Frederick King Weyerhaeuser, eldest male of the Weyerhaeuser lumbering family's third generation, may not have matched his grandfather Frederick in fame or power, but among the progeny none was more widely known and respected -- and, within the family, loved -- than he was. How his talents and dedication helped make the Weyerhaeuser name synonymous with the lumbering industry and the clan one of the closest knit in the country is the book's focus.

A new biography of Frederick Weyerhaeuser (1834-1914), one of the great industrialists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and founder of the international timber corporation the Weyerhaeuser Company.

Dr Williams begins by exploring the role of the forest in American culture: the symbols, themes, and concepts - for example, pioneer woodsman, lumberjack, wilderness - generated by contact with the vast land of trees. He considers the Indian use of the forest, describing the ways in which native tribes altered it, primarily through fire, to promote a subsistence economy.