The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-08-31
SCENES IN A LUMBER CAMP.
THE LIFE AND Toll OF THE BACK
WOODS LuMBERMEN.
Log Camps in the Mich'Rnn Wood'--IIow
Lumbermen Cut and H.L.I the 1recs--
The River Drive and Its Peri.

The River Drive and Its Pcil.
LAUNDERING in Michigan, now the
great American center of the indus
try, Is Il complex business needing
brains and abundant capital. Usually
the owners of some great sawmill on
the Saginaw or other Michigan river
have title to forests of pine covering
many square miles They unite with
their mill the business of getting out
the lumber from the woods, establish
ing the camps, supplying them with
provisions and attending to the thou
sand expensive details of two lines of
industry radically distinct. The camps
in the woods contain from thirty to
two hundred men each, and the one
on the Au Sable may be cited as
type Of ALL 1t is little clump of
rude buildings, hewn directly from the
primitive forest, each structure of the
log hut order. The long trees when
cut down are sawed to the needed
lengths. Then the ends are squared
by the AK and fitted to ca h other tier
above tier The larger interstces are
filled with wooden wedges, the smaller
with clay. The roofs are covered with
light logs that ,hed above with hem
10 * bark, and a few sawed timbers
supply the flooring and internal fit
tings. At one end of the camp is
placed the largest structure, used for a
stable, in which the powerful teams
of hardy horses Injured to winter haul
ing are beddel and fed. In an ad a
cent log building, fitted with tiers of
berths and with huge stove as a cen
ter piece, sleep the workmen. A little
further away is a third building, where
on benches along primitive table the
log-men eat their meals, which are
| cooked in the same structure. The
quickness with which a gang of skilled
backwoodsmen will construct one of
these camps and equip it for the win
ter is well-nigh incredible. Often two
or three days suffice, and in the Scott
and Lewis camp l was shown tight
comfortable stable, thirty-fve feet
square, twenty-five feet high to the
ridge pole, with an upper story for
hay, all put up by the hardy log men
in a day and a half. AS a rule, the
camps, when the logs are to be driven
down stream, are placed near the river
bank; but much of the wholesale log
ging of Michigan in these later times
is done along lines of temporary rail
road which penetrate to regions dis
tant from those river forests which
were the first to receive the onset of
the gre cat industry. Except, however,
in the method of finally transferring
the logs to the sawmills, railroad and
river numbering are substantially the
same.
The road through the underbrush
winds perhaps for mile to a mile and
a half away from the rivers bank into
the thicker woods where the white PINE
dttains its greatest altitude ant
diameter This is no pigmy forest
like those of the Eastern States. into
which the Michigan lumberman frs
enters, but magnificent area of pines
thirty or forty to the acre, two feet il
diameter. usually straight as plumb
Inc, and with their evergreen crests
clear hundred feet above the ground
Working in gangs of two or three tn,
log men approach one of these forest
titans. With skilled eyes they scan it
detecting instantly the least var atioI
from the perpendicular or any in
equality of weight in the branches, TIN
lowest of VIII CHI is seventy feet in ar
Next one of the gang with the a.
cuts small cash, maybe three inche
deep, in the side. Then Two, workin.
crcss-cut saw, assail the sylvan
monarch on the de opposite the cash
If the tree binds" the saw, as hap
pens but rarely, wedge driven in IT,,
cut gives relief and presently the hug
tree topples and falls to nicely in thu
direction DIES red. The comparativel,
small b ran hes are trimmed away an(
the trunk cut by the saw to the re
quisite lengths. If long timber i
needed it is severed perhaps twice, bu
!, usually the lengths run from ten t.
fifteen feet, AMI rarely or neve
are they cut above the poin
. where the trunk narrows to tel
inches diameter. Then comes tn
hardest labor OF all. Reaching int
!, the forest is long double row o
"skids," sort OF log railroad wit
one end terminated by the roadway
the other ending in two tree trunk
|
that the logs may be rolled upon then
: more eas ly. Selling the great 10
with his "pevy "a stout handle enc
ing in pike and fitte d at the side wit
sharp bent hook that looks like tn
half of an ice dealers tongs-the lun
, herman hoists the log on the skid an
: rapidly rolls it over and over to tn
a main roadway. There the stout horse
| with ropes and big nippers, fasten o
5 to the end, and the log is drawn t
| the river bank, where, brande half
dozen times at the end with the marx
: of the owners, it is either dragged {
: the ice or left on the bank to be role
a in the water later fer its spring vo,
age. This prompt and easy transpor
n alton of the log to the river bank is {
!, the first Importance in profitable lun
v bering. Usually after deep snow
f fall it is fac litated by an ingeniol
oxaaJ;ant. tomb Soma fiftaan 70,