Lumber (and Fire) in Pioneer Idaho

A few weeks back, I had to stock up on copies of my book Boise River Gold Country (thank you, Skip Myers). While I was flipping through books to make sure they were okay, one particular image stuck in my mind. (FYI: The book includes over 200 what I call “vintage” photos.) 

Whipsaw. University of Idaho Archives.

The image gives you a whole new perspective on what the pioneers went through. The two men are muscling a “whipsaw” back and forth through a log. (Sometimes they dug a pit to provide a more solid base than the log framework shown in the picture.) I assume these fellas would trade off. Who wants to be the guy on the bottom getting sprayed with sawdust and bark chips?

The earliest solid structures in pioneer Idaho were log cabins. But that’s wasteful of timber and it’s hard to make the structure weather-tight. Even after miners had been around for several years, sawmills were not that common because they needed a reliable source of water power. (Hauling a steam engine into the back country was pretty much out of the question for many, many years.) Also, even when a few mills went into operation, the demand was so great that lumber prices remained high, and men could still make money with a whipsaw.

So when you see an old photo of a cabin, shop, or even just a shed, imagine, if you will, how much sweat and effort went into whipsawing all that lumber. As a matter of fact, many of the early arrivers – Peter Pence, among others (blog Oct. 12) – got their first stake by cutting planks.

Lewiaron, 1862. Nez Pierce County Historical Soc.

All that raw lumber came at some risk. Idaho City suffered a bad fire in 1864, a worse one in 1866, and an even more destructive one in 1867. Other pioneer towns – including Boise City – suffered similar events.
                                                       

References: An Illustrated History of the State of Idaho, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago (1899). honor.