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National Geographic : 1951 Jul
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Bobbing Islands of White Pine Clog the Surging Clearwater Idaho contains the world's largest stand of western white pine. Since 1927 nineteen drives on the Clearwater have each yielded some 40 million board feet. Felled forests sail down the waterway to the 310 acre Potlatch millpond at Lewiston. Every eight hours the Lewiston mill saws enough lumber to build 40 average homes. Logs cut a hundred miles upstream from the mill shoot down mountainsides in wooden flumes and plunge into the river. Drives begin when spring thaws flood the river. In 1933 the drive lasted 85 days. Five years later the swollen river washed the logs to the mill in a few hours. The 1938 deluge burst the mill's log boom, flushing the mass into the Snake and down to the Columbia. The errant timber was finally trapped and sold to another mill at Hood River, Oregon. Not all wood can be trans ported by water. Eastern oak, beech, maple, and birch float with difficulty unless specially prepared or rafted with lighter specimens. At times loggers let hardwoods dry for several months. With moisture partly removed, the logs can be floated for short periods. White pine floats readily. Ross Hall
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