https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C17Jc85Ts0M
Saw this video on You Tube, an interesting account of how in 1938 a massive hurricane hit New England, and destroyed thousands of acres of timber land. And how a great effort was mobilized to salvage the 1.6 to 2 billion board feet of timber before it rotted, or became a huge fire risk. Lots of vintage logging and sawmilling pics, and neat historic details. How the surplus was used for the war effort in WWII, and that the fallen timber actually helped lead to the New England fall colors of today.
Resonator,
Just watched the video. Super interesting!
The hurricane of 1938 is still talked about here in RI particularly by some of the remaining old timers who lived through it. A follow up story is the RI fires of 1942. Dozens of wildfires broke out within the first couple days of May burning huge areas in the State. Many were right around government owned storage buildings with millions of board feet of lumber from the hurricane being held for the war effort. Several of these storage buildings were lost. While not proven it is thought to have been sabotage going after that lumber.
great video! thanks rez!
Thanks. The guy that made it mainly does racing and "gearhead" history video's with his channel, but has done different subjects also. He has a great radio announcer voice, and does thorough research with whatever topic he covers.
Interesting to see the historic photos, and realize how much strenuous hand labor it took, by an army of men, to harvest all the timber and turn it into lumber.
Interesting, thanks for posting.
Amazing!
My brother did a summer CCC program. Not sure how he got selected but may have been for youth struggling a bit. They did conservation stuff for the summer. He ended up in Fort Collins, Colorado and did a semester in college on a mountain where they cut their own firewood and lived in a cabin/barracks. He was going into forestry but met his wife and that was that.
An interesting topic for sure as it effected me directly. My father and uncle set up a sawmill on my grandfather's farm after the hurricane. I remember as a kid playing in the sawdust pile as the sawdust was blowing out of a pipe over our heads. I loved to watch the trucks come and unload the logs onto the deck. My mother hated it when I came into the house covered with sawdust both outside and inside my clothes. My father told me that the ponds and lakes in the area were filled with logs to keep them sound.
I remember playing in the woods with my brother and cousins on the many huge downed trees and this was 20 years after the storm.
There were lots of family stories told about the hurricane.
Great Video Res! Thanks for posting it. I saved it for a Sunday morning watch and I'm glad I did. I had no idea this went on and it may tie into some small family timber sales back in that time frame. I have the weekly sheets from those and I have to dig them out and check the dates.
Very nicely researched video.
There is a book titled Thirty Eight by Stephen Long but I have not read it
Doc's comment got me thinking. When did the CCC go away?
My recollection for my brother I think was mid 70s
1933-1942
Civilian Conservation Corps - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps)
I will ask my brother. maybe I have the letters wrong, or it is a kickoff. I think he signed up via the local Junior college. I remember it kept him busy and set him in a direction that was good.
Youth Conservation corps, Young Adult Conservation Corps, and Related Programs. In 1970, a 3-year pilot Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) program began—it became fully established in 1974. It was designed to further the development and maintenance of natural resources by America's youth between the ages of 15 and 19.
AWAKENING OF ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS 1968-1975 - Forest History Society (https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/u-s-forest-service-publications/general-publications/highlights-in-the-history-of-forest-conservation/table-of-contents/awakening-of-environmental-awareness-1968-1975/)
I worked for the YCC for 2 summers.
I was the one that knew how to move rayrock
There were city kids that had no idea how to get dirty.
I thought everyone knew how to work outside. :wacky:
Red: I had not seen the Stephen Long book before. Just ordered a used hard copy.
Cutter: I guess you are one of the old timers I mentioned who lived it. Hiking and riding my horse the forests of RI I have found many former sawmill sites from the recovery effort.
There was a YCC camp near Neshkoro WI. I don't know the years of operation but do remember seeing some of their crews in the mid to late 80's. They did among other things lots of trout stream restoration in our area. Leading to some very highly rated trout streams. 15 or so years ago I got involved with a group that was leasing the former YCC camp from the DNR and trying to run some youth education programs out of it. This project ended up going nowhere and the camp facility was too far gone to save. Large dining hall facility on a bend in the river right at the confluence of the Mecan River and Wedde creek. Also a series of bunk cabins organized in a circle under some impressive red pines. I believe at this time all buildings have been removed. The interesting part was hearing the stories of the former YCC members during a reunion that was organized. Some participants came because they wanted to experience the outdoors, others came because judges required it. Either spend your summer in the woods or in jail.... Made for an interesting group mix I'm sure. Pretty strict place. When leaving camp you had to place your name on a buddy type board. When returning you had to place your name back on the in camp portion. If you forgot you were presumed dead and had to dig your own grave. Other infractions got people to fill in those dug graves. I saw the collection of shovels, they had a pretty good number. Its unfortunate to see programs like this go away. It was clear that it made a lasting impact on those that I met. There are so many kids that could benefit in one way or another.
I worked for YCC in the summer of 1980. Our program was not a camp - it was day work and you went home at the end of each day. We had to be there for 40 hrs per week but 10 of those hours were unpaid and used for conservation classwork and an occasional field trip. As I recall, the program aimed to get teens from various income classes and backgrounds to work together. If my memory is accurate, we were paid $3.00 per hour for 30 hrs a week. We worked pretty hard too. I have a YCC patch somewhere.
still cutting maple which was leaned over during the storm. those trees have a distinctive lean to the northwest on the neighbors woodlot.
It would have been a stand of poles at that point. grown up field noone would have messed with.
also can see pit and mound lower down the valley which obviously got the wind out of the southeast.
NE Woodburner, that is how I remember it too.
No grave digging where I was. :huh?
We was all high school kids.
We had dorms and a retired Nayy cook. He took one look at me, and said, I'll put some weight on you.
I spoke right up and said, I am ready.
That guy could cook and I could eat. His name was Gene.
He never did put any weight on me.
I went back as a Youth leader the next year and he still could not put weight on me.
He use to come out and see me eat sometimes.
We went to Baxter State park and they had tents to sleep in.
We even had a rec room.
QuoteHe never did put any weight on me.
Not to side track the thread...
But a little historic trivia in "Old England" (Europe), a persons weight was measured in units of 14 pounds, called "stones". rayrock rayrock rayrock ffsmiley
early metric system!?. no wonder those English are happy with metric now. ffcheesy ffcheesy ffcheesy
Interesting video, thanks for sharing.
I remember my grandfather talking about this storm. In the aftermath, he got what I believe were red pines as part of a replanting program through the state. They had planted a hillside with them to act as a windbreak. A cousin harvested a bunch to build a cabin about 20 years ago as they were starting to decline but I believe there is a couple left.
Ray should be able to understand being weighed in stones😂
There was a big storm that went through my area during the same time period, they called it the "Hurricane of Cass Lake" or something. I'll have to see if I can find an article about it.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5378570.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjghpLg9ciMAxXWL9AFHbsHJP4QFnoECCIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1M_RtfahcYeyk_4AzbBfMN
It says that timber was laid down in a "20 mile swath from Bemidji to Grand Rapids" which is a distance of about 60 miles. This is also the exact same track that a powerful storm took in 2012.
We lost all of the big pines on our place, there were areas of Federal property behind ours that had some really nice, 100+ year old Red and White Pine that was just flattened👎 There were probably millions of board feet laid down on the Chippewa National Forest in both storms.
Quote from: Resonator on April 08, 2025, 08:44:07 AMa persons weight was measured in units of 14 pounds, called "stones". rayrock
So a stone's throw would be how far you could chunk your lumber :huh? ffcheesy
We had a wet raw weekend so I read the copy of "Thirty-Eight" that had arrived. It is an easy, intersting read that covers a lot more than just the actual logging recovery itself. The meteorology of hurricanes and why 38 had an unusual track in our minuscule view of time. Why the New England forests were of the make up they were at the time. The inventive fast response of the Forest Service, which could never happen now with the status of our government. The huge push for fire prevention clean up. And then the log recovery and sawing of 2.6 billion bf. Just think the chainsaw was not invented for almost 10 years.
It's amazing to me that the Germans were hitting English cities with rockets, while we were still putting wood up with whiplash and horses.
Keep in mind back in the day, having a "work gang" of many men doing hard labor on any job was the standard practice. Mechanization with gas engines was still relatively new and catching on, especially in rural areas. Where blacksmiths to make tools, and stables with horses, were common. And they were what people were used to using, and knew they could rely on to do the job, day in and day out.