Gilpin observer., 1911-03-16

elght TO ten miles distant from your nearest
neighbor. II you should SO choose to SETTLE
among group of steep up-and-downs, quite
moved from wagon road, little nearer to
trail. and yet greater and laborious overland
distance from sawmill. 1t is obvious that you
will have to depend to a great degree, upon your
own resources and upon your ability to create
with your own hands from those things which
nature has provided in a well-wooded country.
Imagine yourself placed in one Of these val
leys upon one of these foothills with no great
er amount of baggage, tools and provisions than
could be conveyed over a country of this char
acter with yoke Of Then. to be COM
manded, Here is the forest and all it contains;
go, prepare for yourself your future abode"
This is story OF home making under such
conditions. The progress Of the work is illus
trated and in its completion other than the
raw materials of the forest entered into the struc
ture its furnishings. save small amount of
hardware and incidentas forming a portion of the
initial supplies brought In as settlers outfit
Two young men. homesteaders both city Bred
completed the entire work. unasssted.
or the tools used the doube-bitted per-
formed the greater portion Of the heavy work. 1t
followed in the wake of the crosscut after
the Telling OF the trees. and. from then
the chief implement Of construction. With 1t
every duty of preparing the logs for raising them
into their positions in the building was most ade-
quately performed. First it scored the logs
lengthwse, on two opposite sides. ready for wedg-
ing and splitting into semicircuar halves. Then
It followed the tool for hewing the fiat sur
faces Of the half-logs, which, completed formed
the smooth inside walls Of the dwelling After
each log had been raised into position came the
task Of "notching down." which required even
more skill In the use Of an Those few OF the
native inhabitants Of the forest who most pro-
fcent in making the dovetailed notches which
are necessary In completing a perfect set OF
interlocking tmbers are known corner men"
At native house raising the ones chosen for the
work usually skilled woodsmen residing in
widely separated settlements among the hills
How well this part Of the work done by two
young men totally unaccustomed to pioneer life
is better illustrated In the series of photographs
which shows each opera OF preparing
the logs and raising the framework Of the structure
In going on to the flooring, shingling, window
framing, partitioning finishing and furnishing
you would know how 1t all accomplished in
the absence OF the products of and plan
ing mill or any OF the manufactures essential
to building construction and home making
Five very common tools constituted the board
making outfit This primitive substitute for a
Bawmil included ak; two three steel
wedges and many, hand made. Of hickory; a
frow, with hickory handle, the blade made of a
section OF iron tire; mallet and a maui each
cut from unseasoned hickory timber
The selection of perfect board trees" is
guess work to degree as practiced by the ma
tives. Out OF every four trees chosen by the
woodsmans system OF Identifying marks. usually
only one is perfectly adaptable to board making
by the method Of splitting with mallet and frow.
The most reliable way to select the right kind
OF timber is to observe the general trend Of the
crevices In the bark The course Of these lines
should be nearly perpendicular with the trunk
Another good method OF judging a straight
grained trunk is to note the distribution and the
general design Of the scaly. turtle-shell patches