Plank logging roads

[bcp]

And some logging loads.




Bruce

 

[Industrial Toys]

These men should have been ashamed! Look at the topography!

That sloped hood sure looks like a modern design.

 

[RoyKing]

Plank roads are referred to as skid row and when saloons and girls showed the name stuck

 

[bcp]

Plank roads were several grades above skid roads, on which logs were skidded by draft animals or steam donkey (winch).



Bruce

 

[mapper]

When I grew up in Bellingham the school system had a conservation site that we made field trips to for environmental education (although I don't think it was called that then). One of the things discussed was early logging methods, on the site were the remains of an old skid road, logs laid at 90 degrees of the direction of travel about 10 feet apart, each with a notch in the center for the logs to slide along(well worn as you can imagine). If I remember correctly it had led down to lake whatcom. Possibly to the old Blodel-Donaven mill?

 

[Thomas]

Amazing how they work figure out and got it done.

 

[mcfarmall]

Anyone notice the "turf" tires on the semi tractor? They remind me of the diamond style turfs.

 

[oosik]

Ok - I thought it would be a road with hundreds of small trees laid at 90 degrees to the traveled way. I must be thinking of corduroy road. Processing those monsters must have required the same level of ingenuity as harvesting. You could build an entire town, in the wild west, with the lumber from just one of those.

 

[mapper]

When homesteaders first settled in Whatcom county many of the trees were too large to be easily cut down with axe and crosscut saws and the logs too big to move. So they had a method of boring intersecting holes in the trunk that were then packed with vine maple coals, a week or so later the trunk would burn through enough for the tree to fall. They would then burn the rest on the ground. Seems like a waste to us now but they were homesteaders just trying to clear land for farming...
On another note, while I was in college studying forestry we toured several of Weyrhouser mills in Everett, Mill B was still in operation at that time was the oldest, it had been designed for cutting logs that were a minimum size of 6 feet in diameter! That day they were cutting 3 foot logs, they looked like tooth picks going through that headsaw!

 

[bunyip]

Plank roads were several grades above skid roads, on which logs were skidded by draft animals or steam donkey (winch).
Bruce

When I was in the UK we had Donkey Engines on farm equipment, wonder if that is where it originated from, they were a small petrol engine used on conveyors etc and notorious for starting fires on hay stacks.