Since the Days of Lcif Ericson 



Some of it moved into the flatland pine 

 stands of the South. Some of it moved 

 across the Rocky Mountains to the 

 great coniferous forests of the Pacific 

 slope. In those regions, especially in 

 the West, the use of the cable skidder 

 and the logging railroad reached its 

 apogee. The volume of timber cut and 

 moved to the mills by those methods 

 was astounding. They were, however, 

 destructive, wasteful, short-sighted. 



Along the path of the migrations, 

 the pioneer loggers were joined by 

 hardy men from other parts of the 

 country and by a large number of im- 

 migrants from abroad Scandina- 

 vians, French Canadians, Austrians, 

 men from the Balkans and from Rus- 

 sia. All contributed to the growing 

 store of logging lore. 



The French Canadians introduced 

 the travois or dray an idea that they 

 had borrowed from the Indians of the 

 Plains. The Austrians brought in the 

 log chute and slide for use on steep 

 slopes. The idea of cableways came 

 from Switzerland. The English de- 

 veloped the crawler track, used first in 

 the steam log-hauler in Maine. 



Some of the best known lumber com- 

 panies operating today on the west 

 coast and in the South originated in 

 Maine, in Pennsylvania, and in the 

 Lake States. 



As THE TIDE of logging advanced 

 across the country, and then eddied 

 back into the Rockies, the southern 

 swamps, the Appalachians, and the 

 wilderness areas of northern Maine 

 and New Hampshire, there were al- 

 ways ingenious loggers who kept on 

 inventing new devices and others who 

 were ready and eager to try them out. 



But there also have been loggers de- 

 termined to resist any change of the 

 methods that they knew to be tried and 

 true. Men still living can remember, 

 when the crosscut saw was introduced, 

 how loggers, proud of their chip-chop- 

 ping skill, left camp rather than use the 

 new tool. In recent years the introduc- 

 tion of the power chain saw was met 

 by similar resistance. Crews have been 



802062 49 45 



known purposely to leave a power saw 

 where it would be smashed by a falling 

 tree in order that they might resume 

 the use of their familiar crosscut saws. 



But still the tide of change goes 

 on. In region after region horses re- 

 placed oxen because they are faster 

 and more intelligent. It is interesting 

 to watch a good woods-wise horse as he 

 goes about his skidding job, often with- 

 out reins or word of command. He 

 comes up the skid trail, turns around in 

 front of a log, and waits for the team- 

 ster to hook the skid chain. Then he 

 moves away down the trail without 

 guidance or command, swinging wide, 

 or even squaring away on the curves to 

 keep his load in the trail and to avoid 

 getting it stuck on stumps and roots. 

 Right up to the skidway he goes, stops 

 with the load in the correct position, 

 and waits for it to be unhooked. 



As the sources of timber became 

 more distant from the mills or from the 

 rivers, it was necessary to increase 

 horsepower efficiency. That was done 

 by scoots, sleds, wagons, and bummers. 

 The next step was the use of mechan- 

 ical power, first applied in the steam 

 log-hauler steam engines built on 

 the pattern of the early locomotive 

 with the rear end on crawler tracks 

 and the front on wheels or a sled. The 

 man who did the steering occupied a 

 seat in front of the boiler and directly 

 over the front truck. Log-haulers were 

 used to pull trains of sleds or wagons 

 out of the woods to a landing. Later, 

 on many operations, they were re- 

 placed by logging railroads that han- 

 dled bigger loads on longer hauls. 



The invention of the geared loco- 

 motive made it possible to negotiate 

 steeper grades and sharper curves than 

 had been possible with the conven- 

 tional line-haul locomotive. Motor- 

 truck log hauling has become so 

 efficient that it is fast replacing the 

 logging railroad even in the heavy 

 timber of the Pacific Northwest. This 

 change has been greatly speeded up by 

 improvements in motortrucks them- 

 selves, by the construction of public 

 motor highways, and by the bulldozer, 



