: William S. Crowe
: Lumberjack Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - 70th Anniversary Edition
: Modern History Press
: 9781615998098
: 1
: CHF 6.00
:
: Naturwissenschaft
: English
: 144
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

W nner--Best Biography/Memoir of 2002, Midwest Book Awards (St. Paul, MN)
Lumberjack is a firsthand account of the lumbering era during the white pine boom years of the late 1800s - early 1900s in the northern U.S. Millions of board feet of logs were cut in deep woods camps, driven down the rivers to the sawmills, and shipped by schooner and barge to build a nation. This edition includes 78 historical photographs and illustrations, a glossary, editors' notes, maps, and much more.
'The lumber barons, the lumberjacks, and the town people who worked in the mills--as well as the happenings of that period... are recalled by one who lived among them. I hope it will be an inspiration to others to set down their memories of the days of falling pine and belt-driven sawmills. Already too much of this story has passed beyond recall... a valuable addition not only to the history of Manistique, but to the state as well.'
--Ferris E. Lewis,Michigan History, Lansing
'An authentic first-hand account... which tells the whole story of big-scale lumbering during the 1890s and early 1900s. Chapter by enthralling chapter, Crowe recounts the times involved in the 'big pine' operations... it rivals anything so far written... rich in description and alive with thrilling episodes.'
--Marquette Mining Journal
'First-hand accounts of the dramatic 'big cut' by participant-observers are always illuminating. William S. Crowe's reminiscence of his years in the woods and the early days of Manistique, at the north end of Lake Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, was a classic in the 1950s. His granddaughters Lynn McGlothin Emerick and Ann McGlothin Weller have done a real service by republishing his book with ample photos and notes.'
-- Mary Hoffman Hunt,Midwestern Guides
'Focusing on Manistique and meticulously researched,Lumberjack explores the early days of logging and the lifestyles of the countless loggers that filled the woods in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. William Crowe, the author, was a logger himself who collected and relates real stories from the men who were there. This is a mandatory book for anyone interested in the history of the Upper Peninsula.'
--Mikel B. Classen, author/historian,True Tales: The Forgotten History of the U.P. andFaces Places& Days Gone By: A Pictorial History of the U.P.
From Modern History Press

CHAPTER ONE

Lumbering Towns and Company Men

he identity of the mysterious marks found on lumber sawed from deadhead logs was quite clear to me because I was once head bookkeeper for the Chicago Lumbering Company of Michigan (C. L. Co.) and the Weston Lumber Company (W. L. Co.), and have lived in Manistique for over seventy years.

Since Manistique, like many other towns in Michigan during the colorful white pine days, was an almost one hundred percent pure lumber town, the story is mostly about lumberjacks, woods, big sawmills and lake shipping. As bookkeeper for one of the largest lumber companies during the seven years when the industry was at its peak, I had splendid opportunity for firsthand observation.

When it comes to a matter of detail and recreating the atmosphere of those days, the stories of the other lumber towns of Michigan are exactly the same as Manistique; residents lived their daily lives as we did here. The faces changed and the proprietors, the “Lumber Barons,” were all different, but lumbering was the same.

“There is no other tree in all the world which has so much of romance … as the white pine.”

There is no other tree in all the world which has so much of romance, and was so closely associated with people’s daily lives and manner of living, as the white pine, which is now almost extinct except for some tracts of closely related sugar pine on the west coast.

And I believe there were no more colorful or interesting or exciting segments of American life than the lumber industries, nor a more picturesque individual than the old-time lumberjack and river driver. They were in direct contact and conflict with Mother Nature in the raw—a comparable industry in this respect being the cattle ranches of the great plains and the western cowboy. I lived for two years on a cattle ranch in Colorado before coming to Michigan so I had good opportunities to get first-hand impressions of both the lumberjack and the western cow-puncher.

A more completely different stage, background and environment could hardly be imagined than the immense pine forests and the treeless, seemingly endless plain, nor two more different individuals than the lumberjack and the cowboy. A cowboy would have been lost almost at once in the great pine forests, and a lumberjack would have been lost even more quickly on rolling treeless plains.

Log marks from Upper Peninsula lumber companies: (1) Goodenough& Hinds, Delta County, 1889; (2) Garth Lumber Co., Delta County, 1894 (also used by Weston Lumber Co., Schoolcraft County); (3) Charles Mann, Delta County, 1902; (4) J. A. Jamieson& Co., Mackinac County, 1908; (5) Marsh, Koehn& Co., Menominee Count)’, 1904; (6) Oliver Iron Mining Co., Menominee County, 1938; (7) McMillan Bros., Ontonagon County, 1902.

But although environments and ways of life differ, people are fundamentally about the same wherever you find them, and the cowboys and the lumberjacks had the same spirit of daring, resourcefulness, initiative, independence and romance bred by close contact with nature at her best and worst in a vast, free country.

One thing common to cowboy and lumberjack was the similarity of the cattle brands and log marks. The W. L. Co.’s “Barred O” and “Circle 0” were duplicated on the cattle ranges, and a big western ranch’s “Cobhouse” brand was exactly the same as the C. L. Co’s “Cobhouse” log mark.

The quadruple cross was the familiar C. L. Co. “Cobhouse,” and the cross in a circle was the W. L. Co’s “Barred O” . These marks and the Weston Lumber Company’s “Circle O” accounted for about ninety percent of the roughly four billion feet of white pine and red, or Norway, pine these companies cut in their forty-one years of operations, 1872-1912.1,2

Other marks which frequently came up C. L. and W. L. jack ladders were Hall& Buell’s , the Delta Lumber Company’s triangle ,JDW logs cut from J. D. Weston land, Edward Hines& Company and the marks of Alger, Smith and Co. , which operated a big mill at Grand Marais supplied by their own railroad to Seney, Germfask and Curtis. The C. L. Co., with a branch office at Seney, operated in that territory at the same time and sometimes cut isolated forties for