Redwood Region Logging Conference |
Old Timers |
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Ask any timber family about the old days and they will have many stories of their grandfathers or great-grandfathers who worked in the woods in the late 1800's and early 1900's. After gold was discovered in 1848, the population exploded in California and lumber was in such demand it was called "green gold". Many immigrants were drawn to logging for the good pay and good food. Back then, the work was very dangerous and the "old timers" had to think of creative ways of getting the job done and staying alive. The timber fallers used cross cut saws which took two men and sometimes days to cut down one tree. The logs were then pulled by teams of oxen or horses to places where the logs could be floated down a river or put on trains to get them to the mills. Later a steam donkey was invented to pull the logs to a landing which made the job a little easier. The man lived in the log camps near the job all week so a good cook was a necessity. Most loggers would only work in the camps with the best cooks. Many of the trees cut by these old timers in Mendocino and Humboldt counties were sent to San Francisco to rebuild the city after the 1906 earthquake. In those days, there were few regulations concerning the harvesting of trees. Anything could be cut and very little was replanted. Natural re-seeding did occur and the redwoods grew back quickly because they sprout from the stump. Times have changed since then. Forest management has become a science and safer logging equipment has been invented. Strict regulations have to be followed. Seedlings have to be planted when trees are harvested. Almost all trees cut today are second and third growth trees and many loggers are from third or fourth generation logging families.
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© RRLC 1998