ADIRONDACK FOREST MUSINGS 



621 



tation for economy and a record for output per rated ca- 

 pacity which is I<nown and envied throughout the whole 

 north country. Built originally as a "double band," it has 

 been refitted and improved until now, on a single band 

 and gang, it makes its daily addition of i(X),ooo feet to 

 the stock piles as regularly as the working day comes, 

 and under a burst of speed and tightening of efficiency, 

 has turned out a record cut. But hanging up a record is 

 not the aim nor end of the management, but rather the 

 regular delivery of the season's log cut on the spring 

 drive, and the everyday sawing of good boards. Com- 

 plete utilization is actually practiced, the small logs not 

 suitable for boards being cut into pulpwood bolts and 

 rossed and the waste pieces converted into chips for pulp, 

 so the burner stands only as a monument to earlier mar- 

 ket conditions when waste was waste because it could 

 not be sold. 



The third generation of a family of lumbermen is rep- 

 resented in the present Santa Clara management. Here 

 is no "shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations," 

 but a family which has written its name large and clear 

 in the annals of Adirondack lumbering. Their logging 



LOGS OX .-XMrERSAXD BROOK READY TO GO OUT ON 

 THE SPRING FLOOD WATERS TO THE SANTA CLARA 

 MILLS AT TUPPER LAKE. 



operations around Mt. Seward and on its steeper slopes 

 have called for the application of highly developed 

 methods on difficult ground, but in taking the commercial 

 softwoods, fire protective measures were applied so ef- 

 fectively that valuable stands of young conifers and vir- 

 gin hardwood were left on the extensive areas purchased 

 recently by the State for incorporation into the Adiron- 

 dack Park. A large area in the most beautiful part of the 

 Ampersand region, made famous by Dr. Henry van 

 Dyke in Little Rivers, and known to those who wander 

 off the beaten paths as one of the gems of the Adiron- 



dacks, has been held for many years as the Santa Clara 

 Preserve, while on portions of the cutover land planta- 

 tions have been established to maintain a forest cover. 



Of more than passing human interest is the fact that 

 Eugene Bruce, the well known and widely beloved log- 

 ging expert of the Forest Service, who died last summer 

 in Washington, was a man from the Tupper Lake region, 

 of long service with the Santa Clara company. When 

 the drive was hung up or a difficult logging problem en- 

 countered, it was "Gene" who was sent for, and he never 



AMPERSAND POND. THIS IS PART OF A PRIVATE 

 PRESERVE IN THAT FAMOUS SECTION OF THE ADI- 

 RONDACKS MADE FAMOUS BY DR. VAN DYKE'S 

 "LITTLE RIVERS." 



failed to put it through. Nor was his field limited to 

 logging, for a better all around woodsman and guide was 

 never raised in the north woods. He knew the ways and 

 haunts of the game, was a crack shot with the revolver 

 and rifle and an expert in the water, whether in guide boat 

 or on a burling log. To him many men in responsible 

 positions today owe their knowledge of woods craft and 

 logging, not to mention the inspiration of a virile charac- 

 ter strong enough to go from a place as woods foreman 

 in a little northern village to a position in the federal 

 service, where his field and reputation became nation- 

 wide. 



Tupper Lake's past was founded on softwoods; its 

 future is assured by hardwoods. The transition is grad- 

 ual with the full separation still to take place. Twenty 

 years ago hardwood was considered of little value, with 

 efficient logging methods still to be developed. Then 

 through the vision of a man trained as a forester in Eu- 

 ropean schools and theory a slack cooperage plant was 

 established at Tupper Lake, which was the first extensive 

 hardwood utilization plant in the Adirondacks if not in 

 the whole northern forest. And his object in starting 

 this plant was to get rid of the hardwoods so that a soft- 

 wood forest could be planted in their place. 



Today, between Tupper Lake village and the Junction 

 stands a steel and concrete plant devoted exclusively to 



