Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1886-09-25
A IOGGER'S LEE.
PerilS and PrivatiOnS OF the
Maine Lum bernen.
How Logs are Driven From the Distant
Wilds to the Lumber Mills.


greatest lumber market of the world, |
though doing a much smaller business |
than in Penobscot's palmy days, is still |
the home of expert loegcrs and drivers |
ana the headquarters for the most ap- |
proved kinds Of lumbermen's imple-
ments. Such is the fame of Bangor
cant-dogs and axes and batteaux that
operators in the comparatively new log
ging regions Of the west and far-oH Pa
cific slope send here for them But it is
the men of the Pcnobscot who are prin-
cipally sought, not for cutting the logs,
for almost anybody can swing an axe,
but for the perllous work Of driving the
logs through rapid waters and over roar
ing falls and swift rapids Every spring
when the trees have been fclled and
when the warm sun has transformed
frozen streams into rushing torrents, men
from the Kenncbcc and Connecticut
come to Bangor to hire crews who are
clever with the axe and cant-dog, and
who are not afraid to break Jam or
sleep on the bare ground in a single
blanket. They are especially anxious to
get Bangor boys when they have hard
drive in prospect, Cor they know that the
Penobscot red-shirters will pull them
through if it is possible thing.
Not many people understand how logs
are driven from the wilds where they are
cut SO many miles to the great booms
near the mills where they are sawn into
lumber. 1t is peculiar and hazard
Gus work, and when lot of drivers start
away for the headwatcr with their pick
poles, cant-dogs and axes it is just as
natural to expect somo of them never
will come back alive as it would be in
case of a company Of soldiers starting for
battlefield. After the loggers get
through dumping the logs over into the
| frozen streams but brief period ensues
before the SHOWS and ice melt and carry
the big spruce sticks in great masses
down stream and create big jams, back
ing the water up SO that many of the
logs are floated over submerged flats, to
be left high and dry when the first de-
tachment of drivers break the jams and
let the water loose. Then the drivers
work begins. The grounded logs, in the
upper country where horses cannot be
used, must be carried to the streams by
the men, and often it requires twenty
strong drivers, wading knee deep in
mud, to carry a single stick to the water.
The farmers whose meadows are thus
strewn with bess often claim the timber
as a recompense for the obstruction 1t
causes to their operations, and at times
they appear with shotguns to prevent the
drivers from carrying of the logs. But
the boss driver orders his men to "brina
that stuff down." and the 'stuff' gener-
all comes.
Several crews are employed on a drive
of any considerable size, one at the head,
or lower end, others along the line and
one at the rear There are many rocks,
rapids and falls where the moving mass
is>ikely to jam, and these places must be
carefully watched to prevent general
changing up of the logs. Sometimes
one big stick, caught on a rock, vii
hold back hundreds Of thousands Of feel
and then some daring fellow is ordered
+p cI .I,a~ 4,
ton 1t is at the risk Of his lfc II
must be quick, for at the last stroke O.
his ak the big log snaps assunlcr with
boom like that Of a cannon and then there
is q tremendous stampede Of all the log
behind it. II the driver Is lucky an
agile he gets ashore all right, .capin-
from log to log, but one m;Sstcp or !
little slowncss Is likely TO porcipitate
him into the secthing mass, aul il it i
ever found below, his body Is manced
almost beyond recognition Genera !,
it is. never found. \, tie drive pro
crosses the men follow, through tAe
woods or along the rocky. uneven shore:
after II, the '"angau-s, oE eoipmis>ari
departments Of the d.Ierca gangs
going on before. The dr.vtr work
as long Is 1t is Light enough
TO see a log, and when the moon Is bri-h
they often 20 to WORK At ) o'clock in tn
morning and continue ua..L the aast -lira
mer Of twilight; Then they 81, the.
plentiful bu. coarse evening meal aad
wrapped in their blankets; lie down :.
sleep NAitc they sleep, which seems :,
them bu, an hous, the '.&ancaa' move
ahead FIVE O. SIX miles, ard when the,
awake there Is th4: distance to walk
through the WOODS before breakfast
The japanese believe in bathing. Pub