Logging 125 Yeargs Ago Before Gas Chainsaws

Before the chain saw they said the trees would last forever
Today's post is an amazing look at a period of our history that wasn't that long ago involving the challenges loggers faced every day to earn their wages. Remember this the next time you think your job is demanding.
Before chainsaws were invented, the logging industry in the United States & Canada was a seriously challenging occupation and we are only talking about 125 years ago. In the Pacific Northwest there were forests full of monster trees and cutting them down was done by hand.

Look at the length of the two-man hand saw and heavy duty axes they used to drop these tremendous trees. It is almost inconceivable to think of cutting a tree this size with a hand saw.

The work required very strong men (and horses) working long days for minimal pay. Could you imagine doing this to earn a living?

After a tree was finally felled it took a week or more to cut it up into sections that could be managed (somehow) and transported by train to a lumber yard.

Maneuvering the logs down the mountain to the train was a complex job. I didn't do any research on this, but I would be willing to bet that many men lost their lives doing this dangerous work. One slip and a hunk of wood as big as a hotel is rolling your way! The other question that begs an answer is how did they get those logs onto the flatbeds of that train?

Hollowed out logs became the company's mobile office. Can you imagine stacking such logs to build a log home? Two courses would produce a 30Åå ceiling. Maybe that's why it was easier to hollow out a tree.

A long time before anyone ever thought of a "mobile home or RV" hollowed out logs were also used to house and feed the logging crews.

We are accustomed to our modern conveniences like electricity and gasoline powered chainsaws, and it is always such a mind-boggling experience to see how such monumental tasks were performed before these conveniences appeared on the scene.
Share this with your friends, even those who don't live in a log home will enjoy this 'blast from the past'!

Got this in an email . I tried to add captions to the pics as they were above the pics in the email , but it didn't work right .

Whizkid

It may have been a very rough job for little pay for the workers but the companies made mega bucks while destroying entire ecosystems or at least around here they did.

A giant Bald Cypress cut by Lyon Lumber Company in the Maurepas Swamp; early 1900's time period.



Once they cut the trees down they really had no way to get it out of the swamp except to drag them out with large winches on pull boats.



They clear cut thousands of acres. The canals they dug to get the pull boats in and the ditches left from dragging the trees across the ground for sometimes up to 1/2 a mile allowed salt water intrusion into a fresh water swamp killing just about everything and causing several animals to go extinct or very close to it.
Even today 100 years later you can see the wheel scares of the pull boats in aerial photos of the forested land.

Aren't Cypress a very slow growing tree. Like we will never again see Cypress trees that big again.

Hard to believe. My oldest daughter and I toured the Museum of Appalachia (north of Knoxville, Tn) a few years back....they had photos and story of a fellow who raised a large family in a hollow sycamore tree! That was the era of giants----both trees and men. Thanks for posting.

You don't see much of the "big burly" lumberjack in those pictures do you? Back then the average weight of a "jack" was about 150 lbs, of course they were a couple inches shorter also. Too bad those giants are mostly all gone now.

Actually this goes back to just before WWII, when the gasoline chain saw first came on the scene. Ever see some of those early two man saws? Running one for ten hours a day made a double bit axe look inviting. Even in the 50s I remember my uncles took down trees with two man saws. Handle bars on each end, and an engine the size of a small motorcycle.

Yes Bald Cypress is in the Cupressaceae family.
The family is notable for including the largest, tallest, and stoutest individual trees in the world, and also the second longest lived species in the world. It also includes the giant redwood of the west coast.

It's hard to believe as many smaller trees as there are around they would want to go to the amount of work to cut down these larger trees.

"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools." John Muir

Amazing photos - have never seen any like this. Thanks for posting.

they worked too hard to be big and burly, but i dont think i would want any one of them mad, and looking for me! those are some rough ol boys

Bet he lived in a house built from timber though

If those trees weren't cut down back then who knows if they would even be alive today. Like every living thing trees have lifespans, they also have disease, drought, fire, etc to worry about.

Stephen--------I would guess the reason that they chose this tree would be that it was "half dead". See the cambium missing on the lower half of the tree, as it is lying on the ground.

I have a book titled "The Glory Days of Logging" with similar pictures. Another one that impresses me is this of a lumberjack standing on top of a very tall tree he just topped to use as a spar. They put rigging on spars to pull logs up from the surrounding area. I hope this picture shows the guy standing on top of one these.

Great images of American history.

I may try grabbing a few and printing them for display.

Thanks for posting.

Brad

Old Logging Photos!!!

http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2008/12/some-old-logging-photos-from-around.html

Thanks kids, real good stuff. My dad was lumberjack back then. Never got no pix. He was born in 1898-1968 died. Probably got into some of that stuff. Never thought about it being so big. Dave

Someone said, "We'll never see trees that big again." Well of course WE won't. Silvaculture is one of those areas where you have to think in generational terms. What you plant today your kids or grandkids or great grandkids will harvest. Trees grow, they don't care a hoot about mans short life span.

Peoples arrogance, the thinking that because we use a resource that somehow it will never be there again, always amazes me. Big, "old growth" trees die and fall over just like we do, it's just a much longer period.