The Bordeaux logging community was established in the 1880s by French Canadian-born Thomas Bordeaux. Before the advent of a logging railroad, teams of oxen laboriously pulled the huge logs along makeshift corduroy roads. This photograph of one such team is said to be the model for the oxen team depicted in bronze on the doors of the Legislative Building.
Unknown photographer, 1880s, Washington State Archives, image number AR-07809001-ph003714
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2020