to imagine that this small community was once an economic dynamo. Early in the century, Weyerhaeuser established a significant logging and sawmill operation at nearby Walsh Lake. Then came Maple Valley Lumber Company, Peacock Lumber and finally, the big daddy of them all, Wood & Iverson.
Photo courtesy of Maple Valley Historical Society and King County Snapshots, 85.133.1PRB, n.d.
In 1912, William Wood and Iver Iverson, who were partners in a cedar shingle mill in Snohomish County, learned of seemingly endless supplies of timber on Tiger Mountain and in what is now the City of Seattle's Cedar River Watershed. At the time, only a rutted dirt road connected Issaquah to Hobart but thanks to the rail line from Maple Valley to Taylor going thru Hobart, they decided that a mill and logging operation here would be perfect. Initially they just logged the area and shipped logs via rail to Seattle. By 1915 they had assembled and built a fully integrated sawmill that included a head rig, lath operation, planing, dry kiln and a shingle mill. They even made douglas fir pipe staves that were curved and used for the water pipeline serving Seattle.
Photo courtesy of Maple Valley Historical Society and University of Washington Libraries, 92.40.01, circa 1923
The mill was located right next to a swamp that they dug out and made into a log pond. It took a flume 0.75 miles long to transport water from a stream to the pond to keep it filled. The pond was stocked with both rainbow trout and catfish.
Photo courtesy of Maple Valley Historical Society and University of Washington Libraries, P02.37.23, circa 1925
With a workforce of 200, the town of Hobart grew to have a population approaching 500. Like most logging/mining towns of the era, this was a Company town with a big C. The company owned the general store, bunkhouse and 35 mill cottages. The cookhouse had a pool room and barbershop with a dance hall up stairs. And what town would be complete without a saloon? The general store even had their own "tin money" or aluminum hickeys that represented loans to workers. This local currency was honored by businesses as far away as Issaquah.
I continue to be fascinated with how these mills operated. How automated or mechanically advanced were they? Following is a photo of the sawmill's engine room.
Photo courtesy of Maple Valley Historical Society and University of Washington Libraries, P02.32.3, n.d.
Does anybody know what we are looking at here?
To supply the mill, Wood & Iverson built a logging railroad extending 15 miles. When one area was logged out, the track was removed and relocated. Wow that's a lot of work. Logging crews typically lived in the forest in railcars that were easy to move from one site to another. Following is a picture of their logging mess hall. Note the bunk house rail cars on both sides.
Photo courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, CKK01040, Clark Kinsey photographer, n.d.
Following is a photo of a Wood & Iverson log train:
Photo courtesy of MOHAI and University of Washington Libraries, 1991.82.42, circa 1915
Although this mill outlasted many, it too eventually succumbed to the combination of the depression economy of the 1930's and a played out timber resource. The boom times lasted until 1931. Although the mill continued to limp along after this and survived one sawmill fire, a second fire closed the mill for good in 1941.
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