34d 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



log is also slightly chamfered at one end to facilitate snaking to 

 the skidways. 



After the logs are snaked by four-mule teams to the skidways. 

 they are loaded onto cars with a steam hoisting apparatus, and 

 in train loads are hauled by a geared locomotive to the "dump" 

 in the gorge of the river. 



On building the concrete dam intended to splash out these logs 



largest assemblage of poplar ever made at one point in the his- 

 tory of its manufacture. The log dump was more than two-thirds 

 of a mile in length, and the timber was closely piled in the gorgn 

 to a depth of fifty feet. 



The big splash danuat the head of the Breaks, a half mile below, 

 was Hearing completion. The dam consisted of several concrete 

 piers, betw'een which were immense "flues" or flumes, tempor- 



TUK r.()TT(I.M nl' THE GCIKGi; AKTKU TIIK CItK.VT I!l)C KS WERE BLOWN OI'T— TI'.N .MII.KS UK 'l-IIIS T( I It.VFTI.Xi: W.\TI;K ItEI.dW, 



it was found necessary to blast out monstrous rock obstructions 

 along the canyon. These masses that had fallen from the moun- 

 tains would have caused the logs to form in great jams, and have 

 defeated the object of the enterprise. Thousands of pounds of 

 dynamite, coal, drills and forges were packed on men 's backs 

 down into the gorge, and the rocks were drilled and blown to 

 pieces. 



It must be known that no union scale of hours for a day "s 

 labor prevails in mountain logging operations. At all camps the 

 rising bell is mug at three o'clock and breakfast is served a 

 half hour later. Every axe-man and cant hook man is at his post 

 at the first streak of dawn, while relays of railroad crews work 

 in succeeding shifts both day and night. It is an everlastingh' 

 hustle in the woods work of the Big Sandy country, from the 

 time a big job is started until the logs are on their way to the 

 mill. 



At the river terminus of the main logging road above tho 

 Breaks, for months had been piled in the gorge (with the aid of 

 a steam engine and its accompaniment of drums and steel cables) 

 nearly forty million feet of j'ellow popdar sticks of timber, rang- 

 ing in length from twelve to thirty-eight feet, equal to more tha-j 

 eighty-one thousand logs of a sawmill length. Here was the 



arily filled with a series of beech sjiars and oak splash board 

 [danking. The wooden false-work was to be released by the ex- 

 plosion of wooden "triggers," which held in place the big- logs 

 running from pier to pier. These logs in turn supported the up- 

 per end of the spars, the lower ends of which were held in place 

 by the toesill of the dam. 



One evening the presiding genius of the undertaking announced, 

 "We are going to turn 'er loose tomorrow." 



For months he had been piiling dollars in the form of poplar 

 timber into the gorge; for months he had been piling dollars into 

 this great splash dam. There had been no rainfall on the water 

 shed of the upper streams since the winter before, and one could 

 wade the Big Sandy and not get over his shoe tops. Eight now 

 there had been some rain — not much, but a little. It helped the 

 flow of water in the five main branches above the dam. The 

 splash boards were in place, and the water was gradually rising 

 in the dam. 



There were no laggards when the camp bells rang the "getting- 

 up" call next morning. Every man was to see if his last nin» 

 months' work for the big corporation meant success or failure. 

 The early morning was gray to the point of impenetrable dark- 

 ness. There was no familiar outline of mountain tops. The 



