I assume this was somewhere around Hood River or the valley. It is almost mind boggling to think there were trees that huge. I would imagine when that thing came down, even in sections it would wipe out a lot of other trees around it. Wonder how many cords of wood would have been in that. Wish I had that in my wood shed..............probably have to build a bigger shed to accomodate it.

charlott on 18th December 2012 @ 8:04am

Wow! I wonder if the stump is still somewhere in the forest. Lots of hard work ahead of them.

l.e. on 18th December 2012 @ 8:07am

Charles Smith's dress for cutting down this tree is very puzzling. More like office dress. Even his shoes look unsafe.

nels on 18th December 2012 @ 10:54am

I was wondering that myself. Dressed in suit pants and vest. Amazing picture. When It fell there was a very loud thump.

norma on 18th December 2012 @ 11:35am

Maybe someone who knows about early logging can fill me in: why multiple spring board levels? why do they seem to be cutting so high? (why not the middle spring board level?) Must have been another spring board on the back of the tree as it appears this "misery whip" is too short to reach from the two visible ones. Those two man saws really required good team work.

Arlen Sheldrake on 18th December 2012 @ 12:07pm

Did they cut the tree that high? What would be the purpose of that?

Jay on 18th December 2012 @ 12:08pm

they used spring boards to get above the butt swell, and in this case, to get above the gnarly damage that happened long in the past to this tree. look at the way the bark on the lower left side is damaged (or has been scribed by a surveyor!). what I find interesting, is the round, limb/tree temporary spring boards to get up to the "real" ones. never seen that before!

spinsur on 18th December 2012 @ 1:42pm

Any idea what year this was? There was a Charlie Smith that worked at Shepherds (John Deere dealer) at 1st and State Street. Wonder if it is the same person.

Norma Jubitz Simpson on 18th December 2012 @ 3:17pm

Norma, we have another picture dated 1901 where A.J. Shepler looks to be within 10 years of this one, so my best guess is 1900-1910. Click on the "Shepler" tag to the left for some more related history.

Arthur on 18th December 2012 @ 5:11pm

A 1936 White Salmon paper says that...
Columbia River ferryman Oliver Dean came to Hood River in 1900 with his two stepsons T.F and A.J. Sheplar. For three years he was mainly interested in buying timber claims. He later purchased interest in the HR/WS ferry with partner A.J. Sheplar.

T.F. Shepler married Wilhelmina Wyers. A daughter of Teunis Wyers.

Arthur, maybe you don't want to tag photo #56 with the Sheplers, but, Olive is the daughter of A.J. Shepler. Mrs. Dean is the mother of A.J. and T.F. Shepler.

l.e. on 19th December 2012 @ 12:34am