Archives West Finding Aid

The Whatcom Falls Mill Company Records and George W. Loggie Papers span the years 1886 to 1978, with the bulk of the material dated 1895-1940. The collection primarily documents the story of Whatcom Falls Mill Company. The remaining papers focus on Loggie's personal life. Little is known as to how the collection arrived at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies; however, it is clearly a compilation of records from many facets of Loggie’s life. Few of the personal papers are truly family oriented, and focus instead, on Loggie’s other business interests prior to the creation of Whatcom Falls Mill Company.

The first series of papers documents the business activities of Whatcom Falls Mill Company from its incorporation in 1895 to its dissolution in 1940. Included are administrative and financial records, correspondence, operations information, maps and drawings, and various advertising materials, including a business envelope with a picture of the original mill, and business cards printed on cedar. Included in this series are several records relating to the McCoy-Loggie Timber Company. While not a subsidiary company, the Timber Company supplied lumber to the mill, and records from both companies appear to have been kept together. Enriching The Whatcom Falls Mill Company Records are photographs of Whatcom Falls Mill, including a photo of a drawing of the original mill, two Brubaker aerial surveys, and one Sandison aerial survey.

Separate from both the Whatcom Falls Mill Company Records and the George W. Loggie Papers is information included on other regional lumber mills. This information, collected after Loggie's death in 1922, bears no immediate connections to Whatcom Falls Mill. It was possibly collected in order to assess the competition of other regional mills. Included in this series is information on the Bloedel-Donovan Lumber Mill, as well as Wood & English Limited.

The remainder of the collection focuses on personal materials of the Loggie family, and in particular, the business activities of George W. Loggie prior to his work with Whatcom Falls Mill Company. Included is early correspondence of George W. Loggie, primarily with regard to his previous mill experience in Oregon; papers, a ledger, and booklets that document G.W. Loggie’s interest in Trotting Horses; copies of the certificate of Registry of the Schooner Vigilant; a Family Expense Ledger (dated after G.W. Loggie’s death); and family photos. Also included are photographs of other mills, as well as those depicting various aspects of logging and milling operations. Some of these photos date to the 1880s and 1890s. Identified mills include Bloedel-Donovan, as well as other mills on Bellingham Bay, the Olympic Peninsula, and mills near the Cascade Mountains. The Family Expense Ledger, page 151, contains genealogical material of interest regarding the Lowery family.

The following items are of special note: Materials regarding the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union and Whatcom Falls Mill Company, including correspondence and newspaper clippings dealing with the workers' strike in 1937; a 1914 Kroll Atlas section map showing McCoy land as well as other lumber and mill company property; an 1887 Map Guide to the City of Seattle, Washington Territory surveyed by Whitworth and Thomson which was probably a real estate map; and a December 10, 1895 copy of the newspaper Daily Reveille.

The artifacts in this collection include a wallet owned by George W. Loggie, and Volume VI of the 14-volume set of Hough’s American Woods is also part of this collection. Romeyn Beck Hough wrote and published the set between 1888 and 1928. Each volume consists of twenty-five species of trees specific to a particular part of the United States. Volume VI represents trees of the Pacific Slope. Actual wood samples of each tree are included; cut in thin sections to show the various planes of the wood (transverse, radial, and tangential sections).