Name: History Pub - St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company: 1888-1958
Start: 2024-07-22T19:00:00-07:00
Location: Spanish Ballroom

McMenamins presents
History Pub
St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company: 1888-1958
Presented by Jesse Clark McAbee

Monday, July 22, 2024
Spanish Ballroom
McMenamins Elks Temple
Doors 6pm, Program 7pm
$7
All ages
The St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber company was founded in 1888 by four experienced lumbermen from the upper Midwest who incorporated the business for 1.5 million dollars. The purchase of 80,000 acres of prime forest from the Northern Pacific Railway in Southeast Pierce County was the largest purchase of privately owned timberlands to date. By 1898, St. Paul & Tacoma Co. had grown into one of the largest lumber producers in Washington and employed the largest work force in Tacoma, as well as hundreds of loggers and mill workers from many rural communities in the county. Historian Jesse Clark McAbee examines the lasting effects of this company’s history on present-day Tacoma.
Jesse Clark McAbee is a museum professor and historian with a bachelor's degree in history from Washington State University and a certificate in museum studies from the University of Washington. He served in the United States Naval Reserves from 1981-91 as an Air Intelligence Officer and Electronic Warfare Officer with assignments in Hawaii and Sicily, and special duty in Washington, D.C. McAbee was director of historical museums in Washington state and Northern California. He won the Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation Valerie Sivinski Award in 2011 for his work as project manager for the restoration of the Morton Historic Train Depot. McAbee is author of several articles for 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑎 𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒, and 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝐿𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠 (previously 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡) magazine, among other publications, and he co-authored 𝑅𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑒: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐻𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑎𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑎 𝐸𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝑅𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑑.