Sierra Nevada Logging Museum

[FSburt]

Hello all just wanted to add a link for a logging museum and website with a wealth of information on logging history in the Sierra Nevada's.

Sierra Nevada Logging Museum

 

[forestryworks]

That is a neat website. Lots of good stories on there.

 

[Rudedog]

Interesting. Thanks.

 

[paccity]

:good:

 

[Gologit]

Thanks, Burt. I've been there...it's worth the trip.

 

[woodbooga]

Not planning on getting out that way.


For the back easters, there's the Norther Forest Heritage site.

Berlin used to be a thriving town when timber was king in the NH north country. these days, its the stuff of heritage. Still good to remember. Always a hoot to chat with a person who can remember the advent of the chain-saw and its material impact on the lives of loggers and pulpers of the time

Northern Forest Heritage Park

 

[woodbooga]

fwiw, i'm just a guy that used a saw to heat his house - and that LOVES history. Having poasted in this thread, I'd love to see other web sites of regional museums/cultural centers devoted to woodland culture!

 

[Gologit]

Woodbooga

Here's one of my favorites....http://www.oregonstateparks.org/images/pdf/collier_museum.pdf


Get your butt out here...there's plenty to see.

 

[logbutcher]

Here's one of my favorites....http://www.oregonstateparks.org/images/pdf/collier_museum.pdf
Get your butt out here...there's plenty to see.

Been there Bob ? What's it like ?

Thanks for the invite.....how many can you take at your place ? We're ready for a break from the snow out here .

 

[slowp]

You'll have to scroll down to read about the little museum in Morton. I haven't been there. There's an old steam donkey in Gus Backstrom City Park. A swimming hole too.

http://www.washingtonstatetours.com/volcano/lewiscounty.htm

There used to be a lot of logging "history" sitting around in yards here but the scrap market became lucrative.

 

[woodbooga]

Here's one of my favorites....http://www.oregonstateparks.org/images/pdf/collier_museum.pdf


Get your butt out here...there's plenty to see.

Thanks for the pdf. and the kind invitation. like Mr. Butcher noted previously, we're getting whallopped with 20 or so inches of snow, putting a hitch in travel plans.

I did enjoy the read. thanks again!

Here's the transcript of a Storycorps oral history I heard from NHPR a couple years ago. Sounds like someone whom slowp would really relate to.

NHPR.org - StoryCorps: Helen Burns

StoryCorps: Helen Burns
By Andrew Parrella on Monday, July 27, 2009
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Gorham's Helen Burns grew up in a roving logging camp, in fact she was one of the few female loggers in the North Country at the time. Her friend Mary Jo Landry had a few questions about her time in the camps when they stopped by the Mobile Booth in June.

Mary Jo: Helen, I’m wondering, when you were young you worked in the camp kitchens and when you got older you actually cut the wood. How did that progress? You were what age when you were working in the kitchen? Helen: Well, from the time I can remember. I think I was five or six when we started travelling around from one job to the other. And I helped when I could. Mary Jo: How did you actually start to work in the woods? I know you were working in the kitchen, but when did you transition to going out? Helen: Not until I was an adult. From the time I could pull the end of the cross-cut saw, we cut wood for the camps. So I wasn’t very big when I did that. The men would go into the woods and cut down the trees. Then they’d have a pair of horses with a scoot, and they’d put the logs on there and take them out to the mill. We had what they called a portable saw mill. They’d just pick that right up, it was on skids and slide it onto the back of a truck and move the whole mill. Mary Jo: That’s interesting to me, because I never knew they had that piece. You always hear about people cutting down wood and floating it somewhere, or having the horses draw it somewhere. But you don’t hear a lot about processing it on site. Helen: Well, they did. They had portable saw mills and they’d go from one job to the other. It wouldn’t take them any time to set them up. Mary Jo: What kind of work ethic do you need to be able to earn a living doing that? Helen: Not too much. Mary Jo: Really? Helen: No, not as long as you learn how to cut the wood. The main thing was when the chainsaw came out, that was like having gold in your hands. That was a big step up from the buck saw, I’ll tell you. Mary Jo: Tell me more about that. Helen: When I first started cutting, we’d cut with the cross-cut saw, two of us to cut down those big trees. Then cut them up with a buck saw. A buck saw is a small saw with a rounded frame and one person runs that. The cross-cut saw has a handle on each end, and it’s a wide blade about that wide with teeth on one side and you pull it back and forth. That wasn’t easy, riding that handle all day long. The first chainsaw we bought, we bought right here in Berlin. We had one that had a long 30-inch blade on it. And that was for when you were really cutting bug wood. I tell you, you walk up to the tree with that there, and you could cut that tree in a matter of minutes. That really made it a lot easier cutting the wood. Like I said, we made a decent living. We didn’t get rich or nothing, but we always had food on the table and clothes. And what more could anyone want, you know? I think it was a good life. It was a hard life, we worked hard. I think of that now sometimes, when I try to get up out of the chair there and the aches and the pains. Of course, my back's no good anymore. So, I suppose it took its toll, but it was still a good life.