Peeling Back The Bark
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Pauline Bunyans and WWII Victory Lumber
By Eben Lehman on March 12, 2024World War II created a shortage of workers along with a national need to produce lumber for military efforts. During the war, Weyerhaeuser News, the lumber company’s magazine, ran features highlighting the work done by the women who took …
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Life and Lunch: Alfred Eisenstaedt’s Weyerhaeuser Timber Crew Photographs
By Eben Lehman on February 9, 2024In December 1954, Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt journeyed into the woods near Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, for an unusual assignment. His subjects were a Weyerhaeuser Timber Company logging crew. But instead of photographing them felling trees, the men would appear …
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Down on the Bayou: The 1930s Forest Service Photos of Robert K. Winters
By Eben Lehman on January 11, 2024Robert K. Winters (1902-1999) had a long and impactful career in the world of forestry. While he ended his career as a leading figure in international forestry, his early years were spent trudging through the swamps of Louisiana. A selection …
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Wood in the Space Age: Forest Products at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair
By Eben Lehman on April 21, 2022On April 21, 1962, the Century 21 Exposition (better known as the Seattle World’s Fair) opened to the public. From a vacation home in Florida, President Kennedy pressed a telegraph key to officially start the fair. The Seattle World’s Fair …
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The ‘Ace Photographer’ and Paul Bunyan: Berenice Abbott’s Red River Lumber Company Photos
By Eben Lehman on April 13, 2022In February 1944 a new photograph exhibition opened at a San Francisco gallery, featuring a new set of images by the talented American photographer Berenice Abbott (1898-1991). The location where she had shot was a radical departure for the …
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From the First Tree Farm to the President’s Front Lawn: Remembering the 1961 National Christmas Tree
By Eben Lehman on December 21, 2021The chosen 75-foot Douglas fir on the Clemons Tree Farm.
Sixty years ago this month the National Christmas Tree was erected in Washington, DC, on the Ellipse between the White House and the Washington Monument. The annual tradition of a …
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The Great Northwest Log Haul of 1988
By Eben Lehman on May 13, 2021On May 13, 1988, a convoy of trucks more than 12 miles long rolled down U.S. Highway 93 in Montana. Onlookers gawked and cheered as over 300 trucks fully loaded down with logs passed by one by one. This impressive …
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American Forests – Trail Riders
By Eben Lehman on June 9, 2020… -
The Wood Prince of Bel Air: Building the ‘Strangers When We Meet’ House
By Eben Lehman on June 4, 2020In the summer of 1960, Columbia Pictures released the film Strangers When We Meet. Adapted by Evan Hunter from his novel by the same name, the film’s plot centers around Larry Coe, an architect (played by Kirk Douglas) who …
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The Early Career of John S. Holmes, North Carolina’s First State Forester
By Eben Lehman on May 31, 2019John Simcox Holmes—born on this day in 1868—was a pioneer of forestry work in the state of North Carolina. The state’s first professional forester, he was hired in 1909 to survey and protect North Carolina’s forests, though he had little …
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Forest History on the Move: Everett’s Wandering Weyerhaeuser Office
By Eben Lehman on May 10, 2019Twenty-five miles north of Seattle, at the mouth of the Snohomish River, lies the city of Everett, Washington. Officially incorporated on May 4, 1893, the city has seen more than 126 years of growth and development, much of it bolstered …
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October 15, 1934: Glued Laminated Timber Comes to America
By Eben Lehman on October 15, 2018On October 15, 1934, workers broke ground for a new school gymnasium in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. To this day, this small city in the far northeast corner of Wisconsin remains best known for being totally consumed by a massive forest fire …
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New Digital Exhibit: Pioneer Trail Riders of the Wilderness
By Eben Lehman on August 17, 2018Recently FHS staff came across a scrapbook in our collection of American Forestry Association records. Its pages were filled with original photographs and documents from the American Forestry Association’s (AFA) first Trail Ride in July of 1933. The Trail …
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A Look Back at George Washington’s Birthday Trees
By Eben Lehman on February 22, 2018“Ten million monuments to a great man!” So went the call out from Charles Lathrop Pack and the American Tree Association to the American public. The “great man” was George Washington and the year was 1932 – the bicentennial of …
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The Year When Turkeys Were Used to Fight Forest Fires
By Eben Lehman on November 22, 2017There’s no better time than Thanksgiving week to look back at some of forest history’s famous turkeys. While we’ve previously looked at how turkeys changed forest history by upending timber policy in the 1960s, it’s due time to highlight a …
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This Old (White) House: Turning Salvage Wood into Souvenirs
By Eben Lehman on May 3, 2017Ninety years ago this spring, a major repair project began on the White House in Washington, DC, that ultimately yielded wooden treasures. Work began in March of 1927 to remove large sections of the building’s roof in order to replace …
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Grey Towers
By Eben Lehman on March 7, 2017… -
1910 Fires
By Eben Lehman on March 7, 2017… -
Tree Farm System
By Eben Lehman on March 7, 2017… -
WWI Forest Engineers
By Eben Lehman on March 3, 2017…
