HARDWOOD RECORD 



35 



wooded valley, the property of the Montvale Lumber Company, 

 for seven miles or more, and at one o'clock landed at the cabin 

 of Quill Eose, famous in mountain history as having been accused 

 for many years as knowing all about how white corn whisky was 

 made, but never having had any connection with the enterprise 

 proven. From previous experience I knew of the hospitality of 

 both Uncle Quill and Aunt Vicey, his wife, and we were at home 

 in a minute. Aunt Vicey cooked us a splendid dinner, and after 

 mounting the mules we hiked three miles farther down through 

 the splendid virgin timber to the upper end of Mr. Wood's logging 

 railroad. The boys took the mules back to Uncle Quill's, and the 

 telephone quickly brought a logging locomotive up the end of the 

 line, which hauled us down the seven mile run to Fontana, the seat 

 of the lumber operations of the Montvale Lumber Company. 



This Eagle creek and its immediate contiguous Bone valley, 

 belonging to Mr. Wood's company, is one of the finest hardwood 

 timbered sections in all the world, and in many respects is without 

 a peer in timber value, as well as for scenic beauty. The timber 

 is absolutely virgin, and consists of about thirty per cent poplar, 

 twenty-five per cent chestnut, twenty-five per cent oak, largely 

 white oak, and a twenty per cent sprinkling of white pine, yellow 

 pine, white ash, beech, birch, etc.; hence it is pretty nearly a 

 poplar, oak and chestnut proposition. The remarkable feature 

 of the timber is its extreme length of bole, and the fact that it 



QUILL liOSES STABLES 



is of medium size. There is no extremely small timber, and little 

 very big timber — that is, it is timber running from 24 to 40 inches 

 in size, and of remarkable uniformity. In physical quality the 

 timber is hard to beat in any section of the land. Mr. Wood 

 employs a three-foot gauge railroad, Climax locomotives, Clyde 

 Iron Works log loaders and logging trucks in his woods opera- 

 tions, and the work is carried on with high eflSciency and at a 

 very moderate cost. The work is under the direct supervision of 

 Mr. Leidy Wood, a brother, and reflects distinct credit on his 

 ability as a woods manager; but no more so than do the problems 

 which he has surmounted in the sawmill and general lumber opera- 

 tions themselves at the railroad terminal at Fontana, along the 

 Little Tennessee river. In this cove of the mountains in which 

 there was bare room for the creek itself, Mr. Wood has built not 

 only a sawmill, but a machine shop, more than fifty houses for 

 operatives, an excellent and well-stocked commissary, a little gem 

 of a hotel, besides providing for ample lumber yard space. Every 

 detail of the operation is splendidly handled. 



The operation at Fontana is certainly a unique one, very inter- 

 esting and promises handsome profits to its owners. I never really 

 enjoyed a visit to a sawmill community as much in my life as I 

 did this one. 



I never saw a bathtub look quite as good to me as did the one 

 at the hotel at Fontana, and both E. E. Wood and I did ample 



Tin:- SPEXCE CABIN 



justice to the splendid meals that we had at this mountain' 

 hostelry. I robbed the commissary of clean underclothing, and 

 even borrowed a razor from one of the boys to clean up a week 's 

 stubble from my face. 



The next afternoon Mr. Wood and I embarked on the good 

 Climax "Eobert L., " and within the hour were landed at the end 

 of the logging line, where our satellites met us with the faithful 

 Bob and Jack, and we hiked up the trail to Quill Eose's, where 

 we spent the night. During the early evening Quill showed us 

 his grist mill where it is just possible that some of his neighboTS 

 in the remote past have produced the "makings" of corn whisky. 

 Incidentally he showed us, a quarter of a mile from his cabin, the- 

 remains of an old moonshine still which it is alleged someone 

 operated for fully twenty years, in the manufacture of good 

 "doublins, " without any intervention from Uncle Sam's internal 

 revenue department. It is just possible that there is some white 

 whisky made in Eagle creek valley at present, but if there is, 

 Uncle Quill doesn't know anything about it. At the present time 

 he is engaged in peaceful agricultural pursuits, and with the 

 assistance of Aunt Vicey conducts a stopping place for the 

 wayfarer. 



There was no incident of the night, save at about two a. m. 

 Uncle Quill's sonorous voice roused us from sleep in the annex 

 with: "Hay there, one of your mules is down." 



Bud and Mat hiked out to the stable, to find that Bob had 

 discovered more allurements in Uncle Quill's corn field, than he 

 could see in a crib stall in the barn, and hence had availed him- 



TIIE NinilT-S CAMr AT THE BRINK OF THE I'RECU'ICE. 



