In the winter on logging opperations, they would cold deck logs because the pond would be frozen. Does anyone know how they stacked these logs with primitive 1900-1920 equipment?
Having grown up near a large abandoned mill, exploring corners of the property always had interesting things to see. (My grandfather worked there, and it shut down soon after he retired.)
One corner had evidence of a siding with a large timber structure, obviously a log dump. Nearby there were the remains of a wooden tower structure. When they shut the mill down the structures were just knocked down and left to rot.
The wooden tower would probably have been part of a system of ropes running between a few towers, which they could use to drag the logs to wherever they were going to be stored. During winter the river was frozen so they couldn’t use it for log storage.
The mill would often shut down during the winter as well.
So… help me understand. Their system would have been like a skidder? Or a high-lead? Or what…
for which part of the country are you asking about? SWFX specific in the az?
I am freelancing so not a particular place. I looked on google earth and found Portola, CA. This is north and a little east of Sacramento. There are lots and lots of douglas firs, and water bodies scattered around. Perfect!
yeah sorry, i know a little about the ops in the AZ but lucky for them most snow melts within 2-3 days after a major storm and there were no problems hahaha. all the ponds were man made and they just had guys go out and break up the ice.
I looked at some sources describing early logging in colder climes and the books by Bill Gove came to mind. These mostly describe logging in New Hampshire - Vermont area, where much of the logging took place early (before development of extensive steam-powered equipment). Admittedly, the logs of the east can tend to be smaller than those of the Pacific slope.
In the book J. E. Henry’s Logging Railroads by Bill Gove, there are a number of photos of some very large “cold deck” log storage areas. The text advises (page 89) “As the arriving train load is unloaded, the logs will be rolled by hand to the ends of long rows.” The logs are originally just rolled off the cars and lined up parallel to the track. It looks like long and relatively straight logs were then placed atop the pile to facilitate rolling additional logs over the pile to the end or to start another layer in the pile. Similarly, a “skidway” could then be also built to ease moving the logs from the pile to the mill.
“Endloaders? We don’t need no stinkin’ endloaders!”
Bill
AZ
Decking in some parts of the country, Oregon for example, implied stacking, storing, or transfer points for logs. Often when a track was put into a fresh area they would set aside one or more VERY large trees as spar poles. These would then become the rigging locations for all sorts of high wire lash ups.
A site for terms…http://content.lib.washington.edu/curriculumpackets/logging/glossary.html
Great Northwest logging photos…http://historicphotoarchive.com/subject/logging.html
see ya
Bob