32 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



reached Eift station, from which point the 

 E. E. Wood Lumber Company has a rail- 

 road to its mil] site at Keno, some two 

 miles distant. This laeger & Southcin di- 

 vision of the Norfolk & Western road was 

 built at large expense to open up not only 

 the timber properties lying along the upper 

 reaches of the Dry Fork and its branches, 

 but also to make an outlet for the magnifi- 

 cent coal Avhic/h iimlerlies that portion of 

 West Virginia. 



The Dry Fork timber property of the E. 

 E. Wood Lumber Company was purchased 

 from the Pocahontas Coal & Coke Company 

 in September. 19(12. It comprises about 

 50,000,000 feet of counted and branded po])- 

 lar trees. The purchasers have thirteen 

 3-ears in which to remove the 

 timber. In aildition to these 

 timber rights the company is 

 constantly adding outlying and 

 snmller timber tracts, whicli will 

 afford a source of timber supply 

 for its Keno mill for many years. 

 The coal land of this section is 

 leased by the Illinois Steel Com- 

 pany, the Berwin-White Com- 

 pany and other lai'ge mining con- 

 cerns. A group of pictures 

 printed with this article reveals 

 the model character of the Keno 

 sawmill operation. The central 

 picture shows the Clark band 

 mill, fully equipped with all 

 labor-saving devices; at the left 

 may be seen the well-arranged 

 yard, stocked up to this date en- 

 tirely with poplar lumber, and 

 the right-hand jiicture shows the 

 well-equipped machine shop anil 

 commissary, the boardirrg house 

 and the railroad leading up the 

 valley to the timber property. It 

 was at this operation that 1 hail 

 my first view of the splendid 

 poplar holdings owned by the 

 Wood cor|)ir.ations. 



Under the guidance of G. L. 

 and C. E. Wood, I spent the 

 greater part of two days, 

 mounted on the latter 's favorite 

 saddler, in prowling along the 

 company's new tram road aud 

 up various coves ricli with 

 splendid poplar timber. The tree 

 pictures herewith shown are typical of tlie 

 character of this growth. In these photo- 

 graphs no attempt was made to select and 

 picture ti'ees of unusual size; only those 

 indicative of the general character of the 

 growth of wdiatcver section was traversed 

 were chosen. In these upper reaches aud 

 creek coves of McDowell county, embraced 

 within the property, is found poplar timber 

 that is unsurpassed in maturity, size, texture 

 and character by any poplar that ever grew 

 in the United States. It is absolutely vir- 

 gin forest, undepredated in any way. As a 

 logging proposition, as mountain logging 

 goes, it is a very easy one — the slopes are 

 gentle and there are no rocky promontories 



to obstruct in any way economical ojjerat- 

 ing. Opening into the main valley on both 

 sides are ' ' draws ' ' which contain the rich 

 poplar timber in profusion, all readily ac- 

 cessible to practically- one main line of 

 tram road. 



The mill at Keno has been in operation 

 since midsummer of this year, and the com- 

 pany has just commenced filling orders from 

 the accumulated stock. The poplar lumber 

 is wide, soft and of the peeuliarl.y rich yel- 

 low variety known and valued the world 

 over. 



The Tennessee Operation. 



To the jdant of the E. E. Wood Lumlier 

 Company at Buladeen, Carter county, Ten- 



Cl'l'UK WI11TE\V.\T1;U I'WLL.S, .lACKSOX COUNTY, N. C, 



nessec, was the next step. (_!. L. Wood and 

 myself left Bristol, Va.-Tenu., on the morn- 

 ing freight of the Virginia & Southwestern 

 Eailroad (which line, by the way, has just 

 been absorbed by the Southern Eailway), 

 1 ound for Elizabethtou .'ind up the Stony 

 Creek branch of the railroad to the 

 picturesque milling town of Buladeen. The 

 journey through the valleys of eastern Ten- 

 nessee was alluring — we rode in the cuiiola 

 of the caboose — and all the way was spread 

 out beside us the beautiful little valleys and 

 sparkling streams, the farms and the tim- 

 ber-clad slopes of the Holston mountains. 

 Buladeen is the terminus of the branch line, 

 and it is here, in the bottom lands of upper 



Stony creek, that the mill and j-ards of the 

 conrpany are located. A panoramic view of 

 this plant is shown in connectioir with this 

 article. From scenic considerations it is 

 most beautiful and its selection as a mill 

 site, from a utilitarian viewpoint, is equally 

 fortunate. I^p the creek from the Buladeen 

 plant is run a forty-i)ound steel narrow- 

 gauge road some two miles, and then ])ene- 

 tratiug the various timber coves are 

 projected wood-rail tram roads. 



This Carter county property of the E. E. 

 Wood Lumber t'ompany is about thirty-five 

 miles from Bristol, and the timber rights 

 were purchased from the Boston Iron & , 

 Timber Company in .lanuary, 1905. The 

 mill has been in operation since August, 

 1005, and the company has al- 

 ready shipped considerable lum- 

 1 or' from it. The boundary con- 

 sists of fi,700 acres, with an esti- 

 mated yield of 40.000,000 feet of 

 merchantable timber, of which 

 about 5,000,000 feet have already 

 tern uumufactured. This timber 

 is of mixeil growth, running 

 cjrite heavily to jioplar of splen- 

 did physics, but interspersed 

 with it are mountain (red) oak, 

 white oak, chestnut, white pine 

 and hemlock. The ipiality of 

 this growth is well illustrated bj' 

 the timi cr jiirtures acconrpany- 

 ing this article, which are dis- 

 tinctive of the general character 

 of the forest. 



The equi]inu/nt of the plant, at 

 Bnladecu is a 9-foot Sinker-Davis 

 band mill, with n full comple- 

 iiiciit (if lath maihiuery, aud all 

 l.-ilor-saving appliances that go 

 to make up a first-class single 

 band mill. The standard gauge 

 railroad runs up to the lumber 

 yards, arrd switches penetrate be- 

 tween each row of piles. 



Incidentally, in all the opera- 

 tions of the Wood corporations. 

 Climax locomotives, American 

 Car & Foundry Conrpany logging 

 cars and Decker log loaders are 

 employed. In the Carter county 

 proposition the coirrpany has fif- 

 teen years to remove the tim- 

 ber, ties and tan bark. The 

 topography of tliis property varies ma- 

 terially from that of all the other timber 

 holdings of the Wood companies, as the 

 valleys are narrow and the slopes of the 

 mountain sides quite steep. Timber felling 

 is commenced at th? top of the slopes, and 

 almost of their owir weight logs slide down 

 the incliire to within reaching distance of 

 the log loader on the tram road, thus mak- 

 ing unnecessary the use of live stock. This 

 method leaves the accumulation of tree tops 

 and other debris clear of the timber located 

 lower on the hillsides, and makes a com- 

 paratively clean operation until the last 

 trees are cut along the tram roads. One of 

 the pictures accompanying this article 



