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The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., October 4, 1932, page 2
Includes photograph, title of which follows:

FIRST TRUCK IN THE WOODS around Goldendale was this Packard with solid rubber wheels. Though it hauled only sawed lumber and never logs, it could be said to be the ancestor of the large fleets of logging trucks which are important to the present-day economy of the region. (Photo courtesy of Spud Cameron)

SPUD CAMERON RECOLLECTS:
'WE INCURRED HATRED OF ALL WHO USED ROADS'
By Pete May

Goldendale has had something or other to do with lumber and trees since its earliest years.
John Golden satisfied the yearning of early settlers for frame dwellings by establishing the first sawmill here on the little Klickitat above town. But beyond this, little is recorded of the early days of logs and lumber in this valley.
By the turn of the century, the industry was well established. One of the best accounts we have of growth and modernization in the sawmill business during the second and third decades of the 20th century comes from G.W. "Spud" Cameron, who says:
"My father owned the J. E. Cameron Lumber Co. in Goldendale, beginning in 1908. He was no mechanic, so it turned out that he owned it but I ran it.
"The mill was in the same building now occupied by OK The & Rubber Co., and it was an old building then. I can't tell you how long it had been there or what it had been used for, but it undoubtedly was for purpose similar to ours - a planing mill and re-cut sawmill.
"The lumber we planed and shipped came from about five small mills located in the hills north of town, close to the source of supply, the woods where the logs grew. In other areas, logging railroads hauled logs to the mills and lumber from them to the next point of manufacture or use. But around Goldendale this was not the case, there were no logging railroads ever used here. Therefore it was natural that we would have pioneered the use of tractors and trucks to haul logs over public roads.
"There were five small mills, owned and operated by John Doubravsky, John Fisher, Klatt Bros. and the Bruners, John, Eli and Andrew. The Bruners had two mills. All operated on logs purchased by J.E. Cameron from school sections or homestead lands. The timber was owned by the White Pine Lumber Co., which wouldn't sell so much as a stick to us.
"The production of these mills was moved to our plant at Goldendale by horse teams and in the fall of the year after harvest all the farmers in the country were kept busy getting the summer's cut out of the woods.
"Although, White Pine uses a steam tractor to haul logs and lumber in the woods, I think we pioneered the use of trucks when we put a 5-ton Packard to work hauling sawed lumber 12 miles from the Fisher mill to the J.E. Cameron Co. mill in Goldendale. Ken Sutherland was the first driver but we soon had two drivers operating the truck 18 hours a day. It hauled a maximum of 5000 feet of lumber per trip, so four trips were required to move the mill's 20,000 board-foot cut daily.
"Keeping that Packard going was a job. Its rear wheels were driven by a chain coming off a jack-shaft running on Hyatt roller bearings. Bearing trouble was our most frequent calamity, and we had three forges located along the road because a forge was needed to remove and replace the sleeves which held the bearings. Otherwise, the truck gave good service. It was the first truck ever built for the express purpose of hauling heavy loads of lumber. The year was about 1916.
"Later, we owned a sawmill -- a log mill located on the pond above the Hess flour mill and it was then that we experimented with hauling logs from the woods directly to the mill in town. Dad bought a Holt tractor -- one with the caterpillar tracks behind and steering wheel out in front -- and six 3-wheeled log wagons. These had steel frames and steel wheels, a single wheel in front mostly for steering and two 5-foot diameter x 18-inch main wheels which carried most of the load. They would haul about 4000 feet of logs 16 feet long. Three of these were hitched behind the tractor for the trip to the mill while three were left in the woods to be loaded. Johnny Tallman and Wendell Barnes were the drivers.
"In operating this log train over the county roads we incurred the undying hatred of everyone else who ever used those roads. We broke down every culvert along the route, at one time or other, and since no one could pass the juggernaut, which lumbered along at a 2-mph pace, when it was on the road little else could travel. Furthermore, it ran on the road 24 hours a day and on a still night the barking of that engine could be heard for 4 or 5 miles. Perhaps it was a good thing it proved uneconomical and was abandoned after about a year.
"The county didn't care if we broke down their culverts since we were obligated to fix them, which we did, to the extent that after a year they were all in good shape. We similarly repaired bridges. On one occasion I remember throwing together a temporary bridge between the time the tractor went out in the morning and came back with its loaded wagons. I think this was in the early 1920s. We sold the mill soon thereafter, to Daly Bros. and before they had operated it very long it burned in a fire. Our operation of this mill was as the Goldendale Lumber Co. Stumpage in those days cost about $2 or $2.50 per thousand."
Spud Cameron inherited the J.E. Cameron Lumber Co. from his father and then operated it for a time as the G.W. Cameron Lumber Co. before selling out to Trost Bros.
He thereafter went to White Salmon where he operated a mill of the defunct White Salmon Box & lumber Co. in a receivership for several months until Lewis & Bean (Lewis, Bean Co.) bought it. They moved it to Goldendale, where it became the Klickitat Pine Box Co. mill, in the same building in which the Camerons operated.
In the days of their operation here there were no dry kilns in Goldendale. Lumber was stacked and air dried at the mills in the woods, then stacked again and dried some more at the Goldendale planing mills. It was well dried by the lime it left here for markets elsewhere.
Spud Cameron was born at Oshkosh, Wis. in 1889. His mother died when he was 14 months of age and thereafter be was raised by his grandmother and aunts. His life was spent in the lumber business with which he had some attachment from the age of 14, when he first carried water to sawmill workers. His specialty was lumber sales. For several years prior to the stock market crash of the 1930s he operated as a lumber sales agent, selling out before the crash. Beginning in 1929 he worked 17 years for Crane Creek Lbr. Co., first as sales manager and later as general manager. He has been a resident of Nelson, B.C. since 1946.