Grant Co. History: Timber, farming are different today

Published 4:00 pm Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Timber and agriculture play a major role in the economy of Grant County today as they did in the history of Grant County. A change has taken place over the years in how the various tasks in these two major occupations are done.

The trees were fell and then cut into log lengths by hand. These were then hauled to a nearby small sawmill by horse or oxen teams.

The early sawmills in our area were powered by water or steam. They just satisfied the lumber need in the local area.

As noted in the small booklet titled “Grant County, In the Beginning,” it was not until about 1926 that the timber industry became big business for our county.

Edward Hines Lumber Company of Chicago came into our area. They built a large mill in Harney County and had a company town, Seneca, the site of another mill as well as their own railroad to transport the logs from forest to mill.

Today, we do not transport logs from forest to mill by railroad, but by log trucks. Seneca no longer has a sawmill.

Grant County now has three sawmills in operation. Mills at Long Creek, Canyon Creek, Mt. Vernon and one in John Day are no longer in operation.

Today’s mills are powered by electricity.

From horse, oxen, water and steam power as well as man power, spar poles, donkey engines (steam engines to haul logs to landings) are all a part of the past.

Today, we have trucks, skidders, cats, delimbers, and loaders.

Agriculture has seen similiar changes in how its many tasks are accomplished.

Hay was cut by hand with a scythe and piled loose with a fork. Then came horse drawn mowers and rakes. Later came the steam tractors with simple mower and baler.

Today, a person who travels throughout our county can see small bales, round bales, medium and large rectangular bales. Bales, large and small, are being pulled through fields with large and small tractors.

As the way people travel from place to place has changed throughout our history, so have the methods of irrigation, putting up hay and logging changed in our county.

For information about the Grant County Genealogical Society, contact Linda Cook, 575-2757, or Jeannette Harrison, 932-4718.