The Thompson Photographic Collection, continued...
Carol Riggs
Director, Texas Forestry Museum
The scaler, seen here with the woods foreman, determined the most efficient
lengths to cut the logs.
Then buckers and choppers came in to trim the limbs and cut the timber into
proper lengths. Unlike many other lumber concerns, the Thompsons made it
a policy to use as much of the log as possible, often hauling the entire
tree to the mill.
Logs were skidded to the tramway with the aid of horses, mules or oxen.
Average-sized logs could be skidded with a pair of mules. Larger logs, or
those that needed to be moved some distance, were skidded with a high-wheeled
slip tongue cart pulled by mules or oxen.
Others were collected with four- or eight-wheeled wagons.
At railside, they were piled into ramps.
Before steam loading equipment became readily available, the common method
of loading logs onto a wagon or rail car was known as a "cross-haul".
A chair or cable was attached to the wagon, passed around the log and then
back over the wagon to a horse or mule team on the other side. Two men steadied
the log while it was eased up a pair of poles to the wagon.
The steam loader was introduced just before 1900. The loader, in conjunction
with the steam skidder increased greatly the volume of board feet of logs
that could be loaded by a crew. This woods operation at Grayburg utilized
both the steam skidder and loader.
The skidder and loader crews made up an important part of the workforce
at the "front" or logging location. The woods crew was about 20%
of the entire mill workforce.
Often the distance to the "front" made it necessary for the crew
to remain in the vicinity rather than travel nightly back to the sawmill
location. In this case, a "front camp" was set up, often with
facilities for families as well.
Once loaded, the logs were moved back to the mill.
They were unloaded, usually into a mill pond. The mill pond served several
purposes:
-- to wash the dirt off from the skidding process (helped keep saw blades
sharp)
-- insect protection
-- easily guided by "Pond Monkey" onto the chain into the mill
itself
Once into the mill, the logs were cut into the lengths which would make
the most efficient use of the log. Then they were set onto the steam-powered
log carriage. By 1908 specialized equipment for log handling had developed,
greatly reducing the number of injuries at this stage of the process.
The boards then went through the trimming operation. Trimming was done with
a series of circular blades.
The saw filer, also known as the dentist, was the highest paid laborer at
the mill. His expertise allowed the saws to operate at maximum efficiency.
A filer might command up to $10.00 a day as compared to $2.00 for a common
laborer.
From the sawmill the roughcut lumber was sorted by length and width and
stacked to air dry. When fully seasoned, the lumber was stored in rough
sheds.
Lumber to be dressed was usually sent to the brick kiln, where steam coils
and blowers lowered the moisture content of the lumber. Seasoning was completed
in 4-6 days as compared to the 30 days it might require in air drying. Once
the lumber completed the cycle in the drying kiln, it was placed in the
cooling shed.
The next step was the planing mill. It was not until the turn of the century
that lumber was customarily dressed on all sides of the cut.
Larger planing mills also manufactured some finished products such as flooring,
ceiling or molding.
As in the sawmill, the filing room was of vital importance to the efficient
operations of the planing mill.
Power for the equipment in the sawmill and planer will was supplied by a
steam engine, or dynamo. It was customary to have a separate engine for
each mill so that fire in one area would not close down the whole operation.
When lumber was ready to ship, it was taken to the shipping platform or
transfer table on a lumber dolly.
To continue the article...
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