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Penny Postcard: Log Raft on the Columbia River, at Stella (Coal Creek Slough), Washington.
Penny Postcard, Divided Back (1915-1930), "Sea-going log raft, 8,000,000 feet of timber, Oregon".
Published by Lipschuetz & Katz, Portland, Oregon. "American Art Post Card".
Card #269.
In the private collection of Lyn Topinka.
Caption on back: "Sea-Going Log Raft. Method by which large numbers of logs for piling are transported to all the world from Oregon, and the way in which the logs are bound together. These rafts contain an average of 8,000,000 feet. At the right is a cradle in which the logs are first placed to form the rafts."
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Photo, "Cigar Raft" at Stella, Stella Historical Society Museum, Stella, Washington.
Image taken August 7, 2011.
Caption on this image in the Stella Historical Society's "History of Stella" publication (1984) says
"1896 Cigar raft. Cradle on right used to assemble the 65-foot-wide, 35-foot-deep, 600-foot-long raft. The ocean-going raft contained five million board feet of lumber. Made at Stella."
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Logging ...
Log Rafts ...
"Cradle" ...
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Penny Postcard: Log Raft cradle.
Penny Postcard, Divided Back (1907-1915), "Cradle of an Ocean-going Log Raft, Oregon."
Published by Portland Post Card Co., Portland, Oregon.
Card #P1118.
In the private collection of Lyn Topinka.
Caption on back reads: "The heavy logs from the Oregon forest, being too large for transportation by boat or rail, immense rafts are constructed as shown in this picture, and are "towed" down the coast to California saw mills."
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Early Images ...
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Penny Postcard: Log Raft on the Columbia River.
Penny Postcard, Undivided Back (1901-1907), Postmarked 1906, "Log Raft, Columbia River -- 7,000,000 Feet of Lumber".
Published by D.M. Averill & Co., Publishers, Portland, Or.
Card #515.
In the private collection of Lyn Topinka.
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Penny Postcard: Log Raft on the Columbia River, at Stella (Coal Creek Slough), Washington.
Penny Postcard, Divided Back (1915-1930), "Sea-going log raft, 8,000,000 feet of timber, Oregon".
Published by Lipschuetz & Katz, Portland, Oregon. "American Art Post Card".
Card #269.
In the private collection of Lyn Topinka.
Caption on back: "Sea-Going Log Raft. Method by which large numbers of logs for piling are transported to all the world from Oregon, and the way in which the logs are bound together. These rafts contain an average of 8,000,000 feet. At the right is a cradle in which the logs are first placed to form the rafts."
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Penny Postcard: Towing Log Raft from the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.
Penny Postcard, Divided Back (1907-1915), "Towing Log Raft from Columbia River to Pacific Ocean."
Postmarked March 1909.
Published by Portland Post Card Co., Portland, Ore.
Made in Germany.
Card #119.
In the private collection of Lyn Topinka.
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Penny Postcard: Towing Log Raft, Columbia River, Astoria, Oregon.
Penny Postcard, White Border, Divided Back (1907-1915), "Towing Log Raft, Columbia River, Astoria, Oregon."
On The Old Oregon Trail.
Published by Wesley Andrews, Inc., Baker, Ore.
Card #508.
In the private collection of Lyn Topinka.
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Penny Postcard: Log Raft.
Penny Postcard, Undivided Back (1901-1907).
In the private collection of Lyn Topinka.
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Penny Postcard: Log Raft.
Penny Postcard, Divided Back (1907-1915).
In the private collection of Lyn Topinka.
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Modern day ...
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Shipping logs, Columbia River, view from Hammond Mooring Basin, Hammond, Oregon.
Image taken August 13, 2013.
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- "Cigar Rafts" ... Stella and Coal Creek Slough, Washington ...
- "Benson Rafts" ... Wallace Slough, Oregon ...
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"Cigar Rafts" ... Stella and Coal Creek Slough, Washington ...
Log rafts made at Stella, Washington on Coal Creek Slough were piling logs, many of which still exist today in structures in San Francisco, California.
CIGAR RAFTS:
"Cigar Rafts, gigantic masses of logs chained together in the shape of a cigar for towing through rough Pacific waters, belong to an era long gone. ...
The final cigar raft was made up in Coal Creek Slough at Stella (in 1921). Stern wheelers of the Shaver Transport Co. towed the monster boom downriver below Astoria where seagoing tugs took over for the thousand-mile journey to San Francisco. Pilings from that load still support piers and terminals from Fisherman's Wharf to the Embarcadero. These colossal rafts in their heyday contained eight million board feet of wood, enough to supply a modest sized sawmill for a year.
The Robertson Raft Company, the team of Robertson and Bain, built cigar rafts in Coal Creek Slough as early as 1895. Their first small raft broke at sea. Bain left the business, but Robertson tried again the next year, with success.
It was sheer size and three-inch chains that finally made the cigar raft work. It was much like building a ship. The raft began taking form in a huge wooden cradle shaped like the bottom of a ship. The logs were hoisted by cranes powered by small donkey engines. These cranes had 110-foot swing booms which carefully piled the logs in layers, taking care to overlap them precisely so that the structure of the raft itself would contribute to its strength. At the bow end a great steel prow was anchored by a huge center chain which ran from one end of the raft to the other. Side bracing was accomplished by cross wires and wrapper chains. The chain links were as big around as a man's wrist.
These wrapper chains were made fast and tightened by turnbuckles. When the cradle was full, the largest rafts would be 1,000 feet long inside, 55 feet wide, draw a 28-foot draft and have a freeboard of 17 feet above sea level. Then the retaining pins of the cradle were pulled, the side braces were parted, and the cradle opened to set the raft free at high tide. ...
The rafts made at Stella were piling, Benson's rafts, made on the Oregon side, were saw logs only. Hammond Company made rafts at Stella. The shape of the rafts made it possible to tow them from either end. At times, during a storm at sea, the raft would be cut loose to roll and then be picked up again after the storm was over. ..."
Source:
Stella Historical Society, 1984, "History of Stella", vol.1, excerpt written by Lester Howard.
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"Sensing opportunity following the Panic of 1893, Montana businessman Andrew B. Hammond looked toward the more populous Oregon to expand his financial holdings. In 1894, the worst year of the depression, he purchased the bankrupt Oregon Pacific Railroad and accepted a contract to build the Astoria and Columbia River Railroad. By 1898, Hammond had completed the Astoria line and rebuilt the Oregon Pacific, now renamed the Corvallis and Eastern. Although both railroads were intended to offer transcontinental connections, their real value lay in providing access to the rich timber of the Coast Range and the Cascades. ...
Hammond continued to acquire timberlands, primarily in the Tillamook forest and along the North Santiam River. With his connections to the Southern Pacific, he bought 95,000 acres from the railroad, making him one of the largest private owners of timber in Oregon. Hammond purchased mills along the North Santiam in 1899 and the Hume mill in Astoria in 1908, which burned down in 1922. To haul raw logs to market in California, he partnered with Captain Hugh Robertson to establish the Oregon Rafting Company in 1901. Over the next twenty years, until Congress outlawed the practice as a hazard to navigation, Hammond used his fleet of steam schooners to tow massive cigar rafts of logs from the Columbia River to San Francisco."
Source:
Oregon Encyclopedia website, 2011, "Andrew B. Hammond."
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Coal Creek Slough, Willow Grove, Washington.
Image taken January 28, 2007.
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Looking down Coal Creek Slough towards Stella, Washington.
Image taken May 19, 2014.
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"Benson Rafts" ... Wallace Slough, Oregon ...
Log rafts made along Wallace Slough, Oregon were made of logs destined for the sawmills of San Diego, California, and were known as "Benson Rafts" after logging tycoon Simon Benson.
"... photograph of men posing atop a “Benson raft” was originally sold as
a stereograph by Underwood & Underwood, a stereographic distributing
company, established in 1882. Stereographic cards contained two identical
images side by side and were looked at through special spectacles,
creating a three-dimensional effect for viewers. According to the
accompanying text, the photograph dates to 1902. However, the photograph
is likely misdated, since rafts of this size were not yet built until
1906. Log rafts like the one pictured here were first developed in 1906 by
Simon Benson, a Portland-based timber magnate. Although Benson was not the
first timberman to transport his company’s logs to market by rafting them
together, he was the first to develop an ocean-worthy raft that could
dependably transport “millions of feet” at a time.
Determined to find a way to profit from the high demand for lumber in the
booming city of San Diego, California, Benson developed his log rafts so
that he could circumvent the high costs of railroad and/or ocean barge
transportation along the Pacific Coast. After working out his own design,
he hired John A. Festabend to supervise construction of the cigar-shaped
rafts, which were assembled in the calm waters of the Wallace Slough, near
Clatskanie.
Raft construction began with the building of a floating wooden “cradle,”
which slightly resembled the wooden frame of a large sailing ship. A
floating derrick then lifted logs into the cradle over a period of four to
seven weeks. Although logs of all sizes were transported, a large volume
of tree-length logs were included in the raft to give it strength and
stability in its voyage across the Columbia River bar and in the open
ocean. Enormous chains were also used to lash the raft together, with one
running lengthwise through the center, some encircling the raft
approximately every fifteen to twenty feet, and still more attaching the
chains to each other at strategic points throughout the raft.
When a raft was complete, one side of the cradle was removed and the raft
was “kicked out.” Once free-floating, rafts would “flatten out” in the
water, further tightening the circle chains and making them even stronger.
Most rafts hauled approximately 4 to 6 million feet of logs and were
typically about 800 to 1000 feet long, 55 feet wide, and 35 feet thick
from top to bottom—usually drafting 26 to 28 feet deep. Holding them
together was anywhere from 175 to 250 tons of chain.
Benson’s rafts were transported the 1,100 miles to San Diego during the
summer, arriving at his saw mill roughly 15 days after leaving Clatskanie.
The rafts were a huge success. Between 1906 and 1941, 120 Benson rafts
were sent to San Diego from the Columbia River, with only 4 being lost by
ocean storm or fire. More than half the time, the rafts were “deck loaded”
with processed lumber like shingles, fence posts, poles and spurs to
maximize profits. Even so, Simon Benson quickly outgrew the business
venture and sold all of his holdings in Clatskanie and San Diego between
1909 and 1911."
Source:
Oregon History Project website, 2011.
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Wallace Slough, looking east, Oregon.
Wallace Island is on the left.
Image taken September 17, 2012.
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Wallace Slough, looking east, Oregon.
Wallace Island is on the left.
Image taken September 17, 2012.
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"The Golden Age of Postcards" ...
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The early 1900s was the "Golden Age of Postcards", with the "Penny Postcard" being a popular way to send greetings to family and friends.
Today the Penny Postcard has become a snapshot of history.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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Clark, November 6, 1805, first draft ...
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