Mud Bay Logging Company was a 20th-century logging company based in Olympia, Washington. The company was established in 1899 as Western Washington Logging Company by Mark Draham, who had previously established Mason County Logging Company. The name changed to Mud Bay Logging Company in 1910. [1] The company was disestablished in 1941. [2]
Operations were in the Mud Bay, Thurston County, Washington area, harvesting timber from the Black Hills, hauling it out by logging railroad, and rafting the timber by water from a Mud Bay log dump to mills on Puget Sound. [3] [4] [5] The railroad ran west from Mud Bay to Summit Lake, about halfway to McCleary, Washington. [1] By 1918, in the Black Hills, the line run as far south as section 20 or 27 of township 17 north, range 3 west—almost as far as Littlerock. [6] :157
The company was one of the last in the South Puget Sound area to use a logging railroad. Traces of the rail line can be easily seen across the greater Olympia area, now used as county roads and private driveways, a natural gas pipeline, and a nature trail. [6] :157, 160
The company became one of the seven founding members of the State Log Patrol, incorporated in 1928 and given special quasi-law enforcement powers over timber piracy by the state legislature. [7]
A 210,000-pound (95,000 kg) 2-6-6-2 steam powered Mallet locomotive, serial number 60412, was built in 1928 by Baldwin Locomotive Works for Mud Bay Logging Company. It became a Weyerhaeuser Timber Company logging locomotive after Mud Bay dissolved, and was operated at Klamath Falls, Oregon. It was Weyerhaeuser's last steam locomotive. It was acquired by the Northwest Railway Museum at Snoqualmie, Washington, in 1965, and was last operated in 1974. [8] [9]
The logging railroad has been converted to a rail trail, now the McLane Creek Nature Trail. [3] [4] The timberlands worked by Mud Bay have become part of 100,000-acre (40,000 ha) Capitol State Forest, a state-managed protected area including multi-use forest where logging continues but with modern forestry practices.
The OC&E Woods Line State Trail is a rail trail in Klamath and Lake counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is Oregon's longest state park. The trail follows the old OC&E and Weyerhaeuser railroads from Klamath Falls to Thompson Reservoir. Along its 105-mile (169 km) length it passes through the communities of Olene, Sprague River, Dairy, Beatty, and Bly.
Capitol Lake is a 3 kilometer long, 260-acre (1.1 km2) artificial lake at the mouth of Deschutes River in Tumwater/Olympia, Washington. The Olympia Brewery sits on Capitol Lake in Tumwater, just downstream from where the Tumwater Falls meet the artificial lake. The Washington State Department of Enterprise Services (DES) manages the lake, as part of The Washington State Capitol Campus.
The history of Olympia, Washington, includes long-term habitation by Native Americans, charting by a famous English explorer, settlement of the town in the 1840s, the controversial siting of a state college in the 1960s and the ongoing development of arts and culture from a variety of influences.
State Route 510 (SR 510) is a state highway in Thurston County, Washington. The 13 miles (20.9 km) long highway extends southeast from an interchange with Interstate 5 (I-5) in Lacey to SR 507 in Yelm. SR 510 roughly parallels the Nisqually River, the border between Thurston and Pierce counties, between the Fort Lewis and Nisqually Indian Community area to Yelm.
Tolmie State Park is a public recreation area covering 154 acres (62 ha) on Nisqually Beach on Puget Sound, eight miles (13 km) northeast of Olympia, Washington. The state park includes 1,800 ft (550 m) of saltwater shoreline at the mouth of a creek known as Big Slough as well as forest lands, a saltwater marsh, and an underwater park with artificial reef for scuba diving.
The Tacoma Eastern Railroad was officially established by John F. Hart and George E. Hart in 1891. The enterprising lumberman received leases from Pierce County to harvest lumber from sections of a local school district. By 1890, most available timber near navigable water had been harvested. Sawmill industries had traditionally used the Puget Sound to float their wares to schooner captains, which can then be transported to markets, typically in San Francisco. To accommodate this new dilemma, the J.F Hart and Company began planning and construction for the Tacoma Eastern Railroad
Eld Inlet is an inlet located at the southern end of Puget Sound in Thurston County, Washington. It is the second southernmost arm of Puget Sound after neighboring Budd Inlet.
Woodard Bay Natural Resources Conservation Area is a natural reserve in Olympia, Washington protected under the Washington Natural Areas Program. Once an important processing facility for the logging industry, it has been designated as the Weyerhaeuser South Bay Log Dump Rural Historic Landscape. Today the area is a renowned sanctuary for a variety of birds, harbor seals, river otters, bald eagles, and a colony of bats, as well as serving as an important great blue heron rookery. A recent conservation program in the area between the State of Washington and the Nature Conservancy is the first of its kind in the country.
The Puget Sound region is a coastal area of the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. state of Washington, including Puget Sound, the Puget Sound lowlands, and the surrounding region roughly west of the Cascade Range and east of the Olympic Mountains. It is characterized by a complex array of saltwater bays, islands, and peninsulas carved out by prehistoric glaciers.
Culp Creek is an unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon, United States, southeast of Cottage Grove on the Row River. It lies on Row River Road between Dorena and Disston.
The Caspar, South Fork & Eastern Railroad provided transportation for the Caspar Lumber Company in Mendocino County, California. The railroad operated the first steam locomotive on the coast of Mendocino County in 1875. Caspar Lumber Company lands became Jackson Demonstration State Forest in 1955, named for Caspar Lumber Company founder, Jacob Green Jackson.
Oyster Bay is an inlet in southern Puget Sound which branches off from Totten Inlet. The bay spans Mason and Thurston counties, in the U.S. state of Washington. Kennedy Creek empties into the bay at the U.S. Highway 101 overpass.
Kennedy Creek Natural Area Preserve is a state-protected Natural Area near US Highway 101 on Oyster Bay, Puget Sound, in southwest Washington state, United States. The preserve is on the border of Thurston County and Mason County and contains 203 acres (82 ha) of intertidal salt marsh and upland forest.
Henderson Inlet is a small, southern inlet of Puget Sound, Washington state, situated between Budd Inlet to the west and Nisqually Reach to the east. It is located in Thurston County and the nearest city is Olympia, the state capital. Henderson Inlet was named in 1841 by Charles Wilkes, commander of the United States Exploring Expedition, after James Henderson, who served as quartermaster. A variant name is "South Bay".
The Satsop Hills are foothills of the Olympic Mountains in Mason County, Washington north of Matlock, Washington, between Wynoochee Lake to the west and Lake Cushman to the east.
Mud Bay is the southernmost reach of Puget Sound, at Eld Inlet just outside the city limits of Olympia, Washington. The name Eld Inlet was officially bestowed after a member of the U.S. Navy's Wilkes Expedition, but "Mud Bay" is a local, informal adoption.
William McLane (1819–1906) was an Olympia, Washington pioneer and member of the Washington Territorial Legislature. He was from Butler County, Pennsylvania. He and Martha McLeod McLane pioneered a 307-or-320-acre homestead on Mud Bay. Place names such as McLane Creek are named for him, as is McLane Elementary School in the Olympia School District, on a hill above and east of Mud Bay, and the McLane Grange in Delphi Valley, to whom he donated land.
South Puget Sound is the southern reaches of Puget Sound in Southwest Washington, in the United States' Pacific Northwest. It is one of five major basins encompassing the entire Sound, and the shallowest basin, with a mean depth of 37 meters (121 ft). Exact definitions of the region vary: the state's Department of Fish and Wildlife counts all of Puget Sound south of the Tacoma Narrows for fishing regulatory purposes. The same agency counts Mason, Jefferson, Kitsap, Pierce and Thurston Counties for wildlife management. The state's Department of Ecology defines a similar area south of Colvos Passage.
McLane Creek is a stream in Thurston County in the U.S. state of Washington. It enters Puget Sound at the southern end of Mud Bay on Eld Inlet.
The Oregon, California and Eastern Railway (OC&E) was a 64-mile (103 km) rail line between Klamath Falls and Bly in the U.S. state of Oregon. After 70 years of bringing logs from nearby forests to local sawmills, the former railroad right of way was converted to the OC&E Woods Line State Trail.