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An Unusual Logging Operation 



In the Bl;ukw:it,M C^iuvoii in !li,' li.;u t ol tli,- hnnhviMHl licit (.1 

 West Virginin tlio B:ib<'ock Luinbor \- Hooni t'oni|>;in_v is siiccoss 

 I'liJly iu-roiiiplisliiuj; .. loaging opcriition wliieli is one of the inuj;liest 

 east of the Koi-kv Mountains. The Blackwnter Canyon is typical 

 of large tracts of nionntaiu lands which carry vahiable stands of 

 timber which have delied the lumbovnian for generations because of 

 their roughness, making logging uuprotitable, if not quite impossible, 

 by horse or steam ground-haul methods. 



Many lumbermen know the Blackwater Canyon. The Western 

 Maryland railroad passes through it on the Douglass side where the 

 hills are much less broken and much less rough than on the Black- 

 water side. On the Douglass side today there is a scene of <lesola- 

 tiou. The gradually sloping hills were stripped of their timber by 

 old horse methods. 



In the canyon itself stands some of the most magniliceut timber 

 in West Virginia, and there it has stood fur years awaiting an eco- 



feature of :ii\y c-:iblr\\:iy ^kil|llc^ w.is loiind by .Mr. Viering as essential 

 for success. The yreatcst need for a slackpuller developed when his 

 cable was stretched (iidiill for downhill pulling. With a long span 

 the weight of the pulling line became so great that it was impossible 

 for the crew to pull the slack. 



.\nother difficulty presented itself, for in conveying logs, especially 

 downhill, it was essential to apply the brake to the outhaul drum, 

 .'illowing it to slip in order to retain the log in the air. His brakes 

 wou!<l burn out as fast as he could make them, .lust when Mr. 

 Viering was experiencing his greatest difficultie.s, he Ijecame convinced 

 that his difficulties could be elimin.'ited by the employment of the 

 Lidgenood interlocking skidder and slackpuller. These represented 

 (he dift'ercnco bet\\een success and failure. Without them the cost 

 of logging was prohibitive. With them the cost of logging was re- 

 (luceil to a point where the operations became exceedingly profitable. 



The lirst of tin' n<w .■iil.iew.iv skidders arrived in the fall of 1911 



TRYIXCi ol 



■Ai!i,i:\v.\v .-iKilihi;!; imm i; i \i si al rii;i i mstam i:s. iilack \vaii:i; 



A \Vn\. WKS'I' AA. 



KiOO FOOT SPAN 



noraical apparatus for logging by |iower. While the Babcock Lumber 

 & Boom Company'-' men were logging the Douglass side they were 

 studying how it would be possible to log the canyon. Its lands 

 ■ xtend for something like twelve miles along the Blackwater river. 

 the timber slopes on each side being from one and one-fourth to four 

 miles wide. The logging of this canyon is one of the most remarkable 

 logging engineering propositions in America, if not the world. It 

 !S in charge of Fred W. Viering. 



Mr. Viering began his experiments with some second-hand steam 

 -kidding outfits. One was the old type cablcway skidder similar to 

 that which was first introduced in the cyjjress swamps of Louisiana. 

 He tried ground hauling methods and found them wholly impractic 

 able. In fact, this second hand cableway skidder failed in essential 

 particulars. Nevertheless, his experiments showed that if the prob 

 1cm were ever to be solved at all it would be solved with cabloways. 



In building a railroad from Davis to the Blackwater side he en- 

 countered a single point that cost $(1,000 to blast and one mile that 

 cost $1.T,000 to gr.-ide. .\s Mr. Viering found that railroad building 

 was going to be so extraordinarily expensive he concluded that it was 

 absolutely essential to reach out long distances with his cableway. 

 .\s the spans increased so also did his trouble, in direct jiroportion 

 to their length. The slackpuller, while recognized as an important 



Just after .\lr. \'ieriii<i got his stretch of switch back road Imilt on 

 the upper slojies of the canyon and the skidder was set to work there. 

 It was a^success from the start and since then two more similar 

 skidders have been purchased and set to work, one in 191L' and one 

 in 191.x 



Mr. Viering said recently: "I now have my three new skidders 

 running so that they practically can be depended upon to log my 

 mill cutting 125,000 feet per day." 



While a long span cableway neetls interlocking drums ami slack- 

 pullers there is another clement of equal importance, namely, a high 

 head spar. It was not practicable to rig the skidder to stamling 

 trees for they seldom were fonml growing where wanted. A portable 

 spar, and a tall one at that, was ab.solutoly essential for long span 

 operations. Mr. Viering has stretched his cable to distjinces up to 

 2,600 feet and has constructi'd jiortable spars seventy-five fci-t high. 



The general manner of operation consists in setting up the skidder 

 and its seventy-five foot spar iu central positions and skidding radially 

 from it in all directions covering a complete circle. The spar is car- 

 ried on n separate mar from the skid<ler and Ls mounted on a roller 

 l)oaring turn-table so that the rigging can be faced in any direction. 

 After a complete circle has been logged and the skidder is ready to 

 be moved, the spar is swung down, and because of its great length the 



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