Will there be enough cedar stumps to keep the
shingle mill business going for many years to come?
Before
1900, there were several huge forest fires that swept through the Pacific
Northwest.
The fires left millions of
burned and dead cedar trees, logs and stumps everywhere. Even though the outer bark of the burned
cedar trees was destroyed, the inner wood was still good. The settlers
discovered that the inner wood of those cedar stumps could be used for making a
superior roofing material called “shingles”.
Shingle
mill workers who were called “bolt cutters” found the dead cedar stumps and cut
them into large chunks called “bolts”. Then the bolt cutters transported the
bolts to the shingle mills.
At the shingle mills, the
burned outer bark of the cedar bolts was peeled off, with a tool called a
“peeling iron”. Then the bolts were split into shingles. The shingles were sold
and used as roofing material.
There was a huge demand for
shingles in Whatcom County. There was also a huge demand for shingles on the
East Coast, because the climate in the Northeastern states was similar to
the climate of the Pacific Northwest.
After the railroads
stretched clear across the country, shingles were transported to the Northeast
by train. There were so many dead cedar stumps in Whatcom County that the
shingle mills were in business for many, many years.
Image
Credit:
Microsoft ClipArt Gallery
Photo
of peeling iron taken at the Lynden
Pioneer Museum (exits this site)