28 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



LOOKING UP nUSSELI. FORK FROM TOP OF BIG 

 ROLLWAY IX DISTANCE 



SPLASH DAM, 



VIEW FRO-M TOP OF 



SPLASH DAM, 

 BREAKS 



•OOKIXG DOWN INTO THE 



THE STORY OF 



YELLOW POPLAR 



Illustrations from Photographs by Editor Hardwood Record 



CHAPTER VI 



This chapter of the story relatiug to the 

 operations of the Yellow Poplar Lumber 

 Company of Coal Grove, O., is not intended 

 primarily to illustrate the pieturesqueness 

 of the Grand Canyou of Virginia, locally 

 knoTin as the Breaks of the Big Sandy, but 

 to impress on the minds of readers the im- 

 mense cost involved in securing poplar tim- 

 ber from the remote mouutain fastnesses, 

 where the last great stand of this wood 

 remains. 



In previous articles the operations of the 

 Yellow Poplar Lumber Conipau}' from the 

 woods to the river, and its big splasli <bun 

 operations have been described in text and 

 picture. Below this big dam ex.'sts a five 

 mile gorge, tortuous to an extreme, with 



uprising cliffs reaching in places an altitude 

 of fifteen hundred feet above the water level. 

 Hussell Fork, on which the Yellow Poplar 

 Lumber Company operations are at present 

 located, tinds its way to the main Big Sandy 

 Eiver through this cleft in the Cumberland 

 Mountains. 



Tlie ]iictures accompanying this article 

 but inadequately depict the rough topogra- 

 ]ihy of the region. The bed of the stream 

 was originally strewn with rocks from the 

 size of a tea-kettle to that of an ordinary 

 business block, and previous attempts in 

 driving the stream even in flood tides have 

 demonstrated that between these obstruc- 

 tions logs lodged, forming great jams, so 

 that it was impracticable to drive the 

 stream in its natural condition. 



Regardless of cost, Mr. Isaacsen of tlie 

 Yellow Poplar Lumber Company determined 

 to blast out these obstructions and make a 

 reasonably clear channel for the passage of 

 his company's annual log crop of forty 

 million feet. The r.ork was done last sum- 

 mer when the stream was low. These im- 

 mense rocks weie drilled and dynamited. 

 The bald statement of this fact means ver.v 

 little, but when it is considered that there 

 is no wagon road within miles of the Breaks, 

 and that every pound of explosives, tools, 

 coal and food supplies used by the crew 

 that did this work, was carried in sacks on 

 the men's backs for miles over rock-strewn 

 trails and let down into this canyon, some 

 little idea can be had of the expense in- 

 \olved. In this work twentv-two thousand 



IMMENSE EOCK OBSTRUCTIONS IN BREAKS BLOWN UP BY 

 DYNAMITE 



ROUGH KOCK STREWN REACH IN BREAKS 01' SANUV 



I 



