Lumbering along in San Mateo County

Some of the earliest uses of the redwoods were in shingle making. Shingles can be cut by one person from logs that have even fallen due to natural causes. Short sections of smaller logs are split along the grain by using a short froe, or wedge, and hitting it with a mallet. The shingles can be bundled in manageable loads and transported by man or beast to a market nearby.

The earliest method of cutting logs was by means of a deep pit. The log was rolled over the pit and one man worked above, one below, with a two man saw. The next innovation was to use water power to crank the saw up and down over the pit. Next, a gang saw was used. In this case, a series of saws would be attached to the crank, allowing multiple cuts at one time.

The first mill in the redwoods of the Rancho Canada Reymundo was built by Charley Brown and John Coppinger in 1847. By 1854, there were 15 mills in the area. The lumbering area expanded when Dennis Martin built a mill on San Francisquito Creek.

The first market for lumber was in San Jose. After people moved into California with the gold rush, there was a tremendous market in San Francisco as well as Sacramento. Dr. Tripp was the first to ship lumber from Redwood City to San Francisco in 1850. By 1853, the mills of the Woodside area were putting out 20 to 25 million board feet per year.

All of this activity logged out the eastern slopes of the mountains. The mills moved over the crest to the western side. Harvesting could only be done during the dry season when the oxen could haul the logs over to the wharf at Redwood City. Shingles could be taken by ox cart from the coast to Redwood City. From there they could be shipped by boat or by train.

By 1875, there was a shortage of timber, as the trees were nearly all cut. Only six or eight mills were left. The price of lumber was also lower by this time.

Logging is no longer a major industry in our area. When you admire the wooded hillsides on the southern Peninsula, remember that at one time those hills were mowed clean of the redwood harvest. The older, larger trees are gone. Only a very few of the "heritage trees" exist, and they are probably here only because they were rejected by the loggers. That is the case with what is called the "Methuselah tree" along State Route 35. It owes its life to the fact that its trunk twists in a way that makes it unusable as lumber.

Rediscovering the Peninsula appears in the Monday edition of the Daily Journal. For more information on this or related topics, visit the San Mateo County History Museum, 777 Hamilton St., Redwood City.