Yosemite Lumber Company

The steepest logging incline ever built The Yosemite Lumber Company constructed a railroad incline to access their timber holdings on a high tableland opposite El Portal. The incline, which was the steepest ever built, connected the timberlands high on the tableland with the Yosemite Valley Railroad located in the Merced River valley below. The Yosemite Lumber Company built the incline in 1912, which spanned from El Portal to the top of Hennes Ridge. It featured a 48% grade at the start, changed to a 52% grade for several hundred feet, and then dropped to a 45% grade until reaching the middle of the incline. The last to the summit were the steepest on the line, with a dizzying 78% grade. Loaded log cars were let down the incline as empty cars were pulled up, using a counterbalanced arrangement. The incline had four trestles and two overhead hold-downs. The line speed reached feet per minute, with a handling capacity of about six cars per hour. The incline utilized feet of wire rope pulled by a big steam-powered hoist manufactured by Willamette Iron Works. The mill was advertised as the “most modern and up-to-date in the entire west.” Logging occurred from April to November due to heavy snowfall in the mountains. The company took pride in its safety record before the first two fatalities occurred in July 1914. The Yosemite Lumber Company encountered challenges during World War I, with a lack of flat cars and available workers. Nonetheless, the company persevered and shipped six cars of finished lumber daily. They extended the logging railroad to Empire Meadow, which was approximately 15 miles from the incline. In 1919, the company tested a Climax locomotive, but ultimately returned it due to its inability to maintain a full head of steam. They replaced it with a fourth Shay locomotive. In 1921, the company cut a record 60 million board feet of lumber, added 15 new log cars, and updated some mill equipment. Despite a fire in September that caused significant damage to the bakery and dining room at Merced Falls, the outlook remained positive. By 1923, the company had constructed more employee housing and added a second story to the Yosemite Valley Railroad station. It employed 700 workers and cut over 70 million board feet of timber, setting an all-time record for the company at that time. To fund the construction of a new incline, modernize the mill, and relocate the logging railroad, the company raised $5 million through a bond issue. A crew of 200 men worked around the clock to complete the new incline by the 1924 season. The 8,300-foot incline, which cost nearly $1 million, required more than 400 rollers and had a maximum grade of 68 percent. A second incline was built above it to access additional timber. The main hoist, an electrically operated double-drum system, weighed 320,000 pounds. The incline was double-tracked for the upper half and transitioned to single track for the descent. In 1924, the company set records by cutting 60 million board feet of lumber, followed by 85 million board feet in 1925. At peak times, it employed 500 men at the mill and another 500 in the timber camps, with a daily payroll of $5,500. To generate the revenue needed to meet bond payments, the company operated seven days a week, 10 hours a day. ==Merced Falls sawmill==

The Yosemite Valley Railroad pulled log trains along the Merced River to Yosemite Lumber Company's sawmill at Merced Falls in the San Joaquin Valley. The mill broke ground in the summer of 1911. Over 945 tons of machinery was brought to Merced Falls by train including a 600-horsepower electric plant which electrified both the plant and the town. The mill operated seasonally, whenever the snow had cleared enough for logging trains to resume. By the 1920s, the mill delivered between 40 and 50 million feet of lumber every season and employed between 250 and 300 men. The sale of alcohol was forbidden in the incorporated city of Merced Falls. But several saloons opened to serve mill workers just across the Mariposa County line. In 1918, a petition was raised to close the saloons as a war measure, citing the mill's role in support of government contracts. Yosemite Lumber Company Mill Construction.jpg|Mill under construction. Yosemite Lumber Company Mill Log Pond.jpg|Sawmill and log pond. Yosemite Lumber Company Log Wash.jpg|Log wash. Yosemite Lumber Company Mill Sharpeners.jpg|Saw sharpeners. == Acquisitions and successors ==

Sugar Pine Lumber Company In 1927, the Yosemite Lumber Company unexpectedly shut down, and rumors circulated that the White & Friant company had issued an ultimatum demanding the purchase of land to reach their own timber, which was refused. The Sugar Pine Lumber Company of Pinedale purchased the Merced Falls mill and the assets of the Yosemite Lumber Company for $6,000,000 and reopened the mill in May 1929. Initially, the plan was to bring all Yosemite Lumber Company timber to Pinedale for milling, but the Southern Pacific refused to permit the Yosemite Valley Railroad log cars on its trackage. The Sugar Pine Lumber Company was forced to reopen the Merced Falls mill, but eventually had to give up the Yosemite Lumber Company subsidiary due to the depression. Yosemite Lumber closed at the end of the 1930 season and Merced Falls dwindled into a “ghost city.” The Yosemite Sugar Pine Company John Ball, president of White & Friant, saw an opportunity to utilize his timber mixed with Yosemite Lumber Company holdings by consolidating his assets and reopening the Merced Falls mill himself under the name of The Yosemite Sugar Pine Lumber Company in July 1935. A $400,000 loan by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation helped reopen the mill in 1935 as depression era relief measure. The incline was refurbished, and the five Shay locomotives were put back to work. The reformed company sent the first logs to the Merced Falls mill in September 1935, and during the late season, they cut around 13,000,000 feet of lumber before winter. Production settled at 60,000,000 board feet annually starting in 1936, but the mill could process more. The incline was upgraded with new 400 horsepower motors and a replacement wire rope cable, increasing the hoist speed by 12%. In 1938, some truck logging began, and roads were built for independent contractors to bring logs to the railroad for transport to the incline. By the end of 1942, most of the available timber had been exhausted, and the last train load of logs arrived at the mill from the Yosemite Valley Railroad on November 15, 1942. == Public opposition ==

In 1926, wrote a circular criticizing the National Park Service and the lumber company for the devastation caused by logging in the Yosemite National Park area. However, he struggled to generate much public interest, and logging continued without significant opposition. John Ball, president of Yosemite Sugar Pine, was accused of failing to cooperate with the government. While the lumber company argued that selective cutting could preserve the forests, the issue had gained too much public attention. Legislation authorized the purchase of the Carl Inn Tract, a 7,200-acre stand of sugar pine, which was completed in 1939 for $1,495,500. This purchase effectively ended the operations of the Yosemite Sugar Pine Lumber Company. == Legacy ==

Today, few remnants of the lumber operation remain. Within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park, many of the old Yosemite Lumber railroad beds were repurposed as part of the Yosemite West subdivision, while others have been reclaimed by the forest. In the San Joaquin Valley, the Yosemite Lumber Mill at Merced Falls is gone, and the community has become a ghost town. == Locomotive roster ==

The Yosemite Lumber Company ran Shay locomotives produced by Lima Locomotive Works. Shay engines could be run forward or backwards, and could run on poor-quality track, making them ideal for logging in the woods. Unlike the narrow-gauge run by the nearby Madera Sugar Pine Company which allowed for tighter curves and lighter rails, YSP had to run standard-gauge rolling stock because of their direct connection to Yosemite Valley Railroad. Yosemite Lumber Company Engine 4 at Camp One in 1921.jpg|Engine No. 4 at Camp One in 1921. Yosemite Lumber Company Engine 3 in 1920.jpg|Engine No. 3 at the top of the original incline in 1920. == References ==