Scaling issues

If the early history of Seeley Lake is intertwined with the lumber industry, the rise of the United States Forest Service is incontrovertibly intertwined with Seeley Lake and in particular with the Big Blackfoot Timber Sale of 1907-1910. Historian and member of the Camp Paxson Preservation Board Gary Williams has been researching that sale. The Seeley Swan Pathfinder will be bringing some of the interesting bits of information he has discovered about logging in the Seeley Lake area and also about the fledgling U.S. Forest Service.

SEELEY LAKE – The previous article in the Timber Sale series (Sept. 3, 2020) discussed the controversy created because Forest Service Lumberman Ambrose Norton, who was in charge of the 1907 Seeley Lake timber sale, spared the large larch trees bordering the lake and wagon road from being cut down. But that was hardly the only controversy generated during the sale.

On April 9, 1908 Supervisor Page Bunker received a complaint letter from Big Blackfoot Milling Company General Manager Kenneth Ross claiming the mill had not received "fair scale." Scaling is the forestry term for measuring logs to estimate how much marketable lumber is in each log. Ross asserted the Forest Service cheated the mill out of one million board feet of lumber.

Forest Service Inspector Paul Redington was assigned the task of investigating the complaint. In a 23-page report, Redington detailed his methods, conclusions and recommendations.

Prior to his arrival at the Seeley Lake lumber site on April 26, Redington sent a letter to Ross. Redington requested the names of Big Blackfoot Company's scalers and their figures. He also invited Ross or his representative to join him during his inspection.

Four days after Redington had begun his inspection, a Mr. Fox arrived from Big Blackfoot and announced he was the company's head scaler and timber cruiser. According to Redington, Fox brought no figures, could not tell the number of pieces scaled by his company nor total scale in board feet and had never seen a copy of the sale contract.

After Redington questioned Fox further, it turned out Fox had only recently been appointed to his job after the company's previous scaler a Mr. Harrison had been "let go."

Later exploration into the issue revealed Harrison had worked three days at the site and then returned to Bonner. He told the skidders to keep count of the logs hauled from the skidway to the landings. The company's skidders later said they had kept the count to 500 and then got tired of counting and stopped. Harrison did not return until two days later.

Redington wrote, "It is probable that over 1,000 logs went from the skidways into the Lake [sic] without actually having been seen by any scaler of the company."

Redington further concluded that even at the most charitable estimate in the company's favor, using 500 rather than 1,000 as the number of logs, at least 71,000 board feet had gone by without being counted by the company.

In contrast to Harrington, Redington describes the Forest Service's head scaler Ambrose Norton as "a careful and painstaking man," one having "considerable practical training back of him," and one who "scales very closely, and believes in a strict construction of a contract."

In addition, Redington found the Big Blackfoot Company only had two other scalers, both of whom also worked as company clerks in the headquarters commissary.

Redington wrote, "... it is preposterous to suppose that this insufficient force could possibly keep up with the four to five men constantly scaling for the government and do the same careful work."

Further noting that Norton had personally trained the men he hired to assist him with the scaling, he added, "That [Norton] has devoted a great deal of time to instructing the men under him, in scaling work and all of the problems which arise in connection with a large sale of timber, is admitted by the men themselves, and shows in their work. They all speak very highly of Norton."

Beyond the caliber of the scalers themselves, Redington found a major discrepancy in the method of scaling. The contract clearly stated the Scribner Decimal C rule was the method of measuring to be used by both parties. Simply put, a scaler measures the diameter and length of each log and uses either a volume table or perhaps a scaling stick with volume conversions inscribed on it to determine the amount of merchantable lumber in that log. The Scribner Decimal C method works most accurately on logs 16 feet or less. For this reason, the timber sale contract specified, "The Maximum scaling length of all logs shall be 16 feet. Greater lengths shall be scaled as two or more logs." It was virtually impossible, using two-man crosscut saws, to cut trees in the woods at an exact 90-degree angle, and the contract allowed for up to three extra inches so the mill could trim the uneven side.

The company, however, cut boards exceeding 16 feet and their scalers counted them as one log. Local resident and professional forester Ron Cox explained how this was a scam benefiting the Big Blackfoot Milling Company.

"It basically involves sawing logs in such a way to get more bound feet out of a log than what they paid for based on the log scale. For instance, the trick of cutting logs longer (e.g., 18 feet) than what the scaling rule is based on could allow them to saw eight foot and 10 foot boards instead of two eight-foot ones out of the log." Cox added, according to an online log volume calculator using Scribner Rule, a log scaled at 16 feet will yield 170 board feet. If that log is actually 18 feet long, it will yield 190 board feet.

By Norton's estimate, 54 percent of the logs cut by the company "widely overran the trim allowance." Based on all he saw and heard at the operations site concerning the scaling issue, Redington concluded in his letter, "It is recommended that the Big Blackfoot Milling Co. be informed that its complaint regarding an excessive scale cannot be entertained, since the scaling by its officials was not done in accordance with the terms of the contract, and for this very reason, there was bound to be a minimum discrepancy of 750,000 feet of timber between its scale and that of the government officers whose scale conformed to the provisions of the contract."

Redington's report also dealt with the issues of larch butts and culled timber. Those controversies will be the subject of the next article in the 1907 Timber Sale series.