RAIL SHIPMENTS OF LUMBER AND SHINGLES FROM THE TACOMA MILLS INCREASED FROM 3,141 CARS IN 1900 TO 6,012 CARS IN 1903, WHILE CARGO SHIPMENTS OF LUMBER INCREASED FROM 77,818,557 FEET IN 1900 TO 129,036,317 FEET IN 1903.
The United States transport Dix sailed on May 9, 1903, from this port for Manila with 3,900,156 feet of lumber loaded at two Tacoma mill wharves. THIS WAS THE LARGEST LUMBER CARGO EVER LOADED IN THE WORLD.
Other Manufactures of Wood.
A large share of the product of the Tacoma lumber mills is supplied to manufacturers in this city. A long list of industries has developed at Tacoma in consequence of its pre-eminence as the lumber mart of the State. There are many planing mills and sash, door and blind factories. The largest plant of this description in the State is that of the Wheeler-Osgood Company, on the flats, enlarged and rebuilt since its destruction by fire in September, 1902. Tacoma has large ship yards and builds the largest wooden vessels for sail and steam navigation engaged in the Sound or Coastwise trade to Alaska. There are three car construction and repair plants at Tacoma; several furniture factories, including the largest plant in this industry on the Coast, that of the Carman Manufacturing Company, covering six acres; the largest plant in the West for the manufacture of coffins and caskets; also the largest plant in this section of the world for the manufacture of wooden-stave water-pipe, that of the Washington Pipe and Foundry Company. There are several large plants for the manufacture of boxes and box shooks, and a great variety of industrial enterprises for the manufacture of articles chiefly of wood, such as ladders, wheelbarrows, incubators, churns, carriages and wagons, kegs, mantles, pails, tubs, trucks, wooden spoons, and many other articles.
Northern Pacific Railway Construction and Repair Plant.
In this connection the fact should be mentioned that Tacoma is not only the great mart for Washington fir, spruce, hemlock, pine and cedar—soft woods, but has command also of abundant supplies of hard woods, such as maple, oak and ash, which are also found in Western Washington. Among the new Tacoma industries of 1904 is a large plant for the manufacture of parlor furniture from hard woods such as are obtainable in this vicinity or will be brought from the tropical forests of the Philippine Islands by steamships plying between this port and Manila.