The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1895-03-01

Mining for Cedar Logs.


ever been given to the subject. Now
and then paragraphs may have ap-
peared in the papers, but they appar-
emily attracted very little attention
When one speaks of mining cedar
the impression is usually that petrifed
cedar is meant. 1t is nothing of the
Sort Ages and ages ago a forest of
cedar trees waved its multitudinous
branches in the breezes about Cape
May. They were superb monarchs of
the forest, many of them, and they
met their death in some violent man
ner. They fell PROSTATE perhaps
through the agency of some terrible
storm, and perhaps through some tre-
mendous earthquake.
At all events they did not rot away,
but were laid down in their prime,
these stalwart cedars. One way is
that the forest forest was one of wide
extent, and that it stood in a lake or
swamp of fresh water. '.Then," says
DIR. Maurice Beasley and Clarence
Dening, geologists of standing, "either
the half-submerged land on which
the forests stood sank lower and the
trees collapsed into the lake or the
swamp, or else the sea burst the bar
rier which had separated it from the
trees, and, rushing down upon them,
wreaked widespread destruction.
Possibly the tumult of the inrushing
ocean was sufficient to Overturn the
gigantic trees by the force of the
waves and by the undermining of
their roots, but they may have been
done to death in more gradual way
by the destruction of their of their
life at the roots by salt water. Down
they all went, however, into the soft
muck in which their roots were inn
bedded, sinking deeper by reason of
their tremendous weight. The mold
of centuries of leaves closed over
them, as if they had been babes in
woods, and the festive plesiosaurus
and the melancholy pterodactyl knew
them no more. After life's fitful fever
they slept we'll, and if trees have any
sense of feeling and subtle inner con-
sciousness, the grim old fellows must
have thought it all up with Them
But it was not so to be.
The resurrection time began away
back in the year 1912, when some pro-
sale South Jerseymen, delving the
earth, hit upon cedar log and haul
it out to the light of day. 10 the
surprise of every one it was found to
be in a fine state of preservation. It
had been successfully protected from
decay by the peculiar qualities of the
soil about, one of the strange acci-
dents of nature which set scientists
agape now and then. 1t did not take
long for the natives to reason that
there might be more logs of the same
sort in the vicinity. So they went
about plunging an iron rod into the
soil. When the iron struck something
hard, and after they had satisfied
themselves that the substance was
wood and not stone, they attacked the
| earth with their shoyels and soon had
another cedar laid bare. Practically
the same process is pursued to this
dav, and thousands of feet OF excel
lent timber have been procured since
the mining of cedar began.
The trees often lie over one another,
and sometimes in heaps, as dead men
Law on some of the battlefields of the
Civil War. The miner usually has
little trouble in striking wood" One
or two little jabs into the soft soil
sometimes suffices to locate a log.
When the prod strikes a log the miner
chips off piece with the sharp point
of the tool, which brings the splinter
to the surface when drawn out of the
muck.
By the appearance OF this chip the
exnerienced miner can at once tell
whether the log is sound or rotten.
IF II is sound he at once falls to work
to prod up and down its length, until
he determines how long it is. This
ascertained, he goes at the mining.
He works a saw similar to those used
in cutting ice down into the EARTH
sewers the tree near its roots and also
at the top. The log is then ready 70
he arised. A ditch is dug down to the
loo the trunk is loosened by the cant
hooks. and it rises with the water 10
the surface of the ditch. A very odd
thing happens to the logs when they
rise to the surface-they invariably
turn bottom side up in the water
To haul the log off to the mill is then
very simple matter.