Lilting Lumber:
Music of PNW Loggers

     In the Pacific Northwest, logging wasn’t just a job, it was a way of life. Loggers and their families depended upon the industry, lived in communities established solely for the purpose of logging, and built their lives around the trees. In Washington state, logging was a culture and with that culture came music. The sound of machinery, sawmills, and falling trees might make a melody of their own, but the loggers and their families brought a different types of tunes: folk and labor music.

              The newest exhibition in the Carson Hot Springs Resort Gallery is Lilting Lumber: Music of PNW Loggers. Focusing on the folk music and labor music that proliferated the lives of loggers in the Pacific Northwest, this exhibition explores how the logging industry shaped the cultural practices of its workers. Many loggers were immigrants or laborers traveling from different parts of the United States in search of work. This cross-cultural exchange allowed for different musical influences and stories to be told throughout the region. Using the Columbia Gorge Museum’s own logging collection and lyrics from Washington specific folk and labor tunes, the new exhibition will take you back to the songs of logging’s heyday. Discover the complex labor history of our state through the songs used in labor movements by the IWW and listen to samples of these tunes through headphones to fully immerse yourself in the lives of the workers who helped build America.