Dickman Mill Park

Dickman Mill Park. . Tacoma's bustling waterfront resounded with the whine and rattle of saws and the shouts of mill workers from the 1890s to the 1970s. Abundant stands of nearby timber, combined with easy access to rail and ocean transport, made Tacoma "America's Lumber Capital." The Dickman Mill operated here for more than 50 years and was among the region's busiest lumber mills. When it closed in 1977, the Dickman Mill was Tacoma's last operating waterfront sawmill., 1889 - 1918 , Abraham Coon Young opened the first mill here in 1889. Young's success, together with Tacoma's great timber boom, led him to expand the operation. Young sold the business in 1893 and the mill changed hands again before C.D. Danaher's purchase in 1902. Danaher, an experienced lumberman, began renovations to improve mill operations. He established logging camps at Darrington and Port Orchard and constructed 18 miles of railroad. By 1918, the Danaher Lumber Company was Tacoma's fourth largest., 1922 , Ralph L. Dickman, a mill manager with nine years of experience on Tacoma's waterfront, together with friend and financier, Leonard Howarth, bought the mill and continued renovations., 1889 - 1918 , Dickman expanded the waterfront from 500 to 1300 feet. Together with the Defiance Lumber Company and the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company, the Dickman Mill purchased the steamer Lake Frances to transport finished product. Dickman also replaced some of the mill's old steam-powered equipment with modern electric-powered machinery., 1927 - 1976 , Dickman steered the business toward specialty lumber by installing an enormous headsaw capable of cutting boards up to 65 feet long. The mill was soon recognized for producing oversized "green clear" lumber, used for shipbuilding, trestles, and large buildings. Dickman's business savvy kept the mill running through the Great Depression of the 1930s until the late 1970s., 1977 - 1979 , Rising shipping and labor costs, decreasing availability of larger timber, and tough competition from larger timber companies proved the demise of many of Tacoma's specialty lumber operations - the Dickman Mill was no exception. The mill closed in 1977 after more than 50 years of operation. Two years later, a spectacular demolition destroyed most of the buildings and equipment.