# When Logs Were Logs and Men Were Men



## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

For all you folks who like your lumber straight from the tree, here's how it looked in the days before chainsaws.


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## saddletramp (Mar 6, 2011)

Too Cool. I can't even imagine ….........................................................


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## Woodwrecker (Aug 11, 2008)

Glad they don't cut down those gargantuan ones anymore.
(the ones that remain that is)

Anything that's been around that long should be "home free".


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## miles125 (Jun 8, 2007)

If i just had one of those to carve a giant fishing lure out of…..


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## 280305 (Sep 28, 2008)

Wow - those are some amazing old photos.

Thanks for posting this Charlie.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Charlie: Some fantastic pictures. The one with the train puts a giant log into perspective.


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## grizzman (May 10, 2009)

your right on this, yep..tree's were tree's, and men were men…...so did they say, oh wait my carpel tunnel is acting up, or oh my back aches today, or, hey my shoulder has got some spurs in it…..for some reason i think the men back then were either tougher then what i see today…..or possibly the genetics of men today is different….i dunno…....but those guys got it done…no power taking those giant tree's down….....


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## LeeJ (Jul 4, 2007)

Incredible photos, Charlie.

Hard to imagine cutting one of those trees down!

Lee


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## Porchfish (Jun 20, 2011)

Nice find Charlie, of course we remember using man-hole covers for face plates and turning rascals like these, right buddy !


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## jerkylips (May 13, 2011)

Grizz - you forgot, "can we do this when the sun comes out, I have seasonal-affective disorder"... ha!!

I don't think it's genetics, it's the way our society has 'evolved'. Every kid gets a "participation trophy", no one loses, kids are coddled & told they can do no wrong from the time they're born….by the time they're adults all of the alpha male has been brainwashed out of them..


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## richgreer (Dec 25, 2009)

Between 1905 and 1910 my Grandfather, who was in his teens at the time, spent his winters as a LumberJack in North Dakota.

He has told me some great stories about what it was like to harvest trees with nothing more than hand tools and horses. Some lumberjacks were cutters (using 2 man saws) and some were axe men who cleared the branches off the fallen trees, but more than half the crew in any camp (including my grandfather) were in transport. It was their job to load up the sleds and haul the trunks out of the forest.

I still marvel at how hard that work had to have been.

b.t.w. - There is a great replica of a lumber camp in Minnesota. If you ever visit it, you also appreciate what lumber camp was like.


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## BillWhite (Jul 23, 2007)

You can bet that I would not have wanted to get into a fist fight with any of those guys.
Bill


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## GaryC (Dec 31, 2008)

Put together all the sawdust they created and you'd have enough wood for years of projects


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

Okay what I want to know is just HOW did they get those cars / horse and buggy on top of that log?

FWIW there are still a few of those monsters around in the Northwest. Last time we were up in Oregon, I remember driving through a big beetle kill area, and seeing a couple of those still standing. Quite dead from the beetles. Now that lumber should be harvested and used instead of just going to waste and being a fire hazard…


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## jusfine (May 22, 2010)

Great photos, thanks for posting them!


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

Cool photos, thanks Charlie.


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## roman (Sep 28, 2007)

awesome

google "old american chestnuts"………….who knew


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## mtenterprises (Jan 10, 2011)

Bill White - Fist fight hell those guys used to fight with their "corks"* inflicting pock mark type wounds.
MIKE


Corks or Boot Caulks, the proper term, are like golf shoes only with longer spikes.


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## Grandpa (Jan 28, 2011)

I think that photo with the cars on top doesn't show where the tree meets the soil on the side. It is real. In 1876 or earlier I guess, there was a big 100 year national celebration in Philadelphia. Each state got to send something representative of their state. California cut a giant redwood and sent it as their entry. They cut it into segments and doweled it together when they took it off the rail cars. It was not allowed in the display because trees don't grow that large. They called it a California hoax. The stump remains in the Kings Canyon National Park. It is called the Centennial Stump. It is 22 feet in diameter. I wonder if the train photos are of the Centennial Tree?


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

That's quite a log, *Charlie*. I sure wouldn't want to be on either end of that saw. :-|

helluvawreck
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com/


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

Ahhh… to get my hands on some true old growth lumber. A rare sight anymore. Sad actually.

Wherever did you find these old photos?


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## Manitario (Jul 4, 2010)

amazing photos! My wife's response to looking at them "I want a house made out of a log"


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## NBeener (Sep 16, 2009)

Back when Parks made their 144" planer …... ;-)


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## ryansworkshop (Dec 2, 2011)

Nice post. By scale these seam to be 12'-17' diameter.


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

My brother - in -law told me his dad was reclaim logging here in WA in the 50s and 60s. That is going back for the slash those guys left. They only took the cream of the crop. The slash they left were longs up to 10 feet in diameter that had a few knots in them.

In the 60s and 70s, loggers were going in after the cedar they left behind and cutting up up for shake blocks. I remember a group of hunters who had a campfire at least 15' high using some logger's cedar pile;-)

You have to wonder how we could ever run out of trees when you look a Western WA, but after seeing a clear cut that was 50 miles long by 20 miles wide, it began to seem possible.


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## Everett1 (Jun 18, 2011)

I went to the Plimouth (yep, they spell it with an "i") Plantation in Plymouth, MA about a week before thanksgiving. They have a village with actors representing the Wampanoag people (they referred to them as Indians, which I found odd). The one guy was explaining about how they would encase they're houses with thick bark from chestnut and oak trees that were up to 8-10 feet in diameter (and sometimes bigger). Apparently, the king from England ordered any tree bigger than 3 feet in diameter be cut and brought back. Sucks we don't get to have 500 year old trees very often anymore.


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## sras (Oct 31, 2009)

My brother gave a book to read called The Golden Spruce . The author does a good job of telling the story of old growth logging in the Pacific Northwest. Excellent book. A bonus is more pictures like these.


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## amagineer (Apr 16, 2011)

Now lets see, $4 a board foot, I think we can retire after a few of those beauties.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

I'm sure cutting those monsters is work with a chainsaw, say nothing about by hand. Interesting photos for sure.


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## terry603 (Jun 4, 2010)

nice pics,worth seeing


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## 489tad (Feb 26, 2010)

My father in law throwing logs onto a pile. I never meet the man but heard plenty of stories of working in the woods. Picture dates early 60's.


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## Dennisgrosen (Nov 14, 2009)

I like the camper …. 

thank´s for posting theese great pictures Charlie

Dennis


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## DLCW (Feb 18, 2011)

I kinda wish they would have left some for us to visit and uh and ah over. Seems they cut them all down except the sequoias.

Really neat pictures though. Certainly puts things in perspective.


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## TechRedneck (Jul 30, 2010)

Some of those fella's were not very bright. I would be a little concerned standing on the downhill side of that large log with all my buddies on top. If it let loose that would give you a nice headache.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Great pics . Thanks for posting these. The wood I salvaged from dads barn was Doug fir with REALLY tight growth rings. Built in 1958. Is this considered 'old growth'?


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## mmh (Mar 17, 2008)

Can you imagine how much forest land would have been lost if they had chain saws??? The work ethics where much different then, as this was before minimum wage, labor unions, retirement funds, workers compensation, welfare, medicare, social security and the remote control.


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## gawthrrw (Sep 13, 2011)

Makes you think about the future who knows where we will be in anoother 100 yrs. These beasts, the Chestnut, and now the Ash borers….... Sad.


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

Great post , Charlie : ) Thanks for sharing these awesome pix with us !!


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## woodnewbee (Nov 23, 2009)

used to be a sawyer and I look at trees totally different since then. Amazing to have cut one of those yet at the same time really sad.


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## Roz (Jan 13, 2008)

Very interesting, where did you find the photos?


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

I'm on this guy's joke email list. He sends out something every day. Usually it is comedy stuff, but occasionally it is just something he finds interesting. I have no idea as to the actual origin of the photos.


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## renners (Apr 9, 2010)

Thanks for posting those pics, incredible! You wouldn't want to have your good saw bind under one of those.


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## muleskinner (Sep 24, 2011)

There are still patches of virgin Doug fir, spruce and cedar out in my neck of the woods. Queets, Quinault and Hoh river valleys for the best examples. A bit of a walk to get to them but pretty awe inspiring when amongst them.


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## Dennisgrosen (Nov 14, 2009)

I can see you are famerous as Toba ….the lady´s wants you Charlie ….. LOL

Dennis


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

Dang… how did she know it was my birthday??


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## Dennisgrosen (Nov 14, 2009)

since it ain´t the first …. you shuold know by now that the fans always find out ….


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

So let's see Roy Underhill get out the Froe and make windsor chairs out of that log on the ol' shave horse !

Suppose back then a downed tree blocking a road took a while to be cleared compared to todays winter storms.


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

muleskinner, we can thank guys like John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt for saving what we have left.


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## Ocelot (Mar 6, 2011)

Wonderful photographs!

My Dad was born in a lumber camp in Alabama. He didn't start school until he was 8, because there was no school there. His mother finally insisted that it was time to move so the boy could go to school. By then he had 2 sisters too that were also born in the camp. I don't think we had trees like that down here in 'bama, but my grandfather was exempted from the draft in WWI on account of being employed in an industry of vital importance. I've been told that he supervised a crew that built cart roads with wooden rails which the timber carts rolled on. I really would like to see some photos of that place.


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## Cher (Dec 6, 2009)

Hi Charlie, interesting pictures, I can just imagine the muscles those boys must have had.


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

Now, now, Cher…. calm yourself my dear. LOL!


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## Cher (Dec 6, 2009)

I couldnt help but think that Charlie….LOL


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## ptweedy (Feb 9, 2009)

I worked on the site of the remains of the pinedale lumber company that was at the north end of Fresno ca.The company had a rail road that ran to the lumber camp in the sierra's,this RR carried the logs down about 50 miles. The train looked very much like the loaded train in the pictures. The mill and cutting operation were all electric which was unusual for the day. They were cutting sugar pine that was only a little smaller than redwoods. The company started cutting in 1923 and went bankrup in 1929. They shipped a Million board feet of finished lumber on a single train shortly before they went out of bussiness. The book" RAILS TO THE MINARETS" IS A HISTORY OF THE PINEDALE LUMBER COMPANY AND ITS OPERATIONS.


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## GNiessen (Dec 7, 2011)

There is a free book on amazon.com called "Handwork in Wood" That is worth checking out. The first few chapters are about lumber operations of the day. It was written in 1910. I was entranced by how advanced some of the practices were. Lots of labor and tails of danger.

And you don't need a Kindle to read it. They have a free app for the PC.


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