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Shaw-Bertram Lumber Company

Shaw-Bertram Lumber Company
Shaw-Bertram Shay #5 in Klamath Falls.

History

F.R. Shaw, an experienced lumberman from Portland, won the bidding on 11,700 acres of Klamath Indian Reservation timber southeast of Kirk in June 1920. Shaw shortly partnered with W.J. Bertram to incorporate the Shaw-Bertram Lumber Company, which started building a mill on the shores of Lake Ewauna. The company established a connection with the Southern Pacific at Kirk and arranged to share the the first two miles of Modoc Lumber Company's line running east from that point, at which point the Shaw-Bertram railroad turned south to access their own timber. The railroad eventually wrapped around the east and south sides of Solomon Butte, and in 1925 the company abandoned its SP connection at Kirk in favor of a new connection at Warko. Logging in this unit lasted until the end of 1928, when the timber ran out.

The company had secured another large tract of Reservation timber in the Squaw Flat area in 1924, and in 1927 the company broke ground jointly with the Big Lakes Box Company on a new railroad running west from the Oregon, California & Eastern's Squaw Flat station. The two companies built the joint trackage under the "Squaw Flat Logging United" banner in 1926. Shaw-Bertram continued building its mainline through the Squaw Flat unit in 1927, but logging did not commence until the Solomon Butte operation closed down near the end of 1928. By this point the company had fully transitioned from horse to tractor logging.

The company expanded again in late 1927 when it purchased 22,000 acres of timber from another private owner centered just west of Chemult. Southern Pacific and Great Northern would split the log haul south to Klamath Falls. Shaw-Bertram leased and reopened the Wheeler-Olmstead sawmill just north of Klamath Falls to process the Chemult timber as it did not have enough capacity at the main plant to process both it and the timber coming out of Squaw Flat. This operations lasted until the company exhausted the timber in the Chemult tract in 1930.

Shaw-Bertram bought additional large units of Reservation timber in 1928 and 1929 that would have secured the company's future for a decade and a half after the Squaw Flat timber ran out, but in the end the company could not survive the Depression and the Klamath Falls mill shut down in 1932. The company ended up selling the timber units it acquired to others. F.R Shaw later built and operated a sawmill in northern California for a few years in the early 1940s, and then in 1943 he purchased another sawmill in Klamath Falls fed by truck logging he operated as the Modoc Lumber Company that ran until 1995.
Maps
Overview map of the Shaw Bertram logging railroads.
Shaw Bertram's Solomon Butte operations, active from 1921-1928.
Shaw Bertram's Squaw Flat operations, active from 1926-1932.
Shaw Bertram's Chemult operations, active from 1928-1930.
Locomotive Roster

1- Lima 2-Truck Shay, c/n 2410, Built 1911. Cyliners 8x10, Drivers 27.5", Tractive Effort 12,850 lbs., Weight 28 tons. Built as Pelican Bay Lumber Company #1, Klamath Falls, OR; ; to Shaw-Bertram Lumber #1; to California Oregon Power Company, Thrall, CA; to Independence Foundry Company 1929; to Clackamus Fir Lumber Company, Beaver Creek, OR; to Molalla Lumber Company, Beaver Creek, OR, 1929.

2- Heisler 2-truck, c/n 1254, Built 1912. Weight 62 tons. Built at Horseshoe Lumber Company #7, River Falls, AL; to Jordon River Lumber Company, Kiln, MS; to Edward Hines Yellow Pine Trustees, Kiln/Lumberton, MS; to Northwestern Pacific Railroad #255, Sherwood, CA; Leased to Northwestern Redwood Company; to Shaw-Bertram Lumber #2; to Lamm Lumber Company #2, Modoc Point, OR; Wrecked and scrapped 1931.

3- Heisler 3-Truck, c/n 1539, Built 1927. Drivers 38", Tractive Effort 34,220 lbs., Weight 80 tons. Acquired new; to Weyerhaeuser Timber #3, Klamath Falls, OR; to Kosmos Timber Company #10, Kosmos, WA.

4- Lima "Pacific Coast" 3-Truck Shay, c/n 3331, Built 1929. Cylinder 15x15; Drivers 36"; Tractive Effort 38,200 lbs.; Weight 94 Tons. Built for stock; to Shaw-Bertram Lumber #4; to White River Lumber Company #4, Enumclaw, WA, 1936. Scrapped.

5- Lima 2-Truck Shay, c/n 3249, Built 1924. Cylinders 11x12; Drivers 32"; Tractive Effort 22,850 lbs.; Weight 62 tons. Built as Security Logging Company #2, Tolt, WA; to SNow Lumber & Shingle Company #2, Litter, WA, 1924; to Shaw-Bertram Lumber #5, Klamath Falls, OR, 1929; to Klamath Machine & Iron Works, Klamath Falls, OR, 1937; to Snellstrom Brothers Lumber Company #5, Vaughn, OR, 1937; to Long-Bell Lumber Company #5, Vaughn, OR, 1945. On display at Longview, WA.

?- Lima 2-Truck Shay, c/n 1946, Built 1907. Cylinders 11x12, Drivers 32", Weight 45 tons. Built as Clearfield Lumber Company (Moorehead & North Fork Railroad) #2, Moorehead, KY; to Clyde Equipment Company, Portland, OR; to Anderson & Middleton Lumber #7, Cottage Grove, OR; to Wheeler-Olmstead Lumber, Kirk, OR; to F. Hill Hunter, Klamath Falls, OR. Hunter subsequently leased the locomotive to Braymill-White Pine Lumber; Shaw-Bertram Lumber; and finally Walker-Hovey Lumber at Macdoel, CA. Abandoned at Macdoel by 1936 and scrapped sometime thereafter.
Photos
Builders photo of the Shaw-Bertram Lumber 3.
The former Shaw-Bertram #3 durings its time as Weyerhaeuser #3. Jerry Lamper collection.
The former Shaw-Bertram #3 in its final form as Kosmos Timber #10.
White River Lumber #4, formerly Shaw-Bertram #4.
F. Hill Hunter's Shay, once leased to Shaw-Bertram, stored derelict at Macdoel, CA, on 15 June 1936. D.S. Richter photo.