Logging Arch and the Big Wood

[Greg Brown]

Hello Everyone,

I hope this post is in the right place.

My family and I spent the Fourth at Westville, an 1850's living history village near Lumpkin
in southwest Georgia. Everything there is circa 1850.  As we were walking around I spotted
what I first thought was some sort of cannon carriage. A closer look revealed a set of logging tongs underneath. 



 



 



 

I wish there had been some sort of information regarding it's history but there wasn't.  As you can see it was parked under a shed with buggys, wagons, and lots of old stuff.

This is a cotton gin.  Two mules turned the wheel that drove the cotton gin located upstairs.
All of the construction was of hand hewn beams.



  

 

This is the cotton baler.
I could not help but be impressed with the ingenuity of the baler's constuction.  Oxen turn the baler pulling the poles.


 

The ''screw" is the threaded pole in the top center of the picture. It was made from a white oak tree, with hand hewn threads that compressed the bale.



  

After seeing how hard it is just turning cants on my mill and looking at the large size of the timbers used to build these things, I felt a great respect for what folks could do without power tools.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Greg.....I sure am glad you had your camera! These are some nice history pics. How tall do you thing those wheels are?

Thanks for sharing.

[kelLOGg]

That log arch is incredible. Looks just like the one I made! ;D ;D

[crosscut]

greg. I have an house less than a mile from there built in 1890.  We love it up there.

[customsawyer]

Great pics and nice story. If those wall could talk.

[clww]

Great pictures and post!

[Greg Brown]

Greg.....I sure am glad you had your camera! These are some nice history pics. How tall do you thing those wheels are?

Thanks for sharing.

David, I usually have a tape measure stuck to my side but not today.  I am 6' 2" and the wheels were taller than me. 7' perhaps.

[Sixacresand]

I used to know a man in Sandersville, GA who owned one those huge horse drawn log arches.  The wheels were taller than me. 

[bandmiller2]

The advantage of large diameter wheels in the woods should not be overlooked,be they on your tractor or arch. Frank C.

[thecfarm]

Maybe it's in the plan to be added to the museum. I have a book that shows alot of those Big Wheels.
How right you are bandmiller.

[Al_Smith]

Oh they built some great huge things around the early 1900's .Redding iron works which later became part of Caterpilar when Holt and Best combined made some with 12-14 feet wheels that weighed several tons .

 
One design used a"slip tongue " around 30 feet long .Going up hill it lifted the front of the log and going down hill it lowered the log thus preventing the big log from  running  over the horses ,oxen or whatever was pulling the load .

I'd imagine more than several beasts of burden not to mention any amount of teamsters bought the farm from a runaway log .