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REVIEWS
CAN'T YOU HEAR THE WHISTLE BLOWIN': LOGS, LIGNITE, AND LOCOMOTIVES IN COOS COUNTY, OREGON, 1859–1930
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by William Lansing
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| Self-published, North Bend, Oregon, 2007. Photographs, maps, appendix, bibliography, index. 144 pages. $79.95 cloth. |
| Scores of locomotives, hundreds of cars of rolling stock, and thousands of tons of rails arrived by ship at Coos Bay for years, beginning during the 1870s. When the Eugene to Coos Bay line was completed in 1916, there were already twenty-eight short-line railroads in Coos County. On September 21, 2007, the Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad abruptly ended the rail connection between the Willamette Valley and the Coast, which had run profitably for ninety-one years. Termination of that service has given Can't You Hear the Whistle Blowin' new relevance. |
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William A. Lansing is eminently qualified to produce this excellent picture history. He was, until retirement three years ago, President and CEO of Menasha Forest Products Corporation, a company with ties to Coos Bay going back a hundred years. Educated at the Yale Graduate School of Forestry (1969), he spent his professional life with Menasha. This book follows his previously published history of the Menasha Corporation, Seeing the Forest for the Trees (2005). |
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Coos County is replete with published histories, most of them self published. (The only exceptions are William G. Robbins, Hard Times in Paradise, University of Washington Press, 1988 ; Nathan Douthit, A Guide to Oregon South Coast History, Oregon State University Press, 1999; and my two biographies, published by University of Oklahoma Press.) Local history depends almost entirely on self-published books, and those of us who are local history buffs are most grateful for them. As a self-published book, however, Lansing's stands alone because it combines a professionally researched text with a fully formatted picture book suitable for the most discriminating coffee table. |
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There is very little to criticize, but here and there captions do draw comment. The caption for the bottom picture on page 25, for example, reads, "Tail block on high lead logging operation," but the picture is obviously of a Tommy Moore block, almost certainly ground lead, not high lead. On page 57, the "construction crane" is actually a pile driver. There are few others, too petty to mention. |
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The primary documents are the photographs, and Lansing supplements them with a lively and informed narrative about the history and locations of the railroads. There are chapters on the timber and coal industries, the first railroads, company histories, and a fascinating section on the Spruce Production Division of the U. S. Army, 1917–1918. An appendix shows twenty-eight of the locomotives with details of their manufacture and ownership histories. A special feature is a 24-by-34 1/2-inch map insert showing the locations of the rail lines, plotted by the author. It is a significant contribution to the history of the area. |
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The book presents original information on a subject that is short on written documentation. As Lansing says in his prologue, few detailed records were kept of the activities of loggers and miners. Those old-timers did, however, enjoy showing off their equipment during a time when cameras were a novelty, and, as a result, there is a wealth of photographic evidence of their activities. The book is about the 220 photographs it contains — 70 percent of which are from the extensive collection of the Coos County Historical and Maritime Museum. |
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I am familiar with the negatives from a large number of the photographs, and I am amazed at the high quality of the reproductions. For readers interested in historic photos, it is a treasure trove. Railroad buffs will find it an endless source of interest and fascination, and anyone researching histories of the lumber and logging companies will find it indispensable. |
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| Lionel Youst
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| Coos Bay, Orego |
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