Some vintage British Columbia bush sawmill footage

[Brmorgan]

I borrowed a DVD from my brother that contains a whole bunch of 8mm home movies that his in-laws' family had converted to digital a couple years ago. The footage appears to span from maybe 1958 to 1972 and is just arranged randomly in whatever order they put the reels in. In the mix was some random footage of a small family bushmill (apparently not theirs) operating back in the mid '60s. It looks like they're making railroad ties, which makes me think that the mill was located somewhere north of Prince George. There's a lot of other footage from a trip they took to Alaska in the very early 1960s, and I know the PGE railway didn't go north from PG through the Pine Pass until something like 1958.

I've had this DVD for some time now but just got around to cutting and pasting the sawmill clips all together. It's only a couple minutes long with no original audio, but it's interesting to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3nXDLddFYc

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[Daninvan]

Brad,

Thank you for doing that. It was quite interesting. Most of the logging stuff I have seen is older than that so this was good to see.

Dan

 

[Brmorgan]

No problem. This era is what you might call the golden age of the BC interior forest industry. Big first-growth was everywhere - not as big as coastal trees but still very nice, and the terrain mostly was more forgiving - and there was very little regulation compared to today. My house is actually built on one of three or four lots which in the 40s and 50s were the site of a small mill like this; half of my house is of the same vintage and was likely used as an office or some such. Across the road, there is a ton of old mill equipment and junk pushed over the bank of my neighbor's property. Back then it was five miles out of town on a horrible road, now I'm practically part of the city proper. And I know of at least half a dozen other old mill sites within maybe 10 miles of town, not to mention the ones that were (and a couple that still are) dozens of miles out in the mountains on the dirt backroads.

 

[Can8ianTimber]

That is really cool, Thanks for posting that. I get a kick out of old milling operations. Although technology has modernized so much of what we do there is a lot we can learn from the way things used to be done. Especially for most of us that are just out there with minimal equipment trying to get it done.

Thanks for the post.

 

[carvinmark]

Thanks for posting this. Looks just like a friends mill that he uses daily.

 

[Coalsmoke]

Great video, I could watch an hour of that! I left you a comment and a subscription. Of course I no expect more great things coming from your youtube account :greenchainsaw:

 

[Brmorgan]

Great video, I could watch an hour of that! I left you a comment and a subscription. Of course I now expect more great things coming from your youtube account :greenchainsaw:

Heh, we'll see what turns up there! I also found a bit of footage of the big Bennett dam up on Williston Lake being built back in the day. There's a couple shots of the longest conveyor belt in the world there - it was something like 10 miles long, carrying gravel and fill from the source site to where the dam was being built. I've seen photos of it before but never video. There's also quite a bit of the Williams Lake Stampede and associated parade from back then too - it really should be given to the museum, since I've never seen much footage of that either. Things have sure changed around here since then!

 

[Hddnis]

Thanks for sharing that with us.



Mr. HE

 

[fubar2]

I think I spotted Al Bundy on the dozer. Good movie.

 

[Brmorgan]

LOL that sure wasn't Peg rigging the horses right afterward though!

Hey, just a question - did that video embed properly in the first post for you guys? Because just the script code is displayed for me. Other videos seem to work fine, even others of mine. And the direct link in blue isn't clickable for me either for some reason. I can't edit that post anymore to change it either.

 

[ROOTSXROCKS]

LOL that sure wasn't Peg rigging the horses right afterward though!

Hey, just a question - did that video embed properly in the first post for you guys? Because just the script code is displayed for me. Other videos seem to work fine, even others of mine. And the direct link in blue isn't clickable for me either for some reason. I can't edit that post anymore to change it either.

Nope its messed up Maybe embedding is not allowed in this forum ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3nXDLddFYc

 

[Brmorgan]

I've embedded videos, even my own, before without issue. I've had problems with my 090 vid not wanting to embed before though too. I have no idea why some are finicky and some aren't. I know that it's possible to disable it for specific videos via Youtube itself, but I've never done that with mine. It's odd.