Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-04-06
Correspondence of the Heraid.l
Pineries of the Menominee.

S"sinS" " Jo"l IVY Isl
among the lumber camps. | have
seen the magnitude of their opera,
tons, and had a glimpse of these inn
mense tracts of pine forest. Two
weeks ago, wishing to take holiday,
Prot. Blackman, who teaches the
Spencerian department in the Mari
nette schools, joined me in an
EXCURSION.
up the river. We started at 8 A. NJ,
well equipped with furs, robes, lunch
con, gun, &c, with snug sleigh and
knowing pony that was very apt |
to play off" and pretend to be
worthless. Crossing into Michigan,
we took up the level, we'll beaten |
road up stream for the first six
miles we found quite a number Of
houses and settlers. At last, ten
miles from the mouth of the river,
we reached
THE FIRST CAMP,
and at once stopped TO investigate.
As all the camps are much alike, a
description may be given. Two
broad, low, log buildings, each near
30 feet square, constitute camp.
The one for the men is called the
shanty the other is a barn for OK
and horse teams. Each camp has
two, three, or four teams, and men
in proportion usually l6, 20 or "a.
The shanty contains one large room,
with hunks an the side, stove in the
center, dining table at the end, and
all the rude appliances of forest life
arranged to take up the least space
The roof is covered with cedar bark,
shakes" or shingles The floor,
hunks, tables and seats are of plank,
hewn with the ak. The heater is
huge affair; sometimes long hori-
zontal cylinder of sheet IRON, large
enough for cord~wood, and some>
times part of steam mills smoke,
stack, standing on end in the ashes
and earth, and filled with dry, pitchy
pine, filling the air with heat, smoke,
and lamp-black.
THE MEN
that compose a camp are as follows:
The boss, whose word rules every
thing the scaler who scales or tax es
correct estimate of every foot of
lumber the logs will yield, as fast as
hauled, and records tie same; the
cook, person of great consequence
in the woods the cookie, who hew>
err of wood, drawer of water, dishrwi-
per, bean assorter and general waiter
on the cook the swamper, or civil
engineer to lay out roads and keep
them in repair, from the choppers to
the river the Transfers, one to each
team, whose pride and strife is to
haul the largest loads, and make the
best days work, and the choppers,
who fell the trees and saw them into
logs Is, l6, or II feet long.
THE TEAMS AND sLEDs
are the best and stoutest that the
wealth of the companies can procure.
The loggng-sleds require special
mention, being of the sort known as
Zone beam bobs." The long, low
runners are often feet apart. A
bent iron bar forms each rave which,
with iron pins, holds in place the
massive beam of maple. The rear
sled attaches to the other by roller
and short tongue. Every joint is
made as loose as possible, and faced
with iren to prevent wear. 1t is the
loggers pride to have sleds that will
adapt themselves to every surface of
ground, stumbling and shackling
along the road in that peculiar loose
way that enables a team to handle
immense loads.
THE eCALER
at this camp, J. G. Sherman, know
ing US we'll, invited Is out to the rlv-
er bank to see load rolled off and
scaled. So, to avoid the deep snow,
we rode in our sleigh to look on.
There were seven logs on The sled
averaging } feet in diameter, four
lying on the beams, three on the top
of those. They usually haul fewer
logs, but larger ones. But before
seeing the
it was our pleasant luck to regale
the scaler and teamstor with a SINH
lar spectacle. | refined out into a
smooth expanse of snow, where the
bottom was rtreacherous, and soon
had the pleasure of pitching the
Prof. head Grst into the snow by a
complete turnover. The sleigh being
on her beam ends, / cody walked
oUtofit over the PROSTATE Backman.
who lay buried, with his feet tied up
in buffaloes, unable to rise, but brave
ly holding the gun up above the
snow at present arms" lest it go
off or get wet. After helping dig out
the Prof. and the other articles, we
repacked our load, and looked on to
see Jim. scale and record the figures,
put the Co.'S. stamp on the ends of the
logs with the marking-hammer, and
roll them off the sled and over lev
ell pile of logs which formed quite a
pier from the high bank into the
stream. From this roll-away they
tumbled some 10 feet to the ice be.
low. The bank for a long distance
was succession Of these roll WAYS ::
and most Of the teamsters were sent
further down the stream where they
drove onto the ice and there deposits
ed their logs as thick as they could
lie. There were q million feet of
lumber to be seen at once at that
point.
Leaving friend Jim. still laughing
at our-that is, the Professors snow.
bath, We drove on through the tall
forests of pine, thousands of acres
which are blackened with fire. the
dead trunks standing to be ruined by
the borers. Fearful fires rage here
in dry seasons. Woodsmen estimate
a waste of % million feet of lumber
annually from this cause, but last
year 100 millions. If the logs can be
cut the first year after the fire, they
are saved, but if left longer, they are
total loss. Now and then we pass
camp, or meet team, and we stop
to feed at log tavern % miles from
home. At2 p NJ xva aoa;n ,,;1t