File:Logging crew posing on logs ready for loading onto flatcars, Rucker Brothers, Hazel, ca 1923 (KINSEY 567).jpeg

PH Coll 516.3065
The Rucker brothers came north from Tacoma in 1890 and bought land on the Port Gardner Peninsula, current site of the city of Everett. They believed the railroads would come to the peninsula and it would be a good place to build a town. They wanted to call the new town Port Gardner City. About the same time Henry Hewitt of Tacoma was looking for areas for logging. He came to Port Gardner Peninsula and was impressed by the deep bay and nearby river. He spoke to some rich friends, including Warren Oakes of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and wanted them to help build a city on the peninsula. His friends agreed to become partners in the Everett Land Company and build a city. The city was named for Charles Colby's son, Everett. The Everett Land Company bought much of the Rucker brothers' land, and the Rucker brothers bought a mill on Lake Stevens which had been built in 1900. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1903, 1919 and in 1925 before finally being dismantled. In 1906, the firm incorporated a subsidiary, Cavano Lumber Company, which had a logging camp in Arlington. By 1917 they were running 10 miles of railroad north into Skagit County timberlands. Rucker Brothers appears to have been out of business by 1930..

Hazel is a community is eight miles east of Arlington near the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River in north central Snohomish County. It was once the site of important logging and milling industries. An early name was Packard for Clayton Packard, a timber man. When the town was platted and named by Peter D. McMartin in 1903, he used the name of his first child.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Loggers--Washington (State)--Snohomish County; Spartrees--Washington (State)--Snohomish County; Slash (Logging)--Washington (State)--Snohomish County; Logging--Washington (State)--Snohomish County
• Subjects (LCSH): Logs; Rucker Brothers (Firm)--People--Washington (State); Rucker Brothers (Firm)--Equipment & supplies--Washington (State)