I lived in Portland, and we had school field trips to the Forestry Building. I went twice in Grade School, and once with my parents. The official cause of the fire was declared a short in some of the original 1905 electric wiring. There were many rumors of other causes; and of course, arson was one of the top theories - but never proved. Most of the wiring was replaced in the renovation work. But some of the old (and hard to get to) wiring remained. There were maintenance workers in the building that day, and many assumed that the faulty wiring was just an excuse to keep them off the hook for an accident caused by the workers. That was never proved either. I was a youngster back then, but I still remember with awe, the large trees that built this building. Also, the year of the fire, 1964, we had the hottest summer on record 104 degrees on the Oregon Coast (unheard of), and 105 degrees in Portland. There were four 5 alarm fires that summer. Most of them were suspected set by an arsonist. That is what made the arson theory flourish. As for my opinion? I've read most everything written about the building, but I really have no idea what the true cause was.
Thank you for this info! I find it odd that the cause of the fire was not brought up in the video, whether they knew for sure why or not. The narrator should have known people would wonder about this. Again, thank you for your insights on it!
In my OWN house there is wiring going back likely as far as 1905. It's an 1870's house that originally had gas lighting (Capped gas lines on most walls!). Most of the wiring has been updated over the decades (kitchen, bathroom and cellar have "modern" 1960s wiring) but the lighting circuits remain "knob and tube" with original push-button switches. The Forestry building burned in 1964 meaning that the OLDEST wiring would have been 59 years old. Today that would be like having 1964 wiring in a building now. Mind Blowing!
@@jamesslick4790 My grandparents' house was built around 1900. It had knob and tube wiring in the attic. I don't think it was removed until the house went through an extensive renovation in the 1980's. When you think about it, the copper does not degrade, nor the glass insulators. Unless you overload it, it's probably safe. But my grandfather had a tendency that when they blew a fuse (the old screw in type), he would put a penny in the socket and reinsert the dead fuse. It might be a week before he got down to the store to buy a new one. And those were "the good old days" !!
@@hallhall5777 Knob and tube is fine. I only pointed out mine to show it's age. The only problem with old wiring (K&T or "Romex") was the use of cloth insulation. If the cloth covered wiring has always been in a dry location it should be good to go. The reason K&T fell out of favor VS "Romex" cable was labor cost. Since the wires are run individually you need (then) twice or now three times as many holes do be drilled. as well as installing all of the knobs and tubes along the way. Also, many early electricians "over wired" using 12 ga wires on 15 amp circuits! (I saw that many times). That possibility and the physical separation of the wires means it could stand a bit of an overload. Of course, No circuit, new OR old should be over loaded. P.S. I actually think fuses (when used correctly, NO PENNIES, LOL) are SAFER than breakers. Breakers are mechanical, and sometimes mechanical devices fail. A fuse is a bit of metal that melts at a given temperature. Simpler is more reliable.
I moved to Portland in 1963 as a kid (2nd grade) and got to go tour the building at least once or twice.The shear size of the structure and logs lining the main room was staggering to a little kid .I loved it and felt the loss of it very deeply, it was an incredible experience I will never forget.
The narrator mentioned numerous times that the Forestry Building was the second largest log building. What and where was the largest, as I recall reading on a plaque outside this building that IT was the largest log cabin in the world?? I grew up in NE Portland and with my folks visited this edifice at least a dozen times in the '50s, and credit it with bolstering my strong connection with Oregon's logging heritage. My favorite display was a miniature sawmill at least eight feet long showing the mill pond, old log trucks, and intricate details of the steam powered saw blade. Somewhere in the middle of those multiple visits, they built a replica of a fire lookout tower about 25 feet tall at the far end of the colonnade of those huge vertical logs. The spectacular bird's-eye view of the displays and those logs, as if still trees reaching for the sky, will remain with me forever! Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
A Google search brings up an answer: the largest log building is a destination resort in Utah called "Timber Moose Lodge" with an interior space of 26,000 sqf. I remember visiting the Forestry Building as a kid before it burned down; my parents took me there 2 or 3 times. (They told me the first apartment my mom & dad had after getting married in 1948 was in a building across the street from it.) As a kid, I was most fascinated by an exhibit on the second floor that had a miniature landscape of timber extraction, with telescopes aimed at specific parts of the landscape so one could see the camp & trees being cut down, & wanted to go back to see it again. Unfortunately, the building burned down before I could go back.
I lived in NW Portland in 1963 through April 1964, and often stopped to spend a little time in this beautiful, cathedral-like building. It was wonderfully peaceful, quiet and surprisingly well lighted. I always felt better for having visited. I had recently moved to the east coast when I learned that fire had claimed that most beautiful structure --my favorite building in the world.
I personally didn’t have the opportunity to go, but my grandparents did and they have many photos of the outside and inside in a family album. My grandparents were avid travelers and loved seeing the great buildings and architecture of America. They spoke in great detail of it and how amazing a sight it was to see down the main hall. Thank you for a wonderful video that brought back some good times with my grandparents.
I was extremely fortunate that my mother took me to that building in July just before it burn down I was nine years old. It’s some thing that I will never forget. The other great building in Oregon would be the timberline Lodge up on Mount Hood, if you haven’t seen it it’s something you definitely need to see.
@@ThisHouse Although the Old Faithful Inn is the largest log structure, one claim to fame for our 1905 log building is that it contained some of the largest logs used to build it, in particular the massive interior logs to support the roof As a side note, among my most vivid memories of the many visits to this majestic structure until it burned one month before my ninth birthday was the aroma !! It was like walking into a giant cedar chest ! Thank you so much for this video 🙏
@@ThisHouse if that is the case, I am disappointed. I went inside, and I am pretty sure it was steel frame structure with just logs attached outside those steel beams to immitate log cabin.
I was only 7 years old but I remember my dad taking me here one Saturday after spending HOURS in the massive Montgomery Ward store a block away (now there's another fascinating story to work on ). Oddly enough a few pieces of equipment was salvaged from the blaze. I found them piled up in a city storage area in Delta park years later while patrolling the area in my Portland police car. The maintenance man I talked to said the pieces were too damaged to use but no one wanted to throw them away. Hope they wound up in the new Forestry Building. I fled the remains of that dying, once great city 6 years ago thank goodness.
Portland the new Detroit, I can tell you it is a hundred times worse now than when you left in 2017? I live 40 minutes North, I used to go into the city regularly but avoid it like the plague now, it is like a dystopia in a Hollywood movie, so sad it was such a lovely city.
I grew up in NE Oregon and SE Washington. When we made a trip to Portland my parents usually went to the Wards department store building. A small part of the Log cabin could be seen from the parking lot. Time and time again I kept asking my parents to go see it. The answer was always no. I graduated High School in 1964 and was starting College. We were in the car and dad was starting to back out and asked me if I wanted to see it now. I think I had given up asking by then, but this time I was in a hurry to get home and declined. Seems like the fire was only a few days later---All these years I have never stopped kicking myself for saying no.
I lived by Long Beach and we could see the dome the Spruce Goose was in, I used to go Jet Skiing right by it, but I never went and saw it. Now it is in Oregon. I call it the Home Town Curse.
Wow! WHAT A BUMMER. When you look back and opportunity reveals itself you seize it. What a building it must have been. You at least got a chance to behold it partially with your eyes.
@@elonmust7470 No, never lived in La Grande, OR, a bit further North in Athena, OR, population about 800 then, moved to Milton-Freewater, OR (actually 3 miles out of town, then to Richland, WA where I graduated High School.
wow the memories, my Grandfather was one of the carpenters on the Forestry Building build. He was so proud of the building we used to go four or five times a year and spend most of the day there, the night it burnt we were living in Gresham they heard about the fire on the radio, my Mom and Dad got us up and we drove to parking lot and watched it burn to the ground, it was the saddest thing i have ever seen, my Grandfather just stood in the zoo's parking lot and cried. i don't think he ever got over it. the inside of the building was truly magnificent, makes the new building look like a junk yard reject.
i visited the log cabin forestry building when i was about 15. i remember that it was dark inside and that it was huge. i also remember that the logs were gigantic and i felt regret that such huge trees, probably 100's of years old , were cut down. it makes me realize how important it is to preserve our old growth timber areas because they are oregon's living history .
@@esteban1487 Hes not saying dont use any wood, hes saying when they go out into the mountains for logging They should leave the largest and oldest alone and clear out the 60- year growth timber. See alot of the time loggers will pass by 20 good timber trees to get to the one thats 300 years old.
Lived in Portland for a couple years in the early 1960’s. This building was near where my Dad worked, and I visited it a couple times. From the outside it looked like it was several stories, but once you went inside it was one enormous room with wooden catwalks around the interior with displays on them. We moved away about a year after it burned, and I remember looking down on the burned shell from my Dad’s office window in the 6 story tall Montgomery Wards building. I’ve also stayed at the Yellowstone lodge, which I think is the largest log building…
I lived in Portland while the log cabin was still standing. My grade school class took a field trip to the cabin, as many did. I remember it being VERY big, with exhibits in the center and a second story walk inside around the inside of the building. It was a wonderful trip that I've always remembered. I also remember when it burned down, though I didn't see it. It was such a loss, and we were all sad when it happened.
I had a customer who had a log home in the foothills of northern California , and she told me that house requires a lot of maintenance to keep up and was a extra expense to keep maintained
Yep log cabins are fundamentally flawed. Moisture will always seep in to the corners. In Ireland they last about 10 years before issues show up and its major structural work to repair.
@@peterlarkin762 we are dryer in California, even in the foothills so probably not a issue here but theirs other issues with the sealing between the logs etc, has to be redone every so often touched up every year I believe. My customer told me about this 24&25: years ago and I think she was sorry she had bought this house. I was selling her a big wool area rug for the house
@@peterlarkin762 if so it isn't built properly. Here in Norway we have 500 year old log buildings all over the place, many have not been maintained much. On my family land in the mountains we restored a log house a few years ago, approximately 500 yrs old, all logs were in perfect condition just needed tar/oil (lots of it!). All we had to do was make a new roof and level the building. And yes, we get lots of rain. Just add oil every few years and they will be good for centuries.
How amazing it must have been, for the first explorers on the west coast of the country, that eventually became the United States. Just imagine seeing the huge old growth trees, and the majestic redwoods! I like my modern conveniences, but would love to be able to go back in time.
Those people were absolutely evil about everything they did. They robbed the land from the natives after killing them or kick them out. Enslaved millions and treated anyone who didn’t look like them inhumanly. The destroyed the environment around them and lived in constant wars with every nation close or far away.
Back in the late 1980's I worked in another landmark building in that part of Portland -- The old Montgomery Ward warehouse that had been remodeled and converted to office spaces. I used to take a walk on my lunch break and would pass the historical marker for this building. It was quite weathered and difficult to make out. I know more about it now than I did then. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing this building. When I was in art college i lived a few blocks away from the site of this building in what was the only remaining building from the Lewis and Clark Exposition (itself a totally fascinating building which was unfortunately so seedy it was a nightmare to live in in spite of its beauty...). I stumbled on the sign commemorating the forestry building on a walk and was always saddened by its tragic loss. Northwest Portland (I haven't been back since 2o12) is a very fascinating area. The lower mcCleay and Forest Park are amazing. But the air was filled with the fumes of industry north of Vaughn street as if one was living in the 189os or something. Where once was the location of the artificial lake for the exposition was filled with factories and a bizarre kind of urban industrial hellscape. I'm all for manufacturing, I always thought it was awesome that Portland still had a thriving industrial sector, as the town I am from, like most old Mill towns has transitioned almost entirely to the service industries... Nearby the site of the forestry building is an awesome old building that was the home and studio of a filmmaker from the early 2oth century. A great example of a mixed use space. Absolutely beautiful building. Portland is overflowing with amazing architecture, and at least until 2o12 when I moved away, a lot of it remained intact or was otherwise lovingly restored or rehabilitated. Which was part of the initial reason I went to art college in Portland rather than Seattle. This whole area gave me constant Inspiration for my work as an art student. Particularly in photography and sculpture. I loved wandering around with my Minolta and later a view camera on Photographic Adventures. Thanks again! Cheers ! ~~~
What a tragic loss. While on the topic of cabins, there's a small one in Island Park, Idaho. It's called the Johnny Sack Cabin. A little person built everything himself in the most beautiful place. It's an incredible visit.
For those curious, the biggest was considered to be the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone in Wyoming. I assume determined by estimated log weight used in the construction.
@@BlackIjs You're welcome. Looking at photos of both, they are both remarkable structures but in my opinion the one featured in this video is much more impressive.
I am a native of Portland, Oregon. I am now 76 years old. When I was still living in Portland, I was able to visit this Portland log cabin. I remember the inside with the giant logs all standing upright like live trees. inside the building. That is about the only thing I can remember about it. What a shame, I thought, when I heard that the whole log cabin had burned down. I still live in Oregon. A few years ago, about 2010, the forestry building in Enterprise, Oregon burned down also. We had just been over that way to visit Wallowa Lake. I kept thinking that I should have stopped in there to look inside the huge forestry building, which also looked like a huge log cabin. Sadly a few months later it also burned down due to worker carelessness. What a shame !!
Your videos are always a roller coaster ride of emotion. My wife and I watch these with such trepidation. Trees such as the ones in this building exist with such rarity now, if at all. It is too heartbreaking first thing in the morning. Perhaps, someday, you might tag or create playlists for the ones which survive and those that don’t. So your overly emotional viewers can know when to have the tissue box handy. Thank you so much.
I live in Yakima, Wa and there are 2 castles in town. One built by Chester A. Congdon called Congdon Castle and the 2nd is Charbonneau Castle. The later is currently a floral shop on the main level. The first, from my understanding, is a private residence & fruit orchard.
I was born in 1961 and got to see the forestry center's log cabin and all the displays inside only once... I remember being allowed to touch the bark on the posts but not to touch the deer or the pottery. I climbed under the velvet ropes and looked at the deer's belly but I didn't touch the deer... I was that kind of child at 16 months old.
I recall as a tyke, being on the balcony level, seemed so high up scared me to death. Recall the smoke plume, viewed it 15 miles away @ the farm west of Beaverton.
Lived in Portland (NW Overton St) just blocks from there. Played in the park there almost weekly, climbing on the old steam engine parked there. The Folks took us inside several times besides the school field trips. I remember when it burned. We could see the flames from our house. Burning embers were floating through the air and people were climbing on their roofs with garden hoses to douse them when they landed (other fires were ignited by them). I was sad that it was gone.
I was 11yrs old when it burned. Had visited on class trips and Cub Scout outings. It was so big that you could not believe you were inside a building. At that time, it was across the street from a 6 story Montgomery Ward store so I saw the ruins several times when shopping with my Mom. I still think of it whenever I drive by that spot.
I was very young when I went there. So young I don't remember whether I was with my folks or on a school field trip. I have little memories of the building: mostly of it's great size and beauty. So small are my memories that until just now I thought they were false, as no one ever seemed to know what I was talking about. We lived in Portland from 1955 til I was 10 (1962). The building has haunted my memories all these years, and I'm so glad now to know it was real. Thank you SO MUCH for this video!
@@Meta-Drew funny isn't it? Kid's memories are registered so differently than adult's. I talked about my memory of this building a number of times with my folks and they didn't understand at all. What was A BIG DEAL for me was little or nothing to them. It's awesome to grow old and have answers to 60+ year old questions: and completely out of the blue... on UA-cam for heaven's sake!
Yes, that was an interesting story. It's strange that your folks couldn't remember or corroborate your memory. And it would be a little strange if you couldn't remember it if were a, school trip. Maybe from who else was present, or some vague sense of who all was in this memory, whether family or school friends. That's how I sometimes segregate early memories from each other. I wonder if, somehow, it was a spur of the moment visit with a visiting relative or a family friend or acquaintance, who perhaps babysat you for a day, and took you there as a lark. And either didn't tell your parents as it wasn't considered important enough, or your parents didn't remember being told about it? Something unusual like that might account for no one remembering about it. I would think that most school trip memories would, for most people, have a certain vibe about them that would mark them as such, even if they weren't remembered completely as such. But an earlier memory of an unofficial outing with a grandparent, or a visiting uncle/aunt or some trusted visiting or local acquaintance who took you there on a lark, might be a wild card sort of memory that no one else might ever have really known about, or remembered later. Just a thought.
Fascinating story -- and we might even say there is more to this building's legacy. Four years after the Portland world's fair, Seattle naturally had to have a fair of its own. The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909, held on the grounds of the University of Washington, had a Forestry Building of its own. I'm not sure how it compared in size to the Portland fair's Forestry Building, but if anyone says the Portland building was bigger, I'll take their word for it. Yet the Seattle version also was marketed as "the world's largest log cabin," and I should note that several of the key players in the Portland fair moved on to executive positions in the Seattle fair -- so I think they would have been careful about the superlatives. Seattle's Forestry Building was enormous as well, with many of the same design features, including an interior that used enormous logs as pillars, arranged in the same manner as a cathedral. The building was a favorite of the public, rightly described by many visitors as one of the wonders of the fair. When the fair closed, the building was among those that was retained. So what happened to it? Wood rot. In 1930, the building was considered too far gone for rehabilitation. Some said the problem was that the bark had been retained on the trunks, leaving the trunks vulnerable to rot (and, I suppose, insect damage). So the building was razed, and by the time I attended the University of Washington in the early '80s, not a trace of it remained. The site was used for construction of the Husky Union Building in the late '40s, the student-union building better known as the HUB.
As a young child my family lived in a very ancient, large, two-story log home in Berlin, PA. At the time the exterior had been covered with siding and the interior plastered. Still existing was the huge working fireplace in the kitchen. There was no basement. The location was about 1 1/2 blocks from where General Philson and one other man were arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion.
I remember this building and visited it many times from 1940 through the early 1960's when I took my Sons to se it. We always took visitors to Oregon to se the place. What a sam to loose it to sencless
At the end of your video when you say "see you next time on, this house". I always think you're going to say "this old house". From the PBS show, or w/e. Thanks for the great content!
I remember the day it burned, we were just living one ridge over below Healy Highs. The cinders were falling and many were still hot and two inches in diameter . I kept a few for a few years. It was a miracle the surrounding forests on the West Hills didn't ignite.
My brother was stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky. with the infantry. He told me that Gen. Mark Clark (Sr.) had a log cabin mansion built on post. I've never seen it, but it's probably huge.
My earliest memory is of our family taking a Sunday drive up to the Forestry center , to see the aftermath of the fire . It left a sad impression on my young mind . I wish I could have been born earlier so that I could have seen it before it burned .
Spoiler alert 1:17 These 6' wide logs with bark intact are proof that the 9 year old boy is 11' 3'' tall and girl is 8' 7''. This is another record for this period of Oregon's history.
I walked around inside the Settler's Inn, in Medford, NJ before it burned down in 1998. Not as big as the huge hotel in Oregon, but it did have two storys and boasted the second largest fireplace east of the Mississippi. It was built starting in 1929, and probably was inspiried by the "Cathedral of Trees". I was sad to learn that it had burnt down.
I remember my Family talking about this place..thanks for the video. I guess the whole City drove/ walked to watch it burn and it burned for days. But it was a super cool place. They tried to recreate it one but just wasn't as cool...
Such a shame it was lost to fire. It burned shortly after I was born. I was born July 1964. It looked too be a amazing place, sorry too not have been able too see it in it's day. Thank you for sharing
My grandparents lived not far from this giant log construction, which burned down one month before my birth. They used to talk about how beautiful and stunning the building was.
In the mid-Fifties I attended school in a large log school house in Tracyton, Washington. It must have been torn down years ago because I can't even find a picture of it.
"They took all the trees Put 'em in a tree museum And they charged the people A dollar and a half just to see 'em Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone They paved paradise And put up a parking lot..."
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It’s alway blasted fire! Damn!!! It’s to bad that someone didn’t think about installing a fire suppression system inside. That said I’m sure they didn’t have Halon or a dry option? Thank goodness for photos.
In 1964 I was 17yo. I do recall visiting the building at least once and even as a kid was impressed by the size of the logs and the structure. Growing up in Oregon it just seemed natural that such huge trees were common and that maybe they would rebuild. Sadly, not to be. I also visited the Montgomery Wards building across the road on what seemed like a weekly schedule. My dad was always in need of a tool or something and this was his go-to business. You could see the building from there and it just became routine to think that it would be there forever. When it burned it was a sad day in Portland. The replacement center is a far cry from what this landmark once was.
It burned and burned for a long time. Saw it as a kid back in the early 60s when I lived out of Portland. Wish I remembered more, but I was only 5 when it burned, I just have vague memories of the place. Now I was also born in Billings Montana and have seen the number one largest loge cabin many times, Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone Park.
Fascinating story, I knew nothing of this building, and what a tragic loss, especially since there had been successful efforts to restore it. When I first saw the title of the video, I thought it was a reference to the Idaho Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, another very large log structure. It was purchased at the end of the Fair, dismantled, and rebuilt at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, but sadly was lost long ago.
Glad you enjoyed it! I spent entirely too much time looking up photos and articles about the building you mentioned. It was truly marvelous! Hope you have a wonderful weekend, Cheers!
Back in the heydey of The Mother Earth News, a man they referred to as Trooper Tom built a log house, and kept adding on to it. Not sure how many square feet it was, but it was pretty large. It was not long until something caused a fire, and it all went up in flames. The loss of photos and artifacts is awful. We can't copy every artifact, but we can scan documents and photos in order to preserve them from disasters. You MUST keep backups of the scans in multiple locations to insure their survival.
I remember a similar story, this one is about 2 log cabins that used to form a hotel near Jetrichovice, Czech Republic. Originally built in the late 19th century, the buildings first burnt down in 1905, with reconstruction starting in the same year. At some point, both cabins became a hotel for hikers, I spent a night there in 2017. The cabins burnt down once again in summer of 2020. There is hardly any information on the future of this site, but it seems that the current owners want to rebuild it.
As a child growing up south of Portland, I'd heard stories of this magnificent building and hoped one day I could visit this spectacular structure. Our family was dirt poor, as my mother was born with no legs and father struggled to support us selling used shoe laces. One day, father informed me and my 14 brothers and sisters that a kindly neighbor had offered to lend us his oxe drawn cart, so we could venture north to the forestry building. We loaded up the entire family on the cart and began our journey, however shortly thereafter the oxen suffered a stroke leaving us stranded. Dear mother tried her best to help pull the cart in the absence of the oxen, but was of little use due to the fact she had no legs. Father rounded up some rope and tied a makeshift harness together, and before you knew it, brothers Chet, Wally, Gilbert, Alfonso, Juan Pablo, Delbert, Archibald and myself, along with sisters Genevieve, Beatrice, Fern, Abigale, Stumpy (she, like her mother, had no legs), Florence and Winnie began pulling the cart (loaded with mother, father and the dead oxen) down the road. We pulled for what seamed like an eternity, finally reaching the California boarder because father could not read a compass. Sad to say my dream of exploring this splendid facility never came true. I only recall the foul stench of dead oxen, and little sister Stumpy complaining that we were pulling to fast for her little stumps to keep up.
I grew up in a house about 8 blocks or so to the West of the Forestry Building and was 12 years when it burned down. I remember hearing rumors that the building was deliberately burned down, but don't recall whether that was confirmed or not. It seemed like the government did not do much in the way of investigation of what caused the fire.
I have been to Alberta Canada to the Prince of Wales Hotel Waterton Provincial Park which borders Glaciers national park of the United States. The hotel,log cabin well totally wood, seems quite a bit larger. When it was first being built and finished there was a significant Gail that lifted and moved the hotel off its foundation 2 feet. The hotel sits on a plateau overlooking the lake below which straddles two valleys of mountains which can muster fear gails on towards the hotel.
A tidbit: when Ted Turner and Jane Fonda built a log home in Montana, Jane gave the yea or nay for every log, and the smallest was 12", most 20",. One of the builders told me that.
Check out the largest log cabin in the world: ua-cam.com/video/jb1mTdQiWqs/v-deo.html
How did it burn down what caused the fire???
I lived in Portland, and we had school field trips to the Forestry Building. I went twice in Grade School, and once with my parents. The official cause of the fire was declared a short in some of the original 1905 electric wiring. There were many rumors of other causes; and of course, arson was one of the top theories - but never proved. Most of the wiring was replaced in the renovation work. But some of the old (and hard to get to) wiring remained. There were maintenance workers in the building that day, and many assumed that the faulty wiring was just an excuse to keep them off the hook for an accident caused by the workers. That was never proved either. I was a youngster back then, but I still remember with awe, the large trees that built this building. Also, the year of the fire, 1964, we had the hottest summer on record 104 degrees on the Oregon Coast (unheard of), and 105 degrees in Portland. There were four 5 alarm fires that summer. Most of them were suspected set by an arsonist. That is what made the arson theory flourish. As for my opinion? I've read most everything written about the building, but I really have no idea what the true cause was.
Interesting insight, thanks !
Thank you for this info! I find it odd that the cause of the fire was not brought up in the video, whether they knew for sure why or not. The narrator should have known people would wonder about this. Again, thank you for your insights on it!
In my OWN house there is wiring going back likely as far as 1905. It's an 1870's house that originally had gas lighting (Capped gas lines on most walls!). Most of the wiring has been updated over the decades (kitchen, bathroom and cellar have "modern" 1960s wiring) but the lighting circuits remain "knob and tube" with original push-button switches. The Forestry building burned in 1964 meaning that the OLDEST wiring would have been 59 years old. Today that would be like having 1964 wiring in a building now. Mind Blowing!
@@jamesslick4790 My grandparents' house was built around 1900. It had knob and tube wiring in the attic. I don't think it was removed until the house went through an extensive renovation in the 1980's. When you think about it, the copper does not degrade, nor the glass insulators. Unless you overload it, it's probably safe. But my grandfather had a tendency that when they blew a fuse (the old screw in type), he would put a penny in the socket and reinsert the dead fuse. It might be a week before he got down to the store to buy a new one. And those were "the good old days" !!
@@hallhall5777 Knob and tube is fine. I only pointed out mine to show it's age. The only problem with old wiring (K&T or "Romex") was the use of cloth insulation. If the cloth covered wiring has always been in a dry location it should be good to go. The reason K&T fell out of favor VS "Romex" cable was labor cost. Since the wires are run individually you need (then) twice or now three times as many holes do be drilled. as well as installing all of the knobs and tubes along the way. Also, many early electricians "over wired" using 12 ga wires on 15 amp circuits! (I saw that many times). That possibility and the physical separation of the wires means it could stand a bit of an overload. Of course, No circuit, new OR old should be over loaded. P.S. I actually think fuses (when used correctly, NO PENNIES, LOL) are SAFER than breakers. Breakers are mechanical, and sometimes mechanical devices fail. A fuse is a bit of metal that melts at a given temperature. Simpler is more reliable.
I moved to Portland in 1963 as a kid (2nd grade) and got to go tour the building at least once or twice.The shear size of the structure and logs lining the main room was staggering to a little kid .I loved it and felt the loss of it very deeply, it was an incredible experience I will never forget.
Imagine the catastrophic loss of life and habitat just building this abomination created.
@@theobserver9131 amen. What a tragedy. All for human myopic ego.
@@LitoGeorge Ever heard of the bigger picture ?
@@LitoGeorge oh no the redditards have arrived!
@@LitoGeorge 911 was a tragedy. This was a construction accomplishment of its time
Just heartbreaking. It's almost impossible to see trees that big anymore.
There is protected "conserved" land you may access to see such amazing sights. Check out the US forestry center. Have fun be safe.
You must not go where I go then
Cause there are monsters everywhere
And when they fall
They destroy everything in their fall path
There are and will be trees like that. Your brainwashed
Literally in my back yard. Like 100ft away here in WA
I was about to say the same. I try to imagine Wisconsin back in the 1700s being covered with such trees. It's all farmland now.
The narrator mentioned numerous times that the Forestry Building was the second largest log building. What and where was the largest, as I recall reading on a plaque outside this building that IT was the largest log cabin in the world?? I grew up in NE Portland and with my folks visited this edifice at least a dozen times in the '50s, and credit it with bolstering my strong connection with Oregon's logging heritage. My favorite display was a miniature sawmill at least eight feet long showing the mill pond, old log trucks, and intricate details of the steam powered saw blade. Somewhere in the middle of those multiple visits, they built a replica of a fire lookout tower about 25 feet tall at the far end of the colonnade of those huge vertical logs. The spectacular bird's-eye view of the displays and those logs, as if still trees reaching for the sky, will remain with me forever! Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I remember the sign.
Right
A Google search brings up an answer: the largest log building is a destination resort in Utah called "Timber Moose Lodge" with an interior space of 26,000 sqf.
I remember visiting the Forestry Building as a kid before it burned down; my parents took me there 2 or 3 times. (They told me the first apartment my mom & dad had after getting married in 1948 was in a building across the street from it.) As a kid, I was most fascinated by an exhibit on the second floor that had a miniature landscape of timber extraction, with telescopes aimed at specific parts of the landscape so one could see the camp & trees being cut down, & wanted to go back to see it again. Unfortunately, the building burned down before I could go back.
Excellent video. I knew nothing about this building - thank you for posting this.
diddo!
@@WhiteStone21475 "ditto"
I lived in NW Portland in 1963 through April 1964, and often stopped to spend a little time in this beautiful, cathedral-like building. It was wonderfully peaceful, quiet and surprisingly well lighted. I always felt better for having visited.
I had recently moved to the east coast when I learned that fire had claimed that most beautiful structure --my favorite building in the world.
I personally didn’t have the opportunity to go, but my grandparents did and they have many photos of the outside and inside in a family album. My grandparents were avid travelers and loved seeing the great buildings and architecture of America. They spoke in great detail of it and how amazing a sight it was to see down the main hall. Thank you for a wonderful video that brought back some good times with my grandparents.
Post the pictures!
Man I'd love to see the photos. I love old photos so much. I treasure my family's albums!
I was extremely fortunate that my mother took me to that building in July just before it burn down I was nine years old. It’s some thing that I will never forget. The other great building in Oregon would be the timberline Lodge up on Mount Hood, if you haven’t seen it it’s something you definitely need to see.
OK... this begs the question, what was the *first* largest log cabin?
Great Question! The largest continues to be the Old Faithful Inn located at Yellowstone National Park.
@@ThisHouse THAT is an incredible building! Please show that if you get the chance.
@@ThisHouse
Although the Old Faithful Inn is the largest log structure, one claim to fame for our 1905 log building is that it contained some of the largest logs used to build it, in particular the massive interior logs to support the roof
As a side note, among my most vivid memories of the many visits to this majestic structure until it burned one month before my ninth birthday was the aroma !!
It was like walking into a giant cedar chest !
Thank you so much for this video 🙏
@@ThisHouse 😅 FOMO until I read this! Been there! 😎✌🏼
@@ThisHouse if that is the case, I am disappointed.
I went inside, and I am pretty sure it was steel frame structure with just logs attached outside those steel beams to immitate log cabin.
I was only 7 years old but I remember my dad taking me here one Saturday after spending HOURS in the massive Montgomery Ward store a block away (now there's another fascinating story to work on ). Oddly enough a few pieces of equipment was salvaged from the blaze. I found them piled up in a city storage area in Delta park years later while patrolling the area in my Portland police car. The maintenance man I talked to said the pieces were too damaged to use but no one wanted to throw them away. Hope they wound up in the new Forestry Building.
I fled the remains of that dying, once great city 6 years ago thank goodness.
Escaped in 2015, never looked back.
@@jamesrey4275 Im sure you are thankful of the courage it took to get out when we did. Good call.
Dying, once great city.
Truer words were never spoken.
Portland the new Detroit, I can tell you it is a hundred times worse now than when you left in 2017? I live 40 minutes North, I used to go into the city regularly but avoid it like the plague now, it is like a dystopia in a Hollywood movie, so sad it was such a lovely city.
I grew up in NE Oregon and SE Washington. When we made a trip to Portland my parents usually went to the Wards department store building. A small part of the Log cabin could be seen from the parking lot. Time and time again I kept asking my parents to go see it. The answer was always no. I graduated High School in 1964 and was starting College. We were in the car and dad was starting to back out and asked me if I wanted to see it now. I think I had given up asking by then, but this time I was in a hurry to get home and declined. Seems like the fire was only a few days later---All these years I have never stopped kicking myself for saying no.
I lived by Long Beach and we could see the dome the Spruce Goose was in, I used to go Jet Skiing right by it, but I never went and saw it. Now it is in Oregon. I call it the Home Town Curse.
Wow! WHAT A BUMMER. When you look back and opportunity reveals itself you seize it. What a building it must have been. You at least got a chance to behold it partially with your eyes.
Your story reminds me of the song "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin or maybe the reverse of it.
You must've lived in LA Grande.
@@elonmust7470 No, never lived in La Grande, OR, a bit further North in Athena, OR, population about 800 then, moved to Milton-Freewater, OR (actually 3 miles out of town, then to Richland, WA where I graduated High School.
wow the memories, my Grandfather was one of the carpenters on the Forestry Building build.
He was so proud of the building we used to go four or five times a year and spend most of the day there, the night it burnt we were living in Gresham they heard about the fire on the radio, my Mom and Dad got us up and we drove to parking lot and watched it burn to the ground, it was the saddest thing i have ever seen, my Grandfather just stood in the zoo's parking lot and cried. i don't think he ever got over it.
the inside of the building was truly magnificent, makes the new building look like a junk yard reject.
i visited the log cabin forestry building when i was about 15. i remember that it was dark inside and that it was huge. i also remember that the logs were gigantic and i felt regret that such huge trees, probably 100's of years old , were cut down. it makes me realize how important it is to preserve our old growth timber areas because they are oregon's living history .
What do you live in, a stone hut?
@@esteban1487 Hes not saying dont use any wood, hes saying when they go out into the mountains for logging They should leave the largest and oldest alone and clear out the 60- year growth timber. See alot of the time loggers will pass by 20 good timber trees to get to the one thats 300 years old.
Lived in Portland for a couple years in the early 1960’s. This building was near where my Dad worked, and I visited it a couple times. From the outside it looked like it was several stories, but once you went inside it was one enormous room with wooden catwalks around the interior with displays on them. We moved away about a year after it burned, and I remember looking down on the burned shell from my Dad’s office window in the 6 story tall Montgomery Wards building. I’ve also stayed at the Yellowstone lodge, which I think is the largest log building…
I lived in Portland while the log cabin was still standing. My grade school class took a field trip to the cabin, as many did. I remember it being VERY big, with exhibits in the center and a second story walk inside around the inside of the building. It was a wonderful trip that I've always remembered. I also remember when it burned down, though I didn't see it. It was such a loss, and we were all sad when it happened.
"Then the unthinkable happened"
that thing going up in flames was literally my first thought
Lol. Me too.
Yeah, acres of dry wood and lots of open spaces for oxygen is pretty much how they teach you to make campfires.
I had a customer who had a log home in the foothills of northern California , and she told me that house requires a lot of maintenance to keep up and was a extra expense to keep maintained
Yep log cabins are fundamentally flawed. Moisture will always seep in to the corners. In Ireland they last about 10 years before issues show up and its major structural work to repair.
@@peterlarkin762 we are dryer in California, even in the foothills so probably not a issue here but theirs other issues with the sealing between the logs etc, has to be redone every so often touched up every year I believe. My customer told me about this 24&25: years ago and I think she was sorry she had bought this house. I was selling her a big wool area rug for the house
@@peterlarkin762 if so it isn't built properly. Here in Norway we have 500 year old log buildings all over the place, many have not been maintained much. On my family land in the mountains we restored a log house a few years ago, approximately 500 yrs old, all logs were in perfect condition just needed tar/oil (lots of it!). All we had to do was make a new roof and level the building. And yes, we get lots of rain. Just add oil every few years and they will be good for centuries.
I watched 2 of your videos, not doing so on purpose, but now I look for your videos lol. Subscribed! Thanks for sharing your content!
How amazing it must have been, for the first explorers on the west coast of the country, that eventually became the United States. Just imagine seeing the huge old growth trees, and the majestic redwoods! I like my modern conveniences, but would love to be able to go back in time.
Those people were absolutely evil about everything they did. They robbed the land from the natives after killing them or kick them out. Enslaved millions and treated anyone who didn’t look like them inhumanly. The destroyed the environment around them and lived in constant wars with every nation close or far away.
Heartbreaking on so many levels. Thanks for sharing such amazing photos
Back in the late 1980's I worked in another landmark building in that part of Portland -- The old Montgomery Ward warehouse that had been remodeled and converted to office spaces. I used to take a walk on my lunch break and would pass the historical marker for this building. It was quite weathered and difficult to make out. I know more about it now than I did then. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing this building. When I was in art college i lived a few blocks away from the site of this building in what was the only remaining building from the Lewis and Clark Exposition (itself a totally fascinating building which was unfortunately so seedy it was a nightmare to live in in spite of its beauty...). I stumbled on the sign commemorating the forestry building on a walk and was always saddened by its tragic loss. Northwest Portland (I haven't been back since 2o12) is a very fascinating area. The lower mcCleay and Forest Park are amazing. But the air was filled with the fumes of industry north of Vaughn street as if one was living in the 189os or something. Where once was the location of the artificial lake for the exposition was filled with factories and a bizarre kind of urban industrial hellscape. I'm all for manufacturing, I always thought it was awesome that Portland still had a thriving industrial sector, as the town I am from, like most old Mill towns has transitioned almost entirely to the service industries... Nearby the site of the forestry building is an awesome old building that was the home and studio of a filmmaker from the early 2oth century. A great example of a mixed use space. Absolutely beautiful building. Portland is overflowing with amazing architecture, and at least until 2o12 when I moved away, a lot of it remained intact or was otherwise lovingly restored or rehabilitated. Which was part of the initial reason I went to art college in Portland rather than Seattle. This whole area gave me constant Inspiration for my work as an art student. Particularly in photography and sculpture. I loved wandering around with my Minolta and later a view camera on Photographic Adventures. Thanks again! Cheers ! ~~~
Do you have any pictures of those old buildings that you would like to share?
I love that you described the worlds second largest wooden building catching fire as unthinkable!
What a tragic loss.
While on the topic of cabins, there's a small one in Island Park, Idaho. It's called the Johnny Sack Cabin. A little person built everything himself in the most beautiful place. It's an incredible visit.
For those curious, the biggest was considered to be the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone in Wyoming. I assume determined by estimated log weight used in the construction.
Grateful! This was my only question!!!😊
Thanks, as soon as he said '2nd largest' I was wondering where the largest was.
@@BlackIjs You're welcome. Looking at photos of both, they are both remarkable structures but in my opinion the one featured in this video is much more impressive.
I like this channel, some day I hope to visit more of the ones still standing, 👍
I am a native of Portland, Oregon. I am now 76 years old. When I was still living in Portland, I was able to visit this Portland log cabin. I remember the inside with the giant logs all standing upright like live trees. inside the building. That is about the only thing I can remember about it. What a shame, I thought, when I heard that the whole log cabin had burned down. I still live in Oregon. A few years ago, about 2010, the forestry building in Enterprise, Oregon burned down also. We had just been over that way to visit Wallowa Lake. I kept thinking that I should have stopped in there to look inside the huge forestry building, which also looked like a huge log cabin. Sadly a few months later it also burned down due to worker carelessness. What a shame !!
Your videos are always a roller coaster ride of emotion. My wife and I watch these with such trepidation. Trees such as the ones in this building exist with such rarity now, if at all. It is too heartbreaking first thing in the morning. Perhaps, someday, you might tag or create playlists for the ones which survive and those that don’t. So your overly emotional viewers can know when to have the tissue box handy. Thank you so much.
🙄
OMG WOW THAT'S AWESOME THANKS!!!💋 AMEN !!! NOOOOO How did this happen? Philadelphia USA 🇺🇲
I wish I could have seen this magnificent building..☹️
I live in Yakima, Wa and there are 2 castles in town. One built by Chester A. Congdon called Congdon Castle and the 2nd is Charbonneau Castle. The later is currently a floral shop on the main level. The first, from my understanding, is a private residence & fruit orchard.
If you are ever in Duluth MN you can visit the congdon mansion on the shore of Lake Superior,
Love the BassPro shop design
I was born in 1961 and got to see the forestry center's log cabin and all the displays inside only once... I remember being allowed to touch the bark on the posts but not to touch the deer or the pottery. I climbed under the velvet ropes and looked at the deer's belly but I didn't touch the deer... I was that kind of child at 16 months old.
Wow, it's amazing that you have such early memories.
I recall as a tyke, being on the balcony level, seemed so high up scared me to death. Recall the smoke plume, viewed it 15 miles away @ the farm west of Beaverton.
Lived in Portland (NW Overton St) just blocks from there. Played in the park there almost weekly, climbing on the old steam engine parked there. The Folks took us inside several times besides the school field trips. I remember when it burned. We could see the flames from our house. Burning embers were floating through the air and people were climbing on their roofs with garden hoses to douse them when they landed (other fires were ignited by them). I was sad that it was gone.
I was 11yrs old when it burned. Had visited on class trips and Cub Scout outings. It was so big that you could not believe you were inside a building. At that time, it was across the street from a 6 story Montgomery Ward store so I saw the ruins several times when shopping with my Mom. I still think of it whenever I drive by that spot.
I was very young when I went there. So young I don't remember whether I was with my folks or on a school field trip. I have little memories of the building: mostly of it's great size and beauty. So small are my memories that until just now I thought they were false, as no one ever seemed to know what I was talking about.
We lived in Portland from 1955 til I was 10 (1962). The building has haunted my memories all these years, and I'm so glad now to know it was real.
Thank you SO MUCH for this video!
That's incredible! Maybe my favorite one I've read in these comments, so heartwarming.
@@Meta-Drew funny isn't it? Kid's memories are registered so differently than adult's. I talked about my memory of this building a number of times with my folks and they didn't understand at all. What was A BIG DEAL for me was little or nothing to them. It's awesome to grow old and have answers to 60+ year old questions: and completely out of the blue... on UA-cam for heaven's sake!
Yes, that was an interesting story. It's strange that your folks couldn't remember or corroborate your memory. And it would be a little strange if you couldn't remember it if were a, school trip. Maybe from who else was present, or some vague sense of who all was in this memory, whether family or school friends. That's how I sometimes segregate early memories from each other.
I wonder if, somehow, it was a spur of the moment visit with a visiting relative or a family friend or acquaintance, who perhaps babysat you for a day, and took you there as a lark. And either didn't tell your parents as it wasn't considered important enough, or your parents didn't remember being told about it? Something unusual like that might account for no one remembering about it.
I would think that most school trip memories would, for most people, have a certain vibe about them that would mark them as such, even if they weren't remembered completely as such. But an earlier memory of an unofficial outing with a grandparent, or a visiting uncle/aunt or some trusted visiting or local acquaintance who took you there on a lark, might be a wild card sort of memory that no one else might ever have really known about, or remembered later. Just a thought.
WOW! That was an amazing space! If it were still standing it would be on my bucket list. Thanks for the tour/info, from east central Missouri.
Thank you for sharing your memory of this place. ❤
Fascinating story -- and we might even say there is more to this building's legacy. Four years after the Portland world's fair, Seattle naturally had to have a fair of its own. The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909, held on the grounds of the University of Washington, had a Forestry Building of its own. I'm not sure how it compared in size to the Portland fair's Forestry Building, but if anyone says the Portland building was bigger, I'll take their word for it. Yet the Seattle version also was marketed as "the world's largest log cabin," and I should note that several of the key players in the Portland fair moved on to executive positions in the Seattle fair -- so I think they would have been careful about the superlatives. Seattle's Forestry Building was enormous as well, with many of the same design features, including an interior that used enormous logs as pillars, arranged in the same manner as a cathedral. The building was a favorite of the public, rightly described by many visitors as one of the wonders of the fair. When the fair closed, the building was among those that was retained. So what happened to it? Wood rot. In 1930, the building was considered too far gone for rehabilitation. Some said the problem was that the bark had been retained on the trunks, leaving the trunks vulnerable to rot (and, I suppose, insect damage). So the building was razed, and by the time I attended the University of Washington in the early '80s, not a trace of it remained. The site was used for construction of the Husky Union Building in the late '40s, the student-union building better known as the HUB.
As a young child my family lived in a very ancient, large, two-story log home in Berlin, PA. At the time the exterior had been covered with siding and the interior plastered. Still existing was the huge working fireplace in the kitchen. There was no basement. The location was about 1 1/2 blocks from where General Philson and one other man were arrested during the Whiskey Rebellion.
I remember this building and visited it many times from 1940 through the early 1960's when I took my Sons to se it. We always took visitors to Oregon to se the place. What a sam to loose it to sencless
At the end of your video when you say "see you next time on, this house". I always think you're going to say "this old house". From the PBS show, or w/e. Thanks for the great content!
Around the turn of the century american cities was compeeting with each other showcasing good architecture. So sad they stopped......
That's so sad. What a beautiful building. So sad so much was lost.
I remember the day it burned, we were just living one ridge over below Healy Highs. The cinders were falling and many were still hot and two inches in diameter . I kept a few for a few years. It was a miracle the surrounding forests on the West Hills didn't ignite.
What beautiful trees they must have been.
What beautiful everything must have have been before it was used to build all of our stuff, including the one you use on a daily basis; so, yeah 🙂
Awesome and inspiring. Thank you!
My brother was stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky. with the infantry. He told me that Gen. Mark Clark (Sr.) had a log cabin mansion built on post. I've never seen it, but it's probably huge.
The interior pictures remind me of Bass Pro shops/ museums!!
The revenge of the Ents.Thought provoking.Thank you and all your associates for these interesting videos.
Interesting. An Ent funeral pyre.
What a tragic loss. That'd be so cool to have been there
My earliest memory is of our family taking a Sunday drive up to the Forestry center , to see the aftermath of the fire . It left a sad impression on my young mind . I wish I could have been born earlier so that I could have seen it before it burned .
Spoiler alert 1:17 These 6' wide logs with bark
intact are proof that the 9 year old boy
is 11' 3'' tall and girl is 8' 7''.
This is another record for this
period of Oregon's history.
How did the builders get the bark to stay on. I understood that it will naturally peel off over time
1:43
What a beauty..
I was 5 years old in 1962 when my family visited I actually didn’t remember much except it was enormous on the inside.
Sad, so much cool history is ignored or destroyed these days. Thanks for keeping thisone alive.
I walked around inside the Settler's Inn, in Medford, NJ before it burned down in 1998. Not as big as the huge hotel in Oregon, but it did have two storys and boasted the second largest fireplace east of the Mississippi. It was built starting in 1929, and probably was inspiried by the "Cathedral of Trees". I was sad to learn that it had burnt down.
I remember my Family talking about this place..thanks for the video. I guess the whole City drove/ walked to watch it burn and it burned for days. But it was a super cool place. They tried to recreate it one but just wasn't as cool...
Such a shame it was lost to fire. It burned shortly after I was born. I was born July 1964. It looked too be a amazing place, sorry too not have been able too see it in it's day. Thank you for sharing
My grandparents lived not far from this giant log construction, which burned down one month before my birth. They used to talk about how beautiful and stunning the building was.
Now I gotta hear about the largest log cabin
What a sad ending to such a magnificent building!! 😐
In the mid-Fifties I attended school in a large log school house in Tracyton, Washington. It must have been torn down years ago because I can't even find a picture of it.
"They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot..."
"Ooh, bop-bop-bop
Ooh, bop-bop-bop (na-na-na-na-na)"
What is this? A song, I'm assuming.
@@DUCKDUCKGOISMUCHBETTER lyrics from Joni Mitchell "pave paradise, put up a parking lot"
@@davebrown9725 Thank you.
What a magnificent endeavor and such a tragic loss!
What/where is the first largest Log Cabin?
very sad. my office building is a giant log cabin building and burnt down as well. we rebuilt the same one again though. fingers crossed
Glad that most giant redwoods are being protected today.
It was probably made of mostly Douglas firs or western red cedars as redwoods start growing a bit further south near the CA/OR border.
this comment for feeding the algorithm.
it likes to munch on comments, replies and likes to both. 👍
share a treat or two with it and watch the channel grow! 🍉🫐🥝
So many of these old wooden buildings have burned down over the years, such a shame.
Like a mausoleum for trees.
It’s alway blasted fire! Damn!!! It’s to bad that someone didn’t think about installing a fire suppression system inside. That said I’m sure they didn’t have Halon or a dry option? Thank goodness for photos.
In 1964 I was 17yo. I do recall visiting the building at least once and even as a kid was impressed by the size of the logs and the structure. Growing up in Oregon it just seemed natural that such huge trees were common and that maybe they would rebuild. Sadly, not to be. I also visited the Montgomery Wards building across the road on what seemed like a weekly schedule. My dad was always in need of a tool or something and this was his go-to business. You could see the building from there and it just became routine to think that it would be there forever. When it burned it was a sad day in Portland. The replacement center is a far cry from what this landmark once was.
Did you count Chateau Montebello in Canada in your little list? Because it's a HUGE log hotel..
It burned and burned for a long time. Saw it as a kid back in the early 60s when I lived out of Portland. Wish I remembered more, but I was only 5 when it burned, I just have vague memories of the place. Now I was also born in Billings Montana and have seen the number one largest loge cabin many times, Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone Park.
When you said it was in Portland, I guessed who it ended!
I lived only 20 miles away. We went several times when I was young. We passed it almost every week. It was a sad day when it burned down.
This may sound a bit of a silly question but why did it burn down so quickly? I know it was wooden but it looked like mass timber.
Fascinating story, I knew nothing of this building, and what a tragic loss, especially since there had been successful efforts to restore it. When I first saw the title of the video, I thought it was a reference to the Idaho Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, another very large log structure. It was purchased at the end of the Fair, dismantled, and rebuilt at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, but sadly was lost long ago.
Glad you enjoyed it! I spent entirely too much time looking up photos and articles about the building you mentioned. It was truly marvelous! Hope you have a wonderful weekend, Cheers!
amazing
I was born and raised in Oregon and never heard of this, God what a tragic loss.
Saying "native wildlife and fauna" is like saying critters & critters. It means the same thing.
Celebrity. I caught that, too. It's "flora and fauna".
Such a beautiful building lost.
Back in the heydey of The Mother Earth News, a man they referred to as Trooper Tom built a log house, and kept adding on to it. Not sure how many square feet it was, but it was pretty large. It was not long until something caused a fire, and it all went up in flames.
The loss of photos and artifacts is awful. We can't copy every artifact, but we can scan documents and photos in order to preserve them from disasters. You MUST keep backups of the scans in multiple locations to insure their survival.
Thank you for the Video . Does any body have an Idea on where the largest Log Cabin was located ?
i don't know if it's the bigger but the "Chateau Montebello" near Montreal is just dwarfing this log cabin. i mean DWARFING...
I remember a similar story, this one is about 2 log cabins that used to form a hotel near Jetrichovice, Czech Republic. Originally built in the late 19th century, the buildings first burnt down in 1905, with reconstruction starting in the same year. At some point, both cabins became a hotel for hikers, I spent a night there in 2017. The cabins burnt down once again in summer of 2020. There is hardly any information on the future of this site, but it seems that the current owners want to rebuild it.
As a child growing up south of Portland, I'd heard stories of this magnificent building and hoped one day I could visit this spectacular structure. Our family was dirt poor, as my mother was born with no legs and father struggled to support us selling used shoe laces. One day, father informed me and my 14 brothers and sisters that a kindly neighbor had offered to lend us his oxe drawn cart, so we could venture north to the forestry building. We loaded up the entire family on the cart and began our journey, however shortly thereafter the oxen suffered a stroke leaving us stranded. Dear mother tried her best to help pull the cart in the absence of the oxen, but was of little use due to the fact she had no legs. Father rounded up some rope and tied a makeshift harness together, and before you knew it, brothers Chet, Wally, Gilbert, Alfonso, Juan Pablo, Delbert, Archibald and myself, along with sisters Genevieve, Beatrice, Fern, Abigale, Stumpy (she, like her mother, had no legs), Florence and Winnie began pulling the cart (loaded with mother, father and the dead oxen) down the road. We pulled for what seamed like an eternity, finally reaching the California boarder because father could not read a compass. Sad to say my dream of exploring this splendid facility never came true. I only recall the foul stench of dead oxen, and little sister Stumpy complaining that we were pulling to fast for her little stumps to keep up.
This was brilliant and hilarious
So...
Who set the fire ??
Electricity.
@@jamesslick4790
Is that a documented fact or a guess.
What a project! Was it ever determined how the fire started?
A couple of stunners near to Greenwich Connecticut, 35 and 37 Glen Avon Drive, Riverside Connecticut.
I grew up in a house about 8 blocks or so to the West of the Forestry Building and was 12 years when it burned down. I remember hearing rumors that the building was deliberately burned down, but don't recall whether that was confirmed or not. It seemed like the government did not do much in the way of investigation of what caused the fire.
Wow! I love it. 😄 Pity about its demise.
Funny enough, Oregon has the largest clear-span wooden structure in the world in Tillamook. Still has the blimp hanger.
I have been to Alberta Canada to the Prince of Wales Hotel Waterton Provincial Park which borders Glaciers national park of the United States. The hotel,log cabin well totally wood, seems quite a bit larger. When it was first being built and finished there was a significant Gail that lifted and moved the hotel off its foundation 2 feet. The hotel sits on a plateau overlooking the lake below which straddles two valleys of mountains which can muster fear gails on towards the hotel.
'Then the unthinkable happened' a giant building made of logs caught fire.
Would have made an awesome Bass Pro Shops
A tidbit: when Ted Turner and Jane Fonda built a log home in Montana, Jane gave the yea or nay for every log, and the smallest was 12", most 20",. One of the builders told me that.
Hard to imagine there were once big trees in Oregon.