The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-12-26
Logging in the Northwest.
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are used, In Minnesota and Michigan
horses and sleds are used, and an ice
road is made at the beginning of the
season by means of a sprinkling cart.
and In this way It is comparatively
easy to draw load quite distance
to the rollway.
In Oregon and Washington trac-
tion engines are used to haul the tim
Der from the cutting points to the
place of shipment.
On the great lakes the lumber
boats are among the largest Of the
modern water craft.
1t is quite a sight to see two me-
dium sized horses drawing an Inn
mense load of logs with so little au-
parent effort, this ease being entirely
due to the ice roadway spoken of pre-
viously.
When the trees are felled and
sawed into logs they are skidded into
piles by the side of the ice road. This
'skidding" Is done by means of a
small sled, to one end of which the
logs are fastened while the other
drags upon the ground. Modern
| skidding is done by means of a skid
ding machine. Loading logs is an
achievement of itself. 1t is done by
means Of horses or by a machine. The
banking ground, or rollway, is usu-
ally beside river or stream of somaf
kind, down which the logs are floated
to shipping point
With the breaking up of the ice in
the spring these large piles of logs
are rolled into the stream, to be
brought to the mills. This is a most
interesting and exciting time. The
drivers, as they are called, the men
who guide these immense lots of
logs, are necessarily men of strength,
quickness OF perception and nerve,
for 1t is very perilous occupation,
and in which many lives have been
lost. The most expert of these men
ride upon the swiftly moving logs,
jumping from one to another when
the case requires 1t, and being a Sec
ond too late will cost them their lives.
When, passing through some mar
rows, log is caught, causing hum
dreds of others to pile up, raising the
water and forming what is known as
jam, driver has the opportunity
to show his mettle, for this is the real
danger. There are what are called
key logs" in this jam, that is, logs
which, If released, will ease the con-
gestion, and it is locating these and
releasing them which becomes the
drivers duty. Sometimes this is not
easily done, and frequently driver
loses his life because he is not suffi-
ciently agile to escape, once the fallen
giants are released.
In many portions of the country
RATS are used, as for instance in the
South and on the Columbia River,
RATS of from $4,000 to 5000. 900
feet of logs are not uncommon. In
the early days on the great lakes RATS
were brought down to the harbors of
Lake Erie, where the sawmills were
located. For the past number of
years, however, the mills have been
located at the shipping points, and
the lumber is shipped on the boats.
There are over 800 lumber boats de-
pending for cargoes on the lumber of
Northern Minnesota, Michigan and
Wisconsin, loading at Duluth, Supe-
rior and other points.
Sometimes there is more than q
million feet OF lumber in one load,
and 1t can be readily estimated what
a statement of this kind would mean,
when one realizes that there are some
dozen or more lumber harbors on the
American side of the great lakes. CHI
cago, Cleveland, Duluth. Erie and
Tonawanda are all large distributing
points. and each has received more
than 100000 feet of lumber during
one shipping season. 1t would be In.
teresting to figure the number of car.
loads this would make, estimating the
carrying capacity of car at 400
feet.-Scientiflc American.