M. J. Nelson’s Logging the Nehalem: Railroads, Camps, and Sawmills of the Upper Nehalem Valley documents the large-scale industrial lumber boom that reshaped the dense fir and cedar watersheds of western Columbia County. Nelson details the establishment of the Oregon-American Lumber Company in Vernonia, which constructed the world’s largest electric-powered cedar and fir sawmill, turning the town into a thriving interior company city. The text details the expansion of extensive logging railroads—including lines operated by the Portland, Astoria & Pacific and the United Railways—which branched outward through deep canyons to service timber camps at Keasey, Birkenfeld, Mist, Pittsburg, and Treharne. Nelson illustrates how heavy steam yarders, Shay locomotives, and high-lead rigging extracted vast timber tracts, while chronicling the daily social rhythms and labor conditions of loggers in remote rail-car camps.

Birkenfeld (Or.), City of Vernonia, Columbia County (Or.) History, History, Keasey (Or.), Logging Oregon Columbia County History, Logging railroads Oregon Nehalem River Valley, Lumber trade Oregon Nehalem River Valley History, Mist (Or.), Nehalem River Valley (Or.) History, Pittsburg (Or.), Treharne (Or.)

Includes locomotive rosters, logging line maps, and mill equipment schematics.

Includes locomotive rosters, logging line maps, and mill equipment schematics.