Bly and the Timber Years
They named me Bly, and this is what I experienced. I did not begin as a logging town. I was ranchland, river valley, open pine forest, and seasonal work. Timber built me later — slowly at first, then all at once. What follows is my memory of how logging shaped my land, my people, and my working life.
Before the Railroad (1870s–1920s)
Long before industrial logging arrived, local settlers cut timber only as needed. Small whip-saw operations and portable steam mills supplied lumber for barns, homes, and corrals. These early mills were seasonal and limited by isolation — without rail access, there was no practical way to move large volumes of lumber out of the upper Sprague River Valley.
Timber companies, including Weyerhaeuser, quietly acquired forestland in the early 1900s, but the trees stood untouched for decades. Everything depended on steel rails.
The Railroad Changes Everything (1928–1930)
In November 1928, the Oregon, California & Eastern Railway reached me. Trains arrived where wagons once stalled. Within months, logging companies followed the tracks into the forest.
- 1928 — OC&E railroad reaches Bly.
- 1929 — Pelican Bay Lumber and Ewauna Box build logging rail spurs.
- 1930 — First large-scale log shipments leave Bly.
Logging Camps and Daily Life (1930s)
Camps rose deep in the woods — Robinson Springs, Quartz Mountain, Camp numbers instead of town names. Cookhouses fed hundreds. Bunkhouses filled each night. Families lived beside loggers, and children attended one-room camp schools.
Life followed the rhythm of saws, steam donkeys, and locomotives. Winters were long. Work was dangerous. Meals were hot. Paychecks mattered.
Mills Take Root in Bly (1931–1950s)
In 1931, the first permanent sawmill opened in Bly. More followed. Ivory Pine’s mill at the North Fork and the camp known as “Podunk” became one of the largest operations in the region.
Mills brought stability and risk — jobs, schools, stores, and also fire, shutdowns, and sudden change. When timber thinned, mills moved on. When fire struck, they rebuilt.
Weyerhaeuser and the Camp System (1940s–1973)
Weyerhaeuser expanded into the forests north of me with a private logging railroad and numbered camps: Camp 6, Camp 9, Camp 14. These were self-contained communities — bunkhouses, cookhouses, bull cooks, radios, and eventually televisions.
During World War II, timber demand surged. The forest worked year-round. Women joined mill crews. The trees fed a nation at war.
The End of Camp Life (1973)
In 1973, the camps closed. A new stud mill opened. Workers commuted from town instead of living in the woods. The glow of camp lights faded from the forest.
Decline and Closure (1976–1990)
By the late 1970s, timber volumes fell. Environmental law changed how forests were managed. Rail traffic slowed. In 1984, the Bly mill shut down. In 1990, the last trains ran.
What Remains
The rail grade became the OC&E Woods Line Trail. Clearcuts grew back into second-growth forest. Stories remained — in families, photographs, interviews, and memory.
This archive exists so that my working life is not reduced to dates or production numbers. I was built by timber, shaped by labor, and changed by time.
Read the full history
If you want the complete record, the full logging history is available below.