Despite cyclical economic conditions, our state’s wood products story remains a separate and dramatic story through local history. The beginning of this great activity may have begun in 1788 when English Captain John Meares took a shipload of Puget Sound spars to China. He never made delivery. A fierce storm caused him to jettison his load mid-Pacific. Four years later another English Captain named George Vancouver replaced a broken spar with a Puget Sound tree. Wood was used in the construction of fur-trading posts, of course, which led to the processing of logs for a variety of domestic and commercial use. In 1825, a Vancouver, Washington millwright named William Cannon first whipsawed logs into boards. The Hudson’s Bay Company, with headquarters then at Fort Vancouver, accepted shakes and shaved shingles from American settlers in exchange for general supplies. The first “permanent” mill on Puget Sound was built by Michael T. Simmons at Tumwater, Washington.