Mud Bay Logging Company

File:Snoqualmie Railway Collection 31.jpg]]

Operations were in the Mud Bay, Thurston County, Washington area, harvesting timber from the Black Hills, hauling it out by logging railroad, and rafting the timber by water from a Mud Bay log dump to mills on Puget Sound.{{sfn|McNair-Huff|McNair-Huff|2004|p=128}}{{sfn|Romano|2007|p=77}}{{sfn|Thurston County|2004|p=A-5}} The railroad ran west from Mud Bay to Summit Lake, about halfway to McCleary, Washington.{{citation|newspaper=The Timberman|title=Washington to sell timber on school lands -- shingle mills organizing|date=April 1910|page=36|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l0EhAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA36}} By 1918, in the Black Hills, the line run as far south as section 20 or 27 of township 17 north, range 3 west—almost as far as Littlerock.{{sfn|Hannum|2002}}{{rp|157}}

The company was one of the last in the South Puget Sound area to use a logging railroad. Traces of the rail line can be easily seen across the greater Olympia area, now used as county roads and private driveways, a natural gas pipeline, and a nature trail.{{sfn|Hannum|2002}}{{rp|157, 160}}

The company became one of the seven founding members of the State Log Patrol, incorporated in 1928 and given special quasi-law enforcement powers over timber piracy by the state legislature.

A {{convert|210,000|lb|adj=on}} 2-6-6-2 steam powered Mallet locomotive, serial number 60412, was built in 1928 by Baldwin Locomotive Works for Mud Bay Logging Company. It became a Weyerhaeuser Timber Company logging locomotive after Mud Bay dissolved, and was operated at Klamath Falls, Oregon. It was Weyerhaeuser's last steam locomotive. It was acquired by the Northwest Railway Museum at Snoqualmie, Washington, in 1965, and was last operated in 1974.{{citation|title=Large artifact collection: Weyerhaeuser Timber Company #6|publisher=Northwest Railway Museum|url=https://www.trainmuseum.org/index.php/large-artifact-collection|access-date=2015-08-30}}{{citation|title=Weyerhauser #6/Mud Bay Logging Company #6|publisher=Railfan.net|work=Mallets in the Tall Timber|author=Jon Davis|year=2006|url=http://loggingmallets.railfan.net/list/mbay8/weyer6.htm|access-date=2015-08-30}}

The logging railroad has been converted to a rail trail, now the McLane Creek Nature Trail.{{sfn|McNair-Huff|McNair-Huff|2004|p=128}}{{sfn|Romano|2007|p=77}} The timberlands worked by Mud Bay have become part of {{convert|100,000|acre|adj=on}} Capitol State Forest, a state-managed protected area including multi-use forest where logging continues but with modern forestry practices.

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{{reflist|30em|refs=

{{citation|title=Railroad logging camp, Mud Bay Logging Company|publisher=University of Washington Libraries|work=Digital collections|id=PH Coll 516.2068|url=http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/clarkkinsey/id/350/rec/6}}

{{historylink|title=State Log Patrol incorporates in Tacoma on February 24, 1928.|article=8340|author= Daryl C. McClary|date=January 9, 2008}}

}}

;Sources

• {{citation | last1=McNair-Huff | first1=N. | last2=McNair-Huff | first2=R. | title=Birding Washington | chapter=McLane Creek | publisher=Globe Pequot Press | series=Birding Series | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-7627-2577-9 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jApahHdxKmsC&pg=PA128 }}
• {{citation | last=Romano | first=C. | title=Day Hiking Olympic Peninsula: National Park/Coastal Beaches/Southwest Washington | chapter=McLane Creek | publisher=Mountaineers Books | series=Day Hiking Series | year=2007 | isbn=978-1-59485-047-9 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2BZUX00UNdYC&pg=PA77}}
• {{citation|title=Thurston County Comprehensive Plan|section=Thurston County history|date=November 2004|publisher=Thurston County, Washington Long Range Planning Division|url=http://www.co.thurston.wa.us/planning/comp_plan/docs/2009/APPENDIX_A_11.04.pdf|ref={{harvid|Thurston County|2004}}}}
• {{cite book | last=Hannum | first=James | title=Gone but not forgotten : abandoned railroads of Thurston County, Washington | chapter = Mud Bay Logging Company Railroad | pages=155–166|publisher=Hannum House Publications | location=Olympia, Wash | year=2002 | isbn=0-9679043-2-3 }}

• [http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/Record/View/289876FE23550315A5BE3D1EDB4E9027 Mud Bay Logging Company train] via Washington Secretary of State historical logging photographs

Category:Defunct companies based in Olympia, Washington

Category:History of Olympia, Washington

Category:1899 establishments in Washington (state)

Category:1941 disestablishments in Washington (state)

Category:Defunct forest products companies of the United States