Weyerhaeuser Company Logging Operations

[Contract Logger]

Yarder 218, a Washington 158

Yarder 218 was a Washington 158 Highlead Yarder, and I was told one of the early 158 yarders to be delivered. Last I saw it was working out of the White River Operation east of Enumclaw. Couple good pics of her here anyway.

 

[Contract Logger]

Later Yarders #205 and #206

In the 1970's yarders #205 and #206 were both track-mounted Washington 108 night loggers, and both were working out of Camp Baker on the North Toutle River. Someplace I have pics of them with the numbers clearly visible.

By the late 1980's however, 2 tank-mounted Madill 009's had taken over these numbers. (I know at least one of the 108's was lost in Mt St Helens in May 1980).

Here, yarder 205 rests in the brush waiting for the scrapper, which did come in 1993.

 

[Contract Logger]

Yarder 206 (1993)

Here are some shots of Weyco yarder 206 in 1993. From here she went back east to dragline in a rock pit.

 

[Contract Logger]

Yarder 207, Washington 118, converted to 188

Weyerhaeuser bought several of the early Washington 118's, and they logged with them through the 80's in several Weyco Camps. Here is Yarder #207, last seen at Snoqualmie Falls in 2001. It had been converted/upgraded to 188 by this time. I dont know where it wound up. Pics taken 1993.

 

[Contract Logger]

Yarder 205 in 1975, Washington 108 with Night Lights!

This is one of my favorite childhood pictures! Yep, that would be me standing there in front of that 108 Skylock Yarder, track mounted, no less. This pic was taken on the Upper Toutle in a place that is now under 200 feet of mud.

Riding around in that country as a kid was my favorite thing.......

I should make that my avatar.....I was 8 or 9 I guess in that pic if I have the year right. It may have been earlier than 75'!

 

[RonG]

Great pics as usual,this site now uses a large chunk of my day.
What did they do with the brush in those days?I haven't noticed any large brush piles or maybe I have not been paying attention.Ron G

 

[macktuf1973]

thank you very much great picture mack dm800 and kenworth the best machine heavy-duty .

 

[macktuf1973]

the mack rd600 drove father truck. macktuf1973.:thumbsup:thumbsup

 

[580bruce]

Can't tell you how much I enjoy your pics!I grew up next to Black Diamond Wa.Many summer mornings I would wake up to the drone of a skidder,or a tooter,way off it the foothills.Many trips to the woods to watch when I could!

 

[JeremyM70]

Awesome pictures as always! So where are or were Camp 12, Camp Baker, Camp Coweeman, and Camp Kalama? I assume they are all leveled by now? I found Headquarters Camp last year. Also I found Camp Arnold (?) just north of Castle Rock on the east side of I5. Where would the LV tree farm would park equipment at these days, like the yards I found at Pe Ell and Cosmopolis?
Thanks!

 

[Iron Art]

Weyco

C.C., Boy those Weyco pictrures bring back a lot of memories, Thank goodness for the fact that we were putting a roof on my dads new house on the morning of May 18th or we would have been on our way up to the So Coldwater ridge. That would not have been good!! Fred

 

[John C.]

I think camp 12 was up the Toutle and if not grown over with brush now would be along highway 504, the tourist road to the Mt. St. Helens observatory.

Weyerheauser has sold out of a large portion of their holdings and word in the industry says they might sell out more. The Snoqualmie and White River tree farms were sold to Hancock Resources a few years ago and access is restricted in those areas. All the Weyerheauser gear is gone.

The camps that are left in Washington State are the Pe Ell/Raymond farms, Vale tree farm which is southeast of Yelm, Cosmopolis tree farm out of Aberdeen and LongView/Kalama down by the Columbia River. The big shops and mills are pretty much gone now also. Vale had a train shop that was torn down sometime in the nineties and the equipment shops were removed six or seven years ago. All the mechanics work out of service trucks and a big part of the repair work is done by independents. I haven't been through the Cosmopolis shop in years but the pulp mill that is next to the shops was shut down about five years ago. The Bay City sorting and export yard in Aberdeen was shut down about a year ago and you couldn't find a stick there now. The building for the Aberdeen mill is still there but the Snoqualmie and Enumclaw mills are gone.

All that is a whole lot of unemployed people now. The Lazy W was easy for a lot of people to hate but they provided a huge number of jobs for the state. A big portion of house payments and my kid's college tuition was paid for with overtime working on Weyerheauser equipment.

What we always felt was that when the lazy W decided to do the hostile take over of Willamette Industries they over extended their finances and needed cash flow. Shortly after the sell offs started happening.

 

[JeremyM70]

I plan to get up to MSH this summer and spend some quality time looking around to find the remaining equipment that got left up there after 1980.

I went into the PeEll yard last week, still looks pretty busy there. The gals in the office confirmed the selling off property rumor, when I asked about getting a map for their farm. Lots of equipment in the yard, got some pictures. Raymond mill is still operating. Cosmopolis mill is dead as you said, their shop is still running with some equipment in the yard, however I got booted out when I asked to take pictures.

I think camp 12 was up the Toutle and if not grown over with brush now would be along highway 504, the tourist road to the Mt. St. Helens observatory.

Weyerheauser has sold out of a large portion of their holdings and word in the industry says they might sell out more. The Snoqualmie and White River tree farms were sold to Hancock Resources a few years ago and access is restricted in those areas. All the Weyerheauser gear is gone.

The camps that are left in Washington State are the Pe Ell/Raymond farms, Vale tree farm which is southeast of Yelm, Cosmopolis tree farm out of Aberdeen and LongView/Kalama down by the Columbia River. The big shops and mills are pretty much gone now also. Vale had a train shop that was torn down sometime in the nineties and the equipment shops were removed six or seven years ago. All the mechanics work out of service trucks and a big part of the repair work is done by independents. I haven't been through the Cosmopolis shop in years but the pulp mill that is next to the shops was shut down about five years ago. The Bay City sorting and export yard in Aberdeen was shut down about a year ago and you couldn't find a stick there now. The building for the Aberdeen mill is still there but the Snoqualmie and Enumclaw mills are gone.

All that is a whole lot of unemployed people now. The Lazy W was easy for a lot of people to hate but they provided a huge number of jobs for the state. A big portion of house payments and my kid's college tuition was paid for with overtime working on Weyerheauser equipment.

What we always felt was that when the lazy W decided to do the hostile take over of Willamette Industries they over extended their finances and needed cash flow. Shortly after the sell offs started happening.

 

[John C.]

As I recall the Raymond mill has the last large double cut mill on the west coast. I was told they could cut a 72" log still, if anybody could find one. I don't know if that saw is still there all of the lazy W went to small log production in the nineties.

You could have sat on the road and taken pictures of what was in the yard at Cosi. I've had to work with the guy that runs that shop and usually he is pretty tolerant. However, some of the woods bosses probably might frown on you snapping photos without knowing who you are. I know there has been some vandalism out that way in the past also which might make them a little nervous. It's good that you asked before walking around in there.

Drop a line on the thread before you head out next time and I might be able to give you a heads up on where to look. Most of the area around Raymond is open to all. You can follow the whistles or an empty logging truck to a working side. Just make sure you have a CB before getting off the pavement.

 

[Contract Logger]

Longview Camp Locations

Sorry for the delay Jeremy, had trouble getting on HEF again tonight. Here is a rundown on the Camps, as they were after 1960 anyway, from south to north:

Camp Kalama: Up Kalama River Road and off the end of the blacktop. You'll know when you get there, the asphalt pad (sort yard) is huge on your right hand side. I just looked on Google Earth and it is clearly visible. Kalama was a truck camp, while Weyco owned right-of-way for a railroad in there, it was never built. Off-road trucks hauled from around 12 yarder sides to the sort yard, then wood was sorted and went on to Longview on highway trucks.

Headquarters Camp: At the top of Headquarters Road, just 5 or so miles east of I-5. This was the Railroad Headquarters for many years (since 1928 actually) and all of the locomotive shops were here until the late 70's when things moved in to Longview. Wood was re-loaded here from off-road trucks to the rail cars. Also lots of offices, equipment shops, and other buildings.

12 Mile, or Road 12: Named for its location- 12 miles east of I-5. Right out South Toutle Road, rather than go left under the trestle, go right on the 4100 rd. This was a big camp, large sort yard, ran 40+ trucks from 15 or 16 yarder sides. Still very visible easily on Google Earth also, at the 4100/4200 junction there. Railroad ran right into the yard. Big shops, office buildings, etc.

19 Mile Camp: Just north of Kid Valley, 19 miles east of I-5 at the confluence of the Green River and North Fork Toutle. Big camp, sort yard, full shop facilities, etc. Railroad ran right through yard, camp (headed toward Baker). Logs came off the Green River/Winston drainages by truck into the yard, then to town on the rail.

Camp Baker. Grand-daddy of all the Longview camps. I was told at one point there were 20 company yarder/tower sides working out of the Baker operation- and I believe it. A huge fleet of Weyco off-road trucks. The railroad ended at Baker, and the sort yard area there was just plain huge. I'll post pics later. Camp/yard was built in the 50's but exploded in the 60's in sized. All the big name contractors had trucks/equipment and offices there -Roy Filla, Ben Thomas, Jensen&Grove, Gould's, etc. You get the idea. In 1980 it was outside the blast zone, but was completely wiped out by the flooding. From the Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center parking lot you are looking down in the valley right into it. The dam above Kid Valley is flooding that whole plain and Baker will be under water completely soon- alot of it is now.

Hope that helps. It's getting late, I'll post a few more pics and hit the rack!

 

[Contract Logger]

Camp Baker Yard, July 10, 1980

These pics should be in the Mt St Helens thread, but here is Baker being dug-out of the flood mud 3 months after it happened. there are railroad log cars strewn up-and- down that valley still today. The railroad and camp were not re-built after this, but rather were abandoned. 45+ log trucks were swept downstream and many are just today being found in eroded river-banks.

 

[Contract Logger]

More Baker Scenes.

 

[580bruce]

There was a landfill built at the Headquaters site in the early 90s.I did a bunch of hydroseeding there.It was for waste from their pulp operation in Longview I think.There was a few pieces of iron there at that time.I remember a d-3 with a winch on it way back in the bushes?What did they ever do with a d-3?

 

[Contract Logger]

Landfill is still there- and growing. Now, Cowlitz County is considering purchase of it for a regional garbage landfill. Hopefully that doesnt happen (close to Silver Lake).

Weyco is currently shipping the mill waste up there on the railroad- hauling in reverse, lol. On the D3, who knows. There used to always be yarders and trucks and shovels parked around Headquarters Camp- out by the shops, etc.

 

[Contract Logger]

Grapple Logging at Weyerhaeuser Longview, 1992

Yarder #210 (Madill 123), Shovel #140 (Link-Belt LS4300) and Tailcat #514 (Cat D8H), grapple yarding just out of Headquarters on the 1600 line, pics taken about 1992!

Side note-- They still have this yarder today, working there at the LV, in 2010.