Rubber especially became a precious commodity during the war, extreme shortages cut deeply into tire availability which in many cases caused timber companies to rely more heavily on their logging railroads rather than the cheaper log trucks then coming into use. It was not uncommon in especially the more rural parts of the west for women and children to have weekend work parties on their roads and highways to remove any sharp rocks from travel surfaces so as to prevent tire punctures.

And then there were other issues. Bob Hanft in his book on The Red River Lumber Company recounted one episode where one arm of the government (War Production Board) deemed venetian blinds non-essential to the war effort and ordered production of them to cease at the same time another arm (War Department) was ordering huge quantities of blinds for all the buildings being built to support the war effort.

Also worth noting is that most lumber operations hit their production peak around 1942, as very few of them could keep enough employees to maintain production. A lot of what otherwise would have been the lumber industry workforce fled the woods in search of higher paychecks in various war industries or, of course, the armed services.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV