The Forestry Forum

U.P. Homestead. In Chet's neighborhood.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_up_homestead.JPG)

Ron, you aren't saying they abandoned it because they were Chet's neighbors are you...  :o

Don't know. I'm waiting to see if Chet knows the story here. ;)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_up_homestead2.JPG)

The roof leaked.  ::)

Have ctate stop by and 'fix' it.  ;D

good looking spread, Chet.  I didn't know you had built a new house.  The skylight is a good touch.  I'll bet the Waxlady made you put that in there. :)

Here are a couple more old U.P. homesteads from the eastern end of the U.P. within a a couple miles of the cabin

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/oldhouse.jpg)


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/oldlogcabin.jpg)

Love this thread, I've always been facinated by the history behind the abandonment of homes.  We have several around our area, some really nice old homes that have escaped the vandals match for 20 or 30 years.  Some are starting to lose their roofs now though and its a quick trip down hill after that.

There is one old homestead about 7 kms out in the woods from where I live.  The family cleared 40 acres in the late 1800's, had a nice house, a barn, outbuildings etc.  Built a small sawmill and sold lumber etc.  Sometime around 1930 it was abandoned and the woods is completely grown up through it now.  My neighbour had a picture of the 15 or so people in the family the lived there sitting in front of the house with that typical stern period look on their face.

The other interesting place was out behind on of my best friends a black family lived back in the woods as squatters.  They didn't use all 600 acres they owned so it was never a problem.  I never learned the reason they left but their cleared patch of land still showed in 1960's aerial photos.  No traces now.

Last interesting place, a company has recently clearcut about 900 acres behind my property and we were exploring a bit on the 4 wheeler.  I was trying to find our old hunting camp we used to snowmobile out to.  Well, being a bit turned around I spotted a pitched roof in the buffer zone along a stream.  We hiked back through the slash to find a half collapsed camp that didn't look so old.  Got asking around and it was a logging camp that was lived in by 12 guys the winter of 1952.  I knew 3 of the guys that lived in it that winter but have passed away now.

I will try to get some pics!

Boy oh boy Ron yer testin' me now.  :D  Is dat da place on da corner of Lake Ottawa and Hanmer Roads.  ???   Sure does look familiar.   :)

Chet we've been by that before I am sure.

One of the things that makes living in Costa Rica weird is that the area we are in is young - like only 30 to 40 years ago - it was completely jungle.

Around 1900, Arenal really blew up they say according to a book I have - but no one knew - no one was here.

So, there are no abandoned homes here that I have ever seen. When they talk about things being old - usually they are talking about people!

Chet,

Another view of the UP Homestead.

I believe its in the SW/4 Section 11, T43N-R35W. Iron River No.2 Township on the north side of the Iron Lake Road. Maybe the Grey or Sheehy property??

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_up_homestead3.JPG)

That's metal detector fodder.  I love to get jobs where situations like this exist on the property.  There's all kinds of neat stuff, if you know where to look.  Usually I give the stuff to the owners.  Sometimes they allow me to keep it.    It's not gold, but it's treasure just the same.  :)

Very few abandoned buildings here in the UK . They have all been bought up and modernised.
Here is one very close to our woods in Wales, I would have loved to have bought it to renovate but the asking price is way out of my price range. £200,000 for the building with very little land and no services. Even doing most of the work ourselves I think it would need another £150,000 spent on it.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12304/r.jpg)


John

Ron, I was hopin' I beat ya before ya posted again. It dawned on me this mornin'  ;D  Dats da old Donati homestead, at least dats what I've known it as.

Yeah, we had 3 old homesteads on the farm dad aquired years ago. Arsons burnt them all down, then later we cleaned up the rest of the structures to farm the fields. My uncle bought a farm a few years ago and moved part of the house in the 80's by tractors. Then someone lit a match to the rest of the place. It seems if your not watching these places some goof that has nothing or nothing to do with his life comes along and lights it afire. People are quick to blame kids, then later it comes out that it was a bunch of guys in their 30's and 40's doing the arson.

Chet, I believe you're right, but now owned by others??

Yup in a place near here the 30-40 yo men would get drinking and causing trouble every halloween.  They got in the habit of burning down the local covered bridge.  Well, after the 3rd time the gov decided hey, guess what we're not gonna rebuild it :D :D

A nice house across the river from us has escaped the wrath of vandals somehow, it is about 3 km from the nearest highway but vandals have broken in during hunting seasons and winter via snowmobile.  I used to go over and put the bracing back up and close up the doors every so often.  Someone shot out the french doors though and animals got inside.  The owner did patch the roof once a few years ago so hopefully it will stand for years to come!

Quote from: SwampDonkey on April 28, 2006, 07:28:45 PM
Yeah, we had 3 old homesteads on the farm dad aquired years ago. Arsons burnt them all down, then later we cleaned up the rest of the structures to farm the fields. My uncle bought a farm a few years ago and moved part of the house in the 80's by tractors. Then someone lit a match to the rest of the place. It seems if your not watching these places some goof that has nothing or nothing to do with his life comes along and lights it afire. People are quick to blame kids, then later it comes out that it was a bunch of guys in their 30's and 40's doing the arson.

And some folks still don't understand why the public shouldn't be given Carte Blanche to trespass.

Jeff and I found this little gem last summer in our travels of da UP. We thought it was purdy cool.  :)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10134/DSC02196opt.jpg)

Guess it reminded us of some udder place.  ;D

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/shed_wash1.jpg)

I'll take da one that comes wif da blond...

slowzuki, they've burnt a couple covered bridges here in the last 20 years. They like building bomb fires out of old tires on the deck.  Typical no nothing low lifes, look what they've done to the pic nic sites, the government finally gave up on. Bring in a new picnic table or set up and outhouse and they'll tear it down, typical for NB. ::)

Back in the days of the wayside parks, Florida used to advertise "Free Picnic Tables" so people would know that the park was ahead.

I think it was a record that Deacon Andy Griffith made that described his trip through Florida to Nausea (Nassau).  He was describing the tables and said that they stopped and were going to get one but they were too heavy, being concrete.   They decided that they would get one on the way back.

The title of story was "Number one street", which equated to the highway, US-!.

I know.  It doesn't have anything to do with  burning bridges, but, this is just what came to mind.  :)

One of the pleasant surprises here has been the rest rooms. No, they aren't particularly nice - but there is no rude remarks scrawled on the walls.

Except in the tourist areas.  >:(

If those Abandoned homesteads where here - someone would be living in them!

You know, whenever I see an old abandoned house like these, I always wish I could time warp back to the first owner of the house walking in on their first day.

No matter how small or unseemley the house is now, once it was someone's palace.

I try to imagine what the first woman who walked in as 'lady of the house' was feeling. How proud she must have been.

And I look at the size of the house and think, however did someone bring up 4 or 5 children in THAT? But then I remember that 'back then' kids didn't play in the house, they didn't need room for their stuff (coz they didn't have any) and they just used their rooms to sleep.

Yup, old fall-y down-y houses fascinate me.

asy :D

I hear ya asy. I see an old farmstead in some remote seemingly unhospitable place and I wonder about the people who were tough enough to make it work. Same with the little church miles from nowhere. The stories would be fascinating.

I remember when I was a child that on one of the farms my grandfather owned there was a homestead that we called "The Shepherd's place" We used to go to it to gather up asparagus and concord grapes.

I never did know the story behind it - but for some reason it has stuck in my mind for all these years. I was seven the last time I went there.

I know what you mean.My Father use to say The Clark place,the Gordon place,The Martin place.Most of our land were old small farms.I can still find the old cellar holes.There were one old house still standing when I was growing up,long gone now.These people would come to my grandparents and ask them to buy the land.My Grandfather had a job at the local papermill when other people had no job.My Father can remember one family putting every they owned onto a hay wagon and left the hill.We had a schollhouse and a post office on top of the hill.Long gone now.At one time only one family lived here.Now there are 7 homes.We live at the beginning of a dead end road,so we get all the traffic going up and coming down.That's where a 500 foot driveways comes in handy.

When we were kids, we went by 'Pringles' on the way to town. it had been a brick mansion at one time but was falling down. The fields were covered with saplings and it had a huge, falling down barn. being a dumb kid, I was exploring the barn one day and found a room built from stone. it was under the ramp that lead into the main doors above the animal pens. In it I found this:

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10317/beer%20bottle%20reduced.jpg)

Pretty cool. A beer bottle that had a cork stopper. The name was American Brewing and the ABC logo reminds me of Anhauser Busch.

Sometimes, I see an abandoned, old house, that seems to still have a little life in it--it hasn't gone so far to be a total goner.  There's been one of those I've watched for several years on my way to work.  A huge, old, beautiful home that I can see from the highway.  One day, last year, I suddenly saw that someone was putting siding up on it, and it now looks like one of the most amazing homes I've ever seen.  Somebody else musta been watchng it for years, and finally took the plunge.  It's nice when they get redeemed like that.  It'll be around for a long time now!   8) 8)

We lived for about 8 years in a home that once was the summer home of a mayor of Rochester NY. Very interesting place. Of course, the challenge with a really hold home is it just wants to go back to nature - lots of repairs, all the time, or so it seemed.

One of the really nice things in the house was that the front room had a floor with heating pipes through it. Early morning, with a cup of coffee in the winter was wonderful - you would find a hot spot and just enjoy!

Not many abandoned homesteads around here, cause people buy them for a million $ and live in them. There are  some on USFS and BLM land which are historical and some even get restored to appear that they are still falling down. ??? Sometimes You will find parts of old barns and houses in what is now a 50 year old subdivision, but what you find most is old stamp mills and gold mines. You have to be real carefull when digging in these areas now there are lots of old and unstable exlposives.  :o

Interesting thread, especially for those of us with a nostalgic turn-of-mind.  No abandoned homesteads around here, but there were a lot of abandoned houses in the '50s and '60s as farmers left the animal/human labor and turned to mechanical means.  Most of 'em were simple 4-6 room tenant houses built after the War of Northern Agression  :'( and on up thru the '40s.  At one time I counted up the ones my dad and I had torn down; could count at least 23.  All on property that we were renting and which belonged to someone else;  they were (mostly) falling down and the owner(s) wanted them gone.  People who had lived in them were families who worked the land on shares (sharecroppers); a system which was at the same time simpler and more complicated than has been portrayed by the media.  One of the houses predated the war and looked like the typical plantation house.  Owner said tear it down............never understood that; it had been his grandparents home.  Another was also an older/better house.  My wife and I lived in it for 7 years when we were first married; it was of post and beam construction.  All that's left of it is this peg which tied 2 timbers together.  I keep it in my office as a reminder of .........whatever.   (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13111/wedge.jpg)

what war was that???  :D

We have an old farmstead known as the Ol Driskell place.  Ol (short for Oliver) was evidentally quite an ambitious fellow and built a nice two story house in the early 1900's.  There was a big barn,  grainery, blacksmith shop,  chicken house,  and a few other buildings.  All are still there and pretty much usable except for the barn which was removed for the materials.  The place is all timber now and you can only drive to the buildings when we are logging in that area and open up the roads.  There are still a few signs of rail fence that Ol built and there are tons and tons of rock piles where he icked rocks from his fields.

In the mid 50's ol was getting to where he couldn't keep his place up and they didn't have any children, so when a wealthy grain farmer from Iowa made him an offer on his place,  he sold it.  The new owner told Ol that he was welcome to live there as long as he wanted to and Ol accepted his offer.  That worked fine for a couple of years and then the new owner planted pines in all of the open fields and pastures :o  Ol had spent his entire life cleaning up those fields and cutting pine sprouts off of them >:(  The Driskells moved to town and died soon after.

The Iowa owner also began to feel his age and the trips to Mo.  became less enjoyable for him.  In 1969 Dad and I bought the Driskell place since it joined our place.

A couple of years ago when Whitepe and his lovely wife visited us,  we walked back to the old housesite.  There was what appeared to be some kind of a nest in the old farmyard and the carcass of a large buck was nearby.  The bones were cleaned,  but it hadn't been there long enough for mice to chewed the antlers.  It had me puzzeled.  There are sightings of big cats in the area and bears are seen from time to time.  The area didn't look right for that,  however.  

While cutting logs,  we have come across areas that has had the ground disturbed.  Looks like giant turkeys have worked the area over.  This has been going on for a couple of years and has been a mystery to us.

A couple of weeks ago a friend stopped and talked to my son Tom while he was loading logs near the highway.  He had just seen 6 or 8 hogs cross the highway about a mile south.  They were headed toward our sawmill so he drove in there to see if he could see them.  They went right by the mill (where BB Tom was camping at the time :o) and headed for the woods.  The next week Dad saw where they had been rooting close to his house which is about halfway between the mill and the Driskell house.  The next week,  Dad saw them just the other side of the Driskell place.  

I guess the old Driskell place isn't completely abandoned :D :D

I been keeping my hog gun handy ;)

Den, that would have been the war mentioned earlier in my post................ smiley_old_guy

Abandoned Homestead. The farm must have "gave out". Osceola county; 6/06.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_homestead_osceola_county.JPG)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_homestead_osceola_county1.JPG)

We have an Osceola County in Florida too.  It was named after Chief Osceola, a Seminole that raised a lot of cane around here for a while back in the Indian War.

I see that Michigan's Osceola County used to be Unwaltin, named for an Ottawa Chief up there.  I wonder why they decided to change the name?

Osceola County was also named after Seminole Indian warrior, Chief Osceola, who fought the U.S. in the Second Seminole War in 1837. After defeating U.S. troops in several battles, he finally agreed to Gen.Thomas Jesup's request to meet under a flag of truce to discuss peace. But Jesup captured him there and imprisoned him at Fort Moultrie, SC, where he soon died. Due to Jesup's deception, Osceola's name grew highly respected. Many towns and counties in the U.S. were named after Osceola as a protest.

Abandoned Homestead. Another abandoned homestead a few miles north from the one pictured above. Also in Osceola County; 6/06. Mysteries of the past.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_homestead_osceola_county2.JPG)

Abandoned U.P. Homestead. Northwest of Bark River, MI

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_up_homestead%7E0.JPG)

Here in New York its no mystry why some homesteads are left too the elements,,

Its COLD as hell in the winter...we have 5 month winters.
Fuel is expensive.
Industry is moving away because of the costs
Taxes are very high.

Alabama looks more attractive every year.

Got one local farmer here that tears down the old places as he buys them up, there was an old church on one site they tore down a couple years ago. I dunno why we never had pictures of the old places dad bought up, buildings are long gone now. I remember on one site there was this old chicken coop left in the middle of a 150 acre field and we'd see baby fox pups there sometimes. I remember some butt went and took the pups once.  ::) Some one burnt the upper Royalton School last year, but we still have the lower Royalton School. Alot of them old schools got converted to WI community Halls. WI stands for Woman's Institute, my mother was a member and president a couple times.

First Women's Institute  (http://www.womens-institute.co.uk/archive/origins.shtml)

Federated Women's Institute of Canada  (http://www.nald.ca/litweb/other/fwic/index.htm)

includes link to ADELAIDE HUNTER HOODLESS HOMESTEAD whose idea it was to form a women's institute.

Abandoned Homestead. A farm house long gone.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_homesteads_80th%20ave..JPG)

I saw that house when I was visiting Jeff.  It had sign out front  For Sale, Brokaw built.  Model homes in an Agrarian Community., :)

Did anyone mention it needed a roof........... ::) ???                         :)

I forgot, I took a couple pictures of some Dandys while I was gone. I'll have to dig them up.

We turned in a tral and spotted something down acrossed a power line, I walked dwon the power line to get a closer look. All signs of a drive are now gone and trees grow right up next to the old house.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/abandoned.jpg)


Closer view of the front. I thought about walking in as the house looked so square and solid. Until I got close. Its on an old Michigan Basement and just barely holding on on the 4 corners.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/abandoned_1.jpg)

Here is a view around the side and back
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/abandoned_2.jpg)

And look whats in the back yard. The car is still there. :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/abandoned_3.jpg)

This one looks pretty good, until you walk around back and see part of the roof missing. Somehow I didnt get a picture of that.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/abandoned_4.jpg)

This one here was over off from Hannah road, real close to where Tom and I got stranded this summer for a bit. It was quite lovely with the sun flower field growing right up against and around it and its old barn.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/abandoned_5.jpg)

The house in your last picture is alot like the old farm houses built around here and most were on rock walls with rain water cisterns. 1880's to 1920's

Here is a photo of whats holding up house number one in my previous post. Not much. I took the photo because it was darker then snot under there and I wanted to see what was down there critter wise. Ya never know, I was bear hunting after all. ;D   

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/abandoned_6.jpg)

I walked right onto one of them bear dens the other day and cut bushes at his doorstep. I feel brave as Beowulf now. :D  ;D

Montana Abandoned Homested. Near Wilsal, Montana, 9/08.



(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/montana_abandoned_homestead.JPG)

Quote from: Ron Scott on April 27, 2006, 10:51:24 AM
Don't know. I'm waiting to see if Chet knows the story here. ;)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_up_homestead2.JPG)

Ron,
When the Donati's had to sell the Bar in Iron River, The old farm stead was sold also. Looks like it went down hill after that.
One of the boy's was a friend of ours. I had been out to help get fire wood and work on deer blinds as a kid with them.
In the  70's early 80's it was their hunt camp.

Reddog, I'm guessin' yer referin' ta John.

I know all of the boys, but Greg is the one that would take me around.

Jimmer yusta work for me until his accident.

Were those Dan Donati's sons? My uncle Les use to hunt and fish with him and tended the bar for him back in the early 50's.

Well part of the mystery of why owners want them gone is Property taxes.
We just lost a big barn not far from here. It was still in fair shape and had been around as long as anyone can remember.
I remember my trips thru Pennsylvania. They had some spectacular barns. Most are being torn down to escape the associated taxes.
Another reason is the Lawyers. An old structure like that is a liability.
On our family homestead we had a small log barn. One my Aunts was living there with kids. She decided the barn was a hazard and burned it down. The place has not been the same since. Kind of naked without a barn in the field.
I am always fascinated by site selection and orientation of the structure to nature.
The old timers had to live with nature and took where and how a building was situated very seriously.
These days' people look at you like you're from another planet if you even get a compass out to see if the orientation of the proposed building location is half correct.
Anyway i really like this thread.
Thanks

 Ron I think it was Dan.
But to me he was Mr. Donati at the age I was. So Chet will need to verify it for us.

Abandoned Homestead; Good Hart, MI; 9/08



(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_homestead_good_hart_mi.JPG)



(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_homestead_good_hart_mi_1.JPG)

Quote from: Reddog on October 29, 2008, 11:04:39 AM
Ron I think it was Dan.
But to me he was Mr. Donati at the age I was. So Chet will need to verify it for us.

Yup....... it was Dan, or Danny as most folks knew um.

Now I'll test ya.  ;D  What was da bar called back in those days?

Quote from: Chet on November 01, 2008, 12:59:04 AM

Quote from: Reddog on October 29, 2008, 11:04:39 AM
Ron I think it was Dan.
But to me he was Mr. Donati at the age I was. So Chet will need to verify it for us.

Yup....... it was Dan, or Danny as most folks knew um.

Now I'll test ya.  ;D  What was da bar called back in those days?

Tripoli

Scenes from the Tripoli bar that I remember hearing reference too. Not in Iron River, but not to far away in da U.P.  Somewhere the ATV bunch went.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeKp1Mq25kc

Quote from: Reddog on November 01, 2008, 05:03:06 PM

Quote from: Chet on November 01, 2008, 12:59:04 AM

Quote from: Reddog on October 29, 2008, 11:04:39 AM
Ron I think it was Dan.
But to me he was Mr. Donati at the age I was. So Chet will need to verify it for us.

Yup....... it was Dan, or Danny as most folks knew um.

Now I'll test ya.  ;D  What was da bar called back in those days?

Tripoli

Wrong   ;)   but really close  ;D        Tripoli's   :)

Wow!! That is one big hot tub sittin in the front yard!! :D :D

Yes, Tripoli's Bar; now what was the one next to it?

Quote from: Ron Scott on November 02, 2008, 11:47:51 PM
Yes, Tripoli's Bar; now what was the one next to it?

Welcome to da "Jungle" Ron   :)

Sure usta be alot of waterin' holes in dis town.  :D

Charlie Gates was there also, Gates Bar, also Saighs, and Nassars and Al and Sal's are currently at their second location after owning Saighs back in the late 50's. Those were just ones on main street.

Those iron miners and loggers were a thirsty bunch.  ;)

Also on main street was da White Eagle and da matriarch of da whole bunch da Boyington. And you can't forget da Jackolantern or as da locals called it "da Dirty Pumpkin" :D

Abandoned Homestead, another in Osceola County, MI 10/08



(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_homestead1.JPG)



(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/abandoned_homestead2.JPG)

Abandoned Homested near the historic town of Bliss. MI in Emmet County, northern Lower Michigan.



(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/148/100_2179.JPG)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/148/100_2180.JPG)

Ron,
This is a great thread.  When I look at these old homesteads, I don't see barnwood or junk, I see Mom, Pop and neighbors, sittin in rocking chairs, on the front portch, visiting, snacking on a beverage of choice and watching the kids play and tussle in the yard.   I see dinner being called and everyone running to the house.  I see old cars, polished for church and horse-and-wagon out front to take everyone to town.  I wonder where the trees stood and where the refuse was placed.  I wonder where the people came from and where they went.  What was their place in history?  If only those boards cold talk.

I remember a lot of them when I was a kid. We had 3 old abandoned houses on our farm, my uncle had another. Most of them get looted and burned around here. Sometimes cleared off when a larger farm swallows them up. We also have a lot of low lifes that like burning our old covered bridges. One got a face left a year ago and then practically the next day got burned down. What we always called it the Adair Bridge. An old gentleman who passed away years ago came from down there. He was an Adair.

 there used to be a lot of houses like them around here. some of them burned down. some of them got torn down and a lucky few were fixed up up to their former glory. but some are quietly rotting down and returning to the earth. very few natives left and the newcomers keep to themselves and have posted just about every inch of the land afraid that someone else is going to enjoy walking the creeks and hollows enjoying the sounds of nature.
even the game wardens do not like you riding the back roads at night you might disturb the wildlife.

I am always fascinated with old home steads and the people who lived there without modern conveniences. What drove them to settle in isolated areas and build a home? In the Canadian prairies the remains of old thatch roof dugouts can still be seen. There was a shortage of building materials so the living area was below ground to conserve heat.
As the towns and cities grew with new opportunities the young folk left the hardship of the family farm.The old folk could no longer keep it up and the farms were sold off to large land owners or simply abandoned especially during the dirty 30's. Tom put it well.

Another abandoned homestead, Bliss, MI area, 9/10



(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/148/100_2181.JPG)

My Grandparents bought up alot of land around here in the 30's.We had the Gordon Place,Yeaton Place,Clark Place,some others I can not remember now,even though I grew up with the names. Some caught fire,reason for moving,others were used to keep hay in.Some were on there way out when they bought them.Nothing left now but the cellar holes on my land.All the land that got sold I probably could not even found where the old houses were.

Another abandoned homestead, Bliss, MI area, 9/10



(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/148/100_2182.JPG)

I see the white cedar posts on the fence line are still standing straight. :)

Abandoned Homestead, Missaukee County, MI, 7/11.


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/148/scan0013%7E0.jpg)

I'm reminded of an old house in Glassville (near where I was working last Monday). It's just about obscured by the yard trees, but I noticed the heirs (my assumption) have flattened the back 100 acres of woods.

This is the house my Grandma on my dad's side was born and raised in


(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22514/3056/everyday_pics_194.jpg)
I know the old Estate cooking stove is in the basement, it fell through the kitchen floor years before I was old enough to do anything about it.  :(

Hey sandhills, I'm still living in my grandma's and great grand dad's house on dad's side. Old rock wall basement to boot.  ;D

Do you keep the under growth cut out or does the canopy there kill out the ground veg? :)

Most places around here still have the one room school houses left standing. My aunt who is now 80 taught at one, so did grandmother.

SD, the house sits in the middle of what is now all pasture so the cows pretty much take care of that.  The land is still in the family, although not my immediate family, that picture was taken late last winter/early spring so it would look a lot different right now.  There are lilac bushes to the south east of the house that I can remember Grandma talking about being there when she was a kid, she used to take us there years ago, I need to take a few more pictures while everything is green.  For awhile I lived in my other grandmas house, her father built it and she lived there from 2 years old until the day she died and she'll probably come out of her grave and get me for not remembering, but my memory stinks, I think she was 92.  There's still a few old schools left around here too I'll try to get a few pictures sometime.  There's also an old cemetary not too far away that's basically a road ditch now,  the latest gravestone I've found in it is that of a Civil War veteran.

Yeah, I have some old pictures of the place here that father took in the 70's when he took over the farm. Took the pictures as part of farm assessments in those days. He sure did a lot of fix up work over the years.  :)

The cemetery here isn't all that old, back to the 1800's because it wasn't settled much up river until the rail road was pushed though in the 1860's. They were mostly on the coast and mouth of the St John and Peticodiac way back to the 1500's beginning with Acadians pretty much. We traced the old fellow from Scotland down south in Hampstead and his stone. That was only in the 1800's. Dad's grandfather came up river on rail road to find his mother, who was widowed, so he musta stayed back home with other family. But he was real young when he journeyed up. Then later in life when he had family they all came further up here and settled. The old man is buried just 3 miles down at another church cemetery. This was dad's father's side, the house here is dad's mother's side.

Probably a good thing the stove went to the basement, or somebody would have stole it by now...sad but true...Some of those ole stoves are worth a chunk of change if cleaned up an given a little tlc...Tim

Tim, my uncle has one in his kitchen that is in near perfect condition and gets used regularly, he always cooked thanksgiving dinner with it until his health started failing a few years ago.  I really wish I would have tried to get that one out of there back when I was young and adventurous, now I'm too scared to buried in the basement with the stove  :D.

I really screwed up a few years ago. Guy calls me just livid. His brother put a bulldozer to a log cabin. This dates back to the 1850's or 60's when the cabin was built. All the logs pushed in a pile. He was wondering if they had any value for cutting lumber out of them, but mostly just angry that a family heirloom was dozed out to make room for crops. I knew at the time I ought to go look at it, but was busy and never got it done. He claimed the logs were in good shape, except for the bottom row. That would have been neat to try and piece it back together. He really didn't want money for them, I don't think. Just the idea of a family home with a lot of history lost.

Very interesting read it sure brings back alot of memorys of old homesteads Ive seen in my life. The best one I seen was north of Crazy Horse Alberta which is north of Havre Montana. I pulled over and the horizon meet the ground and I shut the truck off and got out and took a picture of it and thought to myself the storys that old place could tell.

Dad bought some other farms up the road that had 3 old abandoned houses on them. One house his uncle lived in for a spell, another was burnt by arsons, and a third was more like a camp and was used back in the 70's for a horse hovel when dad cut wood and skidded with an old black mare. No one ever bothered that one and it just kind of disappeared into oblivion. The woods was cut there and I never saw any sign of the building so I don't think it even had a cellar. There was also power up there as the utility poles from the 40's still stood. I remember all but one house and I sure remember the power poles and old line, but they were over grown by forest. One old pole (part of it) still stands by the bridge with the power company name and pole number still in tact. They were white cedar. How many modern treated poles will stand for 70 years? I can say that around here, they last maybe 20 years because the ones replaced in the 70's with treated pine have been replaced twice. Progress?? :D Eventually, sometime in the 80's the power company took down the old poles up there. Dad had lost a mirror on a potato truck one trip up there when a pole broke and the line caught the mirror on the door. The company wouldn't come good, but you break one of their poles and see who pays.

I've dozed under a lot of these in the last few years, some were very nice houses indeed but the owners didn't want the property taxes or liability involved with them so down they came, meth is a major problem around here as well and anything abandoned is a prime place for meth makers to set up shop.   I'd not be too anxious to walk up to any abandoned building in our area anymore to poke around or take pictures, it might be the last poking or picture taking you do, especially if its a ways off the road and somewhat hidden, my days of walking around and just out of curiosity go looking have long been eliminated with some close run ins with drug makers but thats a whole other discussion.

Take pictures and be lucky you in an area that you can still do that freely, its not like that in a lot of areas anymore and this stuff will be lost forever to the faint winds of change and time and never be remembered.

Most of the times the buildings get dozes if it can be farmed. No one will ever fix the old places up anyway, they just slowly sink into oblivion.

i too know of several abandoned houses up north.  one place is a buddys uncles . their is 3 ?  2 of which still have their stoves in them.    with cows runnin through the pasture ect, and walking through the front door, a 1950's stove, all in all still nice just dirty ,  worth 500 to 1000 isnt worth a broken leg or worse a broken neck.

There's an old timer out in the back 40 that lets the horse in the house. Mom and dad take a drive by there once in awhile and always get a kick out of it.  ;)

Here in Iquitos we have some old rubber baron homes that have been restored.  They are quite unbelievable construction and elegance for thier time when there was no electricity or power to work with.  By todays standards they are still incredible homes.  All the materials were brought in by steamer from other countries.  They are cement and tile.

Here are some photos of the Astoria mill that the land was titled in 1899 and built of mahogany and spanish cedar .  It is still standing but starting to fall apart.  It could still be restored and should be but it would take a million $ or so and they really dont understand why they should restore it.

It has been operated by several companies since the original owners left after WWII.  These photos are for the most part the original buildings.  When you walk thru the houses and think of what it must have been like then sitting overlooking the river and the rose gardens drinking a Gin and tonic , it hits me as Tom described.  How, who and why ?  I have always been hooked on abondened houses and buildings.

When you walk thru it one has the feeling that every one is just out on lunch break.


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that 2nd to the last picture,  that must be one massive mill.
but then again,  their is still a few large trees where you are in the rain forest.

Quotetheir is still a few large trees where you are in the rain forest.

We have lots of large trees and millions that are to be to get out of the jungle.  There are no figures available but I would assume that less than 5% of the jungle has ever seen a logger and with one in several hundred trees being marketable not much has been done.

As we have no roads and only river acess under swampy conditions it is impossible to log more than a few hundred yards from a river profitably on a commercial scale.

so that explains why they setup camp  run for awhile till its nolonger feasable to haul in... then walk away?.  seems a bit off, with the cost of equipment.   that mill had to be in the 100k range?

It sure was a long way from home to take your money. It also looks like a full time job to keep the vegetation back from over growing the place. Looks like some new excavating to find the track there in one photo. Looks like you say, in the tool shop at least, everyone just walked off. You would think they could have sold off some stuff to other industries down there.

Each year work sends me somewhere out west for Plague Locust control most times the days are long and flat out with no times for pics but last season was slower so I took some pics including abandoned homesteads in the Narromine area.



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The stone blocks in this old place are sandstone 18 inches thick, I worked on a cattle place with similar stone used to fortify the pioneering family from Aboriginal attacks, the barn looks like an add on to this.



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Found this one on the Bogan River.



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I dropped in on this property to check on the locusts but only the sheep were at home :D



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This ones not far from my farm, it sold a couple of months back.

Here is a bit of early history of the above photos .

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
VOL. 22 JANUARY, 1946
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU

THE mahogany industry of the
Peruvian Amazon is a recent       
development. Although trees
"resembling Spanish Mahogany" were
reported in the sixteenth century, they
were utilized only for fuel and construction.
By 1900 a few mahogany logs
were rafted annually to Manaus and
Belem and there exported as Brazilian
mahogany. Not until 1920 were saw
mills erected near Iquitos.
In Peru the names "aguano" and
"caoba " are locally applied to mahogany.
In some areas the inhabitants
maintain that caoba is correct, in others,
aguano is insisted upon with equal
fervor. Moreover, different botanical
names have been given from time to
time. Raimondi in 1861 identified the
Peruvian mahogany tree as "Swietenia
mahagoni," saying that it was the same
species as that found in Cuba and other
islands of the West Indies. Delboy
recently applied the name "Swietenia
tassmania" which had earlier been
recommended by Harms. Some American
botanists consider it to be the
same as the Swietenia macrophylla,
King, of Central America. There are
physical differences in the wood but it
seems doubtful that they are sufficient
to warrant the naming of a new species.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MAHOGANY TREE
Wild mahogany grows in association
with hundreds of other species; never
in pure stands. Although its distribution
is far from uniform in the "montafia
," the minimum physical requirements
of the tree seem to be met
throughout the lowlands drained by
the Amazon and its tributaries of eastern
Peru. In the Iquitos area, mature
trees range from 150. to 200 feet tall.
The mahogany is one of the tallest in
the forest. Trees in the selva grow
rapidly because of the continuous death
struggle for space in the sunlight. As a
result the trunk is straight and all
branches are high up in the crown of
the tree. This makes it possible to cut
four to six logs from a bole. The light
gray bark is fairly smooth except on old
trees. The compound leaf resembles
that of the American ash or hickory.
The leaves are light green in color; they
present a fresh cool appearance and
glisten in the sunlight as though covered
with sh ellac.
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS OF
MAHOGANY
Climatic records are scarce in the
Amazon region of Peru, even the best
record, that of Iquitos, covers only
2 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
scattered periods of short duration.
The accuracy of certain of these records
may be questioned because of the poor
locations of the thermometer and rain
gauge.
The climate of Loreto, the department
from which most of the Peruvian
mahogany comes, may be considered
the Rainy Tropical (Afwi after Koppen).
The temperature is continuously warm;
the warmest month (November) aver-
Note that the names for the seasons do
not correspond to the actual temperature
seasons nor to the position of the
sun, but to cloud cover and sensible
temperatures. No month is ordinarily
rainless but August is usually the driest
month. In 1941 the August precipitation
was 1.3 inches, but in 1942 it was
5.2 inches.
The prevailing wind is from the east
but it rarely blows with a high velocity.
FIGURE l.-,-Aguascaliente, a small port on the Pachitea River. Much of the gasoline and lubricating
oil used in Eastern Peru is produced by the Anzo Azul Oil Company whose refinery is near the
right side of the picture. The great height of the forest may be seen along the roadways and clearings.
ages 80 degrees F.; the coolest (June)
is 77 degrees F. The heat is not overly
oppressive. The highest recorded temperature
is 9S degrees F., and the lowest
62 degrees, F. The annual range of
temperature is so small that differences
between the mean temperatures of the
same month in successive years is apt
to be larger than the annual range. For
example: May in 1941 had a mean
temperature of 84 degrees F., in 1943
it was 76 degrees F., almost three times
the mean annual range.
The annual precipitation ranges considerably
above and below 100 inches.
The year is divided into a rainy and a
less rainy season. The period from
November through April is the rainy
season or "jnviernc " (winter), the
period from May to the end of October
the less rainy or "verano" (summer) .
The sky is covered with cloud for at
least a part of every day and the
existence of a continuous overcast for
several days, perhaps accompanying a
tropical low pressure 'area, is more
frequent than commonly supposed.
Although the mahogany tree is able
to survive periods of overflow it does
not grow on the low-lying areas that
are submerged for several months.
Mahogany is a tropical lowland tree
but it is significant that the logs from
the Pachitea River, which drains land
higher than the other rivers, are of the
best quality reaching Iquitos (Figure 1).
Mahogany responds to soil differences
on plantations, but how much the size
of the wild tree is due to soils and how
much to drainage, slope, exposure, and
competition cannot be definitely stated.
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU 3
PERU
SHADED AREA IS
TROPICAL LOWLAND
FOREST - POTENTIAl-
MAHOGANY LOGGING AREAS

FIGURE 2.-Tropical Forest Regions of Peru.
DISTRIBUTION OF MAHOGANY
More than one-half or approximately
400,000 square miles of Peru's total
area of 659,000. square miles is forested
(Figure 2). Most of this is tropical
lowland; all of it is located east of the
main ranges of the Andes on the steepsided
foothills and the broad , flat to
undulating plain of the upper Amazon
and its tributaries. Even though this
vast area has been traversed time and
again, little of a quantitative character
is known of its forest resources. After
completing a brief survey of the forest
resources of Peru in 1943, Cox concluded
that the range of mahogany is great in
the ,. montafia " although its density
varies from place to place. In some
areas there may be one or more mahogany
trees to the acre but more often
they are a mile or more apart.
No accurate inventory has been taken
of where the best trees are located nor
how great is the reserve. The result
is that some areas have been intensively
exploited to the point of .exhaustion,
others skimmed and abandoned and
no doubt other rich stands are still
untouched.
The distribution of exploited areas
is widely scattered, both between
operators and within the zone of one
operator. Some rivers produce no logs.
Whether this is because operations have
not been extended to them, or there are
too few trees, is not always known. The
rivers supplying the greatest number
of logs to the mills at Iquitos, in their
decreasing order 'of importance, are the
Ucayali, Huallaga, Marafion , Pachitea,
Tapiche, and Nanay. However the
rivers supplying the best logs in the
order of their excellence are thePachitea,
Marafion, Nanay, Ucayali, Huallaga,
and Tapiche.
I t is claimed that the finest area of
caoba, as well as rubber, occurs in the
Department of Madre de Dios in the
southeast of Peru. This is a part of
the Acre region which Peru shares with
Brazil and Bolivia. At present there is
no cutting of mahogany there. The
FIGURE 3.-Isolated Indian hut on a low
terrace above the level of high water on the
Upper Marafion (visible in the upper left
corner). Some conception of the diverse species
found in the tropical forest may be gained from
this as well as Figure 1.
4
44' "
ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
PERU
IQUITOS AND' ENVIRONS
BASED UPON A MAP PREPARED BY THE CITY
ENGINEER or IQUITOS .. PERU
_ I HRRAC!: MARGIIl- "(ERRACE IS THE ONLY LAND ABOVE HIGH
.... FLOOD LEVEL
_ ALL-WEATHER AUTOMOBILE ROAO
.-. SCATTERED RURAL HOUSES
"" a HOUSES THAT fLOAT AT HIGH WATER
FROM APRIL THROUGH JUNE
46'
FIGURE 4.-Iquitos and surrounding territory. The latitude, longitude, and scale are approximate.
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU 5
region is a part of the watershed of the
Rio Madeira and is tributary to Brazil.
The population is sparse, the largest
agglomeration, Puerto Maldonado, has
only 600 people and the entire Department
slightly more than 5,000, nearly
all of whom are Indians only partially
aware of political boundaries. Here the
only use of mahogany is for firewood
and local construction.
METHODS OF EXPLOITATION
There is a distinct division of labor
between the production of logs and the
production of lumber. The logs coming
to Iquitos are usually cut by independent
loggers and offered for sale when they
reach the city. Although there is no
open competitive bidding for the log
FIGURE 5.-The Compania Maderera Loretana
1umber mill and storage sheds. Some of the logs
in the boom have come to rest on the bank since
the river level has dropped about eight feet
below the high point reached on May 19. The
picture was taken July 6, 1943. View slightly
upstream toward the southwest.
rafts at that time, the operator, unless
bound by contract, sells to the mill of
his choice. If he is dissatisfied with
the classification or measurement of his
logs he may float his next raft to the
other mill. Recently, because of the
shortage of logs the mills have been
offering contracts to the producers. The
logger receives financial aid from the
mill company, the company can expect
FIGURE 6.- The first cuts being made along
one side of a cedar log at Loretana. The log is
ready for turning and slabs will be taken from
four sides.
his seasons' cut to be delivered to it.
This practice benefits the saw mill in
that a more certain log supply may be
assured through controls they have on
the borrower. The •logger is benefited
by the capital he has available to begin
operations, but such a system often
keeps him in debt and obligated to the
lender.
Although some mahogany is cut
during every month, there is a definite
cutting season. This usually begins
during the less rainy period in August
or September. The logger buys the
right to cut mahogany, either from the
FIGURE 7.- Three stages in handling mahogany
lumber .. Lumber lying in the foreground
has just been sawed. In the middle ground
lumber is stood on end to dry two weeks, in the
background the dried lumber is stacked horizontally
to season with small blocks of wood
between the boards.
6 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
holder of a land title, or from the Government
Forest Service if on public
lands. Only the logger and his crew of
men may operate in the area arranged
for. One of the crew, known as a
"cruiser," surveys the area and locates
the trees to be cut. He may do this
from a tall tree but more commonly it
is done by chopping a trail through the
forest. This forest dweller has an
uncanny sense of identification and -can
recognize a mahogany tree from as
far as he can see it. A possible future
development will be the location of the
best stands of mahogany from the air
as has been done with limited success
in the case of rubber.
The axe men follow the cruiser. They
clear an area around the tree, fell it, and
cut a trail wide enough to roll the logs
to the nearest stream. The tree is
usually chopped and sawed from a platform
eight to 12 feet high to avoid the
buttressed base. The trunks are cut
into lengths from eight to 20 feet long,
FIGURE 8.-Yurimaguas, the second largest
city of the Peruvian montana. Located on the
left bank of the Rio Huallaga. View toward
the west.
depending upon their diameters and the
nature of the terrain over which the log
must be rolled. The logs' may be
rounded with axes so they may be rolled
more easily. Each year the percentage
of rounded logs ,increases as the loggers
go farther inland.
I t is the opinion of loggers that trees,
because of sap conditions, should not
be cut from five to seven days after
'new moon. It is believed that pinworm,
the only serious pest in the
ind ustry, is certain to develop in logs
cut during the dark of the moon. There
is no scientific evidence that such is the
case but cutting operations are usually
suspended at this time, The weeks
vacation thus provided may have something
to do with perpetuating this
practice.
The determining factors in choosing
trees to be cut are size and soundness.
Because unsound logs bring almost
nothing at the mill, very few logs below
first class are sent downstream. Most
of the trees that are cut average about
three feet in diameter at the sawing
height, though logs as large as 96 inches
in diameter have reached Iquitos. It
is difficult to determine the trees' age
because of the absence of annual rings,
but mill operators estimate the 36 inch
logs to be from 60 to 100 years old.
Trees grow most rapidly during their
early life; in a fast growing area the
minimum sized tree that may be legally
cut (18 inches) might be only 20 years
old. The very large trees are .usually
avoided because if they are overmature
the heartwood is soft textured.
The Peruvian government has adopted
a reforestation program which obliges
the logger to replant two trees for every
one he cuts .. However, the Forestry
Service find it very difficult to enforce
this law.
During ,the cutting season each small
group of men is essentially isolated in
the forest (Figure 3). They are out of
con tact with their village homes so
that all provisions and supplies must be
carried with them or delivered at
specified intervals ,during the several
months of the logging season. After
the start of the rainy season, but before
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU 7
the small streams reach their crest, the
logs are rolled by manpower to the
stream banks to await the flood which
will float them downstream to a collecting
point where they will be made up
into rafts for the trip to the mill.
TRANSPORTATION
Since there are no land routes of
transportation in the" montania," everything
connected with the mahogany
business moves by water. In an emergency
a band saw blade or repair part
may come by air, but the raw materials
as well as the processed lumber constitute
a one-way traffic down the river
(Figure 4).
Single logs are collected downstream
at a point convenient to the cutting
area in the early partof the rainy season.
Here they are made up into "balsas"
or rafts for their trip to Iquitos. These
rafts are formed by lashing together
with vines ten or more logs side by side.
Two such rafts are then securely fastened
together end to end. Before the raft
is finally sent on its way two or more
units may be tied together to form a
train-like procession. Such a master
raft would contain from 40 to 100 logs
and be from 25 to 40 feet wide and from
60 to 150 feet long. If the logs are fairly
green, balsa wood or other light-weight
logs, are made up in the raft to. give
buoyancy.
Temporary living quarters are set up
on a roofed platform built at one end
of the raft. Several men may cook,
eat, and sleep on this raft for weeks.
The largest rafts are pulled, or rather
controlled bya tug whereas the smaller
ones are manually guided. At times
this requires vigorous paddling to clear
the mud bars 'and to keep in the main
channel. The trip from the Rio Pachitea
may take from Jour to six weeks. Log
runs are timed to reach Iquitos at or
shortly after the river starts to fall,
from May to August, though small lots
of logs arrive during the other months.
One of the reasons for the choice of
the Iquitos area for mill sites by the
two lumber companies was because of
its strategic location. All major rivers
of Peru, except the Napo and the two
rivers that form the northern and
eastern boundaries of the country, the
Javari and Putumayo, join the Amazon
at or above the city. Nearly all the
mahogany cut on rivers emptying into
the Amazon below, the mouth of-the
Rio Nanay goes to Manaus, Brazil
as logs, as it is very difficult to tow a
log raft upstream against the current.
Occasionally a small raft is brought up
from the mouth of the Napo River.
The mills are both downstream from
Iquitos, close enough, however, to make
use of the city's labor supply. The
Compania Maderera Loretana, (Figure
5), managed by E. C. Drewry,
an Englishman, is located three miles
below Iquitos on the west or left bank
of the Amazon. The Astoria Importing
and Manufacturing Company mill managed
by Edward Hartman, a North
American, is seven miles below Iquitos
on the left bank at the junction of the
Nanay and Amazon rivers.
BUYING LOGS
When the rafts of logs arrive at
Iquitos they are fastened with vines
and cables to trees on the bank-side.
Because of the swift current of the
stream, it is necessary- to store the logs
upstream from the mills. Within a
few days the rafts are cut apart and
measured by employees of the mill.
The logs at Loretana are inspected first
by rolling the log, then by forcing one
end and then the other out of the water
by having three or four men climb on
the opposite end. Later, logs are
floated to a cable encircled boom to
await sawing. Astoria has a wood-fired
8 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
steam derrick to lift the log out of the
river for grading and measuring, then
it dumps the log into a small pond from
which it is pulled by cable car up to
the mill.
Logs are graded by quality into first,
second, and third classes, most of them
being first class. The price of a log is
based on the number of board feet, each
first class log averaging somewhat over
700 feet.
After the logs have been graded, measurea,
and floated into the cable-enclosed
log booms, nearly one year's supply of
logs are on hand at the end of the high
water season in June or J uly . These
booms are attached to trees along the
shore and must be constantly tended
while the river is high in the event a
cable should weaken. While the boom
is being filled, all the logs are floating
but as the river level drops, as much
as 36 feet, most of the logs eventually
come to rest on the riverbank. As the
sawing season progresses, the logs, one
at a time, are rolled into the water and
floated to the tracked carrier on which
they are elevated to the mill by means
of a cable and drum.
l\!IILLING
Since the mills have not been established
long, their equipment is fairly
modern. The buildings are constructed
of unplaned cedro lumber and roofed with
corrugated. iron (Figure 5). The sides
are open to allow free circulation of air.
Most of the sawing equipment is of
American manufacture. All sawing of
logs is done with band saws which save
approximately one inch of lumber every
five cuts. The lumber dimensions are
full measure in that one inch boards
plane down to one inch in thickness.
Each mill has two or more saws, the
largest one accommodates logs with
diameters up to 72 inches. In addition
to band saws both mills have other
FIGURE 9.-Aguarana Indians living- near the
Rio Marafion above the Pongo de Manseriche.
These are characteristic of the native laborers
in the less accessible parts of eastern Peru.
equipment for edging and planing lumber.
The mahogany for export is not
planed. Power for the Astoria mill'
is supplied by woodfired boilers which
operate a reciprocating steam engine.
All machinery is powered by belts from
overhead shafts. Loretana is completely
electrified with each machine powered
by a separate motor.
Logs are first squared on the band saw
and turned from time to time so that
..lumber is cut from all four sides (Figure
6). Because of this a variety of dimensions
is obtained from each log. After
the edges of the boards are squared they
are sorted and stood on end to dry for
two weeks (Figure 7). The lumber is
then stacked with small blocks between
each board to allow air circulation. It
remains in these piles from a few days
to two or more years depending upon
the market and transportation; in recent
years lack of transportation has
been the critical factor. Lumber at
Loretana is seasoned inside sheds,
whereas Astoria stores nearly all its
lumber out-of-doors.
The mills operate at capacity for
only short periods of time. The potential
annual capacity of the Astoria mill is
about 5,000,000 board feet and the
Loretana about 2,000,000 board feet,
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU 9
but shortages of logs as well as technical
and unskilled labor, and breakdowns
usually reduce the output to less than
one-half capacity. Iquitos exported
2,500,000 feet of mahogany in 1939.
MARKETING MAHOGANY
Nearly all of the mahogany lumber is
exported from the country. Although
cedro is shipped by way of the Amazon
texture, principally because the lumber
is manufactured in the tropics and all
the soft textured .wood in the heart of
overmature trees is eliminated from
the grades that come to the United
States. As a result of tests conducted
in the laboratories of Cornell University,
Peruvian mahogany was found to
increase and lose weight by absorption
and shrinkage by an amount only
FIGURE lO.-Road between Iquitos and Punchana. Naval oil storage tanks and' the partially
completed dry-dock are located between the road and the river. View toward the east-southeast.
and Panama Canal from Iquitos to the
Pacific Coast of Peru, both as logs and
as lumber, no Peruvian mahogany
ordinarily reaches Lima. The demand
for mahogany there is supplied by imports
of logs from Central America.
Nearly all the Amazonian mahogany
is marketed in the United States which
normally imports from 80 to 90 per cent
of the world's total cut. At the present
time first grade mahogany is classed as
a strategic war material and only consumers
with top priorities may buy it.
Most of it goes into boat and airplane
construction, and pattern making. In
peace times the furniture trade, fabricators
of decorative interior woodwork,
and boat builders buy the major part
of the supply.
Peruvian mahogany lumber is held in
high esteem by boat builders and the
furniture trade. The wood is straightgrained
and runs very uniform as to
slightly greater than that of Cuban or
Spanish mahogany. The other mahoganies
tested, swelled and shrunk from
three-tenths of one per cent to five and
eight-tenths per cent more. In tests
of bending, compression and shearing
strength, Peruvian mahogany excelled
all others, but in hardness it was surpassed
by Cuban mahogany.
Although the market for mahogany
was undersupplied in 1943, the Astoria
mill had over 3,000,000 board feet
of clear, first grade mahogany stacked
about the mill because of a shortage
of shipping space. No ocean-going
freighters had called at Iquitos in nearly
a year.
LABOR SUPPLY
In common with other commercial
enterprises of the Amazon, the mahog ..
any industry must compete in a deficient
labor market. Even though the war10
ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
time demand for mahogany greatly
advanced the price of lumber, neither
mill has increased production, one of
them actually produced less in 1943
than 1942 because of a shortage of logs,
breakdowns, inability to replace wornout
equipment and difficulty in maintaining
a full crew of labor.
The well conducted census of 1940
counted 181,341 people in the Department
of Loreto and estimated that
140,000 more lived in the forests and
along smaller rivers where no accurate
census was made. Most of the counted
people live along the banks of the
Amazon, Ucayali, Huallaga, and Maranon
rivers (Figure 8).
This obviously limited supply of labor
produces the rubber, leche caspi, balata
and other gums, barbasco, cotton, coffee,
tagua nuts,various fruits, medicinal
plants, vegetable oils, plant fibers, and
hides and skins of the "montana."
Moreover, due to the primitive organization
of the region, it is necessary that
most families produce much of their
food supply. This is done by collecting,
hunting, and fishing, and the cropping
of small clearings which requires more
man-hours to provide the daily needs
of the family than would be required by
specialized agriculturalists.
Very little of the potential supplies
of labor in the towns such as Iquitos
(34,231) or Yurimaguas (5,000) is available
to employers in the up-river areas
of the "montana" because of actual
and fancied dangers to life there (Figure
9). The higher pay that is now offered
for work in the forest is countered by
higher 'wages in the towns. Before
1941 the usual rate of pay for unskilled
labor was about $.32 a day but by late
1943 this had risen to $1.00 or $1.50
(Figures 10 and 11).
A contributing cause to the shortage
of labor is the poor health of the average
worker which in turn is partly due to an
inadequate diet. The only foods that
are always available are "yuca" (man
ioca ) and "plantinos" (cooking
bananas). Both of these are high in
starches and low in the fortifying food
elements. Nevertheless many urban
dwellers, and even rural people as 'Yell,
eat nothing else for considerable periods
of time. When this diet is enriched, or
varied, it IS usually done by supplementing
it with rice and farinha (yuca flour).
Meat is scarce and too expensive for
many urban families, their meat supply
is derived from monkeys and birds shot
in the forest and fish caught in the rivers.
Because of an inadequate diet and
the prevalence of infections, a very large
proportion of the population suffers
more or less constantly with intestinal
parasites and skin infections. In addition,
certain regions are notorious for
their high incidence of malaria, beri-beri,
leprosy, and yellow fever: the latter
has been nearly eliminated. Other
disorders such as grippe or influenza,
dysentery and a neuralgic condition
may strike large numbers at any time
in any area. The people of Iquitos
enjoy a state of health probably better
than the people in most of the smaller
towns and scattered rural areas. This
is not due to a safe water supply nor to
an adequate sewerage disposal system.
To date Iquitos has neither, although
projects to provide these are partially
completed.
The wages of workers in the mills,
even though they have increased, have
not kept up with the higher costs of
living. I t was claimed that by August
1943, even though wages had more than
doubled, the cost of food had quadrupled.
Food accounts for a large part
of the budget of a family whose income
is less than one dollar a day.
One-half or more of the laborers at
the mills live on small plots of ground
within a short distance of the mill where
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU 11
FIGURE 11.-Airport at Quitos. The landing field was extended in 1944 across the road and off
the left side of the picture. Moronacocha along right margin. View toward southeast.
they may supplement their wages by
producing a part of their own food
(Figure 12). Fifteen or 20 employees
of Astoria live in Iquitos and travel to
and from the factory on a company boat.
USES
Due to mahogany's color, grain, and
hardness, it has long been a premier
cabinet wood. However its ease of working,
its strength, and its adaptability
for veneers have added greatly to its
utility.
In the regions where mahogany grows
it does not hold a high place. Its weigh to
and hardness are handicaps which favor
the use of lighter and softer woods for
construction; and where a highly finished
article is desired other woods such as
" palo de sangre" (rosewood) are harder,
and have a richer color.
Peruvian mahogany is golden-brown
when dry, but when freshly cut it has
a yellowish to salmon pink color. Its
appearance is totally unlike the artificially
dark red finish typical of mahogany
furniture of the last century. Since
Peru exports no logs and there is no
cutting of veneer in Iquitos, all Amazonian
mahogany from Peru used in the
U.S.A. is lumber and not veneer. The
principal demand at present is for
straight-grain mahogany lumber for
use in naval and aircraft construction
(PT boats, propellors). Such lumber
comes only from straight clear logs.
Here mahogany's advantage is not in
its beauty but in its strength. vs. bulk,
and its resistance to swell, shrink, and
warp. Although only grade one select
mahogany is permitted to corne into
the United States from the Amazon
for use in .construction of boats, airplanes,
model and pattern making,
instrumen ts and instrument cases, the
second grade common lumber will be
used to good advantage by furniture
12 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
manufacturers when shipping space is
again available.
The reason for mahogany's wartime
demand is based upon (1) its high ratio
of strength to weight, (2) its resistance
to moisture and atmospheric changes
causes it to warp, shrink, swell and twist
less than any other commonly used
lumber, (3) great size of the tree which
may yield unusually large clear pieces,
(4) large proportion of logs are straight
grained, (5) its uniformity due to ab-
FIGURE 12.-Homes of, two mill laborers to
the north of Loretana. This area is flooded
several, weeks each year necessitating homes on
poles or balsawood rafts to keep dry.
sence of alternate rings of dense and
less-dense wood lends itself to ease of
turning, gluing and other manufacturing
processes, (6) mahogany is resistant
to rot, mould, and other organisms of
decay. It is particularly adaptable for
use in the tropics where termites and
other organisms quickly destroy many
other woods, (7) it dries quickly and
without waste in kilns, (8) takes and
holds finishes well.
The postwar demand for mahogany
for furniture and woodwork will be due
to the above qualities plus the decorative
effect of the figure and grain of
parts of the tree now unused.
SUBSIDIARY CONSIDERATIONS
An industry which originated as a by product
of the lumbermill at Loretana
is the electric power plant for the city
of Iquitos. The power plant was
originally fired with scrap and waste
from the mill ,but further enlargement
has so increased its requirements for
fuel that the mill furnishes only a minor
part now. The power plant is, however,
conveniently located to its present main
source of wood. The Rio Nanay
approaches within 200 yards of the
Amazon so that a narrow gauge track
has been built from the power plant to
the Nanay. The labor supply for wood
cutting on the Rio Nanay has been so
uncertain that postwar plans call for
installation of oil burning equipment in
spite of the wealth of wood in the
immediate vicinity. In 1943 there was
rarely more than' three or four days
supply on hand at any time.
In addition to mahogany both mills
cut large quantities of "cedro' , or
Spanish cedar. This is the most widely
used constructional lumber in eastern
Peru. It is a curious fact that practically
no mahogany is shipped to
western Peru but neatly all the cedar is.
The Astoria Importing and Manufacturing
Company, as its name implies,
has an interest in eastern Peru beyond
the cutting of lumber. Besides contracting
for logs and advancing money for
them, the company is interested in the
promotion of a number of other Amazonian
products. Among these are
Hevea and caucho rubber, barbasco,
cinchona bark, a palm nut resembling the
Brazilian babassu, tagua nuts, leche
caspi, balata, and various skins.
The mahogany plantation at Loretana
has 7,000 trees from four to five years
old (Figure 13). Astoria has approximately
the same' number. planted at a
later date. So far no disease has manifested
itself among these closely spaced
mahogany trees. In their widely scattered
locations in the forest the trees
have few biological enemies but in the
MAHOGANY INDUSTRY OF PERU 13
FIGURE 13.-A view of the mahogany plantation
at Loretana. These trees are seven years
old. The land is kept clear for the first years
by raising food crops. Thereafter the only
attention given is the chopping out of undergrowth
once or twice a year.
close contact of a plantation blights and
other enemies might be expected to
appear.
FUTURE
Although the mahogany industry of
Peru is a relatively. new one, the easily
available logs of the most accessible
rivers have already been exploited. In
the future, loggers will have to go farther
from the streams and operate on minor,
water bodies. Up to the present and
for some time into the future, if shortages
hinder lumber production it will
likely be due to a shortage of labor in
the cutting areas.
Because of the favorable growing
conditions on the Amazon and the
scattered occurrence of mahogany,
young trees are ordinarily not disturbed
when an area is worked over, in this
way mature mahogany trees from previously
exploited areas might be cut
every ten or twenty years.
I t is the opinion of some that the
greatest hope for the future of mahogany
in Peru lies in the enlargement of
plantations such as those started by the
two lumber mills, where from ten to
fifteen thousand trees are now growing.
These trees have grown to heights of
25 feet in ten years and should reach
maturity in about 40 years. If the mills
are then operating at approximately
the same capacity as now, the area
already planted might provide a three
to a six year supply of logs.

You always wonder about the stories behind some of them.  Here is one that I stumbled across in the Colorado mountains.


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(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/2410/DSCN0412S.JPG)

Keep the pics coming I am really enjoying this thread.  Magic man you got a good one there

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I took this picture of an old abandoned farm home located on County Road 'A' about 3 or 4 miles north of Hudson, Wisconsin. The picture was taken in September, 2005. I drove past it many times and watched it slowly fall apart. Then in July of 2007, it was burned to the ground. It is no more. I often wondered about its history and who lived there. 

seen quite a few,  don't fall thru the floors. watch out for old wells.  was hand dug and someone had to go in once or twice a year to clean out.  i wonder if cave ins were frequent. some still have furniture.  seen one with the photos of the children, no adults. 

The first barn that my Granddad ever built.


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I would not want to saw that tree in the background.   :-\

Magicman, do you have any pictures of that barn in it's "hay day"?  It always amazes me what got accomplished with nothing but blood, sweat and tears.

I wish.  :-\  Even that has been gone for many years.  My Sister painted the above from an old photo.   ;)

Ssandhills,

Reference post #80, your young enough to figure out how to get that stove out of the basement. It is one of those things you may regret if you dont try given your family history there.


Ironwood

Magicman, are you saying that picture of the old barn is a painting your sister did?  Wow!  She has a lot of talent. I'm very impressed. 8)

Me to Magic, your sister is good with a brush in her hand. ;)

Quote from: CHARLIE on November 27, 2011, 11:35:27 PM
Magicman, are you saying that picture of the old barn is a painting your sister did?

Yup, she had an old photo of the barn and painted the above picture in the late 70's.  I did not know that it existed and she emailed me a copy.  The subject came up while I was talking with her about the old barn that I am removing/disassembling for building materials for my Cabin Addition.

 Magicman tha's a very nice painting, I had to look at it again after I read that, thought it was a picture too.

Ironwood, might try it someday yet, probably be safer to wait until the rest of the house is on top of it though.  There's not much left holding it up and a lot of it is already in the basement.

QuoteMy Sister painted the above from an old photo.

That's real talent, :) I thought it was a  photo

I thought it was a picture too.  :o   Than looking back at it after MM told us,I saw her signature in the lower left.

I also have a Wild Turkey picture that she painted and several that my Mom painted.  They were the artistically talented ones.

I'm still searching for my talent.   :-\

Sawing is not a bad talent. ;D Then making clocks is all that much better. ;)

Yeah but lately, folks in Michigan end up with them.   ;)

That just means there is a bunch more to be made. :)

Hello, everyone!  I just joined today, after lurking for several months.  I have enjoyed many of the threads that I have read, but decided to make my first comment about this one.  Old homesteads facinate me as well. 

Welcome to the Forum

Tell us some more. ;)

Activgurl welcome aboard. This is an interesting bunch to say the least.
Back to the topic, about 5 years ago I talked to an elderly gentleman I have known all my life. He had just finished tearing down the house his grandfather had built sometime in the mid 1800's, it was no longer being used and the kids were partying in it. He was afraid of them setting fire and somebody getting hurt. It was tough for him, that house was so much a part of his life while growing up. I never cease to be amazed at what our ancestors accomplished.

 

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the house has standard 2x4 walls,  but brick and motor in between on the inside.  it usto have tin on the outside.  it had a wood shingle roof.    barn...is all pine.    NOTHING seems to be salvageable except for the 5? hand hewn beams in the floor on the addition on the barn.

Here's my grandparent's abandoned homestead.  This is a cabin that my grandfather built in southcentral Alaska back in 1984-85. My grandparents only lived in it for one winter and then moved back to WI.  My grandmother continued to use it during the summers when she would go back to AK, but that was many years ago.  This past summer was the first time I'd seen it since 1986.  The tree to the right of the deck was just a seedling when I was last there.  Someone stole the stove and pipe out of it and didn't plug the hole and one of the wooden pilings has collapsed causing the door not to shut correctly, but overall it was in surprisingly good shape.  If the record snows haven't collapsed the roof I might go and do some work on it this summer to get it back in usable shape. 



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Here's what it used to look like. 



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Welcome to the Forestry Forum, Activgurl.  How about sharing a bit about yourself and your interest in Forestry.

Thanks for the welcome!  I imagine my forestry interests are much like ya'lls.  I've lived in WV all my life, family farm & all.  Dad used to have a small mill, some rotary blade thing.  I'll have to ask him the particulars.  Heated with wood, fought occassional brush fires. 

Really enjoy watching wildlife & the interaction with nature, trees, & such.  Boyfriend brings his 4-wheeler down to ride around...all I can see is trees that need harvested.  Got a hickory laying out there in the yard now just itching to be cabinet doors.  Cherry blew down on the line fence; don't know what I'm gonna do with it.  'Nother cherry full of peckerwood holes still standing behind the pond.  Hate to waste it...

Gonna enjoy reading more stories & experiences here on the Forum!

I helped build a food distribution building in War, and renovate a church in Bradshaw.  Both are located in the very Southern tip of WV.

I lived in Richwood, WV 1974-78.

Old homesteads here fall victim to arson and trouble makers. We had three on the farm at the end of the road (4 farms combined) and we had power up there. One place was burnt, one we tore down and another was like a camp of sorts, dad kept a logging horse there in the 70's when he cut wood. We would sometimes find cats there that people would just drop off. One we brought home for a house cat. The best cat we ever owned. People steal the well hand pumps to.

Great post ran into it when looking for something else... Great potential for hydro... viewing the pics..

This sits about a half mile down the road from me and several hundred yards off the road..........in the middle of a 120 acre farm.  Wasn't at all unusual to build in the middle of the farm;  they went to work a lot more times than they went to town.  It was built in the 1870s and a PROMINENT local family raised 5 sons and 2 daughters there.  One of my uncles lived there for a few years in the late 1950s and it was abandoned in the 70s.  I had the farm rented for 15 or 20 years and the house was pretty much intact when I retired in 2001.  The main structure is still mostly sound, but rainwater is getting inside and it's just a matter of time before it collapses.  I know that the current owner (80 year old step-son of the youngest of the 5 sons) would give it to me if I would move it and restore it.  A few years ago, I would've considered it, but I'm too old and the house is too far gone..........



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This old place in down the road from home about 5 miles in an abandoned settlement called Snow settlement. The family I'm doing some thinning for, their father grew up there. He died in 2001 aged 93 or so. But he lived most of his life in another house about 3 miles away in Tracey Mills.

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Notice the butternut trees over growing it. ;D

Abandoned Homestead, Missaukee County, MI, 2011


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Very cool thread. We have at least a dozen old log homesteads on the ranch where I work. I love to go treasure hunting around them on sundays, or when I'm out fencing. You can sure tell which ones had a little more than others just by what you find around them and in the dump piles.
Late this last fall I was going through some that were in the middle of the fire we had and found an old Waterloo hit and miss engine and a small grain mill. It sure says something about the log structures and possibly the trees also, that unless a homestead had a bunch of brush against it to burn most of the homesteads weren't bothered by the fires. Their is one on the ranch that has been refurbished with plumbing and electrical and has a small 3x3 crawlspace on one side, the grass burned beneath the house without catching it on fire.
Here's a picture of an old schoolhouse that is on the far side of the ranch.

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I would suppose a lot were abandoned back in the 30's and even the 10's during dust bowl and WWI. You can find old places abandoned here, but usually the local low lifes burn the places down or bust them up. We've had old places burnt on our farm, one old house we had power to it. Now there is no power that far up the road any longer and the utility cut the old poles down a few years ago after one fell on dad's truck and tore the mirror off.

Although this portion of Ohio is more populated that the previous examples the basic same thing happens here .More so a small portion or small acreage is bought up for the farm land and the older home and out building fall into disrepair and eventually fall to the ground .

They shove them in a pile with a dozer ,dump a bucket of diesel fuel on it and toss a match to it .About a week or two later they shove out a hole and  bury the ashes ,gone forever .

If they could only talk ,what storys they could tell .

There was a fascinating old homestead near where I grew up. The couple that owned it were killed in the late 40's, car hit by a train, and it gradually fell apart. I was inside the house in the mid sixties, it had the most beautiful wood on the walls which I suspect was mahogany. The local kids partied there until they burned it down. :'(

Abandoned Homestead, Boon, MI


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We will see many of those while traveling across West Texas tomorrow.

I love to explore old houses like this.

Some can be dangerous. Take care that you don't fall through a floor. ;)

Yup, the money was always buried beneath the floor.   ;D

I've considered buying a metal detector for treasure hunting around these old homesteads. There are some that the folks who lived there just left, leaving everything they owned sitting. Then there are some that were lived in up until the 1950's, by the dates on magazines. I know of one that has a cook stove in it with every last bit of it intact that I would love to get home and polish up, but the owner of the land (my last boss) knew the folks that lived there when they passed and it's pretty much a memorial for them, so it gets left alone.
I can say for sure I'd be rich if I could find where to sell the rattlesnakes that I've found in homesteads. Be careful in them.

Allan

Quote from: Ron Scott on October 06, 2013, 09:56:54 PM
Some can be dangerous. Take care that you don't fall through a floor. ;)

Ron - have you been talking to my mother.  Her statement went along the lines of, " I told you to stay out of there and I told you that you would fall through the floor if you went in there!!!!!!!!!!"  And I did and she was right. ::) ::) ::) ::)

Bruce

'Momma knows', just like that song says.  ;D

I had a USFS boss who fell through the floor of an old building on National Forest land that we had recently acquired with an old homestead on it. He was laid up for awhile after a fall through the upper floor into the basement.

I once heard that a good place to start treasure hunting was under the front door threshold.

I've found a couple of old coins under them, they are usually the same date as the date the house was built!

Quote from: Jeff on April 27, 2006, 02:53:45 PM
Here are a couple more old U.P. homesteads from the eastern end of the U.P. within a a couple miles of the cabin

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/oldhouse.jpg)

This one is no longer standing due to vandals this past year. They pulled it down with a truck and cable after ramming it multiple times. I figure some day there will be a youtube video. If you ever see it, there is a reward offered. I took some photos last fall along with the reward sign, but forgot about them and now I can't find them, but I did find an article on line.

http://www.sooeveningnews.com/article/20120824/NEWS/120829880?template=printart

What a selfish act!  >:(

As predicted we saw many while traveling across the West Texas panhandle area.  Just lonesome old buildings with a story behind each.  I'd bet that there is no money buried under any of them.

I'm sure your right. It was only a couple generations back from my age, that the common folk were all in the same boat, so to speak. No money in their pockets or under floor boards either.

Abandoned Homestead, Osceola County, 11/13.


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I see a lot of places like that in Island Falls, Maine. And not abandoned very long ago. People just walked off and barely closed the doors.

There are a lot of Amish around there and I have never yet seen anything they are growing. Those abandoned places are acres and acres of farmland growing up in weeds and goldenrods.

How right you are Swampdonkey. My stepson has a camp in Island Falls,Route 159 It's only a short road. About 5 miles? It goes from route 2,to Patten,Route 11. I think about this thread everytime I go up there. We go up Route 2,just about an 4 hour ride.We use to go to Smyrna Mills for the Amish store and just to see the countryside. Kinda odd the way you go from one part of the world to another. I can tell when I start to get onto logging country. Can't drive much more than 5 miles without seeing a BIG garage.Than drive for miles without seeing a thing but woods and woods roads,than the houses,garages will start to show up and a small town.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22514/3056/everyday_pics_194.jpg)

Sandhill's pic and the other old homestead photos remind me of Joyce Kilmer's poem


Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track
I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black.
I suppose I've passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute
And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it.

I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;
That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.
I know this house isn't haunted, and I wish it were, I do;
For it wouldn't be so lonely if it had a ghost or two.

This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass,
And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass.
It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed and tied;
But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside.

If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid
I'd put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade.
I'd buy that place and fix it up the way it used to be
And I'd find some people who wanted a home and give it to them free.

Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window and door,
Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.
But there's nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone
For the lack of something within it that it has never known.

But a house that has done what a house should do,
a house that has sheltered life,
That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife,
A house that has echoed a baby's laugh and held up his stumbling feet,
Is the saddest sight, when it's left alone, that ever your eyes could meet.

So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track
I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back,
Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart,
For I can't help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken heart.


Joyce Kilmer

Paul_H, such a fitting poem, one I have not read before but, will again.  Several old houses I pass, it would apply.  Thank you for sharing that.

You're welcome James.
This time of year when it's 0° F at night and I'm down at the barn tucking in the chickens and tossing hay to the horses I love to look up to our old house with warm lights glowing through the windows and the smell of birch smoke coming from the woodstove, knowing that our family is warm, fed and safe inside those walls. When I see these old homesteads I feel a bit melancholy.

It doesn't take long for an abandoned house to go down either. Storms of winter and summer, a ice storm, animals, like rats and squirrels, then bugs....and mold.

I took over an old abandoned tenant house, remodeled. When we moved in was early spring. A row of jonquils came up on the west side yard, then a cross was formed by pretty yellow spring flowers. I knew the folks that lived here, they raised five daughters and one son. They would be happy to know their Easter flowers still bloom! Fifty years!

There five old abandoned farms with in five miles of me I wish thy could talk the stories thy could tell
there a lot more thy have pushed down and burned because of people hiding in them to make meth

 This summer we were hiking on the south side of Kachemak Bay AK which is only accessible by plane or boat.  We came across this abandoned sawmill near an old fish camp.  Pretty fascinating.  Would love to know the history.  I bet a lot of old growth Sitka spruce was milled here!

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28015/image~3.jpg) 

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28015/image~1.jpg)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28015/image~0.jpg)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28015/image~2.jpg)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28015/image.jpg) 

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28015/image~3.jpg)

{tidied up a bit - SwampDonkey}

An interesting site.

@SwampDonkey (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=1009) , I grew up in Island Falls.... (your post #152).

Seemed like such a big town to me then. Our place is gone now. The land was chopped up into little divisions for rich people to buy a piece of the lake. Sad... that wasn't the family's intention when they sold the land. We sold it for cheap with a proviso that it not be cut up for development. But less than 10 years later, and one lawyer.... it was divided up and sold in pieces for development. And we didn't have the money to fight it.

Now I drive back through 'town' and it's full of run down buildings. I'm the only descendent that still goes up there. The rest of my family lives in mid Maine now. Most of their kids.... grew up with concrete, blacktop, cars and city streets.   

I think that's part of why we bought the old farm place of 80 acres. I can't do much about what happened way back then. But I sure as heck can do my small part now - a small bit of conservation, of 'saving' a tiny piece of the North Maine woods. Sometimes when I get to remembering.... it's almost enough to make a difference.  :'(

Used to be a lot of semi-abandoned houses/homesteads around our area but someone has been systematically burning them down over the last couple of years, even the ones that are occupied every week or so.  5 gone in more recent times.

Used to be several more out in the woods around our places, they rotted into the ground as most everything does here.  The old logging camp out back that was last used in 1952 or so is level with the ground now, stood in it 3 years ago.

I wish I could find the old farm out in the woods, a family cleared a farm in the 20s I've heard but in the 50's they fell sick and most of them died.  The house was still standing in 70's, supposedly could find the cookstove even in the 90's.

Probably consumption. There was a small settlement on Skidaddle Ridge cleared over 100 years go. A lot died from illness, there is an old cemetery there. There are also camps around there still used. It's getting bare for woods up there now though with the mills cutting every stick they can get their hands on. They're right up around everyone's doorsteps.  So much for multiple use. ::)

Here is an abandoned homestead I came across last week while up at Lou's.



 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/home.jpg)

 :D :D :D :D :D smiley_thumbsup

 ;D

Looks like a good chunk of the roof caved in.   :)

All that's left of Hammer South Dakota

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/33477/DSCN0442.JPG) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/33477/DSCN0442.JPG) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/33477/DSCN0443.JPG) the gas station

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/33477/DSCN0445.JPG) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/33477/DSCN0447.JPG) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/33477/DSCN0448.JPG) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/33477/DSCN0446.JPG) behind that pine tree was a hotel it's now a ghost town

goose
Those pics reminded me of Scenic, SD near Mt. Rushmore.  Just a ghost town too.

They will just keep crumbling and then be lost.

Interesting!

Musta been some real hard times to abandon town. Up here most abandoned hamlets were during war years, especially WWI.

The town started out as a rail road siding 1910 and grew from there.  there was two banks black smith shop feed mill elevator grocery store hard ware store.  the folks that owned the black smith shop were from Norway he was so busy that his wife built the house by her self and when she was 85 put new shingle's by her self.
Some times it's fun to just sit and listen to the old timers a round here. Thy have some good history to tell you   

Quote from: goose63 on February 11, 2015, 08:09:27 PM
The town started out as a rail road siding 1910 and grew from there.  there was two banks black smith shop feed mill elevator grocery store hard ware store.  the folks that owned the black smith shop were from Norway he was so busy that his wife built the house by her self and when she was 85 put new shingle's by her self.
Some times it's fun to just sit and listen to the old timers a round here. Thy have some good history to tell you

wow... you go, girl! (85 and on the roof? yuppa!) Back when we were visitin' around, looking at properties... we came across one near to Ashville, Maine. 200+ acres, lots of fields, old roads, old barns, a garage and house, a few other buildings that were just cellar holes. As we were walking around, I spotted a fairly large, square set apart place... sure enough... a cemetery - looked to have about 30 to 40 headstones. Well, not only are cemeteries sacred places, but they are protected by law. This one wasn't shown on any of the property documentation. So I pointed it out to the clueless realtor. Her reaction was to give the opinion that it could just be plowed under, and stones and fencing removed = good crop or pasture land.  :o Sad. Next thing as we were walking towards the back of the property, came across a leveled grade sweeping from one end to the other. I looked up one way to the side, turned 180 and looked the other way.... then started digging in the 'field good for crops' with my toe of my boot. Uh huh.... grass covered RR line. Not a cog, not a narrow gauge, but the real deal. (Can we say, RR ownership and right of way issues?) Showed THAT to the realtor... and her reaction was to give the opinion.... need I say more? We decided we didn't want to deal with a clueless, disrespectful realtor. Pretty place, though - abandoned for over 40 years. I think back and wonder what it must have been with a cemetery that big, and a RR... where was the rest of the town? Wish I had taken pictures.

Quote from: goose63 on February 11, 2015, 08:09:27 PM
the folks that owned the black smith shop were from Norway he was so busy that his wife built the house by her self

I had a Norwegian brother in law... good man... Merchant Marines, a teenager during the WWII Norway Occupation. I remember now... his hands were absolutely huge. When he married my sister, they bought two men's wedding bands, and the jeweler had to weld them together to make one ring to fit... he wore a size 15 or 15.5 ring on his ring finger, left hand. Golly. He's passed away now, but the stories he could tell from Nazi occupation days in Norway....

  My grandparents [ mothers side ] homestead circa late 1920`s.


 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21613/grandparents.jpg)

About 5 years ago.


 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21613/scott_house_big.jpg)
mike

I sure would try and save that place magicmikey if it could only talk what storys it would have to tell !

It still looks in plenty of good shape to restore. Won't be easy, but worth it.

Is that here in Enderby,Mike?

  Their homestead was NE of Prince George at Reid Lake. In the 40`s they all sold and moved  to the Okanagan Valley. They preferred a banana belt to the GWN. :laugh:
mike

A good move  ;)

Looks like a place worthy of restoration.

Note: Check the size of the Spruce at the left end of the house!

NICE PLACE!

A great restoration project!

We've got our share of abandoned homesteads around here and finding them and photographing them is a bit of a pastime for me. Not all of these are homes but all are abandoned!

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36115/Old_barn.jpg) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36115/tn_Greek_Revival_1.jpg) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36115/Winter_home_panor.jpg) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36115/tn_1004_dry_brush.jpg) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36115/Frenches_bay_barn_entry.jpg) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36115/power_plant.jpg)

That's some great photography johnnyllama!

Thanks Sandhills,
  I took a lot of shots a few years ago when I was laid up after back surgery. My wife would drive me around looking for interesting subjects. Sometimes she could even get to a spot where I didn't have to get out of my seat! Haven't taken as many now that I'm back working but still try and get out some.

Yes, some nice photography John.  :)

I like that one of the mill the best.

John, those are some very nice photo's, you have a good eye for composition.
Do you know what the mill was used for?
Bob

Johnny L,

Were those pictures taken with a digital or on film?  Based on their richness and quality, I'm guessing they are on film.

Good job!

Bruce

The mill was actually an old power plant, an awesome place. I got a few good shots there. The shots are all digital, haven't shot film in a long time now. Still have my film camera but couldn't afford the film now that I'm spoiled by digital.
Back when I was laid up with the back problems, the photography helped buy the groceries. So what's a guy with a bad back do? Go get a manual bandsaw mill. :D

Well done! Abandoned homesteads make for great pictures.

Here is one that isn't completely abandoned.  They still mow around it. :)


 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/20150612_120628.jpg)

Was that a rock walled cellar, or foundation?

Owls Head is an island off the tip of south west Nova Scotia in a group of islands called the Tusket Islands it is close to the Acadian community of Wedgeport where my wife is from she would spend most of the summer on the islands when she was a kid.

Here is a clip with a little info about the building on Owls Head Island.

"during the 1930s when the tuna sport fishing was big in Wedgeport a man from the United States arrived and talked some of the local businessmen into buying shares into what would be  an exclusive lodge.  The would be owner lacking funds and connections that he led shareholders to believe he had, had to abandon the island. Consequently the lodge built of stone was never completed and now has fallen into ruins."

A picture that my wife painted of the abandoned buildings on the island.



 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/18975/Photo0429.jpg)

John those are some great pictures would't it be fun to set down and they would tell you storys about there time here on earth I bet they have a bunch of them.

These are fascinating pictures. There are a lot of abandoned farms around here, likely the original inhabitants got too old to manage them and the next generation left for better opportunities. Probably many were on poor land that could not support agriculture.
I saw whole communities deserted in the prairies. Originally serviced by railroad branches to move the grain brought in by horse and wagon, the elevators and villages around them were rarely more than 20 miles apart. Roads got better, trucks came in to haul to larger distribution points closer to the main lines, the rail lines were closed and the little settlements eventually died. Others were bypassed by the new highways and left to rot.

In Village of Harrietta, MI near logging job


 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/IMG_0953.JPG) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/IMG_0954.JPG)

I reckon that I should take a picture of my old home.  :-\  I remember seeing it built in the late 40's and we moved in when I was 5 years old.  There is an excess of homes and a shortage of folks looking for homes, so it now stands abandoned.  Abandoned, but I still pay a hefty tax bill on it each year.

Harrietta, MI site


 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/IMG_0955.JPG)

Quote from: Magicman on June 21, 2015, 09:01:51 PM
I reckon that I should take a picture of my old home.  :-\  I remember seeing it built in the late 40's and we moved in when I was 5 years old.  There is an excess of homes and a shortage of folks looking for homes, so it now stands abandoned.  Abandoned, but I still pay a hefty tax bill on it each year.

Start an LP for it. ;)

It's in the LP, and part of the real estate taxes that the LP pays are for it.  If it was not for the sawmill income going to the LP, I would have to pay the taxes.

I know, it is just a game, but the IRS makes the rules.  I just figured out a way for the sawmill's income to be non-taxable....legally.

Another in the Village of Harrietta, MI


 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/IMG_0956.JPG)

Quote from: Magicman on June 22, 2015, 10:50:41 PM
It's in the LP, and part of the real estate taxes that the LP pays are for it.  If it was not for the sawmill income going to the LP, I would have to pay the taxes.

I know, it is just a game, but the IRS makes the rules.  I just figured out a way for the sawmill's income to be non-taxable....legally.

smiley_headscratch smiley_idea smiley_beertoast

Abandoned barn hidden in the grown up trees near Harrietta, MI, June 2015.


 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/IMG_0999.JPG)

A modern day abandonment, near Moorestown, MI, July 2015.


 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/IMG_1090.JPG)

Have you ever noticed how a modern day abandonment theres tons of trash laying around. About all the old homesteads around this part of the county are torn down and it is farm ground now. Half the people in our area dosen't have a clue what this country side use to look like.

It was done years ago to, they just opened the back door and tossed it. I cleaned up old trash for years from around the old farm house that dad's uncle and anyone else before we lived there created. Had a cousin the same way, when the porch and buildings was full they heaved it out in the yard.  There ain't nothing new about it. ;)

Yes, they all had their own "garbage dump" which later became sites for treasure hunters and old bottle hunters.

I remember an old guy that lived with his wife and daughter on an old road that was not very well maintained, but the road had been settled along in the 19C. He had a yard full of stuff, barns and sheds to. Mostly scrap stuff, nothing to get too excited over. But when he passed on and the family left it was bought by a guy who was a long time cleaning it up. Then he planted the house site and what there was for fields in spruce trees. They had an interesting name that you don't come across too often. The Hawthorns. My grandfather was always visiting the guy during hunting season if he had sports hunting bear. A place of many for him to pass the time and not be too far away to go check on his sport now and then to see if he had a bear. Grandfather had a circuit of old timers he'd check in on.  ;D

SD
Do you also have a circuit of old timers you check in on?  or just here on the FF ??  ;)

I'm not an old timer yet, maybe after I get my first pension check. Then I can do the circuit. ;D :D

Here are two, about a mile apart, northeast of Harrison. I'd love to have the bones of the stone house to restore.


 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/20160511_133048.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1463001140) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/20160511_113108.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1463001092) 

 (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/20160511_113142.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1463001117)

The last two pictures what a fun project that would be with a beautiful setting. Can places like that be bought ? Just curous sure could make a dandy home.