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making of a milltown
Everett’s turn-of-the-century industrial look leads to the local nickname “Pittsburgh of the West” circa 1899. (Photo courtesy of Everett Public Libraries, Photographer George W. Kirk)
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Everett’s turn-of-the-century industrial look leads to the local nickname “Pittsburgh of the West” circa 1899. (Photo courtesy of Everett Public Libraries, Photographer George W. Kirk)

The Weyerhaeuser Company, as it is known today, influenced the timber industry both regionally and nationally.

The company’s decision to locate in the Pacific Northwest and build mills in Everett has greatly impacted Everett’s history.

The following is a brief history of Everett as a mill town to put Weyerhaeuser’s impact into perspective.

1893 1900 1902 1906 1914
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Incorporated as a city in 1893, Everett’s future seemed to be assured. Plans for its development were drawn up by a group of industrialists from the “Old Northwest,” or Northwest Territory, and investors from the East Coast. The Everett Land Company didn’t want Everett to be a single-industry town. A nailworks, shipyard, papermill, cannery, brick factory, smelter and railroad were built within the year.

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By 1900, Everett’s financial boom was over and the city was struggling to hang on. The price of recovery was the one thing the founders had sought to avoid: Everett was a one-industry town based on forest products and the Everett Land Company was purchased by Minnesota mogul James J. Hill, the owner of the Great Northern Railroad.

The Great Northern Railway line loaded with 40 boxcars of Neff and Mish shingles, the first rail cargo to leave Everett for East Coast markets in 1893. (Photo courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections)

Hill needed freight revenues from the Northwest for his railroad and convinced Frederick E. Weyerhaeuser – a St. Paul lumberman and neighbor of Hill’s – to establish himself on the West Coast. Weyerhaeuser liked what he saw in Everett. On Jan. 3, 1900, he purchased 900,000 acres of forestland from the Northern Pacific Railroad (also under Hill control) for $5.4 million – or about $12.3 million in today’s money.

From the very outset, Weyerhaeuser’s influence was notable. Before the Weyerhaeuser purchase, timberland sold for as little as $1.90 per acre; Weyerhaeuser’s agreement to purchase at $6 an acre soon drove up prices to over $10 in Washington and Oregon. The Weyerhaeuser Timber Company was formed in 1900 with its headquarters in Tacoma.

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After learning the regional market and industry techniques, the company purchased its first mill in Everett – the Bell-Nelson sawmill – in 1902. Weyerhaeuser produced 28 million board feet of lumber in 1902.

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With modernization and efficiency in mind, the company increased production to nearly 40 million board feet by 1906, followed by just under 80 million board feet by 1914.

Weyerhaeuser doubled the mill’s capacity in just seven years, providing a textbook example for Everett. The mill became fundamental to Everett’s economy and job market.

A circa 1915 western view of the 14th Street Dock, built by the Everett Land Company, lined with several mills and a railroad spur to service them. (Photo courtesy of Everett Public Library)
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By 1914, the company was ready to expand its milling operations. An important technological innovation was made at Mill B – the first mill was named Mill A – when Weyerhaeuser decided to run the plant by electricity. Prior to this, virtually all sawmills were powered by steam. When it opened in 1915, Mill B had a capacity of 400,000 board feet per 8-hour shift, far outdistancing the capacity of its steam-powered competition.

The company owned and operated several mills in Everett: After Mills A and B, there was also Mill C, Mill D and Mill E, a sulfite pulp mill, a Kraft pulp mill and a Pres-to-Log mill.

For decades, the company was Everett’s largest employer, with 1,800 to 2,000 employees.

The Weyerhaeuser Company had been a town-shaping business in “The City of Smokestacks” for 90 years. The first mill opened in Everett in 1902; the last of the Weyerhaeuser mills closed in 1992.

Weyerhaeuser Mills in Everett