Radical Seattle. Cal Winslow

of “high-lead” yarding, developed somewhat later, lifted the logs rather than dragging them. However, the giant logs, now airborne, brought new dangers. Then the railroads came—short lines through rugged terrain connecting the difficult-to-reach interior to the mills. The promise of technology was always double-edged. For the forest, new techniques spelled new horrors. The loggers’ task was to take down every tree within reach. The slash was burned. The flames consumed limbs, bark, other trees, undergrowth, birds and animals, the ferns and flowers, everything that could not escape. Entire ecosystems were destroyed, leaving ridges charred and streams unrecognizable.

      Workers in groups felled the trees. It might take a week for a team of six to bring down one very large tree. The use of black powder and dynamite was commonplace. The impact of the fall could make a tree shatter, so a blanket of brush and branches was woven to soften the fall. The thick bark also protected the fallen tree. Once a tree was down, the workers cut the huge logs into sections which were hauled to the mills one section at a time, first by oxen, then by steam engines or rail and much later by tractors and trucks.

      Conditions were dangerous in the hills and equally brutal in the mills. There men and boys worked on and among giant saws, with their deafening noise and in air that seemed more sawdust than nitrogen and oxygen. Asthma was as common as missing limbs. In camp or mill, the specter of terrifying accidents and gruesome injuries haunted the workers, and death by saws, cables, falling trees made logging and lumber work five times more lethal than in any other sector of Washington industry.¹⁶ Workers were forced to sign agreements absolving their employers of responsibility; the injured were reported to be victims of accidents or their own misstep. When the lumbermen made agreements with the closest hospitals, they deducted costs from the loggers’ paychecks.¹⁷