46 Forest Club Annual 



miles. When the haul is from five to seven miles long " a trip 

 and a half" can be made each day. When the distance exceeds 

 eight miles, however, only a single round trip can be made each 

 day. 



Usually the summer or fall before the operations are to begin 

 the camp is built. The mill is the central figure and all the 

 other buildings are laid out with reference to it. A spot is 

 selected with plenty of available room for lumber piles, sawdust, 

 skidways, etc. Excavations are made for the engine and boiler 

 which are hauled up from the previous setting on sleds as soon as 

 enough snow has fallen. Generally the mill is set up and enough 

 rough lumber is sawed out to build the mill-shed and the floors 

 and roofs of the other buildings. The side walls are usually 

 built of dry logs and chinked in with mud. Most of the portable 

 mills of Colorado consist of an upright boiler, and a stationary 

 horizontal engine of twenty-five to thirty horse power. Wood 

 is always used as fuel. In most cases this is dry, but often a 

 few green slabs are mixed in. Only circular saws are used which 

 vary from forty-eight to sixty inches in diameter and which 

 may have either permanent or detachable teeth. Both kinds are 

 found in every district. These saws have a A to \ inch kerf. 

 The carriage is from twenty to thirty feet long and may have 

 either two or three blocks. The amount of carriage track 

 varies with the length of logs that are to be sawed, but is 

 usually from eighty to one hundred feet. A pit is dug directly 

 underneath the saw, and the sawdust is taken out by means of a 

 large wheelbarrow, a sled and a horse, or in a few cases with a 

 sawdust blower. The sawdust pile is several yards away from 

 the mill and after a year's operation constitutes the biggest 

 part of the camp. The slabs are disposed of in one of two ways. 

 Where the lumber is piled directly beside the mill a track (usually 

 elevated) is erected, running to one side of the mill, and the 

 slabs are thrown on a car which is run out to the end of the track 

 where the slabs are dumped on a fire. In this way there is very 

 little danger of fire spreading through the camp and surround- 

 ing timber. When the lumber is piled on cars and taken to 

 the yard the slabs are ricked up below the mill, several yards 

 distant, and burned at night. One or sometimes two piles are 

 made. These piles are burned at night when there is a breeze 

 blowing down the gulch, which insures the safety of the mill. 



The lumber, likewise, is disposed of in one of two ways; 

 either piled directly below the mill or taken to a place where 

 more room is. available by the aid of cars and a track. The 

 latter system is used when there is considerable lumber held in 

 the yard, and is to be preferred because the lumber can be sorted 



