File:Crew at shingle mill, Sylvia Single Company, Montesano, ca 1917 (KINSEY 725).jpeg

English: Caption on image: Sylvia Shingle Co., Montesano, Wash. C. Kinsey Photo, Seattle. No. 2 PH Coll 516.4405
The Sylvia Shingle Company was established in Montesano and operated from ca. 1910 to ca. 1922. Montesano, the county seat of Grays Harbor County, is eight miles east of Aberdeen on the Chehalis River near the mouth of Wynooche River in central Grays Harbor County. In 1862, the name Mount Zion was suggested by the wife of the first settler, J. L. Scammon. Another pioneer, Samuel James, suggested the present name from the Spanish monte or mountain, and sano or health. Local authorities thought Sam's name had more meaning. The "shingle weavers" as they were called, depended for their livelihood on the dexterity of their hands. They juggled the freshly sliced shingles which fell from the flashing blades of the saws in a manual ballet which the director of a symphony might have envied. They caught the pungent cedar boards in the air, flipped them from one hand to the other and "wove" them into finished bundles ready for shipment. A journeyman shingle weaver could handle 30,000 singles in a ten hour shift. Each time - 30,000 times a day - when he reached for one of those flying pieces of cedar, he gambled the reflexes of eye and muscle against the instant amputation of his fingers or his hand. [Source: Prouty, Andrew Mason. More Deadly Than War: Pacific Coast Logging, 1827-1981. New York; London: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1985.]

• Subjects (LCTGM): Benches--Washington (State)--Montesano; Sylvia Shingle Company--People--Washington (State)--Montesano; Sylvia Shingle Company--Facilities--Washington (State)--Montesano; Group portraits
• Subjects (LCSH): Shingle industry--Washington (State)--Montesano; Shingle industry--Washington (State)--Montesano--Employees; Sawmills--Washington (State)--Montesano