Peeling Back The Bark
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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 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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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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Forgotten Characters from Forest History: Sam Sprucetree
By James Lewis on July 17, 2012Everyone knows Smokey Bear, Woodsy Owl, and maybe even Ranger Rick Raccoon, but there are many other forest and forestry-related fictional characters that long ago fell by the wayside. Peeling Back the Bark's series on “Forgotten Characters from Forest …
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Forgotten Characters from Forest History: Cal Green
By Eben Lehman on August 2, 2011Everyone knows Smokey Bear, Woodsy Owl, and maybe even Ranger Rick Raccoon, but there are many other forest and forestry-related fictional characters that long ago fell by the wayside. Peeling Back the Bark's series on “Forgotten Characters from …
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Forgotten Characters from Forest History: "Woody"
By Eben Lehman on December 9, 2010Everyone knows Smokey Bear, Woodsy Owl, and maybe even Ranger Rick Raccoon, but there are many other forest and forestry-related fictional characters that long ago fell by the wayside. We here at Peeling Back the Bark would like to shed …
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Back to the Future, Part IV: “Where we’re logging, we don’t need roads”
By James Lewis on October 22, 2010The 25th anniversary of the iconic film franchise Back to the Future and the Blu-ray release of the trilogy on October 26 got us thinking about what forestry and logging were supposed to look like today as predicted by the …
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National Forest Products Week: October 17-23, 2010
By Eben Lehman on October 19, 2010This week marks the 50th anniversary of National Forest Products Week, a designation created to recognize the importance of forest products to America’s growth and economic development, as well as the forest industry’s contributions to improved forest management and forest …
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When Timber Engineers Brought Ski Jumping to Chicago
By Eben Lehman on October 7, 2009With Chicago’s recent failure to become host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, we here at Peeling Back the Bark were reminded of a little-known chapter from Chicago’s sports history which can be found in the FHS Archives. Should Chicago …
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January 31, 1898: International Paper Incorporated
By James Lewis on January 31, 2009January 31st is more than just Super Bowl Saturday here in the U.S. It’s also the anniversary of the founding of International Paper.* On this day in 1898, fourteen paper companies came together and incorporated as International Paper (IP). Capitalized …
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China's Syndrome
By James Lewis on October 8, 2008A recent article in The New Yorker investigated where China gets its wood from now that logging has been widely banned in the country. “The Stolen Forests: Inside the Covert War on Illegal Logging” states that the ban …
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Playoff Dreams, Shattered Bats
By James Lewis on October 1, 2008Major League Baseball playoffs started today! Besides the excitement of the games, fans can also expect to see more shattered bats, a problem that has plagued baseball at all professional levels this year. In the last 15 years or so, …
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World War I Photos
By Eben Lehman on September 3, 2008As historic photographs in the FHS collections are digitized and added to our online image database, photos are also periodically grouped into browsable online galleries organized by subject. The newest gallery, just added to our website, features images relating to …
