Since 1909
THE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC LOGGING CONGRESS
During a hot day in August of 1908 Mr. George Cornwall, who started a logging trade journal back in 1900, was visiting with a logger from Mt. Vernon, Washington, Mr. Ed English. Mr. Cornwall announced he was about to take a bath and retire for the evening. Then he asked Mr. English if he provided a bathhouse in his logging camp. The discussion continued and the idea for a meeting of loggers to discuss bunkhouse sanitation and other matters were planned.
The first meeting of the Pacific Logging Congress was held in Seattle, Washington, in July of 1909. The three-day meeting covered sanitation, food supply, health care, use of electricity in logging, elimination of fire hazards, fire prevention, how to log on grades too steep for locomotives and a 50-cents per thousand board feet increase in tax facing loggers in Mendocino County, California.
Mr. Edmund Blake became the first President, and Mr. Cornwall became the Secretary of the organization. Cornwall held that post until 1924. At the first PLC meeting in 1909, Mr. Cornwall stated:
"Logging is an engineering science...the average logger must be a man of good executive ability and possess the power of initiative. He must work with difficult problems, whose solution determines the success or failure of his camp. Therefore, loggers should have frequent contact if they expect to keep pace with the changing times and benefit from associated effort and a frank exchange of views…”
Mr. Cornwall’s words still ring true today.