Muscle Power…Logging Old School

Muscle power, hand tools, and the rising tide provided the means for hand loggers a century ago to fell and transport trees to the lumber mills supplying a rapidly growing province…this was logging old school. Loggers worked in pairs to cut down huge Douglas firs that were often 100 metres tall.

Using axes, they cut notches on either side of the tree and wedged pieces of lumber called “spring-boards” into them. Standing on the boards, the loggers first chopped an undercut in the trunk and then sawed the side opposite the undercut and just above it until the tree fell. They had to be careful not to miss-judge the undercut or the tree could “pitch back” on them with fatal results. The loggers then “bucked” the fallen tree, removing the branches to make it easier to slide the trunk down the slope into the water. When rapids such as the Yuculta were navigable at high tide, the loggers used rowboats – often with a small sail – to gather the logs into a boom for transport to the mill.

Commercial saw milling began near Victoria in 1848, producing the lumber needed to build the rapidly growing communities on southern Vancouver Island. As local timber supplies were used up and demand for lumber increased, logging and saw milling operations spread to the eastern lowlands of Vancouver Island and the lower mainland, particularly along the shores of Burrard Inlet.

Logging sites were at first located close to tidewater so that timber tied together in rafts could be floated to holding ponds near the mills. Sawmills were built near the sources of hydroelectric power required to run the machinery. Mills at Chemainus, Hastings and Moodyville, among others, exported lumber on sailing ships bound for Australia, China, Japan and Great Britain. By 1916, 400 mills were producing over 1,000,000 board feet annually.

As sawmill locations continued to expand, those in the interior of the province came to outnumber those on the coast but remained smaller and lower in total production.

In the 1970s, at the peak of forestry activity in BC, it was estimated that the vast majority of the annual log harvest went directly to sawmills, where it accounted for 70% of the Canadian output of sawn lumber. More than half the number of people employed in the wood products industry worked in sawmills. Compared to 80 years ago, twice as many mills produce more than ten times the amount of board feet, thanks to improvements in design and technology.

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Legacy Goldsmiths – These unique pieces are created by local Campbell River goldsmith David Nickel. What better gift to give than a memento of the logging and mining industries that shaped our Vancouver Island culture. Pictured here is a Logger Legacy piece – sterling silver haulback block miniature (the wheel rotates) in the form of a pendant that can be converted to a key chain…buy it now just in time for Christmas!

Find a great selection Museum Gift Shop Products online at Wagsta.com…Click Here

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The Campbell River Museum maintains collections and archives from Campbell River’s wide and diverse history, culture and community.  For more information about your local Campbell River Museum, call 250-287-3103 or visit www.crmuseum.ca