SAWMILL: THE STORY OF CUTTING THE LAST GREAT VIRGIN FOREST EAST OF ROCKIES: The Story of Cutting the Last Great Virgin Forest East of the Rockies
“A valuable historical record of an era where written history is sparse.”— Choice MagazineIn Arkansas, social history and the natural environment are closely linked, and Ken Smith writes with a sharp eye on both. His beautiful Buffalo River Country remains a classic, his latest work, the encyclopedic Buffalo River Handbook, informs and delights, but Sawmill may be his most important book. This detailed account of logging in the Arkansas and Oklahoma Ouachita Mountains during the first half of the 20th Century allows the reader to walk the vast uncut forests, hear the bite of the ax and the saw, and see the literal coming of age for the lumber industry in Arkansas, along with its subsequent passing.A great lover of Arkansas' natural heritage, Ken even-handedly tells the story of the mills and the once virgin forests, and of the people whose lives were intertwined with the fortunes of the industry. And whether he is describing the intricate dance between the sawyer and the band saw or the style of the black baseball teams sponsored by the company, he writes with genuine respect for the most significant accomplishment of the era: large numbers of jobs, especially during the Depression. In Ken's epilogue, the passing of the old cut-and-get-out style of lumbering is recorded, and the mention of new companies, like Weyerhaeuser Company, is made. Now, in first decade of the 21st Century, as we face these "new" companies moving on as well, Sawmill provides valuable backstory for, of all things, the future.—Dana Steward,editor of A Rough Sort of Beauty: Reflections on the Natural Heritage of Arkansas