This scene depicts Willamette Steam Donkeys at work prior to 1941. Willamette Iron & Steel Works of Portland, Oregon (established in 1865) manufactured these powerful machines in addition to other forest product oriented equipment such as: steam locomotives, hogs, barkers, veneer lathes, trailers, bridges and hoists.

A loader is shown at work in the background and a yarder in the foreground. The wire rope mainline came off the drum nearest the engineer (this drum was also called the front or lower drum); the haulback came off the back drum. The mainline was the stronger of the two as it carried the weight of one or more logs, weighing thousands of pounds, from the "brush" to the landing. The haulback, of course, was smaller because it carried only the weight of the rigging back to the choker setters for the next turn of logs.

The steam donkeys shown here, along with 25 others, were owned by the C.D. Johnson Lumber Company, Toledo, Oregon and were used on 120,000 acres of timberland. This land produced primarily Sitka Spruce and Douglas Fir with some West Coast Hemlock and Western Red Cedar. Willamette stopped making Donkeys just prior to World War II.