Tacoma, WA

Today my family and I took a trip once again to Point Defiance Park, and we found the Camp 6 Logging Museum. This was a great place to take our oldest son, due to his deep love for trains and their uses in history. My personal favorite part of the whole day was the train ride we got to take. Also I found the history that the place was filled with to be very fun to learn, and is very educating for all ages. I also enjoyed learning that the place was run by volunteers.

The Museum is located on a 14 acre forested site inside a city park and was set up by logging engineers in 1964 to look and feel like a logging operation with an operating railroad connecting the working sites (”sides” or “shows”) with the bunk houses and bunk cars of the camp. As a National Registered Historic Place, Camp 6 with its historic buildings, over 500 tons of “Fire Breathin’ Steam Spewin’ Iron Beasts” and railroad equipment is a place for all to visit.

The mission of the Tacoma Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society is to preserve and present to the public a portion of Washington State’s history from the 1880’s through the 1940’s as it pertains to the “Steam Era of Logging”. With photographs, paintings, artifacts and equipment displays, Camp 6 takes the visitor back in time from when horse and ox teams hauled out the timber up through the last days that steam powered “Donkeys” and Railroads worked the woods. Visitors will get to see first hand what life in the logging camps and woods of Western Washington was like.

Directions:

From Interstate 5 North or South to City of Tacoma.
Exit onto State Route 16 West.
Travel west until you come to the 6 Avenue Exit.
Take 6 Ave. exit and stay in center lane of off ramp so you can go straight at light.
After you cross intersection, move to the far right turn lane.
Now turn right at corner onto Pearl St. and go north to end of street (about 3.5 miles).
If you are coming from the Olympic Peninsula on State Route 16 East
across the Narrows Bridge, take the second exit after crossing the bridge.
At end of exit ramp turn right on to Pearl Street and go north.

Pearl St. ends at entrance to Point Defiance Park.

Enter Park and follow signs to Five Mile Drive. At first STOP sign go straight
through intersection then merge into left lane. Stay to the left as you pass several
turnoffs and two more STOP signs. The entrance to Camp 6 Logging Museum is on
right side of road just past that last STOP sign.
WARNING: Watch out for inverted speed bumps in our parking lot! (Pot Holes)

The P.D.Q. & K. Railroad Logging Train Rides
Spring Hours: April 5 thru May 18, 2008
Saturdays and Sundays from
Noon until 4 PM
with departures every 30 minutes.

Fares:

Children 3 to 12 - $2.50
General Admission 13 to 54 - $4.00
Seniors: 55 to 99 - $3.00
Under 3 or Over 99 – FREE

A collection of Don Olson’s paintings depicting historical methods of logging has been displayed at the Camp 6 for many years. (NOTE: The paintings are displayed during the Summer season, May to September, in one of the museum’s Bunk Cars.) Since Don began developing his artistic talent in the 1970s, his paintings of both Northwest scenery and logging have been displayed in museums and purchased by collectors. This book brings together twenty-nine logging paintings covering the time period most familiar to the artist.

Don’s experience working in the logging industry from the 1930s through the 1950s enables him to portray logging methods with historical accuracy. This, in turn, has made his paintings valuable tools for educational groups touring the museum.

Unique “ghost logger” paintings which contrast early logging methods using steam donkeys, skid roads and misery whips with the chain saws, cats and logging trucks of the 1950s and later are a hallmark of many of Don’s paintings. The Camp 6 Logging Museum is proud to present Logging Retrospective: Don Olson’s Oil Paintings featuring his rendition of a primary display at the museum - the only Lidgerwood Pacific Tower Skidder still in existence.

I think everyone of all ages will have as much fun here as me and my family. If you have any other questions feel free to e-mail them at: camp6museum@harbornet.com , for more Info.