What was it like back in the day?

[Racerboy832]

I was looking at pics of guys hand sawing trees outwest before chainsaws were the norm. I could only wonder what the guys were thinking the first day someone brought in the first chainsaw. It was either these are a couple lucky guys or we are gunna be out of work soon. It reminds me of when a neighbor gets all dressed up in full safety gear and starts working on a 18" oak with a 14" poulan then I bring out the 660 and accidentally spray him with chips. Ok back to day dreaming...

 

[CGC4200]

I was not there

I used to rabbit hunt with a WW2 veteran who logged with mules & 2 man chain
saws in the late 40's & 50's. They hauled mules and saws with trucks,
but used Mule Power for skidders on site.

 

[Muffler Bearing]

http://www.cleanairgardening.com/scotclasreel1.html

I used to cut grass with a reel mower...ie no engine...
1 acre 2x's week.
You give me a hand saw and tell me to go cut 4 cords.....you'd be wearing that saw up your :censored:
Man only lived to 42 yrs old back at the turn of the 1899's.
Than they created Viagra...Now we HANG around till 82 and don't tell me its the veggies we eat.

 

[CGC4200]

Clearcutting Appalachians circa 1900-1920

I recently watched a documentary TV show on KET where the old
timers had cut most all of the old growth timber "back in the the day"
with axes and crosscut saws & caused massive flooding.

This was before Stihl, Dolmar or Viagra.

 

[volks-man]

I recently watched a documentary TV show on KET where the old
timers had cut most all of the old growth timber "back in the the day"
with axes and crosscut saws & caused massive flooding.

This was before Stihl, Dolmar or Viagra.

i hike a lot of the old rail grades that were left behind in the central PA appalacians.
they are everywhere.
them old dudes cut a lot of timber.

 

[rmihalek]

Labor was cheap and human life was not valued much by the timber barons. My guess was if you died in the woods, you were buried in the woods: no OSHA investigation or things like that.

 

[RandyMac]

My old boss told me it took the handtool loggers 60 years to cut almost half of Northern CA's old growth, the next 25 years pretty much took care of the rest of it. The next time you hear someone carrying on about how bad logging looks now, show them the old hand logging photos or better yet, the 1950s and '60s. Mechinized logging, few controls, big market, big mess. The best or worst example of rip and tear logging was on Redwood Creek in the late 1960s into the 1970s, they went 24/7 to beat the deadline and boundry lines of the Redwood National Park, they did some serious damage. I have worked in that area, found a Mac 125 stuck in a tree, 50 yards inside the Park boundry, a six-pack mired in mud to the windows, it had Simpson colors, an upside down Northwest trackloader in a stream bed, they cut and they ran. Goggle "spite cutting" or "spite logging" They call Redwood Creek the "Worm" for it's fringe of timber left on it's banks, the big companies gave it a bikini wax.

 

[MadMax5578]

My old boss told me it took the handtool loggers 60 years to cut almost half of Northern CA's old growth, the next 25 years pretty much took care of the rest of it. The next time you hear someone carrying on about how bad logging looks now, show them the old hand logging photos or better yet, the 1950s and '60s. Mechinized logging, few controls, big market, big mess. The best or worst example of rip and tear logging was on Redwood Creek in the late 1960s into the 1970s, they went 24/7 to beat the deadline and boundry lines of the Redwood National Park, they did some serious damage. I have worked in that area, found a Mac 125 stuck in a tree, 50 yards inside the Park boundry, a six-pack mired in mud to the windows, it had Simpson colors, an upside down Northwest trackloader in a stream bed, they cut and they ran. Goggle "spite cutting" or "spite logging" They call Redwood Creek the "Worm" for it's fringe of timber left on it's banks, the big companies gave it a bikini wax.

Sounds like friggin' night and day compared to today. :agree2:

 

[MadMax5578]

I was looking at pics of guys hand sawing trees outwest before chainsaws were the norm. I could only wonder what the guys were thinking the first day someone brought in the first chainsaw. It was either these are a couple lucky guys or we are gunna be out of work soon. It reminds me of when a neighbor gets all dressed up in full safety gear and starts working on a 18" oak with a 14" poulan then I bring out the 660 and accidentally spray him with chips. Ok back to day dreaming...

Not to get off topic...but rep sent to my CT neighbor!

 

[tree md]

I would not know first hand but I'll tell you this:

My grandfather's handsaw hangs in my shop... As well as his carpentry tools and a lot of other stuff. It's all I have left of him.

He was not a logger his entire life per say, he was a coal miner for most of his life. He died of the black lung and cancer in his beloved Kentucky.

However, when the depression hit he ended up in the CCC camp and they sent him off to California to fight fires and cut timber.

Papaw is what I called him... Gosh, where can I begin to tell you what I learned from him. Number 1: papaw was born in 1912 and never learned to drive a car... That didn't stop him from pushing every car up E town hill in the snow in Elizabethville, KY one night on Christmas eve. He told the family to go ahead, he would hitch a ride and catch up after he made sure everyone got up the hill on Christmas. He was cool like that. That's how they did it back in the old days...

I'll tell you that I remember birds lighting on his head and shoulders while he fed them in his backyard when I was a kid. I'll tell you I remember squirrels eating out of his hand. But I'll also tell you there was not a better quail and dove shot in the country and we ate fried squirrel and eggs every Saturday for breakfast at my mamaw and papaw's house when I was a kid. I never will forget my papaw hurdling fences for three yards straight at 60 when I was a kid (before his stroke left him paralyzed).

Pappaw spent most of his life in the coal mines doing his best to advance my family. He didn't know anything about unions in his time (he was a breaker boy) and my great grandfather was killed in the same cave in that my papaw lost his little finger. I know him and my mamaw was sure glad when my dad went back and spoke to his former supervisors, got documentation of his time in the coal mines from the time he was 12, got affidavits and petitioned the union for his pension years after his service. All papaw really knew was mostly a dollar a day in his time. I know I watched him smoke a cigarette on his death bed, hugged him and cried as he died and weeped over his bones. I remember spending nights with him where we stayed up all night and he told me stories of the coal mines, cutting timber in California and him teaching me to play harmonica. I'll never forget him and feel blessed to have been able to meet someone so simple from that day and age. They don't make men like that anymore.

Papaw was a staunch democrat which was his prerogative. The union made the company (which I still have scrip pay that they gave him) pay for his medical and black lung in the end and helped my grandmother as well. They gave their lives and health to the mines. I don't count myself as a democrat but I sure don't have anything to say about my grandparents being staunch democrats after Roosevelt put them to work and saved them from starvation. I am not a big supporter of unions in this day and age but I sure can appreciate how they helped my hard working grandparents in their time of need after they gave their lives to the company.

This is why I bristle when somebody tells me I don't know history... Hell I've lived history in this country.

Anyway, my papaw's handsaw hangs in my shop for me to look at everyday...

 

[turnkey4099]

I recently watched a documentary TV show on KET where the old
timers had cut most all of the old growth timber "back in the the day"
with axes and crosscut saws & caused massive flooding.

The flooding was probably caused by the sweat runnin off them. BTDT on one end with my old man yelling "quit riding the saw" about every 2nd stroke.

Harry K

 

[BobL]

My dad was axe and cross cutting up big Aussie hardwoods till 1957 (1 tree took up to 12 hours to fall and cut up) when he and his buddy got his first 2 man CS. Then they averaged 4 trees a day and that was with the saw out of action or filing the chain for 4 out of 8 hours. Then in 1959 they got their first macs and one man could fall and buck a tree about every hour.

3 Years later no more felling contracts were issued and he had to work for a fixed hourly rate or go do something else.

 

[Gologit]

Labor was cheap and human life was not valued much by the timber barons. My guess was if you died in the woods, you were buried in the woods: no OSHA investigation or things like that.

Wrong...but close. They'd take you to town if you got killed in the woods. But they'd wait 'til quitting time to do it. Why make a special trip?

 

[slowp]

If you want to relive a part of those days--the crosscut part, get on a wilderness trail crew. Chainsaws are not allowed to be run in official wilderness so the crews use misery whips and hand tools. Of course, there isn't the pressure or the falling, but they have to buck the blowdown trees out of the trails.

You get paid to camp. Or you can volunteer and not get paid to camp. If you get killed, there's endless paperwork to do. If you crash your pickup on the way back to town, there's even more paperwork to fill out.

 

[KD57]

Those guys had it rough back in the day, but it is all relevant. When I was a kid, I thought hand clippers were the best thing ever invented, sure beat pulling grass along the curb by hand. Then along came the weed eater, and life as I knew it changed forever. Same thing goes for the lawn mower that finally had a motor on it.
We have it so easy nowadays, yet I still complain about having to plow fields in an air conditioned cab tractor, lol.

 

[Bubbles Up]

One of my local lakes I fish ,there are some huge old growth stumps you can see the spring board notches. On a "shore break" I had a look you could see the axe marks and cross cut saw marks on them. I don't think I would want to go toe to toe with some of those guys probably had arms the size of our modern day tree trunks.Getting in there is a good 4x4 drive,couldn't imagine with mule team.

 

[murf]

Awesome story tree_md! Reminds me somewhat of my grandpa, one of those larger than life kinda guys that didn't have a whole lot to say, but when they spoke, by golly, you BETTER listen!

Think I got something in my eye after reading that....

Thanks!

Murf

 

[MadMax5578]

You get paid to camp. Or you can volunteer and not get paid to camp. If you get killed, there's endless paperwork to do. If you crash your pickup on the way back to town, there's even more paperwork to fill out.

Sucks for the volunteers..... At least get paid like they did back in the ole' days!