Chapter 2:

Old-growth trees from the late 1800’s to the mid-20th century were milled to build the tens of thousands of warehouses and factories that sheltered America’s booming industrial growth. Before steel came into play, post and beam structures were the design of choice.

Prior to 1910, most industrial structures east of the Mississippi were framed with prime cuts of Heart pine. As the railroads reached out to the west coast, the last of the vast southern forests was bound for sawmills in Biloxi, Bogalusa and down along the Suwanee River.

In the west, old-growth Douglas fir timbers were used to build acres of shipping warehouses along the piers of Portland, Oregon; to build the world’s largest timber mill in Longview, Washington; to build munitions factories and military shipping terminals from coast to coast. Millions of board feet of large-dimension timbers went into these buildings. Millions of board feet we salvaged back out.

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