Railroad Camp

T.D. Regehr is a history professor at the University of Saskatchewan and
the author of For Everything a Season: A History of the Alexanderkrone
Zentralschule and Mennonites in Canada, Volume 3, 1939-1970.

Logging operations in the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th and early
20th centuries often involved the construction and operation of various
short-haul logging railroads that brought the logs to strategically
placed sawmills or to a connection with one of the larger
transcontinental railroad systems. One large company of this kind,
operating in western Washington state, was the Polson Logging Company,
which was founded in the late 1800s but reached peak operations during
World War II.

In 1948 the operations were sold to Rayonier Incorporated, which
maintained the main rail lines until 1985, when the main line was
closed, the tracks taken up, and the equipment sold or scrapped. The old
steam locomotives were replaced by diesel in the 1960s.

Railroad Camp begins with a very brief history of the Polson Logging
Company, followed by some recollections by the author, who, like his
father and grandfather before him, worked for the company, and who
returned on a holiday trip in 1961. Included in the book are pictures
taken on that trip by the author, together with others in company or
historical collections, and technical and operational descriptions of
the main camp and the various locomotives. A few pictures and maps of
the yards and various buildings complete the collection.

This attractive book will have particular appeal for steam railroad
enthusiasts and for those whose family history includes work on the old
logging railways.