Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
Those who travel to Cass Scenic Railroad State Park know that they are going to learn about the history of the lumber industry and the steam locomotives which are still used today at the tourist attraction.
The museum is filled with artifacts left behind by the woodhicks and families who lived in the area during the timber boom. In the showcase room, you will find an intricately built miniature of the town, complete with trains, company housing and the forest which was filled with red spruce trees.
Among the artifacts and in a glass case near the entrance, is a replica model of the Wright Flyer III, the first plane built by the Wright Brothers to successfully take flight. It is a curious sight to behold at a historic lumber and locomotive town, but when visitors see the photocopy of a letter next to the model, its connection to the area becomes clearer.
The typed letter on a sheet of letterhead paper from the Wright Cycling Company in Dayton, Ohio, dated March 5, 1904, was addressed to the West Virginia Spruce Lumber Co. In the letter, Wilbur Wright inquires if the company has red spruce that is free of knots and twists which could be used in an airplane.
“They were looking for straight spruce lumber that was free of knots and during that time, it was very hard to find, particularly to the lengths they desired,” Cass Superintendent Marshall Markley said. “They reached out to the company to get that and, of course, there’s this letter of exchange. That lumber was part of the Wright Brothers III plane.”
The letter reads as follows:
“We are needing about 500 ft. of the finest possible spruce for use in construction of flying machines. It must be entirely free from knots, and the grain must be straight and free from twist. It should be from 15 to 20 ft. long and two inches thick. We have found it impossible to obtain this lumber in our local yards. Can you supply our need? If so, when? and at what cost?”
The Columbus Dispatch, a daily newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, wrote about the letter’s discovery in 2008. The article explained that the letter, which was typed on robin’s egg blue paper, was found in the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources office.
The letter is now on display at the West Virginia State Museum in Charleston.
The Columbus Dispatch reported that, according to check stubs archived at the Wright State University Libraries, in Fairborn, Ohio, the Wright Brothers purchased $45 worth of lumber from West Virginia Spruce Company.
The lumber was used in the Wright Flyer II, which was used to make a total of 105 flights in 1904. The flights lasted five minutes and the plane was able to make full circles. Although the plane had successful, albeit short, flights, it was prone to crashing, leading the brothers to construct the Wright Flyer III.
The Wright Flyer III was constructed during the winter of 1904-05 with the engine and other hardware from Flyer II. Its first flight took place on June 23, 1905, with Orville at the helm.
Flyer III was the first airplane by the brothers that was “capable of remaining airborne for extended periods of time and moving in directions controlled by the pilot,” The Columbus Dispatch reported.
The two airplanes are the most famous objects in which lumber harvested at Cass was used, but they surely are not the only examples of red spruce from West Virginia Spruce Company and West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company still in existence.
The company houses at Cass, which are now available as rentals, were all built with the local lumber. While they have gone through many upgrades through the years, the houses still have remnants of their original glory.
“Of all the houses we rent, there’s only two to four of them that have new flooring,” Markley said. “The rest of them have the original hardwood floors.”
It’s easy to find out if a house has hardwood from Cass, Markley explained, as he reached for a piece of flooring that is on display in his office. On the back of the piece of hardwood is a large stamp of “WEST VIRGINIA PULP AND PAPER COMPANY.”
“It’s got that stamp from the sawmill on it,” he said. “Most of the flooring still has that on there. It says where it was made, what machine it was made on. It’s kind of neat.”
While there’s no way to tell if the red spruce used by the Wright Brothers also had the stamp, the letter and check stubs are proof that the local lumber took flight once it left its home among the hills.
