Historic Logging and Milling Photos

[SwampDonkey]

What? No tea and biscuits?

[Autocar]

What a time it would of been in history to work in the woods or at one of those mills. 

[SwampDonkey]

Just don't call it the good old days around my grandparents when they was alive. All they could remember was hard work and starting at a young age. :D

One day mother asked dad if he wanted to volunteer somewhere for something to do. Dad, not looking for anything to do, replied: "I volunteered all my life, I'm not going to now". :D

[doc henderson]

that is true, but look at the individuals they became, the greatest generation.  compare that to kids today.  I blame myself for the lack of struggle that my kids came up in.  they are good kids, but have never worked a full all out day in their lives.

[SwampDonkey]

Well that generation and the one before made it less of a struggle following two world wars. For much of the developed world we have created a safety net for society. However, It's not a perfect system. I can't complain.

[charles mann]

here is a vid of rescuing an old steam donkey and restoring it. was lifted out by my last employer. the guy on the stick musta been kinda new at long lining. he sat it down kinda hard. 

Steam Donkey 928 Airlift - YouTube

[SwampDonkey]

We have a forester member from that forest region. He's probably see it at the center. Quite a piece of old iron. They built stuff big to last a long time in them days. ;D

[Old Greenhorn]

That is one impressive project!

[RichTired]

I saw this rerun of a Modern Marvels episode yesterday and found it on YouTube, it seems to fit this post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYeOXBRWDWE

[AK Newbie]

Wow the video on recovering the Steam Donkey was pretty impressive!  Thanks for sharing1

[dgdrls]

This photo ties well with the steam donkey story,
New skids
From the BC logging archives on line
D

[SwampDonkey]

Good for travelling over snow, windfalls and over dirt. :D

[Autocar]

Cool picture but looking at all the slash if someone screamed fire would you get out of the woods in time. Pretty hard on the timber in those days

[Jeff]

Think what our landings would look like today if you did not have a skidder or dozer to push the slash up daily. Im sure the skash made things much easier  to move when the donkey had to winch itself to the next location.

[dgdrls]

Ottawa River log rafts with Parliament Hill in the background



 

D

Chaudière Falls  in a timber slide,  Parliment Hill Ottawa in in the background,  upriver from the photo with the log rafts.


 

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[dgdrls]

Bloedel, Stewart and Welch (BS&W) sawmill, Port Alberni Canada



 

1935, the Hayo Maru (Orient Steamship Co. Yokohama) loading up on lumber.
https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/uploads/r/null/7/7/778313/0f76790a-9021-4a4d-b604-49cc358a980a-A63415.jpg

My quick Google search found the ship was later sunk during WWII

D

[dgdrls]

This is one of my favorite threads,  time for some new additions

http://historichoodriver.com/index.php?x=browse&tag=flume&pagenum=1

"working" the flume   Stanley Smith Lumbr Co.  Oregon


 

America?s Last Log Flume | Amusing Planet

Kings River Flume Sierra-Nevada



 

D

[Chuck White]

Thanks for posting, Dan!

FYI:

There's a book out about life in some of the Adirondack logging camps!

My Grandfather (mothers side) was born in one of the logging camps I think it was in Santa Clara, NY! He grew up and made a living in the camps, in his later years, he was a singer and story teller!

OH, the book is titled "Adirondack Voices"!

[newoodguy78]

Great photos thanks for sharing. Read a few books about the old logging camps those guys understood what work was all about. I've seen some of the places they used to float logs in upstate NH and Maine , just the dams they built to supply enough water for sluicing was a feat in itself. Let alone the actual logging. 

[moodnacreek]

This photo ties well with the steam donkey story,
New skids
From the BC logging archives on line
D

I bet some considered this crude but look at the finished ends, there was pride.

[moodnacreek]

There was a cord wood flume on the mountain here made from heavy sheet metal, in use in the '40's. They cut 4' hard wood and sent it to N.Y. for ship ballast the got sold somewhere.

[mike_belben]

Lumber Was King In Michigan

In 1837, 435 sawmills were active in Michigan, and by 1873, when lumbering activity in Wexford County (Cadillac, MI area) was just getting started, their existerd over 1600 sawmills in the state.

To date, almost 50 sawmills can be attributed to Wexford County.

Michigan ranked number one in lumber production in the late 1800's, with 1890 being the peak year, producing 4,250 billion board feet. By 1899, much of the pine had been harvested and Michigan slipped in ranks to number two. By 1911, Michigan had dropped to number 10. By the early 1930s the timbering was all but over.

Just plucking away at this old thread and am struck by these stats.  Really illustrates just how fast man kind can deplete a resource when they really put their mind to it.  A practice we should all do our part to retire by employing management strategies that leave some meat on the bone for the generations to come. 

[moodnacreek]

Mike, you and I are from the same territory really. My interest in sawmill machinery [in this area] led to some interest in forestry here. I couldn't understand the reason for the dogs on the old New England style sawmills.  A story in Northern logger explained it.  After the hill farms where abandoned, before the war between the states, the land grew back first i n field trees and that was the wood available as the virgin forests were gone before this time. They sawed box shooks from the pine round edge to the last 1" board and that explained the little underhooks. The hardwood [maple] was long skinny stuff and the old log beam carriage was good for this. Alot of this maple went for heel stock for shoes. Today all those hills are mature forest as no one farms hills anymore. There is more wood now than since the original cutting. Have you ever seen aerial photographs of our area from say 1928?

[mike_belben]

No i havent.  Seen some aerial of springfield when s&w went in.. There were fields back then.  Solar field is the only kind left there now. 

Dont remember if i told the story of the guy with a few frick mills for sale. He said when the railroad came through they gave one to every farmer who wanted one and you paid it off in ties.  You keep the sideboards. So thats how a lot of TN turned to pasture 

[dgdrls]

There was a cord wood flume on the mountain here made from heavy sheet metal, in use in the '40's. They cut 4' hard wood and sent it to N.Y. for ship ballast the got sold somewhere.

Was the flume on Storm king Mtn?
I dug around a bit but haven't found anything yet
D