Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-06-25
WESTERN LOGGING.
L. z Wright Tells of Conditions IN the
Oregon Lumber Region.


PORTLAND, ORE, June IA. 1902.
ERIEND GENE
Since writing you last | have had an
opportunity to see something of Oregon
logging, an account of which may be of
interest to those unfamiliar with west
ern logging. In company with f. G.
knapp, manager OF the Peninsula Lum-
Der Co, OF St. Johns, | vioited their
camps at Columbia City. This is the
company of which G. c. Barker is presi-
dent aud H. G. Stewart president
Columbia City is on the river of that
name, about 81 miles below Portland
fhe camp is back from the river about
three miles and is reached by the COM
pany''s railroad, which runs back about
1 nre miles into the timber This road is
equipped with three engines and about
80 logging cars; the trucks of each car
aud the cars themselves, are coupled
with II foot couplers, as all the logs are
cut from "A to 80 feet in length. When
not loaded the couplings telescope into
the trucks, making short train easily
handled. The camps consist of num-
ber OF small board shanties, with hunks
for eight men to shanty, instead of the
large unsanitary camps seen in Wiscon-
sin. The other buildings are similar to
our own. Iae chuck" is good and
real butter is furnished in place of
"oleo." One hundred and twenty-five
men are employed, including two crews
of section hands go Italians) and II
railroad construction hands (Austrians)
This class of American labor, boards
itself and lives in tents, out on the line
from the camp. The timber the COM
pany is working in, is principally red
tir. with some yellow and bastard fir
and red cedar. They also have some
white fir which goes to the paper mills
The timber is small for this country,
tree cutting six or eight thousand feet
being big one, but it stands thick and
runs about 80 NJ to the acre. The
cedar butts go to the mill for shingle
timber and the tops and small red fir
into piling timber 120 M feet is an
average daily cut.
Probably the greatest problem at this
camp is water The three locomotive
engines and the donkey engines drink
great deal of this and it has to be
piped and forced back into the woods
with lifting ram or pump. think
this camp has five big donkey logging
engines and three small donkey leaders.
One of the large ones being used in
moving cars. A large donkey crew
consists of engineer, fireman and wood
buck, while one man performs the
trinity of occupations for the small
donkey.
So much for the camp, crew, timber
and equipment. the actual logging /
VIII attempt to follow from the tree to
tlenzsili:
The falling is done by seven gangs of
fallers, head faller and assistant to
each gang. The rough ground and
large butts, necessitates the use of
spring boards, notch being cut into
the tree on each side, in which boards
with iron shoes are put, so that the
fallers are the same heighth from the
ground. The tree is first notched with
the saw and the notch cut out, the head
faller sighting along axe blade and saw
handle, to fall the tree where he wants
it All the timber is felled in straight
lines away from the yard where the
donkey is placed and when a strip is
down the trees lie as straight as cut
grain and there. is hardly ground
enough to fall it on. After the notching,
the tree is sawed and this struck me as
the hardest work on the job, as the big
trees run gallons of pitch and it is all
the men can d. to pull the saw, care is
taken to keep the cut even, the fallers
calling to each other how many inches
they have left Stumps are about four
or five feet high, instead of double that
heighth as was the custom before the
eastern mill men arrived.
Following the fallers, come 15 buckers
or sawyers. These sawyers work
singly and as the timber goes mostly
into long logs, two buckers can about
keep up with gang of fallers. new
thing to me and one which | think
coad be used in the Wisconsin hemlock,
where the saw so often binds, is the
''under CUTTER This is two foot bar
with two dogs, which are driven into
log, when the saw pinches or when the
cut cannot be made from the top, there
is clamp at the bottom ofthe bar which
holds a short shaft on which CORFU
rests on this wheel and the sawyer saws
from the bottom of the log. The bar is
moved further up the log as occasion
demands. A large portion of the saw
yers work is swamping place to do
his saving A good crew of fallers in
this timber will fall from 5 to 25 Nj per
day, while good bncker will saw about
10 to l5 nj per day.
Before speaking of the work of get
ting the logs to the skidways | must
speak of the skidways and donkeys.
The skidways are big proposition,
they have to be built up sometimes 20
or 80 feet at the rear and very solid,
large timbers are used and the end
where the logs are pulled on have in
clines of long logs. The timbers in
platform are often worn clear through
and must be replaced before they are
abandoned. In connection with each
platform or skidway, are two donkeys,
a small one for loading cars and large
one for pulling ia the logs. The large
engine has two drums or spools, on
which the cables are wound On one
drum runs the heavy wire cable which
pulls in the log, on the other IS a
smaller cable to pull the large cable