PH Coll 516.3100
The Saginaw Timber Company incorporated on March 18, 1908 and organized in 1909. The company was to be capitalized at $100,000. The organizers were A J Morley and W G Hopkins. The company constructed and operated a 40 mile logging railroad in the Aberdeen area. In 1919, the company merged the E H Lester Logging Company, a two mile logging railroad in the Montesano area. In 1933, the company merged the Gray's Harbor and Pacific Railroad Company, a 9.25 mile railroad in the Aberdeen area. The company also merged the Saginaw Southern Railway Company. By 1934 the company was known as the Saginaw Logging Company and operated in the Brooklyn area. In 1947, the company acquired the Bridges to Vesta track from the Gray's Harbor and Puget Sound Railway Company. In 1946, the company was reorganized as the Saginaw Lumber Company. On February 14, 1947 the company was dissolved.

Saginaw is an area on the Chehalis River three miles southeast of Elma in southeast Grays Harbor County. The name is for Saginaw Timber Company of Aberdeen, which used the area as headquarters of its logging operations. The company reportedly originated in Saginaw, Michigan.

The "shingle weavers," as they were called, depended for their livelihood on the dexterity of their hands. They juggled the freshly sliced shingles which fell from the flashing blades of the saws in a manual ballet which the director of a symphony might have envied. They caught the pungent cedar boards in the air, flipped them from one hand to the other and "wove" them into finished bundles ready for shipment. A journeyman shingle weaver could handle 30,000 singles in a ten hour shift. Each time - 30,000 times a day - when he reached for one of those flying pieces of cedar, he gambled the reflexes of eye and muscle against the instant amputation of his fingers or his hand. [Source: Prouty, Andrew Mason. More Deadly Than War: Pacific Coast Logging, 1827-1981. New York; London: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1985.]

• Subjects (LCSH): Shingle industry--Washington (State)--Saginaw; Shingles--Washington (State)--Saginaw; Shingle industry--Washington (State)--Saginaw--Employees; Sawmills--Washington (State)--Saginaw
• Subjects (LCTGM): Men--Washington (State)--Saginaw; Saginaw Timber Company (Brooklyn, Wash.)--People--Washington (State)--Saginaw; Saginaw Timber Company (Brooklyn, Wash.)--Facilities--Washington (State)--Saginaw