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Chiloquin Lumber Company


Chiloquin Lumber Company


Chiloquin Lumber #2 with a log train. Clark Kinsey photo, John T. Labbe Collection of Logging and Railroad Photographs, 1892-2010, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov.



History

One E.A. Blocklinger incorporated the Chiloquin Lumber Company in 1918. The Chiloquin Lumber Company built a succession of sawmills in Chiloquin, fed initially by a large block of timber tributary to Chiloquin purchased in 1920, followed by another large block of continuous timber purchased in 1926.

The Chiloquin Lumber Company started building a logging railroad running from Chiloquin into the timber in 1922. The logging railroad lines spread through both of the initial timber blocks, with the western block closest to Chiloquin logged from 1920-1929, when operations shifted to the eastern block until 1931, at which time the company returned to the western block to finish it out. Chiloquin had nearly exhausted all available timber in those blocks by 1939, but fortunately (for Chiloquin) the company was then able to acquire a block of timber several miles to the north, including a logging railroad running east from SP's Mazama station, from the Forest Lumber Company after their mill in nearby Pine Ridge burned and that company decided not to rebuild it. Chiloquin logged the Mazama line until 1947, when the available timber ran out. Chiloquin abandoned its logging railroad operations at that time, though the mill remained in operation under a series of owners into the 1980s.


Maps

Map of the Chiloquin Lumber Company logging railroad out of Chiloquin.

The Mazama operation Chiloquin purchased from Forest Lumber Company in 1939.


Locomotive Roster

1- Baldwin 2-4-4T, c/n 23876, Built 1904. Cylinders 16x24, Drivers 46", Boiler Pressure 160 lbs., Tractive Effort 18,200 lbs., Weight 55 tons. Built as Western Meat Company (Swift & Company) #2; to South San Francisco Belt Raylway #2, San Francisco, CA; to Chiloquin Lumber #1.

2- Lima "Pacific Coast" 3-Truck Shay, c/n 3317, Built 1928. Cylinders 13x15, Drivers 36", Weight 70 tons. Built for stock; to Chiloquin Lumber #2; to Weyerhaeuser Timber #4, Headquarters Camp, Longview, Washington; to British Columbia Forest Products #17, Youbou, British Columbia. Scrapped 1959.

Photos

Chiloquin Lumber #2 on 6 April 1947, right as the Chiloquin rail operations ended.