96 WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES 



At one time Ohio relied mainly on its waterways for transpor- 

 tation. Before the railroads traversed the State north and south, 

 which was long- after lines running- east and west b-c" been in opera- 

 tion, there were two canals, one running- from Toledo to Cincinnati 

 in the western part of the State, and the other connecting- the river 

 and lake in the eastern part. These two canals established direct 

 water transportation from the Great Lakes to all points on the Ohio 

 and Mississippi Rivers. During that period the occupation of boat 

 building- in the number of establishments and the amount of wood 

 used was one of the important enterprises in the State; and althoug-h 

 navig-ation is not so active now as formerly a few establishments 

 remain along- the Ohio River that are still important industries and 

 are in active operation. 



Table LIX shows 22 woods were employed to meet the demands 

 of the boat builders. The long list is due to the large number of 

 uses they serve, which often requires wood of special qualities and 

 and in some cases of extra long dimensions. White oak leads the 

 list and furnished over one-quarter of the total. A major portion 

 of the boat material went for building -steam packets, barges and 

 other river crafts. For the framework of hulls, such as keelsons, 

 keels, keel blocks, rails and head logs, besides guards, carlings, and 

 bulkheads, white oak, yellow pine and Douglas fir furnished the 

 material. The latter was. employed principally for keelsons in 

 large boats where long lengths were necessary, combined with 

 strength and stiffness and for which longleaf yellow pine and white 

 oak in sufficient lengths were difficult and probably too expensive to 

 secure. For certain barges the keelsons are ordered unspliced and 

 as much as 60-foot timbers were required. 



Sugar maple is employed for deck flooring because it is hard 

 and close-grained and also it can be holly-stoned and made to appear 

 whiter than almost any other domestic wood. White pine was the 

 principal siding wood for large boats and it also served with yellow 

 pine, Douglas fir, white oak, and yellow poplar for parts of the 

 superstructure and decking. Yellow poplar and oak were the prin- 

 cipal woods for the interior finish of cabins, the former for painted 

 work and the latter in the natural finish. Cypress is not as important 

 a species for ship building in Ohio as in other states. It went prin- 

 cipally for boat boards in motor boats and skiffs. Hickory's only 

 demand was for fenders and spuds, while locust was called on owing 

 to its strengh and durable qualities for kevels, bits, tree nails and 

 tillers of sail boats. Red cedar, southern white cedar from Virginia 

 commonly known as juniper, and white cedar or arborvitae from 

 Wisconsin, were purchased for canoe and skiff siding and in this 



