The record-union., 1894-05-22
THE GREAT SUGAR PINE BELT.
American River Land and Lumber
Companys Operations.
commencement of What Promises to
be Great Enterprise in This and
Ell Dorado Counties.

The Placerville Democrat of last week
contains the following account of the ex-
tensive operations OF the American River
Land and Lumber Company, whose scope
embraces FL Dorado and Sacramento
Counties:
while FL Dolado very properly
plumes herself on diversified and agri-
cultural and mining industries, she is
silent partner in an enterprise which IS
tributary to all of them. With the local
and lively interest of our readers i'll It's
progress and success, we have been at
some pains to present a reliable outline
of the logging and numbering plant'and
operations OF the American River Land
and Lumber Company, whose working
headquarters are about thirteen miles
northeast of this city.
1.-The timber lands of the company ex-
tend from the Sout! to the Middle Fork
of the American River across the George
town Divide. Tributary TO the logging
railroad OF the company are eight or ten
townships covered with sugar and yellow
pine, spruce, fr, cedar and oak, un-
eGualed for size and quality. The larg-
est tree of the first cut made two years
ago was ST inches at butt and made lis
lineal feet OF logs and aggregated $500
feet OF lumber by Spauldlng's scale.
Among the primeyal giants OF this re-
gion there are nlany measuring from
nine to ten feet IN diameter and that Will
produce 10000 feet CT lumber The esti-
mated yield OF lumber to the section OF
land belonging 10 the company is from
l5,000,000 10 35,000,o $50 of feet and that the
total number OF feet contiguous and
three billions, chiefly sugar and yellow
pine OF the finest quality.
The legs are cut and prepared III the
winter, and during the summer follow
ing they are gathered up and banked at
the railroad by heavy steam donkeyS,
which carry 1900 eet Of cable and draw
logs in trains OF five or ten at time along
the ground a milo Ga either side OF the
track. n small donkey engine loads
them on the cars, which carry 5000 to
5000 feet each. The unloading at the
head Of the chute ID also by steam. The
trains run from the timber TO the river
by gravitation on adown grade of l,l00
feet in nine miles, and the speed is regu-
lated by brakes.
By railroad. chute and river the logs are
conveyed to Folsom, where they are con-
fined in boom III Il Sack water basin,
formed by the granite dam of the kol-
som Water Power Company.
The railroad is a narrow gauge, we'll
baliasted and kent iii proper order. The
rolling stock is new, consisting of Porter
locomotives and cars of the Lima pattern.
The chute is 5000 feet long and l,l00 feet
nigh, built of spruce logs, known as
five pole chute. and capable OF carrying
logs seven feet III diameter. For its pur-
pose it is a masterpiece of engineering
The logs occupy about thirty seconds in
coming down, and drop into a still water
basin at the foot OF the chute.
The dam making this basin is a very
strong one, forty feet high, built OF cribs
and filled with slate rock and double
planked; and is provided with two gates,
fourteen feet wide and twenty feet deep,
which are used for backing up the water
letting the logs through or for flushing
the river below. Until ready for driving
the logs are confined in boom lust
above the dam.
The great boom at Folsom is forty-four
miles from the chute, and the logs are
driven on the spring floods caused by the
melting SHOWS in May or June. The
company have just started with their first
drive on the 10th OF May. They have cut
100000 feet of new logs, which, when
seasoned, will be put in the river in time
for the coming winter Hoods, thus clean
ing up and making drive the following
spring. The logs, alter arriving at the
Folsom boom, VIII be takon into a still
water basin, or pond away from the river
and near which are located the mills of
the company.
The mills Will have capacity OF 10000
feet per day, and have two band-saws. 1t
is the intention 10 work up the whole of
the logs into something. Even the slabs
will make laths and pickets; and door,
blind and sash factories will be adjuncts
of a logging, milling and manufacturing
plant which has now cost about 100000
and employs from 100 TO I50 workmen.
Thus. from it's own neck of woods to
Folsom, the American River Land aud
Lumber Company nowhere competes
with our enterprising local firms in the
lumber trade. And yet the system of
operations by which it aims to launch a
forest on the tide OF domestic and foreign
commerce has in it brave, broad and orig
inal conceptions of what can be accom-
plished by a gigantic combination of cap
ltal and labor.
In testing its theories by results, it has
for The county an unassessable interest in
current expenditures and clear back
ground OF homes, orchards and green
fields in the best dairy and fruit belt
under the sun. For a State only yes
terday dominated hy the civilization of
the cowboy and the lasso, and III which
homes, schoolhouses, churches and cities
are yet to be bniIt, the exceptional mag
nitude Of its undertaking is only equaled
by its experimental Importance.