THE STATE REVIEW. 



LUMBER RECEIPTS OF SAGINAW 

 RIVER IN 1906. 



The combined receipts of forest products by 

 water during the season at the ports of Bay 

 City and Saginaw were: Lumber, 111,164,854 

 feet; lath, 5,440,100 pieces; pickets, 4,105,565 

 pieces. About 60 per cent of the lumber 

 brought to the Saginaw river during the sea- 

 son came from Canadian ports, the Georgian 

 Bay and Canadian Soo, and the remainder 

 from American ports, mostly from Lake Su- 

 perior. 



In 1905 the receipts of lumber were 116,- 

 516,430 feet; lath, 6,599,600 pieces; pickets, 

 3,638,670 pieces. In 1904, lumber, 126,602,039 

 feet; lath, 23,581,600 pieces; pickets, 5,403,139 

 pieces. 



The shipments of lumber out of the Saginaw 

 river of late are of little moment. In 1906 

 the figures show they were only 2,275,000 feet; 

 in 1905 they were 2,308,500 feet, and in 1904 

 they were 2,783,000 feet. 



A marvelous change has come over the lum- 

 ber business of the Saginaw valley. Thirty 

 years ago not a foot of lumber came into 

 this river by water but almost the entire 

 manufactured product was shipped out by 

 boat. These official figures will furnish some 

 idea of the extent of the lumber movement 

 out of the Saginaw river by boat in years 

 agone: 



Shipments. Feet. 



1S68 430,128,000 



1870 516,629,474 



1880 769,573,000 



2 (high water mark) 858,344,000 



1886 591,013,100 



1 890 409,972,000 



1892 347,861,091 



After 1892 the water shipments began rap- 

 idly to decline and during the last ten years 

 they have cut no figure in the commerce of the 

 river. Two reasons are given as the cause, 

 one the diminishing quantity of lumber manu- 

 factured, and the diversion of manufactured 

 lumber from water to railroad methods of dis- 

 tribution. 



In the early days of the lumber industry 

 the ambition of the average lumberman was 

 to convert his lumber into manufactured lum- 

 ber with as little detail as possible. It was 

 placed upon the mill docks and sold by the 

 cargo or in round lots running from a single 

 cargo up into the millions of feet. He drew 

 upon the consignee, received his cash or its 

 equivalent, and the transaction was ended. 



As the pine forests began to fade the lum- 

 berman awoke to what he was losing by 

 not working up the rough lumber into prod- 

 ucts in planing mills, sash and door and other 

 factories, and he began to turn his attention 

 to the erection of factories for the finer manip- 

 ulation of his product. Instead of shipping 

 his lumber away in the rough by the cargo 

 to be worked up in eastern cities, and thus 

 assisting in building up those cities, he be- 

 came aware of the benefit to himself and the 

 river cities by working up the raw material 

 and giving work to home people. 



About the same time the railroads besran 

 to realize the value of the business they had 

 cast aside. The local roads understood the 

 situation, but they were unable for a long 

 time to convince the trunk roads of the de- 

 sirability of a tonnage offered them each year 

 exceding in magnitude that of the combined 

 wheat output of Michigan, Minnesota and 

 the Dakotns. 



Through the untiring efforts of local lum- 

 ber men and railroad officials rntes were final- 

 ly obtainr-d that in a short time revolution- 

 ized the lumber trade of the river cities and 

 diverted to railroad methods of distribution 

 the vast crop of lumber products. This also 

 wrought a change in methods of buying. 

 Dealers who obtain lumber products now buy 

 the manipulated commodity instead of in the 

 rough, and thus save freight, and also order 

 just what they want. 



In manv instances a dozen different wooden 

 commodities are now shipped in a single car. 



The result is the building up of a big indus- 

 try. As the Saginaw valley pine timber sup- 

 ply diminished local dealers began buying 

 lumber at other manufacturing points and 

 bringing it to the valley cities, where it is 

 worked up into various commodities. This 

 explains how more than 100,000,000 feet of 

 rough pine lumber comes into the Saginaw 

 river by boat during the season of navigation 

 every year. 



In 1885 the shipments of lumber products 

 by railroad out of the river cities aggregated 

 149,072,900 feet. In 1892 the movement ag- 

 gregated 507,490,000 efet, and in 1905 the ship- 

 ments by rail were 384,000,000 feet in round 

 numbers. The movement for the present year 

 has not yet been tabulated, but it is expected 

 it will approximate that of last year. These 

 figures refer only to manufactured lumber 

 products and do not include shingles, cedar 

 products, etc., which in themselves form a 

 business of magnitude. 



Mr. Peters retired from the business about 

 1900, when the Butters Salt & Lumber Com- 

 pany, with Marshall F. Butters manager and 

 principal stockholder, assumed control. In 

 1892 a big fire destroyed the plant but another 

 one, the present mill, was soon put up by the 

 company. 



It is a one-band saw and one-band resaw 

 mill with a capacity of 5,000 feet an hour. The 

 shingle mill in connection, turns out 10,000 



I shingles an hour, and the salt block manufac- 



; tures 1,500 barrels a day. 



The stave mill, which is also run in connec- 



! tion with the plant, makes all staves and heads 



I for barrels. 



LIFTED 3,000,000 FEET. 



The Muskegon Log Lifting Co., during the 

 season just ended, raised logs that will mea- 

 sure altogether about 3,000,000 feet. Two- 

 thirds of the logs are pine and hemlock and the 

 remainder various kinds of hardwoods. 



The logs are now on the banks of the Muske- 

 gon river, between the head of Muskegon lake 

 and Newaygo. Next spring they will be again 

 put into the river and floated to Muskegon. 



The company will resume operations at the 

 opening of navigation next spring. 



It is impossible to estimate the number of 

 submerged logs still in the Muskegon river, 

 but it is evident that there are a good many 

 million feet. The rapid increase in the value 

 of timber of all kinds makes it certain that the 

 river and bottoms will be very thoroughly ex- 

 plored. 



Most of the logs secured by the Log Lifting 

 Co. are in good condition, and will make good 

 lumber, notwithstanding the long time they 

 have been buried, or partially buried in the 

 sands and mud of Muskegon river. 



PASSING OF BUTTERSVILLE. 



A settlement of about 15 families, number- 

 ing perhaps in all scarcely more than 50 per- 

 sons, is all that is now left of the once busy 

 little town of Buttersville. Rural mail routes 

 through that section of the country carry all 

 mail and the postoffice of Buttersville will no 

 longer appear on the map. The store has been 

 discontinued, the settlement being too small 

 and too near to Ludington to be profitable to 

 the owners. The store was established nearly 

 a quarter of a century ago and at one time as 

 much business was transacted there in the 

 different departments as is now brought into 

 any of Mason county city stores. With a 

 population in the days of yore of between 300 

 and 400, Buttersville' was quite a factor in the 

 business life of that section of the country, 

 but it has now gone the way of old Lincoln, 

 Stearns Siding and many other lumbering 

 town's. About the only business office in the 

 place hereafter will be a branch office. 



The mill will be shut down until April 1, but 

 the trains over the M. & O. railroad will con- 

 tinue to run as long as weather permits. There 

 is sufficient timber in Mason and northern 

 Oceana county for a run of five years more, 

 and it is probable that other timber will be 

 obtained from the northern part of the state 

 by that time for several years longer. The 

 salt block will, however, continue to run after 

 the saw mill is done. A modern coal burning 

 plant will be installed as power for manufac- 

 turing salt when there is no more refuse from 

 the mill to be used. 



The saw mill, which now is the center of 

 interest in Buttersville, has been standing only 

 since 1892. The old one originally on that 

 site was built by Veyhuc Hustis & Co. early 

 in the 60's or 70's. It was later owned and 

 operated successively by Delos L. Filer, Fos- 

 ter & Stanchfield, Filer & Gibbs, Cartier & 

 Filer and about 1885 by Butters & Peters. 



A ROPE RAILWAY. 



A rope railway has been built to connect the 

 copper and silver mines at Upulungos, in the 

 heart of the Cordilleras, with the railhead of the 

 Argentine Railway at Chilecito. The nature of 

 the mountainous country did not admit of an 

 ordinary railway. 



This new rope line, twenty-one miles long, con- 

 sists of a main carrying rope and a guide rope, 

 and is in duplicate, having four ropes for the up 

 and down traffic. There are nine stations ; the 

 ropes are carried from one station to the next at 

 varying elevations, and are anchored at each sta- 

 tion. The cars for the transport of the ore, etc., 

 are slung on the main ropes and are suspended 

 from them by rollers which run along the line. 

 At each station they are transferred to the next 

 rope, thus dividing the strain, and for great dis- 

 tances the ropes are also anchored between the 

 stations. 



The difference of level between Chilecito and 

 Upulungos is over 11,000 feet, and the gradients 

 are very steep, sometimes as much as 30 per cent. 

 The cars descend by their own weight, and their 

 momentum serves, as in an ordinary funicular 

 railway, to raise the ascending cars on the up 

 line, but at several stations there are small steam 

 engines to supplement the power. Each carload 

 is half a ton of ore; the maximum delivery at 

 Chilecito is forty tons per hour, and twenty tons 

 for the return journey to Upulungos. The speed 

 of the cars is about 500 feet per minute. 



The ropes are supported and their tension 

 maintained by iron trellis girders at intervals be- 

 tween the stations. There are 275 of these gir- 

 ders, varying from 10 feet to 160 feet in height, 

 and the span of the rope between them is from 

 j 300' feet to 3,000, according to the nature of the 

 ! ground, which is deeply cleft in in many places. 

 ; In one section of the line a tunnel 1,000 feet 

 long has been necessary. 



MINIATURE GAS PLANT. 



Within a year Ann Arbor is to have a new 

 and entirely independent gas plant. It will be 

 one of the best plants in the country, and its 

 equipment will be complete in every detail. 

 The Michigan Gas Association takes a kindly 

 interest in the University of Michigan on ac- 



j count of its excellent engineering department. 

 For several years this association has main- 

 tained a fellowship there, the holder of which 

 spends a year experimenting in some line con- 

 nected with the manufacture of gas. 



At its last meeting this gas association de- 



' cided to establish a miniature gas plant in Ann 

 Arbor for experimental purposes, and the parts 

 for this plant were donated by the different 

 members of the association. . At first it was 

 decided to have this plant located at the Uni- 

 versity, but this was found not to be practical, 

 and it has been decided to establish it at the 

 present plant of the Ann Arbor Gas Co. A 

 separate building will be built for it, and the 

 plant will be capable of producing about ten 

 thousand cubic feet of gas a day, but it will 

 be complete in every respect. It will be used 

 for experimental purposes by the students of 

 the university, and will be so built that it can 

 be connected up with one of the retorts of the 

 Ann Arbor Gas Co. 



It is expected that this plant will greatly 

 facilitate the work in this line in the university. 



