american loggers

[chucker]

  thats some great ole pictures from the past! wouldnt it be even greater to be able to produce the same way again ? in stead of the cut and slash of the new ways in the forest.

[Jeff]

No, it wouldn't.  Today's harvesting techniques are far less destructive and far less wasteful then those days.

[chucker]

  slow and easy , never take more then what is needed. always more left for another days work! cut a tree, make it into lumber, firewood and limbs for cover for the animals or to rot for fertilizer.. besides never to out produce to make you wonder if there will be work for tomorrow or a flooded market? some of the new is great. but a lot of the old ways were even better!!

[Jeff]

That's not what those old lumber camp photos were about. Your description does not fit early logging at all. I'm a bit of a nut about reading and collecting books on the subject and have dozens.  Your description sounds romantic, but for the most part, related to history, its fiction.

Look at those photos of the rivers packed with logs.  Everything was cut.

[chucker]

yes !! jeff your right on some things.. the camps were hell and so was the life. but the way i see somethings being done these days there not all for the best! we cut more then we need and salvage more then what was back then with the tub grinders and chipers... makeing more out of what we cut does put us out of work in many ways as were finding out with a full market ! the log yard not far from where i live is flooded with aspen and popel !! lumber is going cheap, and saw logs are going for less then firewood?  so more or less if we had a slower time kinda like the old ways we would probably be into a better future!! just my .2 cents....   

[Gary_C]

the log yard not far from where i live is flooded with aspen and popel !! lumber is going cheap, and saw logs are going for less then firewood?  so more or less if we had a slower time kinda like the old ways we would probably be into a better future!! just my .2 cents....   

The log yards are supposed to be full this time of the year. And I hear that Potlach in Bemidji did not get enough logs because no one was cutting softwoods this winter. We are having a slower time right now because the demand is way down, not because we are cutting too much.

And just what is this "cut and slash" method you talk about?  I've not seen anything like that here. 

[chucker]

  the log yard just west of brainerd has an average of 25 trucks a day loaded comeing in and as many as 35. after there sorted for quality or species there going out around 10 loads a day. as far as not much cutting this last winter there were as many as 40 loads going to the yard and none going out! the cutting was only slowed down here by the price of fuel as well as the price the mills were paying for logs !! which the price of stumpage was often higher then produced pulp and saw logs!! slash and burn was the words of choice, so much of the smaller tracts here were select cut and then just burned what ever they did not want! the chippers are just now geting started as a second source of income for a few bigger loggers.

[Gary_C]

Who's log yard is that?

[chucker]

  it was potlatch's before they sold out to sappie and now i believe its wassa's, although it was moved from baxter to pillager about 3 miles..

[Gary_C]

It could belong to Sappi as I believe that rail line runs to Cloquet. But it also could belong to Versa Paper in Sartell (old IP plant) as that line is also connected to the one that goes to Sartell.

I know Sappi slowed down deliveries early this spring as demand was down and things backed up in the yards. And Versa was slow most of this year with their big line down much of the first quarter. But never fear, by July or August they will push the panic button when their yard inventories diminish. Versa Paper was looking again in April when they started up their big line and were afraid they would not have enough log inventory to last thru spring breakup.

[chucker]

? well maybe.. from the 2 yards here and haveing lived around them for the last 25 years the  new yard is as full as i have ever seen it!! so no shortage over this way?? supply and demand it still controls the market ........... its just to bad the potlatch mill in cook and ainsworth mills had to close indefinitly.

[Chico]

Guys ther was more waste back in those days than now if they didn't need a species they'd clear cut leave it lay and they cut everything and it wasn't easy and laid back it was blow and go those men lived togethwer in those camps for months no bathes etc  They had no chippers they either burnt the slabs and sawdust in a burner or buried it we are much more efficient now plus the fact we replant  A little matter they didn't bother with and they built mills cut it out moved the mills and left the mess No they weren't better they were stepping stones laid down by hard and tough men and thank goodness the modern form of lumber utilization came along in time to set in motion programs to save our industry . It's like the phrases I hear about sawmilling being easier Imo It's not when you work in a prod mill pine or Hw you're sawing wide open the press is on for numbers and grade and all the time not beating your equipment up easier NO diff Yes
jmo
Chico

[Ron Scott]

The book, "The Lands Nobody Wanted", by William Shands is a good read.