Collection is open for research.
Collection transferred from the Forest History Society, April 1991 (Lib. Acc. 20289, Photo Acc. 991D046).
Charles Axel Smith opened the C.A. Smith Lumber Mill in Marshfield, Oregon, in 1908. Smith (1852-1927) was born in Östergötland, Sweden, and immigrated to the United States in 1867, later marrying Johanna Andersson Olofsdotter in Minnesota, and establishing one of the largest sawmills in the country in Minneapolis, Minnesota. During the later part of 1906, Smith bought the holdings of the Southern Oregon Company, giving him ownership of over 101,000 acres of timber land. Smith purportedly acquired some of the land through fraudulent means; using the 1878 federal Timber and Stone Act, agents working for Smith hired temporary entrymen to file land claims, later turning them over to the C.A. Smith Company. By 1907, Smith and his family had relocated west to Oregon, settling in the Coos Bay region on the Oregon coast.
At the time the C.A. Smith Lumber Mill opened in 1908, it was reported to be the largest lumber mill in the world. The mill employed 250 workers at the "Big Mill," and another 350 at logging encampments owned by the C.A. Smith Logging Company. By 1912, Smith had introduced a second 10-hour shift, and the mill was producing 600,000 board feet per day.
By 1916, Smith's logging operations had depleted the area of timber and he moved production further inland, using the railway system and log-floating techniques to transport materials to company lumber mills. After Smith overextended his operation and the company became financially inoperable, the Coos Bay Lumber Company bought Smith's operations later that year, shifting primary control to investors in San Francisco and Chicago.
Sources: Robbins, William G., "C.A. Smith Logging Company," Oregon Encyclopedia,
The negatives in this collection have fragile, flaking emulsion, and in some cases, the image quality is poor. Due to fragility, the negatives are not available for direct access. Researchers are asked to use the access prints or
Photographs of C. A. Smith lumber mill and West Coast shipping, Org. Lot 741, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Collection was titled "Forest History Society Collection" prior to November 2022.
Collection consists of 28 glass plate negatives of lumber mills, lumber shipping vessels and machinery, and street scenes in Oregon and northern California. The photographer and exact context for these photographs are unknown. The images primarily depict the C.A. Smith lumber mill located in Marshfield, Oregon, today known as Coos Bay. Also included are photographs of logging machinery, loading equipment, and various other mills and waterways, documenting areas such as the Coalbank Slough, Bunker Hill, the McKenna Mill, and Eastside, which is now considered a residential area in Coos Bay. In addition, the collection includes several photos of lumber steamships docked for loading at the C. A. Smith mill. Most notable are the Hazel Dollar, owned by the Dollar Steamship Line based in San Francisco, California; and the Nann Smith, which C. A. Smith named after his daughter.
Other photographs in the collection include the 1911 Centennial celebration in Astoria, Oregon, and photographs of assorted locations throughout northern California. These include the Plaza in Arcata, a cattle ferry at Eel River, the Little River Mill in Bullwinkle (also known as Crannel Mill, located in what is now Crannel), and the steamship Tenyo Maru and the United States Army transport ship Logan, both taken at the San Francisco harbor.
The collection includes access prints of all 28 images. These were made by the Oregon Historical Society Research Library and include annotations about the content of the photographs.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.