Clarence Strong Papers, 1917-1975

This series contains diaries spanning twenty-seven years of daily work activities of Clarence Strong. The diaries describe where Strong was stationed, where he traveled, how he traveled, what he spent and what he did when he arrived at his destination. The notes lack detail due to the small writing space of the pocket sized daily logs. In the earlier, larger, diaries Strong describes his travels in greater detail than in the smaller diaries issued after 1941. Items discussed in the diaries include personnel issues, timber sale inspections and meetings, environmental concerns, wildlife concerns and Strong's stint in Afghanistan as an advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture.

Series II is a collection with broad ranging topics, all joined by the central theme of lumber history in Montana from 1845 to 1945. The series contains general correspondence, notes and interviews, research by I.V. Anderson, A.E. Boorman, Audra Browman, O.B. Calvin and Neil Fullerton, notes from published materials and miscellaneous lumber production and wage statistics. The general correspondence contains letters from Jeanette Rankin, Edna Rankin McKinnon, Harriet Rankin McGregor and an assortment of timber industry personalities.

Another invaluable portion of series two contains notes from varied sources and interviews of the people who lived the early history of the timber industry in Montana. The interviews and notes pin point the locations of early saw mills, who owned them, how much lumber they processed, what mechanical features and lumbering styles were employed by the mill and why they relocated, sold out or closed down. Such notes and interviews necessarily discuss community history of towns across Montana with an emphasis on Western and Central Montana.

The research notes taken from the papers of I.V. Anderson focus mainly on lumber statistics and the processing of railroad ties and the waste of wood involved in that process. Items include memos on wage scales, sales statistics, production of cross ties and the amount of wasted lumber and profits lost in rail tie production. Notes taken by Strong from A.E. Boorman's scrapbook contain information gleaned from memos, books and newspapers by Boorman. The notes reference saw mill locations, mill fires, production, wages and a wide variety of financial, environmental and practical concerns related to the timber industry and where to find that information in primary sources. The Audra Browman research contains information gleaned from court house records for the Lolo, Lolo Hot Springs and Woodman areas as far back as 1866 concerning land claims, real estate deals, ranch locations and owners, mine locations and owners, saw mill locations and owners, post offices and post masters, election precincts and school districts. These records also list all the people who received mail in Lolo and Woodman in 1903 and 1905, their occupation and a property value assessment. Other Browman research discusses saw mill locations, owners, anecdotes and a copy of letter from Thomas Greenough in response to an accusation of stealing lumber from government land.

The remaining folders discuss sawmill locations and owners, miscellaneous notes, a history of saws, lumber statistics and photo sources. Box 5 and 6 containing items from Series II are a valuable collection of note cards that alphabetically and geographically organize all of the material found in the folders of Series II. These note cards first organize by geographic areas: Clark Fork/Bitterroot; Head Waters of the Missouri (including areas as far north as the Blackfeet reservation); Montana General; Central and Eastern Montana; Idaho, Washington; Flathead - Northwest Montana. Information on the Yaak/Eureka area is found in his listings of Montana General and Central and Eastern Montana and no reason for this is given by Strong. Within these geographical divisions, alphabetical ordering of topics, people, places, companies, events, notes and interviews are typed on note cards with the complete listing of the primary sources.

The White Pine series holds correspondence dedicated to issues touching the book, White Pine, King of Many Waters, thank-you notes from those who received copies of the book, and other general comments. This series also contains a series of clippings kept in a scrapbook with reviews and comments upon the book.

This series contains personal correspondence from 1941 to 1975 from friends and family on varied topics, such as a former Forest Service employee serving in the Pacific theater during WW II. The series also contains notes made while training for field service during WWI, a memoir of Strong's life and training during the war written in 1919, and information on the organization U.S.A. Veterans of WWI.

The photograph collection contains photos of saw mills, lumber workers, tree stands before and after logging, wind storm stands, tools of the lumber industry, horse teams and various working individuals from logging labor history. Photographers include R.H. McKay, K.D. Swan and I.V. Anderson; many of the photos are United States Forest Service photos. Some originals are contained in the collection but most are copies or pictures of photographs.

This reminiscence of fire fighting in the Salmon, Idaho area by C.S. Porter was collected by Strong. This history discusses in great detail a fire fought in the Summer of 1946 and how the crew worked and lived while it fought the fire. This folder was removed from the main collection and can be found in the archives oral history transcripts as OH-371. There is no audio tape of the interview.

This series contains two cassette tapes copied from a reel-to-reel audiotape. The tapes record Clarence Strong reading articles from the Timberman between 1900 and 1924. The printed record of these articles appears in Series II, box 4, folder 8.