Chuck Brodish recently contacted me about a 480 foot Douglas fir that was reportedly felled in the 1930′s in or near the Black Hills here in Washington. I wasn’t able to find the exact tree he was speaking of, but I do have a book I inherited from my parents entitled “This was Logging” by Ralph W. Andrews.
In looking at the photos in the book I saw references to many large fir trees (among other species cited) but not the particular tree he was asking about. If anyone else is interested in the old logging practices here in the Pacific Northwest this book is a great resource.
Great post,. Hope to see more from you like this in the future too
I have a photo, and may have posted it here before, of several Mumby Lumber Company trucks with several huge logs on them all in a row. This was taken near Bordeaux, WA and possibly in the 1930′s time frame that Chuck Brodish mentioned in his query to me. It is entirely possible that it could be one tree in several pieces.
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If the historical details are accurate, there were indeed Douglas-fir exceeding 400 feet high in Washington State, and British Columbia. (Google Books has been a priceless research tool).
The tallest documented “historical” tree I have so far found was:
A huge Douglas fir cut down in 1897 at the Alfred Loop ranch, at the fork of Boulder Creek in the Cascade hills of Whatcom County. This tree was measured at 465 feet tall, and about 11 feet in diameter at the butt end, (33 ft 11 in circum.) and 220 feet to the lowest branch. The tree scaled 96,345 feet of lumber and was estimated by ring count to be 480 years old.
465 is pretty close to 480, so it gives some reinforcement to the alleged height.
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I have always found it interesting to be able to study how things were done in the past.
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