File:Schafer Brothers Logging Company annual picnic at Schafer State Park, August 22, 1926 (KINSEY 694).jpg

Caption on image: Annual picnic of Schafer Bros., Aug. 22 /26. PH Coll 516.3773

Schafer Brothers Logging Company got its start in 1893 when brothers Peter, Albert and Hubert Schafer began logging on the family homestead 6 miles upstream from the mouth of the Satsop. They logged with oxen and horses for 20 years. The company's first donkey engine was purchased from Washington Iron Works. Hubert went to work at the factory to learn how donkey engines were made and also to have all of his wages, except for living expenses, applied toward the cost of that first donkey engine. In 1913, they bought a 45-ton Heisler locomotive and laid tracks into the woods from Brady to begin their railroad logging operation. A shingle mill was purchased in Montesano in 1919, the first of many manufacturing plants the company would own throughout Grays Harbor County. At the peak of operation, the Schafers were running one of the largest logging, milling and shipping concerns in the lumber industry of the Pacific Northwest. Their properties and equipment at that time, not counting ships and tugs, included five sawmills in operation, served by six camps sending logs over 100 miles of rail. This required 18 locomotives, both geared and mainline types, and a total of 70 donkeys and 325 logging cars. To operate all of this equipment called for approximately 3000 employees. Simpson Timber Company purchased Schafer Brothers Logging Company in 1955. Schafer State Park was dedicated in 1922. Schafer Brothers presented 40 acres of virgin fir forest to the State of Washington as a park. It was dedicated to the memory of the parents of the original Schafer brothers, John D. and Anna Schafer. Schafer State Park contains 500-year-old trees that present a scene like that viewed by the elder Schafers when they first entered the Satsop woods in the spring of 1870.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Picnics--Washington (State); Logrolling (Aquatic sports)--Washington (State); Picnic grounds--Washington (State); State parks & reserves--Washington (State); Men--Washington (State); Women--Washington (State); Children--Washington (State); Schafer Brothers Logging Company--People--Washington (State); Schafer State Park (Wash.)