Pulpwood Yard. Lake George, MI

[hubel458]

My name is Ed Hubel.  My Father,Cecil,  Brother, Orval,  and I had a pulpwood

yard business at the railroad siding property in downtown Lake George,

Michigan, Clare County,  in the 1960s.

We bought pulpwood from small loggers, debarked it, stored for drying,

and after dried loaded it onto gondola rail cars and shipped it

to Scott Paper in Detroit.

All pictures we had of that business was lost in a house fire.

I am looking for any kind of pictures of that pulpwood yard business

to copy and pass out out to younger family members. Would anyone

here have  anything like that.. Or  would anyone have a copy of

a little magazine published for a short time back then, by the Michigan

Pulpwood and Loggers Association.  One issue had article and pictures

of our pulpwood yard.

Thanks for any help --  Ed Hubel

[Jeff]

I don't have any pictures but certainly knew of your Dad. You don't mention the mill?

[hubel458]

Jeff--Yes after Scott Paper closed down pulping operations in
Detroit, we change to sawmill on the same site that ran
through the 70s to 1981.

It would be nice to get pictures of that also, as they were
lost in the fire.  The kids are giving wife and I a 50th doings
this Saturday and it would be great to have pictures of
the pulp yard to show the kids and younger family,
and thousands of internet friends  what
we were doing back then,  when we got hitched. Ed

[Jeff]

Did you check with the Harrison Library? Also, member Beemers has a lot of local photos, but I think his collection probably predates what you are looking for.  He just got some from me of Winfield Scott Gerrish's Lake George and Muskegon River Railroad.

[Jeff]

We bought your old dip tank when I was Sawyer for Herb O'neal back around the time you closed. I was the Sawyer for Billsby's for 25 years up until 2006

[eichenberg93]

I talked to my grandpa and he remembers trucking wood out of your lot back in the mid to late 60's  thought i would share it but he does not have any pictures

[hubel458]

Yes Ron Eichenberg and Brothers hauled wood into our
yard, mostly that was logged by Colin Drake of Barryton.
They lived NW of Big Rapids at the time. This was
mostly 63 to 65.

Then as Scott Paper was closing down the pulping in Detroit
they didn't take the last 2-3 thousand cords of wood by
rail but hired Ron to truck it.We trucked about 2/3 to Detroit
and the rest to SD Warren in Muskegon that Scott had
just bought out at the time. In winter of 1968-1969. Ed

[hubel458]

Some more history-- After Eichenbergs hauled the dry wood out to
Scott and Warren,  my brother and I got the two old semi tractors
that was used to haul the small doubles, that hauled all that dry wood,
from Ron, And we got a skidder and produced logs for local mills and
Ron got the pulpwood to pay for the trucks.We logged 3 pieces
of land in a couple years, and after that in 70-71 set up a sawmill
where the pulp yard was in Lake George. The INT R semi tractor we put
a big loader on and loaded wood from the skidder jampiles onto the trucks
and when we got everything set up in the sawmill and fixed right, that loader
truck was set up with electric power and use it along a 80 ft deck into
the sawmill,  We built that deck with big chain we got from the abandoned
pulpwood yard in Clare on the RR there. The other truck a White tractor we
made into a huge forklift which I still have here on my farm.Ed Hubel

[hubel458]

Continuing some history, Above I mentioned the pulpyard that was
closed down in Clare on the C&O RR. It was debarking yard like
ours, but also took peeled wood and the wood was shipped
to Watervleit Paper CO.  Watervliet closed it down at end of 1962
and at the same time we were hauling dry peeled wood into
Lake George, loading gondolas and shipped them to Scott in Detroit.
Our operation was a pain with logging, peeling, letting wood set all
around the country to dry, and when they closed that yard in
Clare we figured, move into Lake George yard, buy wood from some of
those loggers left, make the debarker stationary triple up the horse
power and triple speed  on it, added a gravity feed deck, and spiral roller offbear
deck with 1 cord cradle, and it could peel over 50 cords in a long day.
And have the dry wood all in one spot close to the
railroad car siding. The yard would hold over 10,000 cords full.
We managed by miracle to talk Scott into giving us an open
ended contract and we started.  We picked up a Pettibone
Model 10, with a one cord clam that was for sale at the
Mio Exposition that summer of 63. I drove from there on highway to
Lake George at 35 mph. And we were in the pulpyard business for sure, got a another Pettibone in late  fall
of 63, and for the first year ran 16 hours a day.
At 16 hours a day we could peel 80 cord average, and
as wood dried for the first year or so load out 25
cords, a gondola load, on average per day.

Late fall of 64 yard was full, we're shipping much more dry, and adding less green peeled on the other end. As the production from
the loggers coming to us was tapering off, which made
Scott happy as they were getting too much ahead
with us and quite  a few other guys piling up dry poplar
all over the country. Like Harry Howard had a smaller yard
at Temple on up the Ann Arbor RR from us.  And in 65 Menasha
Paper in Otsego started a small yard that took wood from
small guys, at Harrison, that Gordon Johncock trucked wood out of
for them, with his big truck pulpwood doubles. No railroad there.
That slowed the amount that came  in to us.

I feel this business was the most important none family
thing we ever did, replacing one closed yard
and keeping the small logging industry thriving in Clare and surrounding counties. That is why I and my family got to
find  some pictures and maybe a film. There is a film or tape.

The Cadillac TV did a news article about the yard in 64 or 65 with film, but they sent all their film/tapes/records for first
50 years or so to the CMU library, a few years ago,in unmarked containers,  in a big truckload, and they
still haven't found them yet. A lot of the
older program tapes used back then,  there is no
equipment around anymore to play it.. Ed

[eichenberg93]

Its nice to read about local history of the logging industry. thanks for sharing. Grandpa said that it sounds right and your memory is a lot better than his. ;) He was wondering if you still lived off of Briton road north of coleman road. if you get some free time he would like to talk to you. The house phone number is 231-832-4784  thanks Josh 

[hubel458]

Josh-- yes we are still a  half mile east of Brinton..

Ron hauled the big pine out from a planted stand on a neighbors

place, to the pole mill at McBain. I'll call him this week.Ed