Logging in Jackson County

The Origins

Logging began in Jackson County when settlers first began to arrive in the late 1700s and early 1800s.  They needed the timber to build their structures and for fire.  This small-scale logging was very different than the commercial logging of the 1900s.  Pioneers typically just used axes for chopping down trees and cutting apart logs.  They would use the rough, unfinished lumber to make log cabins.  As time passed, new logging techniques were implemented to speed up production.[1]

By the early 1900s, the Federal Government was buying up forested land for the purpose of environmental preservation.  This greatly restricted logging company’s access to timber.  This was a direct result of the destruction of New England’s forests.  President Theodore Roosevelt himself was a preservationist.  Despite these limitations in resources, however, logging companies began moving their assets to WNC.[2]

The first major logging company to move to Jackson County was the Blue Ridge Lumber Company, owned by two Mainers: L. C. Cummings and C. P. Buffum.  The company built Buffum’s Mill along the banks of the Tuckaseegee River in Dillsboro, NC.  A dam was constructed, as well, to provide power for the mill.  Initially, Blue Ridge used the river to transport logs.  They soon found out that this practice would not work in NC.  The boom (a device built across the river to contain the logs) broke in 1891.  In 1893, the Tuck flooded, leaving logs strewn across the banks of the river.  Blue Ridge left the region in the late 1890s due to an economic recession that dropped the price of lumber significantly.[3]

Several other logging companies came to Jackson County in the 1890s and early 1900s, as well.  The Balsam Mountain Lumber Company, the Buchanan and Dunn Lumber Company, and the Dover Lumber Company all came and went rather quickly in the early 1900s, as they failed to capitalize on the region’s large timber reserves due to a lack of railroads and the general costs associated with getting to the timber without small spur lines.[4]

The failure of these companies is a testament to the fact that Jackson County was a late bloomer, as it were, in regards to the logging boom of the early 1900s.  Most parts of Southern Appalachia were being logged as early as 1900.  Jackson County’s timber resources, however, were not fully tapped until 1920.  The peak of the logging industry in Jackson County came in 1920 when Blackwood Lumber Company arrived.[5]

The Decline

Several logging companies came and went during Blackwood’s tenure.  They were Builders Supply and Lumber Company, Carolina Pole Company, Gennet Lumber Company of Asheville, Morris-Taylor Lumber Company, Whitewater Lumber Company, and Carr Lumber Company.  Blackwood was the most successful by far.  It had much better technology and resources.  It also provided social activities for its employees and their families.[1]

Two large logging companies still existed in Jackson County after Blackwood left.  The W.C. Hennessee Lumber Company was locally owned, and the largest single-mill hardwood producer east of the Mississippi River.  It was sold to Hammermill, Incorporated out of Pennsylvania in 1980.  The mill was destroyed by a fire in 1981.  The other company was Mead Paper Corporation.  In contrast to W.C. Hennessee, northerners owned it rather than locals.  It ceased operation Jackson County in 1974 when it was sold to the Dixie Container Corporation who reopened the mill in the early 1980s as the Jackson Paper manufacturing Company.  It is still in operation today in Sylva at the intersection of highways 107 and 23.[2]