Washington County Oral Histories

John Labbe oral history recording on lumbering and logging Part 2

Part two of an audio recording of an oral history of John T. Labbe recorded on January 31, 1978, on logging in Washington County, Oregon, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Labbe had worked in logging since he was a kid during the summer and he has written a book called Railroading in the Woods. In this recording, he talks about his book that shows primarily through photographs how loggers used railroads. He talks about the spread of railroads in northern Oregon and how the majority of them ran along the coast range - like the Southern Pacific Tillamook Line. Describes the difference between laying down a permanent railway line compared to logging on a dirt road, the equipment and the care to which the operators gave them in their free time, and how the decline of the railroads coincided coincidentally with the Great Depression. About halfway through the recording, Labbe switches topics slightly to talk about individual logging companies and their relationship to each other in Washington County. He goes through an alphabetical list in his hand of the companies and talks about the owners, their location, and how they generally only lasted between five and ten years, with some of the smaller ones only lasting a year or two. Near the end, Labbe describes how the timber in the east was running out and so many of the logging companies chose to buy land in Oregon instead of going out of business. There is a typed introduction and a full transcription of the interview.

Labbe, John

Washington County (Or.) -- History

Forestry

Labbe, John

Washington County (Or.)

1 sound cassette (54 min.)

English

WCM_OH_434b

In Copyright

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Five Oaks Museum

Meyer, Lloyd

Audiocassettes

Sound