When money grew on trees : A. B. Hammond and the age of the timber baron

Born in 1848 in New Brunswick, Maine, Andrew Benoni Hammond began his career as a teenage lumberjack and eventually transformed into a timber baron by 1934, creating an empire that spanned from Puget Sound to Arizona. Following Hammond's journey from the rough lumber camps to the corporate world, the narrative illustrates how he uniquely adapted to the changing landscape of business, setting himself apart from many contemporaries. His life story unfolds against the backdrop of western expansion, showcasing how individual entrepreneurs like Hammond played a crucial role in shaping capitalism in the United States. This transformation turned the forests of the West from natural ecosystems into industrial landscapes. Historian Greg Gordon highlights Hammond's pivotal role in converting public lands into private wealth, illustrating how the struggle for natural resources contributed to the rise of the federal government and modern corporations. By intertwining environmental, labor, and business history with biography, the work challenges the notion that East Coast interests solely dictated the development of the West. Instead, it reveals how regional entrepreneurs like Hammond actively exploited resources, built infrastructure, and established much of the modern American economy and state within just a few decades.