Lumber is one of the chief products of Puget sound, and in the lumbering industry Tacoma leads all other cities on the sound, or on the Pacific coast. Mill capacity has more than doubled the present season. In January four mills were cutting four hundred thousand feet per day; since then five new mills have been built and two of the old ones have increased their capacity, one of them, the Tacoma Mill Co., to five hundred thousand feet, making now a total output of eight hundred and thirty-five thousand feet. This will be greatly increased in a short time, as one of the mills, owned by the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co., is credited with only fifteen thousand feet, and is but a temporary concern engaged in sawing timbers for an immense mill which will be turning out five hundred thousand feet per day in a few weeks. Another new mill will cut one hundred thousand feet, and still another thirty-five thousand, while the capacity of another will be increased. Thus, by the spring of 1889, Tacoma will have eleven mills cutting an aggregate of more than one and one-half million feet of lumber per day. On the opposite page is an engraving of the Pacific Mill, built this year, and one of the most complete establishments of its kind in the world, with a capacity of three hundred thousand feet a day. The larger mills are all supplied with shingle and lath machines, and millions of lath and cedar shingles are made daily. The output of shingles has quadrupled within the past year. Sash and door factories have increased in number and capacity, their product finding a market on the sound and along the line of the Northern Pacific. Lumber is shipped from the mills direct to California, Chili, Peru, Central America, Sandwich islands, Australia, Japan and China, and ship timbers, spars and masts are sent to Europe and the Atlantic coast of the United States. Often a dozen ships are in port at one time loading lumber, and the scene along the docks is a busy one. By rail, lumber is sent as far east as Denver and Omaha. |