This photograph shows the logging industry in transition. At right we see a team of oxen pulling timber out of the forest, probably on a “skid road” of cut logs. At left is a narrow gauge railroad, with a steam locomotive visible at the far end of the image, taking the logs to nearby mills. Soon after this time, oxen teams would be entirely replaced by steam operated winches and railroads.
Photograph taken in late 1800s, Courtesy State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C1949.3.60
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2022