Take It Outside!: Sawing Logs!

Sorry for the lapse in postings! We just spent a week in the Caribbean soaking up the sun!! And might I add, it was quite hard to return to the cold and snow that Wisconsin brings this time of year!

So the winter time often leads people to spend more time indoors than out. Frigid temperatures and deep snow could have something to do with it I think. What I can't imagine however, is men leaving their families for months at a time to work in these conditions! BBRRR!!
That is exactly what men in the 1880's and through the turn of the century did along the St Croix River Valley. Many men would leave their families and flock to the river valley for the cold winter months to work for a logging company. Their job may seem like an easy one but in fact there were a lot of steps and A LOT of danger involved in their jobs.
So everyone close your eyes and picture a lumberjack...do you have a picture?
Does it look like this man?

Massive, burly, and wielding an axe. Paul Bunyan. That's what most people think of when they think of a lumberjack, and to be honest, that's not too far from what I've seen in photos. Maybe they weren't all giants that had a blue ox named Babe as a pet but they were burly, many of them bearded, and most of all, hard workers.

Why in the world would loggers choose the harshest time of year to do their jobs? Well there's a couple reasons.

1. Even though it was MUCH colder then in the winter than it is now, can you imagine logging in the summer time with the heat, humidity, and all those bugs? No way! Even though it was so cold out (many mornings plunging below -40) these men still worked up a sweat doing their jobs!

2. With winter, like we've talked about, comes snow. Just like the temps were colder then, there was much more snow on average than there is now. Moving and transporting the logs in the winter on top of the snow and ice was much easier than in the summer on top of the grasses and other plants.

The next natural question is, "Did the take all of the trees or just some?" The majority of the trees were taken but the loggers came to this area in particular for the large quantities of white pine. Why white pine? Well they took these for two reasons. First they were giants in those days, standing well over 100 feet tall.

Secondly, these trees floated well which was essential since they would be sent down river to the mills to be cut to size.

The White Pine was not the only tree taken, many places were completely stripped of all trees which later was inhabited by farmers who would remove the stumps and farm the ground.

So these men would work hard throughout the winter logging this area and cutting down giant trees in the coldest of weather in the most dangerous of conditions.

But this begs the question, how?

That's what we'll talk about next time!

In the mean time, remember to Take It Outside!

Great Paul Bunyan stories: http://www.americanfolklore.net/folklore/paul-bunyan/

Paul Bunyan coloring Page: http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/early_childhood/color/paul.gif

Tree coloring page: http://www.supercoloring.com/wp-content/main/2009_05/pine-tree-in-winter-coloring-page.jpg