This thread is started in response to Shamus's chat room idea to get some stories posted. Since we've been unsuccessful in getting Dick (absnut) to come out of retirement, become a lumberjack, and provide us with some stories, I'm using old time stories. If anyone has their own stories, or can borrow some from their favorite source, please post them here!
These come from the Main Lumberman's Museum. Our little plastic people don't know how easy they got it!
~River Driving~
When the ice broke up in the streams and rivers in late March and early April, the men began rolling the logs into the water that would carry them to the mill. Their daily lives consisted of working in ice water 14 hours a day, sleeping in wet blankets, eating coarse food, and constantly risking their lives. The river drive was the loggers' supreme test as they nimbly rode a log down a spring flooded river in their heavy, spiked boots. Logs sometimes jammed up behind rocks and other logs. The drivers cleared the jams by working from boats with poles and leaping from log to log. Sometimes dynamite had to be used to clear the jam."
~Bateaux~
"Bateaux were navigated upstream by means of slender poles of spruce about 12 or 15 feet in length, with an iron point on the end. One boatman stood in the stern and one in the bow and they both poled on the same side as they went upstream. Sometimes a bateau was carried two miles over land. It was carried by three men, one at the bow with both gunwales on his shoulder and two men at the stern each supporting a gunwale. The boat weighed about 615 pounds."
These come from the Main Lumberman's Museum. Our little plastic people don't know how easy they got it!
~River Driving~
When the ice broke up in the streams and rivers in late March and early April, the men began rolling the logs into the water that would carry them to the mill. Their daily lives consisted of working in ice water 14 hours a day, sleeping in wet blankets, eating coarse food, and constantly risking their lives. The river drive was the loggers' supreme test as they nimbly rode a log down a spring flooded river in their heavy, spiked boots. Logs sometimes jammed up behind rocks and other logs. The drivers cleared the jams by working from boats with poles and leaping from log to log. Sometimes dynamite had to be used to clear the jam."
~Bateaux~
"Bateaux were navigated upstream by means of slender poles of spruce about 12 or 15 feet in length, with an iron point on the end. One boatman stood in the stern and one in the bow and they both poled on the same side as they went upstream. Sometimes a bateau was carried two miles over land. It was carried by three men, one at the bow with both gunwales on his shoulder and two men at the stern each supporting a gunwale. The boat weighed about 615 pounds."
