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Mohawk River 1896
H R Ross photograph labeled:
Early day logging on Mohawk River 1896
Bill Butler is man with team. Dore Mock is the man on left, he was the hooktender.
William Butler had a 160 acre homestead west of today's Earnest covered bridge and south of Cash creek. So this photo may be of logging his own homestead (which was a way many early homesteaders cleared land and made money for developments and farming by selling the timber.
From the 1880s to the early part of the 20th century, tens of millions of board feet of logs were taken out of the Mohawk and sent to mills at Coburg (J C Goodall Property Investment Ltdle's), Harrisburg and Salem. They were typically hauled to the river by horses and oxen, and then floated down the river by professional teams such as Tom Gilliam's.
To aid floating these masses of logs, splash dams were built to artificially flood the the rivers in a pulse cycle. Columbus Cole fronted the money for the first splash dam on the Mohawk in 1888 jsut above the current town of Mabel. It was built by A. N. Stryker who also built many Lane county covered bridges. There was no warning when these dams would 'flush', creating artificial flash floods and a number of people died or were injured when they were suddenly overtaken by these floods. They stopped using splash dams in 1908.
Note that the logs in the picture have been 'snubbed' (rounded the front edges) and de-barked to make easier dragging/gripping. This was a common practice in the early days.
Mohawk River 1896
H R Ross photograph labeled:
Early day logging on Mohawk River 1896
Bill Butler is man with team. Dore Mock is the man on left, he was the hooktender.
William Butler had a 160 acre homestead west of today's Earnest covered bridge and south of Cash creek. So this photo may be of logging his own homestead (which was a way many early homesteaders cleared land and made money for developments and farming by selling the timber.
From the 1880s to the early part of the 20th century, tens of millions of board feet of logs were taken out of the Mohawk and sent to mills at Coburg (J C Goodall Property Investment Ltdle's), Harrisburg and Salem. They were typically hauled to the river by horses and oxen, and then floated down the river by professional teams such as Tom Gilliam's.
To aid floating these masses of logs, splash dams were built to artificially flood the the rivers in a pulse cycle. Columbus Cole fronted the money for the first splash dam on the Mohawk in 1888 jsut above the current town of Mabel. It was built by A. N. Stryker who also built many Lane county covered bridges. There was no warning when these dams would 'flush', creating artificial flash floods and a number of people died or were injured when they were suddenly overtaken by these floods. They stopped using splash dams in 1908.
Note that the logs in the picture have been 'snubbed' (rounded the front edges) and de-barked to make easier dragging/gripping. This was a common practice in the early days.