Now Garibaldi Highlands.
Photo by: Ed Aldridge.

Merrill & Ring Bridge over the little Mamquam (Mashiter Creek) picture taken looking north showing sky line for taking Pile Driver to north side of canyon (1928 - 1929).
Left to right: Brian Buckley (?), "Big Dave" Thompson (steel boss-track layer), Freddy Tom (Merrill & Ring car builder son), Billy Dawson (?).
Photo by: Ed Aldridge.

Mashiter Creek was named after William Mashiter.

Left to right: Tommy Dickenson (book keeper), George Percy (superintendent), Pete Olsen (hooktender), Al Lund (head high rigger). Taken in 1927 where South Park apartments now stand.
Engine - 50 ton wood burning shay later converted to oil burner. First locomotive to come up Howe Sound to Norton & McKinnon logging operation. Acquired by Merrill & Ring for fire damage to Merrill & Ring timber when Norton McKinnon had a bad fire. Loco taken out of Squamish to other Merrill & Ring operations and came back to Squamish in late 1927 or early 1927. Shark arrester smoke stack loco.
Information supplied by Ed Aldridge.
Photo by: Bun Yarwood.

In 1911, McKinnon and Norton of the Newport Timber Company were logging in Squamish in the area known as the base camp road, near Curly Lews' place. They had donkeys, a large shay engine, and a weird whistle. Mr McKinnon was a bartender and Mr Norton was a logger. Amedy Levesque and George Laviolette worked as brakemen on the locomotive. The camp was run by Mr Fuller.

Laying steel over Merrill & Ring Mud Creek Bridge, 1927 (now called "Ring Creek").
Photo by: Ed Aldridge.

First full train of logs going south through "Old Camp" on way to dump. Merrill and Ring 0-4-0 14 ton plymouth gas locomotive.
Left to right: Bun Yarwood, ?, Big Dave Thompson, Al Lund, ?, Bill Tourcotte, ?.
May 1927.
Photo by Ed Aldridge.

Gas Locomotive #4 in far end of cut. Cut taken out by hand on 24" guage push car railway. Cut approximately 30' deep at max 300" long.
Photo by: Ed Aldridge.

Left to right: "Big Dave" Thompson (steel foreman), Wilma Ferguson, Kenny Ferguson, Einear Findsen, speeder driver), Charlie Moore (son of general manager "Old George Moore") seated on speeder.
Photo by: Ed Aldridge.

Ship is probably "Lady Cynthia", sister ship to "Lady Cecilia" (union steamships).
Photo by: Ed Aldridge.

50 ton Shay descending 6% grade on Bughouse Heights banks, 1928.
Photo by: Ed Aldridge.

Picture taken from trackside of PGE Excursion Train.

Left to right: Hector McLean, Ed Aldridge, Henry Jensen. At Rainbow Lodge.

Left to right, top row: Mr Vogle, Les Moule, Bill Richmond, Owen Reeve, ?, George Appleyard, Fred Barnfield, Bill McAllister, Les Walton, Tommy Gilgan, Russ Lamport, Brian Buckley, ?, Jimmy Harley (in loco).
Third row: Bill Curran, Len Gorsuch.
Second row: Eric Axen, Art Anglin, Ed Aldridge, Jack Frost, Tommy Fowler, Harold Bailey, Don Robinson, Frank King, Rosie Zack, Lil Hutchinson, Christy Wheatley, Mrs Tremblay, Margaret Thorne, Bill Hales, Bob Slack, Harry Brightbill, Bob Bruce, ?, ?, ?, ?, Joe Gault, Joe Mulhern, Bill Riley, Barry Hunt, Cy Marchant, Bill Bazley.
Front row: Jim Taylor, Jim Hurren, Ivo Confortin, Jim Robinson, Tommy Fraser, Bill Gedge.
Dennis or Buzz Downer, ?, ,?, Arnold Kermein.

Man on water tank: Jae Basset, Donkey Fireman.
Donkey: 13x15 Williamette Yarder-Loader unit. Weights over 100 tons fully equipped with lines etc.
Spar tree: Merrill & Ring first wetting. Tree topped at 190 feet. Bottom of the tree jumped about 15 feet on skid pads (ends of small logs visible directly under bottom of spar) while top guys hold top of tree in place. Elsie Lund (nee Wilkinson) whose father owned the Squamish Hotel went up this spar in the riggers chair with her Head Digger husband Al to the pass block (top) before the tree was jumped. Account by Ed Aldridge.
Photo by: Bun Yarwood.

Mashiter's store on the left in present site of Shell bulk plant.

Photo by: Evans

View looking south near the present BCR Station.

Merrill & Ring Logging Camp (1926) in the Valleycliffe Area.

Merrill and Ring, an American company bought their claim in 1888 for 25 cents per acre. This went from Valleycliffe through the foothills to Brohm Lake. They did not set up in the valley until October 1926. The operation had come from Duncan Bay, before that they had been at Camp O near Alert Bay. Their first camp is where Valleycliffe is located now. They employed 200 people. The hiring was done by Loggers' Agencies in Vancouver. They would fall the trees with cross cut saws then haul the logs with a steam donkey to the train. They used a steam axe to split the wood as machines used only wood fuel at the time.

A lot of Merrill and Ring timber was burnt in a Norton McKinnon fire in 1927. The McKinnon's engine was given as payment. Aloysius McNalley and John Broomquist collected it. The same year, Arthur Edwards assisted in the building of the Merrill & Ring camp at Edith Lake.

In 1929, Merrill and Ring moved their operation across the Mamquam valley to Edith Lake east of Alice Lake. A settlement of 225 men was set up there. Railway track covered the mountainside from Cheekye River southward.

Merrill and Ring closed in 1930 due to the low price of logs during the Depression. Logs were selling from 5 to 6 dollars per thousand. At this time, the logs were hauled by train to the dump at the mouth of the Stawamus River. Merill and Ring started back up in 1932.

Merrill and Ring shut down 3 times in 1937: after New Years due to snow, due to fire season, and in the fall when a bridge over the Cheekye River was washed out. Merrill and Ring left Squamish in 1940.

The original photograph was recorded to be from August 28, 1956 and pictured Premier W.A.C. Bennet on the far right.

Additional information from Trevor Mills, 01/2012: This photo is to early for 1956 as the original caption says. The use of sides on a flat car to carry people was outlawed by 1956. The caboose behind the engine had been scrapped by this time. The first run to Squamish was pulled by diesels and not steam. Trevor Mills' father, PGE locomotive engineer Bert Mills who came to Squamish in 1954 following employment with the CPR after arriving from England in 1948. was on the train. This was probably the first through train to Lillooet in 1915. The premier at the time was James McBride.

In March 1930, Empire Mills planned to merge with the Vancouver firm of Mount Baker Plywood Ltd. They had planned to move the firm's South Westminster veneer plant to Squamish. Due to the possibility of the Forest Service cutting back the boundaries of the Mill's tree farm license, the project did not get past the planning stage. In 1937, Empire Logging employed 20 men and by 1939, they were putting 60,000 - 70,000 board feet of wood in the water per day and employed approximately 30 men.
In the 1940's, Empire Mills acquired a sawmill situated by River Road. It had been built by Gerry Dent in the 1930's. In 1945, Empire Logging had bunkhouses set up in the hotel that used to be owned by the Galbraith's at the water's edge. Empire Logging had its first strike in 1948. Unions had just been formed at this time. John Jacobsen was the foreman for Empire Mills.
Empire Mills applied for tree farm license #38 on July 25, 1951. The application was approved and granted to Empire Mills on June, 15, 1954. The decision was appealed by the provincial cabinet on September 7, 1954.
Empire Logging shut down due to lack of a profitable market in August 1957.
In October 1958, Squamish independent sawmill and logging operators (12 firms) protested the granting of tree farm license #38 to Empire Mills stating that it created a dangerous monopoly. H.H. "Buster" Marks acted as chairman of the logger's group. Empire Milles planned to build a sawmill and plywood and board plant in Squamish if the tree farm license was granted. Council approved allocation of timber for Empire Mills in November 1958. On November 26, 1958, MacMillan Bloedell opposed the tree farm license stating that timber remaining outside the license area would be inadequate for independent loggers. Tree Farm License #38 was again approved to be granted to Empire Mills in January 1960.
In 1960, Kashmir Lumber Company bought Empire Mills' unused mill on River Road.
On June 2, 1961, Tree farm license #38 was granted to Keely and Jacobs of Empire Mills Ltd. A condition of granting the license was that the holder of the license had to build a plywood mill in Squamish to provide a minimum of 25 million board feet of lumber. The contract clause stated that 50% of the production had to be logged by outside contractors. Empire Mills formed a Lumber Division so that a mill could be built as stipulated in the tree farm license.
In 1961, Empire Logging produced 41,500 units of lumber (1 unit = 100 cubic feet).
Empire Mills Co. was bought by Canadian Colleries Resources Ltd. in 1962 and they obtained control of the tree farm license #38 area. They had the conditions of the license changed to building a hemlock sawmill instead of a plywood plant. This change was due to the overproduction of plywood and the resulting slower market.