■Jlli: IMiiCEKT "DUMl'" OF rOI'LAI! l.i ilj 



THE STORY OF 



YELLOW POPLAR 



Illustrations from Photof>:raphs by Editor Hardwood Record 



Chapter IV. 

 The striking picture across the two pages 

 at the head of this article shows the big 

 log "dump" of the Yellow Poi^lar Lumber 

 Company in Russell Fork, the main stem 

 of the Big Sandy River, in Dickenson 

 county, Va., as it appeared on November 

 17 last. This dump of logs was in a gorge 

 of the river; was about two-thirds of a 

 mile in length and five hundred feet in 

 width, and contained at that time thirtj'- 

 six thousand large virgin forest yellow pop- 

 lar sticks of timber ranging in length from 

 twelve to thirty-eight feet, with an average 

 of seven hundred and fifty feet to the 

 piece, amounting to 81,000 logs of sawmill 

 length. The average diameter of the logs 

 was twenty-five inches, although many of 

 the sticks were from three to six feet in 

 diameter. The total log scale was 27,000,- 

 000 feet. Afterwards about 3,000.000 feet 

 more were added. 



This dump is located a short distance 

 above the breaks of the Big Sandy, the 

 formidable cleft in the Cumberland moun- 

 tains, through which the Russell Fork of 

 the Big Sandy river winds its tortuous and 

 rocky way. One-half mile below this dump 

 is located a concrete splash dam, three hun- 

 dred and fifty feet in length and twenty- 

 five feet in height, through which 

 these logs have since been driven through 

 the breaks to floating water below 

 Elkhorn City, K.y. From this point the 

 logs are rafted and floated to the mouth of 

 the river at Catlettsburg, Ky., and thence to 

 the company's log harbor, whei"e its sawmill 

 is located, at Coal Grove, on the Ohio river. 

 The picture shows the largest assemblage 

 of yellow poplar logs ever made at one 

 point in the history of poplar manufacture, 

 and is a part of t'he log crop of 40,000,000 

 feet that this company will cut into luni- 

 lier during the sawing season of 1910. 



A few logs in the foreground are shown 

 lengthwise of the gorge, but from the bot- 

 tom up they are .piled crosswise of the 

 stream. This result was accomplished by 

 means of a Lidgerwood hoisting engine, 

 which carried an endless steel cable across 

 the river at varying points up and down the 



stream. The railroad track from which the 

 logs were dumped is in the immediate fore- 

 ground. The logs are taken off the cars 

 with tongs attached to the lines running 

 across the river, and jiacked in the gorge 

 like matches in a box. 



Incidentally, this picture was made by 

 tlie editor of H.\kdwood Record la.st Novem- 

 ber and the Yellow Poplar Lumber Company, 

 believing it to be an object lesson in poplar 

 ])roduetion, has had made from it a large 

 number of handsome prints, fift.y inches in 

 length. The photograph .was transformed 

 into an engraving which is notable from 

 the fact that it is the largest single i)Iate 

 half-tone ever produced. The picture is 

 jirinted in sepia-colored ink on heavy plate 

 paper; it is surrounded with an orange bor- 

 der and is stijipled in the similitude of a 

 photogravure. These pictures are being 



distnl.uted in mailing tubes to the Yellow 

 Poplar Lumber Company's natrons, both in 

 the United States and abroad, and will form 

 a fine adornment to thousands of lumber 

 offices the world over. 



The second illustration accompanying this 

 article shows a Clyde Iron Works Decker 

 loader on the Yellow Poplar Lumber Com- 

 pany 's railroad handling the big stock of 

 j)oplar sticks onto the cars, while the third 

 picture is a trainload of these big yellow 

 poplar timbers being moved down one of 

 the skidways to the log dump. 



Cleaning up the poplar timber on an area 

 of 15,000 acres in a single season is no 

 child's play. The company moves its equip- 

 ment into a virgin forest, establishes camps, 

 commences swamping, erects portable saw- 

 mills to cut out materials for tlie building 

 of its railroads, builds perhaps a half-dozen 



I.U.^IHNC; BIG r01'L.\U TIMBER WITH A DECKER LOG LOADER. 

 3S 



