Family Tree Collection, a Potlatch Forests, Inc. Newsletter

About the Collection

The Family Tree was a newsletter published by Potlatch Forests, Inc. for their employees from 1936 to 1952. The newsletter covered national events, news local to North Idaho, with a focus on issues pertaining to Potlatch Forests, Inc. and its loggers and other employees. The content varied greatly — from reports on the head injuries of sawmill workers to editorials on the war crimes of Hirohito. The newsletter offered a valuable window into the daily life of Potlatch workers and their families during these years.

Some other interesting Family Tree articles include:

• “Short Wave Radio”, The Family Tree, January 1952, pg.4: an article about how radio communication transformed the everyday working conditions of logging operations.
• “What Did We Do With Our Lumber in 1947”, The Family Tree, December 1947, pg. 4: a summary of where the lumber produced by the company went in 1947.
• “P.A.A.C. Takes on New Life, and Potlatch Mill to Resume Operation”, The Family Tree, March 1937, pg. 4: a brief article on the revitalization of the Potlatch Amateur Athletic Club.

The collection was digitized in the summer of 2010. Original prints of the newsletters can be found in the Day Northwest rare books collection, held in the University of Idaho Library’s Special Collections and Archives Department.

About Potlatch Forests, Inc.

Although the Family Tree newsletter first rolled off the press in 1936, the Potlatch story actually began nearly four decades earlier and involved three different lumber companies.

In 1900, timber trader Charles O. Brown guided prominent lumberman Frederick Weyerhaeuser through the timberlands of north Idaho. Facing depleted timber resources in the American East and Midwest, Weyerhaeuser was looking to expand westward. Before the year was out, he and Brown, along with John A. Humbird, Edward Rutledge and John E Glover formed the Clearwater Timber Company and a month later, the Potlatch Lumber Company. Rutledge also formed the Edward Rutledge Timber Company in 1902. Weyerhaeuser and his partners soon decided to merge all their Idaho holdings into one company; they named it the Potlatch Lumber Company and selected Frederick’s son Charles as president.

The directors of the Potlatch Lumber Company gave veteran Canadian lumberman William Deary the job of building a mill to turn Idaho timber into Idaho lumber. Deary selected a mill site within the company’s timber holdings in Latah County. In 1904, construction of what would become the world’s largest white pine sawmill began. W.A. Wilkinson of Minnesota oversaw design and construction of the steam-powered, belt and shaft-driven mill.

The site chose for the sawmill in 1904 was nearly uninhabited. In order to attract and retain the workforce needed to staff the facility, Potlatch built an entire town for its employees. When the mill began operating on September 11, 1906, the community of Potlatch was already an attractive town with a variety of amenities, including over 100 houses, two schools, Protestant and Catholic churches, as well as a hotel, general store, bank, post office, and opera house.

In 1907, Potlatch Lumber Company built a new sawmill in what is now Elk River, Idaho. The Elk River Mill operated through 1930. Around 1916, the Edward Rutledge Timber Company built one near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Clearwater Timber’s mill in Lewiston began operation in 1927. In 1931, the three separate but affiliated companies – Potlatch Lumber Company, Edward Rutledge Timber Company, and Clearwater Timber Company – merged to form Potlatch Forests, Inc., with headquarters in Lewiston.

Pres-to-logs, introduced in 1930, helped Potlatch weather the Great Depression, and World War II brought increased demand for lumber. After the war Potlatch diversified its product line, acquired mills throughout the United States, and continued to purchase timberland. In 1965 the corporate headquarters were moved to San Francisco and in 1973 the company’s name changed to Potlatch Corporation. In 1997, company officials relocated corporate headquarters to Spokane, Washington. Today, Potlatch is a Real Estate Investment Trust with approximately 1.5 million acres of forest land in Arkansas, Idaho, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Related Digital Collections

• The Potlatch Lumber Company Photograph Collection: A collection of over 1500 photographs from the Potlatch Lumber Company depicting working conditions, workers, logging and mill operations, and other related subject matter.
• The Potlatch Historical Society Collection: A digital collection comprised of about 3,500 photographs and documents from Potlatch and surrounding areas.
• Latah County Oral History Collection: A digital collection containing interviews with dozens of longtime Potlatch residents, recorded in the 1970s and 1980s.