The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-11-14
Another Big Enterprise.

EDITORS INTELLIGENcER: Messrs. Rus.
sell & Lawrence inaugurated new phase
of the lumber business on the Keowee
River some few years ago, which, though
not successful in this first effort in new
direction, yet blazed the way for other par
ties with greater facilities and more abun-
dant capital to come in and reap rich har
vest upon their Investment. Messrs. Jen-
nings g., of Tennessee have located
steam saw mill plant on the Seneca River,
just below the junction of the Keowee and
Twelve Mile Rivers, where they have
spared either pains nor expense in estab-
fishing saw mill plant, constructed on
the most improved plan now known in the
United States. This plant, with all the
appliances, has cost about $4,000, and will
cut 10000 feet of lumber per day, Thu
logging necessary to keep this improved
machinery in operation, is cut in the noun
tains and Aoated down the Keowee and
tributaries to the location of the mill,
where an ingenious aud expensive con-
trivance is constructed in the stream, call
ed a boom, to stop and hold the logs until
they can be carried from the water to the
carriage on the mill, where they are ripped
up into suitable lumber for the great mar
kets of the United States. The contri-
vance for the transportation of the logs
from the water to the mill is ingenious
and efectiye It is miniature railway,
with iron dogs, or clamps, on frame,
which is floated under the log, and then
raised up until the log is clamped, and
then transported by steam to the carriage
on the mill. Everything is done by steam
power, and the logs are not squared, but
ripped into thick lumber, through and
through. The bark edge is ripped off by
little saw attached to The mill. This mill
can rip up log four feet through-indeed,
any log that can lie on the carriage under
the girders Of the roof, can be ripped up on
this saw. The sa77 itself is of the most
improved pattern-cslled band saw-and
cuts only an eighth of an inch. This band
saw, as it's name indicates, is just steel
band, with teeth cut into the band.
Having an inexhaustable supply of logs
on the head waters Of the Keowee streams,
these gentlemen cue only the most valua-
BILE timber, such as poplar, ash, DC. The
only natural drawback to the success of
the enterprise is the lowncss of the water
in these streams, such dry fall as the
present one has been. Notwithstanding
this unusual drawback, yet these enter
prising gentlemen spend about thousand
dollars month among the mountaineers
in cutting and hauling logs to the streams.
In hauling the logs they use nothing but
oxen, with no wheels of any kind. They
just move over bushes and small saplings
with their oxen, and when they come to
log they grab it with iron dogs or clamps,
and hitch one, two or more yokes, as may
be necessary. according to the size of the
log, to drag it to the edge of the stream.
The last good rise in the stream 1900 logs
were transported to the mill. For this
lumber, of the choicest kind, they get $25
per hundred in the New 4ork market, so
that with ordinary seasons for Transports
ton of logs these gentlemen are assured of
reasonable profit on their investment.
ALI such industries should be encouraged
by the people of the South, and yet, strange
to say, there are some persons so selfish
that they only regard these gentlemen as
suitable for skinning. These gentlemen
are not beggars, and only ask for living
chance among Us and proper encourage
ment, and they will build up an industry
that will develop this mountain country
more than anything else. The timber of
this region is the most valuable portion of
its natural resources, and only waits the
capital of other more fortunate sections to
develop it. T. II. R.