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Boom piers in the river,Berlin,NH

Started by sprucebunny, January 04, 2005, 05:33:56 AM

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sprucebunny

Many of the boom piers that steered and seperated the wood to go to the different mills still exist in the Androscoggin river. Last fall they built bonfires on about twenty of them for Halloween. Doesen't sound all that ecology minded or historically careful to me but what do I know ?



The two lumps in the river are overgrown boom piers.


Close to upstream side of pier


Downstream side of a pier with the remains of a chain that was used to tie logs between the piers.
MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

GAV64

sprucebunny,
Just got back from your neck of the woods, stayed last weekend at the royality inn in gorham, was that the mill in berlin that i smelled!!! Skied at sunday river friday and sat, sat morning around 4 am it felt like it was about 50 degerees, i guess you dont need that tracks this week. glenn.

RSteiner

You have probably all seen the video From Stump to Ship showing how logs were once run down the rivers into the mill yard.  I know it didn't do the rivers any good but they didn't have to worry as much about mud season. :)

Those are nice pictures of the river.

Randy
Randy

Ron Scott

sprucebunny,

Is that the Presidential Range in the background??
~Ron

SwampDonkey

Nice pictures sprucebunny. It's good to preserve that old heritage. Here in New Brunswick there's little effort to preserve the river heritage except for small underfunded historical societies and private collections. In the 1980's the Southern Victoria Historical Society produced the 'Tobiquer' magazine which documented life on the Tobique for that last 150 years with photos and written material from the folks of those days. My uncle has the whole series of magazines and it makes for some good reading because these are written by the locals that lived and experienced things instead of an outsider trying to portray something they don't fully understand, a way of life and a livelihood tied to a river system.

The last log drive in Canada was on the Gatineau in Quebec in 1993. It feeds into the Ottawa river. Here in New Brunswick it ended with the building of beechwood in the 60's and there are some cement piers in the river above beechwood at Riviere De Chute on the Saint John River, which were built the year before the log drive was ended. There are also some wooden piers at the mouth of the Pokiok Stream (Victoria County) where Sadler's had a sawmill and also at the mouth of Nictau Lake at Mount Carleton Provincial Park.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

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sprucebunny

Yes, Ron , that's the Presidential range or part of it.
SwampDonkey --I'm glad they documented some of the logging heritage.It's too bad that there isn't more interest in it .I think the last log drive here was in the 1960's. I am always awed when I think of the amount of physical labor people did in the past and the risks they took to get 'er done.
Below is a picture of what the "above water" portion of a boom pier looked like. The river is 6 to 10 feet deep and they would have had to place quite a few rocks before they got to the visible cribbing.

MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

markct

just outa curiosity, someone had mentioned that floating the logs was bad to the rivers, what exactly did it harm, i always thought it seemed like a pretty good way, using natural energy, no burning fuel to transport logs, and no need to build a huge logging road or railroad, only downside i can think of would be that it was pretty darn dangerous for the loggers takin the logs downstream. also i hadnt realized that any were done as recently as 1993, was that for actual logging or just some sorta historical demonstration, i dont know how osha would ever approve of sending workers downstream on a log raft!

SwampDonkey

On the Gatineau it was a real log drive up untill 1993 and they used tugboats on the river since the 40's I think. There was an article in Canadian Geographic Magazine in 1993 , forget which issue. But, it was definately a real drive and not for show. ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

isawlogs

Quotesomeone had mentioned that floating the logs was bad to the rivers, what exactly did it harm

All the sediment from the logs , bark saw dust and even logs where at one time water logged and would end in the bottomof the river the water turn yellowish....
  Swompdonkey
  I live only a stone throw from the Gatineau river was born and raised on its shore , we have a farm up river in Gracefield we own 1 mile along its shore ....
  I remember the drive well had friends and relatives that worked for the CIP which was the companie that had the wrights to the drive
 I put some pulp wood on the ice in the winter and they would come and mesure the wood on the ice , during the other months we would put the wood on the banks and after it was mesured we would push the wood into the river ....
  They still had the tug boats in 93  My friend was captain of one , It was a real drive but not like the ones that my grandfather and dad did back in the 50's  ;D
  
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

isawlogs

Joan, those are nice pictures , is that river near where you live ???
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

SwampDonkey

Isawlogs,

Was similar to the drive here, my grandfather worked on before the dams and power commission took the river rights away from folks. This area had prime salmon fishing and the log drive was good to deepen the salmon pools, which in later years filled in with silt from the slower moving river the dams created. They not only took log driving away put took the prime sport fishing away also.Salmon died by the thousands as their route to spawning grounds where impeded by progress. ::)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

markct

would the sediment dropping off the logs have realy been enough to worry about? it just seems like some get a little too over protective sometimes of nature, like for example the reason there are deep gorges and such in nature is years and years of erosion from a stream, but it seems now days when that happens people get all worked up and decide they need to build dams etc to slow it down, it seems to me that sometimes we should just sorta let nature adapt, as it has been for thousands of years

Buzz-sawyer

markct
You dont understand.when nature causes an effect its "natural".......when MAN causes an effect its un-natural ....and I might add HORRIBLE ;) :)
    HEAR THAT BLADE SING!

isawlogs

Mar kct
 There are places in the Gatineau where the logs and pulp are piled in the bottom 50 feet thick. the sediment  came from the logs floating near shore and rubing along and causing it to be moved with the current .... The bark would fall off and it would go to the bottom , many logs never made it to the mill they would get water logged and sink ... Many deadheaders still appear on the river even though they did a massive clean up of the shore in 95 . You ever hit one with a boat .... I have .. not a good expirience ....
  Dont get me wrong here , I used the river for getting my logs and pulp to the mills , it was handy at the time ,thats the way it was since they started to cut here wayback when....It was also very nice to see the logs go down . we had first ahnd view the farm house is on a hill overlooking the river , there was always something moving on the river ....
   They have started to reintroduce trout in the river something that was not there for many many years , now wether the drive had something to do with it or not I,m not sure ... but I dont think it had anything to do with over fishing . The spawning grounds have partially been cleaned up  , so that should help ......
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

markct

i didnt mean to offend anyone by my comments about nature takin care of its self and all, and i understand that there were some detrimental effects, 50 ft of logs realy surprised me, i figured maybe a half dozen logs a year would be lost at most, i mean its pretty rare for a log not to float unless its realy rotten to the point where it can become easily waterlogged, atleast thats been my experience around here. and i had not thought of the fact that the logs would hit the banks and cause alot of damage there, thanks for pointing that out

isawlogs

  No offence taken by no means .... You see the other problem with the drive here was winter .... the logs would get cought in the ice and the one lower would all get jamed up they would stay like this till spring thaw .... makes for a long time in the water , there are many sound logs that never made it to the mills because of this
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

markct

yea i hadnt been thinkin of how they basicly used the water as the yard too, so some logs were there for alot longer than just the trip to the sawmill

isawlogs

  Yes they where there a long time ... I think the worst part was of the disturbing of the spawning grounds for the fish ....
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

SwampDonkey

isawlogs:

Have you seen the Historique Sawlog and Milling thread yet?

I can't seem to find it with the search gadget :(
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

SwampDonkey

We had lots of salmon here during the log drive era. It was the dams that stopped the fish from getting to them spawn beds that pretty much wiped the salmon out of the Saint John and Tobique rivers. My grand father used to go to the river, before dams, in the summer and get a salmon whenever he wanted one. He owned his own private section of the river as stated in the deed. It seems too easy, but there was always salmon on the table when they wanted it. It was all artificial fly fishing too, not poaching or netting. Salmon fishing as a guide for American sportsmen was the livelihood of folks during summer and the log drive was winter and spring, fall was guiding of hunting sportmen from the states. Up on the Tobique River, there was no such thing as the '29 depression, there where always rich people coming to fish or hunt and lotsa work.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

slowzuki

I live on the Saint John river, there are many of the log boom anchors down below the dam.  There are some in Douglas and some in Maugerville.

The river in Fundy that dumps into the Point Wolfe area was killed off by sawdust from mills being dumped into the water.  The sawdust got into gills or something.

Saint John River is big enough I guess that wasn't a problem.  There is still a log clean up though, every summer a boat cruises around cleaning up driftwood and deadheads.  It is sort of a shame as they used to protect the banks from erosion.

The fellow we bought our land from used to go up to the camps and cut all winter to dump onto the river.  He said the log driving crew was a different bunch.  The river fellows were risk takers, a few got killed every year, he used to be a shoreman, shoving stuff off the shore.   He said the shoremen were hired along sections and didn't travel too much with the logs.  The rivers guys travelled, and used to be the worst bunch of guys!  He said criminals or people in terrible debt and all that sort that just wanted to dissappear would sign up for the river crew.  No one could get a hold of them and they rarely gave a full name.

Different sort of living!

isawlogs

Swomp....

 I went looking for that thread and could not find it either
  Maybe we need to work harder on looking deeper  :P
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Jeff

Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

isawlogs

Where was it  ???  
 Oh in the general board good place for historical logging  ;)
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

RSteiner

I know driving logs down a river has some effect on the vitality of a river but isn't a similar condition repeated when "nature" gives a river an over abundance of rain and run off causing a whole lot of silt and debrie.

I bet the river banks were much cleaner when they were used regularly for log "roads".  Today the wind blows trees over into the rivers and banks get washed out causing trees to fall in which never get cleaned up.  A river driving crew would tend to these tangles so their logs wouldn't form a point and jam.

It seems the power companies started building dams for power generation which put a hitch in the giddyup of running logs down the river.  I wonder how much of an effect this had on regulations made using rivers to run logs.

Randy
Randy

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