In July 1890, David Eccles and Charles Nibley chartered the Sumpter Valley Railway and changed the social and physical landscape of Eastern Oregon forever. The Sumpter Valley Railway and its parent company, the Oregon Lumber Company, became an economic engine that shaped the lives of generations of Eastern Oregonians. The rails stretched from Baker to Prairie City, Sumpter to Susanville, and laced ribbons of steel through the Powder River Valley and Elkhorns. This photographic history is a view into the life and times of a varied, interesting, and living railroad that was instrumental in the shaping of Eastern Oregon.

In 1889, David Eccles chartered the Oregon Lumber Company, an organization that produced many mills and railways and whose influence was felt from Salt Lake City to Northern California and Idaho. Through family connections, Eccles was also involved with many other logging enterprises, and he influenced the growth of the Inter-Mountain region as well as the Pacific Northwest. Sumpter Valley Logging Railroads is a pictorial history of the Oregon operations, focusing on the operations along the Sumpter Valley Railway. It explores the rails, mills, and people, as well as the logging practices of a bygone era.