Pend Orielle Pines

History of the wood
of
Pend Oreille Pines

(Information compiled with the help of the Bonner County Historical Society)

In 1882 the Northern Pacific Railroad established a camp on the north shore of Lake Pend Oreille. Shortly thereafter, several small saw mills sprang up near the head of Ellisport Bay to supply ties and trestle timbers. The town of Hope was soon born from this camp. In the year 1900 the largest landmark of its time in Bonner County, the Hope Lumber Company Mill began turning out lumber. The entire Ellisport Bay served as its mill pond floating 20,000,000bf of logs at any one time. As the logs waited their turn to be milled, a percentage of them sank. As these logs slumbered in the depths of the bay, they were preserved by the icy waters of this deep mountain lake.

The ‘Great Fire of 1910’ blackened most of the Clark Fork River drainage and virgin forests to the East and North of Lake Pend Oreille. In 1913-1914 the Hope Lumber Company’s saws spun to a halt ending Hope’s boom town era. On November 4, 1928, the heaviest of the remaining mill timbers, the tramway and chimney burned and collapsed.

One by one, they are seeing sunshine for the first time in nearly a century. These reclaimed lost logs had mostly been stamped with several ‘R’s and a large ‘V’ chopped into their side for sorting. Occasionally, a mis-sorted log would find its way into the booms. The ax strokes and cross-cut saw marks can still be seen. Most of these logs were 200 to 400 years old before they were fallen. The grain they exhibit is truly exceptional and hasn’t been readily available for decades. The reclaimed species are mainly Ponderosa Pine, Western Larch and some Idaho White Pine. Due to the naturally rich mineral content of the lake sediment, some of the wood has been artfully blued over a period of one hundred years. The “patina” or natural staining varies from soft pastels of yellow, green, blue, pink and purple that will remind you of a rainbow. This patina can also manifest in hues of blue-grey to streaks of nearly black. Every log is so individual it is difficult to adequately describe the color variation unique to each one of them.