Logs!! Lots of Logs!!!!!!

This black and white picture is on the front of a "Real Photo" postcard.

You can see on the right-hand side of the card that the locomotive belongs to the "Columbia and N..." Scratched onto the picture, in the top, is are the words, "Columbia and Nehalem R.R. yard B. Goe. and J.T. Labbe collecton" I have written the narrative below about the Columbia and Nehalem Railroad. I have taken content from these two websites, which I encourage to visit: http://www.twrps.com/history/columbia-river-logging/the-columbia-and-nehalem-valley-railway-company/ http://www.brian894x4.com/Kerryrailroadhistory.html On March 7, 1902, the partners by the surnames of Goodsell, Giltner, and Sewell of Portland form a company. They plan a train terminal at Columbia City and another at Pittsburg. Columbia City is north of Portland Oregon on the Columbia River, just after the river turns north, and Pittsburg is west of that about 25 miles. On April 25, 1902, The Columbia City Railroad (to be renamed to the Columbia & Nehalem River Railroad) is designed to be 10-12 miles long and will run from Columbia city westward to the waters of Oak Ranch Creek. It will use 6 logging engines. Four years later, on June 29, 1906, a large timber land deal was made. 5,000 acres were sold by Giltner and Sewell to Peninsular Lumber Co. for $200,000. The deal includes a logging railroad five miles long with dockage on the Columbia River front near Columbia City. The sales price is based on stumpage of $1.25 per thousand. The Peninsular Lumber Company operates a sawmill near St. Johns and will raft logs up river (another 25 miles) to the mill. Enter Albert S. Kerry. Albert S Kerry’s venture into the logging and lumber industry dates as far back as the 1890s and spanned the state of Washington and the Canadian Yukon Territory. Kerry’s Oregon venture, the subject of this article, dates as far back as 1912, when Albert S. Kerry apparently united with the Wright Blodgett Company, the Blodgett Company, Limited and the Oregon-Washington Timber Company to build a new railroad from the Columbia River into the Nehalem Valley. Significant building of the railroad towards the Nehalem valley began in approximately 1912, when some 6000 acres of A.S. Kerry timber holdings had burned. To salvage the dead trees, they have to be logged within three years. Construction of the railroad began on February 17, 1913 at a point near the Columbia River, called Kerry Island, a little more than 1 mile east of the town of Westport, Oregon. By June, 1914, 8 miles had been completed. A year later, the mileage was 14. By July 1, 1915, the first train ran over the line. By July 16, 1916, the initial mainline of the new Columbia & Nehalem River railroad was completed with 24 miles of track laid. By the end of the year, the line would reach 27 miles. This route would take the line from nearly sea level to straight up the North Oregon Coast Mountain Range, an elevation over 1100 feet, and into the Nehalem River Valley. It was nearly all completed by labor using hand-made carts, pulled by mules over 20lb steel rails. At the summit, the line passed through one of the few logging railroad tunnels ever to be built. The line begins at the log boom at Kerry Island, which consisted of about three miles of water frontage along the Columbia River slough. A log dump trestle approximately 1 mile long was built, with as many as 6 separate log dumps. A separate spur left the log dump and connected with the Spokane Portland & Seattle RR, (I have blogged about this railroad and its shrewd owner on March 23, 2022) which ran past the Kerry log dump. The Columbia & Nehalem River Railroad, most commonly known as the Kerry Line, was one of the most famous early 20th century logging railroads in the Northwest. What distinguishes the Kerry line from most of the hundreds of other logging railroads that operated from the late 1800s through the 1930s in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, was the sheer number of logs that were hauled from the woods between 1915 and 1938…over 3 billion, 104 million board feet of timber. It began by pulling out all of the timber that had burned in the forest fire and just kept on continuing. Another thing that distinguishes the Kerry line from most other logging railroads was its 1875 foot long tunnel. It was one of the longest of the few logging railroad tunnels that ever existed in the Western U.S. and Canada. And one of only three logging railroad tunnels in Northwest Oregon.

The back of the post card shows that it was published by The L. L. Cook Co. of Milwaukee. All rights are reserved. I have 5 post cards in my collection from this publisher. The L.L. Cook Company was founded in 1921 and was one of the two largest postcard publishing companies in Milwaukee, Wisconsin up to the 1960s, producing thousands of postcards with scenes from different cities and states across the country. In 1969 the L.L. Cook Company was sold to the General Aniline & Film (GAF) Corporation and shifted focus from producing postcards to maintaining a photofinishing business. It formally dissolved in 1980.