Early days in redwood

By Gage McKinney Contributing Editor

IIESERTERS from foreign vessels

Ecalling at California's early harbors were meagerly supporting themselves in the 1830s by whipsawing redwood in the groves of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

A small crew (sometimes only two men) rolled a log to a pit dug about seven feet deep and placed it diagonally across the pit. Then, probably taking off their shirts, one man crouching in the pit and another straddling the log above, they took either end of a long, narrow saw and sliced boards. As they worked the sawdust clung to the sweat on their bodies. Not surprisingly, the success of the whipsawyers led to another successful enterprise founded near present-day Felton-a profitable distillery.

Poorly equipped, disorganized, undisciplined and even dangerous, these early lumbermen did not maintain a steady, uniform production, seek expanding markets or worry about tomorrow. They strucktheirbestbargain with Mexican soldiers, missions or ranchos, or passing ships, and took their earnings to Felton for drink, or to Monterey or the pueblo at San Jose for the additional attractions of whoring and gambling. The industry needed organization, and a leader soon arrived, rowing toward the white sands of Monterey from an offshore American vessel, an entrepreneur imbued with Yankee pragmatism and commercial skill.

Thomas O. Larkin. native of Chailestown, Ma., whose grandfather fired a squirrel gun at Bunker Hill, DonTomas, as the Californios called him, became the first American to prosper in California without embracing Mexican citizenship, the Roman church or a local lady.

He became successful as a merchant and land developer and influential as the first and last United States consul in Alta California. Few people remember, however, that it was Larkin who organized the whipsawyers into a primitive though recognizable lumber trade, the modest beginnings of one of the West Coast's most important industries.

From the time he began dealing in Monterey in 1832, and more intently afterhe opened a store at Jefferson and Main Streets in 1834, Larkin traded in lumber, a commodity he found as important as tallow and hides. The lumber business as he found it was not smooth, dependable or always ethical, but in time he changed it. At first he haggled as best he could with shiftless sawyers, meeting them calmly with his dark, immovable eyes. Gradually he established a price structure that became as fixed as the $2 value of a hide.

For 15 years Larkin bought one-inch redwood boards (one assumes clear heart) for $40 per thousand board feet and sold them for $50 or $55. Joists, pillars and beams cost $30 or $35 and sold for $40. Two-inch planks, a higher profit item, cost $55 or $60 and sold for

StonJ at a Glance

Origin of Califomia's rcdwood industry howanearlysettler expanded the work of deserting sailors marketdevelopment, supply problems .grovuth ignited by building boom of early 1840s. $80 to $100 depending on demand. One-inchpineboards commandedmore than redwood, costing Larkin $50 and selling for $60.

A glance at Larkin's figures suggests that he worked on a slender margin; and when the usual $10 per thousand cost was added for shipping lumber from Santa Cruz or Monterey to Los Angeles or Yerba Buena (later called San Francisco), there was no profit at all. Larkin paid whipsawyers and haulers, however, in credits from his store where he enjoyed a 5O% to lSOVo matk up on food, liquor, clothing, tools and other merchandise. True to his Yankee heritage, Larkin realized a handsome profit in the exchange. He always complained about the whipsawyers "exorbitant" prices, thoughthere is no record of what the whipsawyers thought about the prices at his store.

As a marketeer Larkin succeeded in selling his lumber to more than passing ships. He was the first to ship redwood to Hawaii, and to establish customers in Tahiti and Chile and around The Hom in the United States. One year (1846) he exported a million board feet from Monterey.

Always hoping to increase his profits, Larkin tried at one point to produce lumber on his own. He didn't succeed because among all the whipsawyers he could not find a stable dependable crew.

In part this was Larkin's own fault-he paid his employees only $10 for every thousand feet they sawed, giving little incentive to men who could make $40 sawing on their own account-though no doubt whipsawing appealed to the independently-minded who regardless of the pay were unlikely to work for anyone very long. One of Larkin's payroll entries reads.: "Worked two days then off to drink and gamble."

Larkin's correspondence shows that maintaining an inventory of lumber to supply his developing markets posed as many problems as producing lumber. Often sufficient lumber was not available through the independent whipsawyers either to clear the bills which they ran up at Larkin's store or to fill Larkin' s orders for lumber. At other times , Larkin had an over-supply Once when he was overstocked, his branch store in Santa Cruz stopped accepting redwood in exchange for goods, but the whipsawyers soon devised a remedy for this-they set fire to Larkin's in-

ventory.

Despite these problems Larkin's lumber trade was prospering by the early 1840s when a building boom hit Monterey. He supplied lumber for the customshouse, the first wharf, bridges, public projects and private homesmany skuctures which are still standing in the historic centerof the old city.

When in 1845 three large sawmills began producing lumber in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Larkin began to lose his hold on the redwood market. At first he took the sawmill's output, but soon they began shipping directly to customers in Yerba Buena at prices that undercut Larkin's.

With more and more Americans strearning into Qalifornia, demand and production rose and prices began to fluctuate wildly. Larkin acquiesced to n the lumber the developing forces in market. turnins his attention to the new market, turning t foundation of his personal weaI wealth, his foundation hi real estate, including stores and warehouses, lots in Monterey and Yerba Buena, a rancho north of San Pablo Bay and a new city called Benicia. As his public career began, most notably his efforts toward the American annexation of California, Larkin left the redwood trade to others. As much as anyone, though, he could be called its founder.