Two truck Shay locomotive No. 55, Tidewater Timber Company, Clatsop County, ca. 1936

The Tidewater Timber Company was formed in 1922 upon the consolidation of three timber owning corporations, the Western Cooperage Company, the Wright-Blodgett Company, Limited, and the Merrill Lumber Company. The new concern, called the Tidewater Timber Company, was incorporated under Michigan Law though it operated in Clatsop County in Oregon. The company had headquarters in Portland with operations occurring largely in Astoria and the surrounding areas of Clatsop County. For most of its existence, the company's president was Henry S. Lovejoy, a lumberman from Janesville, Michigan. The company also operated a camp at Olney, a small company town south of Astoria. In 1941, the Tidewater Timber Company effectively abandoned operations at their Clatsop plant, prior to which their annual cut had averaged from 45,000,000 to 50,000,000 feet of timber with a crew of anywhere from 100 to 250 men. (Sources: "Timber Firms Merged," The Seattle Daily Times, 07-26-1922 and "Mill Abandons Clatsop...