(upbeat news music) - I'm Starla Sampaco in the Crosscut KCTS 9 newsroom.

A giant steel ghost log has appeared on Tacoma's Ruston Way waterfront.

Sculptor Mary Coss wanted to tell the story of a sawmill, its workers, and the intersection of that industry with indigenous people.

The log sits on the ruins of the Dickman Lumber Company, closed in 1977.

The 8 by 40-foot log demonstrates the immense size of timbers of the past, and it's pointed right at an actual giant head saw from the Dickman sawmill, a 34-foot high machine that cut 150,000 feet of lumber a day back in the 1920s and '30s.

At the small end of the log, the bark seems to fall away to metal cut to resemble cedar boughs.

Coss studied traditional weaving with the Puyallup tribe and received permission to incorporate a design that pays homage to indigenous traditions.

I'm Starla Sampaco.

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