Burning cottonwood...?

[woodbooga]

Right you are!

I recall Mrs. xtm commenting that the one we were using in a winter ski cabin looked like a steam locomotive - not really endorsed by Martha Stewart Designs....

xtm

That's funny. It does remind me a little bit of the engine that ran up the cog railway on Mt. Washington, the highest point in the Northeast.

They called this little engine that could "Old Peppersass" because of its resemblance to the pepper sauce bottles that were around in the years after the Civil War,

 

[Kansas]

A tree guy told me that cottonwood is one of the worst smelling woods when burned... Is that the general consensus or should I not be too concerned about the odor? Can't say I've ever had the displeasure of burning any to know for sure.

Thanks

I used to burn a lot of it and always thought it smelled like pipe tobacco but thats me?

Maybe it had to do with the fact the only wood I would use was standing dead with no bark and usually 24"-36" avg and up in diameter all the sap was gone or something?


Kansas

 

[thombat4]

Wealth of info here...thanks!

Wow I never expected so many replies to this thread! I'm glad I posted the question now because I've finally learned what the massive tree in my backyard is. Apparently I'm the proud owner of a huge male eastern cottonwood! None of the annoying cottony seeds of the female trees although the males do create a mess in early spring with the flowers it produces. I like the fact that I can collect a bunch of the twigs and set them aside in the spring and come summertime they really flare up an outdoor fire in the fire pit, especially if there's a few dry leaves still attached. The tree guy pointed out that it was the biggest cottonwood he'd ever seen. I was a little skeptical of his identification of it but you all helped to confirm it! I'll see if I can get a trunk measurement and a pic posted!

bryan

 

[danrclem]

That's funny. It does remind me a little bit of the engine that ran up the cog railway on Mt. Washington, the highest point in the Northeast.

They called this little engine that could "Old Peppersass" because of its resemblance to the pepper sauce bottles that were around in the years after the Civil War,

How old is "Old Peppersass" and is it still running?

I rode this cog train to the top of Pikes Peak quite a few years ago. I wanted to drive up but my wife would have none of that.

 

[woodbooga]

How old is "Old Peppersass" and is it still running?

I rode this cog train to the top of Pikes Peak quite a few years ago. I wanted to drive up but my wife would have none of that.

Circa 1870s. No longer takes folks to the sumit. She's still there at base camp, if I recall.

The one up Pat's Peak uses the same principle ideveloped by NH inventor Sylvester Marsh. Cool story quoted below.

I love the anecdote about his petitioning the state legislature for permission. Building a RR to the 6400' summit at the time seemed so far fetched, they granted him a charter to build a railroad "to the moon."

Very impressive was the so-called Frankenstein Trestle. Shown here on a 19th c. stereoview card (kind of our ancestors' equivalent of the Viewmasters we had when we were kids)

Since we're off on a tangent, here's another nugget of history. The red sign says it all:

The Mount Washington Cog Railway
…an engineering marvel for almost
140 years

In 1857, Sylvester Marsh climbed Mount Washington and was caught in a fierce
storm that forced him to spend the night on the mountainside. This near-fatal
experience prompted him to invent a train that could safely carry passengers to the
summit.

A native of Campton, New Hampshire, Marsh made his fortune in Chicago's
meatpacking industry. The following year, he applied to the New Hampshire
Legislature for a charter to build a steam railway on Mount Washington. He needed
the state charter to acquire the three-mile right-of-way up the mountain by eminent
domain. The Legislature laughed at Marsh and skeptically allowed him to build his
“railway to the moon.”

A conventional train could never get up Mount Washington. The average grade on
the right-of-way would be 25% with the steepest being 37.4% -- more than 37 feet for
every 100 feet it went forward. At that point, people in the front seats of a railway
coach would be 14 feet higher than people in the back. It would take a special type
of railway to carry passengers up the mountain.

In 1861, Marsh was granted a patent for a steam locomotive using a cogwheel to
grip a center notched rail. He founded the Mount Washington Railway Company in
1858 but didn’t begin construction of the railway and its first locomotive until 1866.

Building a mountain railway was no small task. Equipment and materials had to be
hauled by oxen for 25 miles to Bretton Woods, New Hampshire and then another
six miles through thick forest to the base of Mount Washington. Building the
extremely steep roadway and almost three miles of sturdy wooden trestles was an
amazing accomplishment.

When Marsh made his first rail ascent to the 6,288-foot Mount Washington summit
in 1869, the Cog Railway was an engineering marvel. President Ulysses S. Grant and
his family were among the passengers in August of that year.

In 1876, a six-mile branch rail line was built from Fabyan’s Station to the base. This
allowed passengers from Boston, New York and points beyond to travel to the
summit of Mount Washington entirely by rail.

The Boston and Maine Railroad acquired the Cog Railway in 1894. A fire in B&M's
Lyndonville, Vermont service shop the following year destroyed several of the
railway’s cog locomotives.

The Cog Railway ran without incident until 1938, when that year’s great hurricane
destroyed much of the track including the remarkable Jacob's Ladder trestle. The
track was rebuilt and a new base station erected.

In 1972, the Cog Railway’s own machine shop built the first new locomotive since
1908. It was a testimony to the ingenuity of shop craftsmen.

In 1983, a group of NH businessmen bought the Cog Railway. Electrical lines were
finally brought in to the base station in 1987, allowing year round maintenance and
construction work in the shops.

Oh, to get this back on topic - I'm sure that some cottonwoods had to have been cut down fo build the RR. Some might have wound up as firewood. :greenchainsaw:

 

[mowoodchopper]

What the wood smells like is irrelevant to me as I have a furnace. If it is wood and available, it goes in the furnace. Cottonwood definitely smells bad green, but I haven't noticed any smell after it dries. If it is bad, then I am in a bit of a pickle as I have several cords of it split to burn this winter.

Hey Mowoodchopper. If you would put some Amsoil in that saw you could cut that cottonwood faster.:greenchainsaw:

Ok ,when you send me a bottle Ill try It!!

 

[Wood Doctor]

WoodBooga said, "I'm sure that some cottonwoods had to have been cut down fo build the RR. Some might have wound up as firewood."
-----------------
Understatement of the year. However, road construction has probably chopped down ten times as many. Most were thrown into bon fires with dozens of other species and burned. They never heated very many houses or buildings--another example of our nation's all-out attempt to waste as much usable and replenishable energy as possible.

 

[xtm]

Cottonwood built the railroads across the Great Plains, too. It was the most plentiful wood on those long, wide open stretches, so the initial cross-ties were hewn out of it and the boilers were fired with it.

Later, after the routes were completed and in use, the old cottonwood ties were pulled out and replaced with more suitable and longer-lasting wood from forests in the Rockies.

Years ago, when I was involved with mining, I found out that the brake shoes on all of our underground rail cars were fabricated in the wood shop - from billets of cottonwood!

Cottonwood is certainly under-rated and under-appreciated by most folks.

xtm

 

[damifino]

Cottonwood is certainly under-rated and under-appreciated by most folks.


If I could choose between oak and cottonwood, oak would be my first choice.
But if oak is not available then your dang right I will burn cottonwood.

Free wood is the best wood.

Eric

 

[mimilkman1]

The way I see it is "burn is burn" take what you can get.

Kyle

 

[woodbooga]

WoodBooga said, "I'm sure that some cottonwoods had to have been cut down fo build the RR. Some might have wound up as firewood."
-----------------
Understatement of the year. However, road construction has probably chopped down ten times as many. Most were thrown into bon fires with dozens of other species and burned. They never heated very many houses or buildings--another example of our nation's all-out attempt to waste as much usable and replenishable energy as possible.

Yup. I was careful is saying "some might have wound up as firewood."

At the time when the Cog Railway was being built, there was little population in that part of the Mt Washington Valley. And it would be some time before the so-called Timber Barons would build the logging railroads into that region.

With no easy way to access what got felled (tho not much to fell above tree level), I'm sure lots got tossed into burn pits. (Had to be careful with slash and deadfall; brake sparks have caused more than one forest fire in the White Mountains).

The optimist in me likes to think that some of what was felled was burnt to produce steam power in ole peppersass.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Yup. I was careful is saying "some might have wound up as firewood."

At the time when the Cog Railway was being built, there was little population in that part of the Mt Washington Valley. And it would be some time before the so-called Timber Barons would build the logging railroads into that region.

With no easy way to access what got felled (tho not much to fell above tree level), I'm sure lots got tossed into burn pits. (Had to be careful with slash and deadfall; brake sparks have caused more than one forest fire in the White Mountains).

The optimist in me likes to think that some of what was felled was burnt to produce steam power in ole peppersass.

If I were to show you all the cottonwood trees (and thousands of others) that were cut or bulldozed down, thrown into a woodpile, and burned in bon fires while roads were being widened in Nebraska alone from 1998 to 2008, it would make you sick. Now multiply that by all the rest of the states that widened 2-lane roads ro 4 lanes during the same period.

Practically none of that wood did anything but heat the atmosphere. Very few, if any, commercial firewood dealers or hardwood sawmills were even contacted for salvage. In short, no effort was made by the government or the construction contractors to harvest anything.

To my knowledge, it's still going on--business as usual.

 

[Kansas]

Yeah the gubermint would have to spend a few billion on researching the merrits of letting a sub-contractor deal with the wood.

Kansas

 

[olyman]

Yeah the gubermint would have to spend a few billion on researching the merrits of letting a sub-contractor deal with the wood.

Kansas

more likely--they would have to have survey after survey to see if theres a important mite or two in those trees. i/e peta,alf,friends of animals,etc---then things would get really costly--- between the leftists and the goobers--what a crock--

 

[woodbooga]

more likely--they would have to have survey after survey to see if theres a important mite or two in those trees. i/e peta,alf,friends of animals,etc---then things would get really costly--- between the leftists and the goobers--what a crock--

Why would a firewooder need to consult this guy?

 

[olyman]

Why would a firewooder need to consult this guy?

turkey--animal liberation front---the ones that free animals that have been in captivity all their life, such as farm raised mink---

 

[turnkey4099]

Cottonwood built the railroads across the Great Plains, too. It was the most plentiful wood on those long, wide open stretches, so the initial cross-ties were hewn out of it and the boilers were fired with it.

Later, after the routes were completed and in use, the old cottonwood ties were pulled out and replaced with more suitable and longer-lasting wood from forests in the Rockies.

Years ago, when I was involved with mining, I found out that the brake shoes on all of our underground rail cars were fabricated in the wood shop - from billets of cottonwood!

Cottonwood is certainly under-rated and under-appreciated by most folks.

xtm

Another use was flooring in barns. An ex-cowhand from Montana told me the interlocking grain was especially good for flooring. Surprised me as I would think it would rot out in short order.

Harry K

 

[cowtipper]

I sure hope its somewhat good to burn I just stacked 12 cords... and have 4 stack and split... but it was all free..

 

[xtm]

Right you are, Harry.

Cottonwood was even used for building houses - not just for flooring - around here in the 19th century. We have a string of old military outposts in north Texas that used a lot of cottonwood for their housing, hospitals, and morgues. The siding is even cottonwood! They were built ~1870 and several of these buildings are still standing. The hospital and BOQ at Ft. Richardson were built during the Indian Wars and were used off-and-on until the 1940s when they was set aside for use as a Texas State Park.

I wondered about the rot too. The park rangers told me that all the wood buildings were set on stone foundations, above the ground - so rot has never been a problem. My cottonwood firewood starts to get punky in a couple of years if it's stored on the ground in a damp area - but no problem if it's elevated.

xtm

 

[bgiles117]

Just burned some cottonwood yesterday. Smelled fine. Burned clean.

XTM Love your sig. How bout this one. Save a Pixel stop reading Liberal TRASH online