Logging HIstory and The Historians

THE LUMBERING INDUSTRY - THE WAY WE WERE

ONE OF THE TOUGHEST INDUSTRIES IN THE WORLD - MADE US A TOUGH REGION

WHEN THE LUMBERMEN CAME TO TOWN WITH WHAT WAS LEFT OF THEIR PAY CHEQUES, AFTER SETTLING THEIR WINTER DEBT TO THE COMPANY STORE, THE MOOD OF THIS TOWN CHANGED. THOSE MEN WHO HAD BEEN MOSTLY COOPED-UP IN LOGGING CAMPS, SOME UNTIL THE COMPLETION OF THE SPRING DRIVE, WERE READY TO LET LOOSE. AND TOWNS LIKE GRAVENHURST BECAME THE HOST COMMUNITIES TO THE LETTING-OFF-OF-STEAM. THE LOGGING INDUSTRY HAS BEEN NOTORIOUS FOR ITS CHARACTERIZATIONS, ITS HEROES OF HARD LIVING, AND HARDER PLAYING REAL LIFE CHARACTERS. MOST WHO MISSED THE POINT, THE ASSORTED MISSIONARIES HAD PREACHED, OF CHRISTIAN LIFE, TRYING DESPERATELY TO CONVERT THEM IN THE LUMBER CAMPS…..BEFORE THEY DESTROYED THE TOWNS AND VILLAGES WHEN CAMP LET OUT IN THE SPRING. FOR MANY YEARS, MUSKOKA WAS A HUGE COG IN THE LUMBER INDUSTRY NETWORK, AND RIGHT DOWN TO BEING BRANDED AS "SAWDUST CITY," BECAUSE OF OUR SPREAD OF LUMBER MILLS ON MUSKOKA BAY, GRAVENHURST WAS TOUGHENED UP EARLY IN ITS HISTORY BY HARSH, UNFORGIVING REALITIES OF LOCAL ECONOMICS. MOST CITIZENS TODAY, RESIDING HERE, HAVE LITTLE IDEA JUST HOW TOUGH THE LOGGING / LUMBERING INDUSTRY WAS IN MUSKOKA. TOURISM, THE SUCCESSOR, AS THE NEW LEADING FORCE IN THE LOCAL ECONOMY, WAS PRETTY MEEK AND MILD, AS COMPARED TO THE DAY OF THE LUMBERJACK.

MY LONG TIME FRIEND, DAVE BROWN, A HAMILTON TEACHER AND OUTDOOR EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR (YOU CAN ARCHIVE BACK ON THIS BLOG TO READ MORE ABOUT HIM), AND I, WERE LUMBER ERA ENTHUSIASTS. HE COLLECTED THE ARTIFACTS, FROM MANY LAKES, RIVERS AND BOGS ALL OVER ONTARIO. I JUST GATHERED INFORMATION FROM BOOKS, AND ENJOYED AN INTIMATE, EVER-EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE, ABOUT THE FIRST MUSKOKA INDUSTRY THAT LITERALLY, PINE BY PINE, CARVED OUR HAMLETS OUT OF THE INHOSPITABLE WILDS OF ONTARIO. IN THE LATE 1980'S I DID A SEASON-LONG FEATURE SERIES FOR "THE MUSKOKA SUN," ENTITLED "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE SHANTY BOYS," WHICH WAS A DETAILED EXAMINATION, ABOUT LIFE IN THE WINTER LUMBER CAMPS THROUGHOUT OUR REGION. I INCLUDED A WIDE AND INTERESTING DIVERSITY OF ACCOUNTS OF THOSE DAYS, FROM FIRST PERSON EXPERIENCES. NOT JUST IN THE CAMPS, DURING THE WINTER CUT, BUT DURING THE SPRING DRIVES……INCLUDING AN EXAMINATION OF THE HARDSHIP AND INJURIES THAT OCCURRED TO THE EMPLOYEES OF THESE MAJOR LOGGING OPERATIONS. THERE ARE HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF UNMARKED GRAVES ALONG THE RIVERS AND LAKES OF MUSKOKA, WHERE MEN WERE KILLED BY EITHER CUT TREES THAT FELL THE WRONG WAY, OR THOSE SUCKED INTO THE LOG JAMS, TO BE CRUSHED TO DEATH BY THE THICK, RELENTLESS CRASHING TOGETHER OF PINE LOGS. I FIND THE STORIES TOLD OF THESE DAYS TO BE FASCINATING. WHILE YOU CAN LOOK AT LOGGING CHAINS, SAWS, CANT-HOOKS AND PIKE POLES TILL YOUR EYES BURN, IF YOU WANT TO BE THOROUGHLY AMAZED, AND BE PUT BACK IN THE DAYS OF THE RIVER THUNDER, THESE OLD BOOKS, AND RECOUNTING OF HARROWING NEAR-MISSES, IN A BRUTALLY TOUGH INDUSTRY, WILL MAKE YOUR SPRING A LITTLE MORE INTERESTING. AS YOU SIT COMFORTABLY, BEVERAGE IN HAND, ENJOYING THESE TALES, YOU'LL INITIALLY THINK IT READS MORE LIKE FICTION. BET YOU'LL BE ABLE TO HEAR THE CLUNKING TOGETHER OF LOGS IN THE RAPIDS, AND RECOGNIZE THE DISTANT ROAR, AND THUD OF LOGS OVER THE FALLS. HEAR THE TERRIFIED SCREAMS OF THE MEN, WARNING EACH OTHER TO STAND CLEAR. BEWARE OF A LOG JAM. IT'S THE HERITAGE OF OUR REGION. AND I'VE GOT A LITTLE GEM, INCLUDED IN A BOOK WRITTEN BY (MY WIFE) SUZANNE'S UNCLE, BERT SHEA, FORMERLY OF THE UFFORD / THREE MILE LAKE AREA….WHERE SUZANNE'S GRANDFATHER, JOHN SHEA (A MUNICIPAL CLERK, FOR MUSKOKA LAKES) OWNED A FARMSTEAD. THE STORY TAKES PLACE ON THE DEE RIVER AT DEE BANK (NEAR WINDERMERE). MANY OF THE SHEA FAMILY WERE INVOLVED IN THE LOGGING INDUSTRY, AND I HAVE READ AND RE-READ BERT'S BOOKS (HE WROTE TWO LOCAL HISTORIES), FINDING THE STORIES COMPELLING…..AND SO MUCH MORE EXCITING FRANKLY, THAN READING ABOUT THE RIGORS OF THE TOURISM INDUSTRY.

INCLUDED WITH THIS BLOG, TODAY, IS A VINTAGE PRINT SHOWING THE INTENSITY OF THE LOG DRIVE. THE SUBJECT LANDSCAPE OF THE PRINT IS NOT MUSKOKA, AS IS OBVIOUS BY THE HEIGHT OF HILLSIDE IN THE BACKGROUND. THIS IS A VINTAGE PRINT I PURCHASED AT AN ESTATE SALE IN THE TOWN OF GRAVENHURST, SOME YEARS AGO. IT'S ONE OF MY FAVORITE ART PIECES…..AND I CAN HEAR THE CLUNKING TOGETHER OF THE PINE LOGS, AND IMAGINE THE BANTER BETWEEN THE LOGGERS IN THEIR PRECARIOUS SITUATIONS.

"The winter of 1898 and 1899 had been cold with heavy snow. Sale for peeled hemlock logs was good as it had been for several years. Every man and team available in the Three Mile Lake area was doing his or their part in the output of logs to the ice on Three Mile Lake. When the winter closed and spring came with the 21st of March, the winds played from south to southeast, warm and bearing rain that fell, turning the winter snow into water that washed the earth's surface and swelling the little rivulets and streams to join the large ones and their abundant flow journeyed on to swell the already full body of Three Mile lake," wrote Bert Shea. "With the disappearance of the ice from the lake's surface, in its place at various locations, floated a total of 5,000,000 feet of long measure, by Doyal Rule, boomed and ready to be taken to the foot of the lake to be driven down the Dee River, over the falls at Dee Bank and on."

He notes that, "Earlier in the winter, Abb Woods, a young man at Dee Bank had contracted with the Snider Lumber Co., whose logs they were, having been bought mostly from farmer bush operations. Abb, a young man of the lumber woods, and of the river, had his men, picked strong and fit from the winter's work and storms; ready and determined with, peavies, pike poles and caulked boots, to take the white waters of the roaring River Dee. It was a big job that must be carried out in the time of the flood water. The logs must be brought in from every part of the lake but the river work could start as soon as the arrival of the first boom at Dee Bank."

"Abb was out on the logs and 'Old George,' Woods' faithful lumber horse who had come in off the winter's long haul, bearing the marks of harness chafing, the witness of long days of hard work on the draw road, faithful and dependable, he was led-on the capstan at Dee Bank. With his nose to the ground, he placed his feet safe from the shore on the planks of the capstan and walked to his place on the platform. He was not new to the job for many a long day and night in the past seasons, he had furnished the power that brought the logs to the river in snow and rain as the wave's bluffed and lashed and washed at the float. The warm south wind and the rain had broken the solid grip of winter, on the land but now the temperatures lowered and the wind held a more easterly flow and snow and rain fell at intervals. The days and nights went by, shelter was sought, when possible, but these were hours and hours when man and beast must suffer. The job was moving along midst the roar of the rapids and falls of the Dee was heard the 'bunk bunk' of the logs as they collided in the rapids or in their headlong flight encountered some submerged rock."

Mr. Shea records of the incident, that, "The drive was in full force for acres around the mouth of the river, lay anchored booms of logs, the east wind had given great assistance in the movement of logs, on the main lake, the lagoon in the river was continuously filled with logs and with men….on every rapid and falls, on the lower river, Clark's Pond and Clark's Falls. The booms at Clark's Mill, on Rosseau Lake, were filling with logs. Abb was continuously on the move, consulting, directing and overseeing the work. Where trouble was evidenced, he was in the work with the men. He seemed in the height of his joy with the excitement of the break-up of a jam. But the job went well however, he was not well. The men noticed a letting down of his old drive and inspiration and someone remarked that the boss was sick. Ere long his presence was not on the river, unnoticed, he had gone home and toned but not he alone was being overcome by the wet and exposure of the spring, but his first lieutenant and slave up on the lake, Old George, the horse, who was bringing the logs in, ceased to eat his oats and walked with a stagger. The men landed the capstan and took him to shore; he reached his stall in the stable and laid himself down on the straw. As Mrs. Woods, Abb's mother stood by, heard Dr.(Peter) McGibbon pronounce her son in serious condition with double pneumonia; William Woods, Abb's father was working day and night with old George, treating him with mustard and whiskey mashes and blankets to try to break the grip of the same disease on his faithful horse."

"The fight continued day and night, help was summoned and Abb, as he lay in delirium, talked of Good Old George, and call for his young brother Archie, to go and get some good corn out of the bag and make it niece and warm and give it to poor Old George….'It will make him better,' he said." The local historian writes, "But poor Old George had gone beyond help and in a deep convulsion and trembling of his powerful body that shook the stable, he died in agony. Another victim of the lumbering business. His body bore the scars and blisters of the heavy harness and his flesh had often felt the sting of the black snake whip to get more work out of the faithful, honest body, which was already doing enough. There he lay, a faithful servant and friend who would never again respond to his master's voice or with his big lips artfully take candies of fruit from the hands of the children, or in a soft voice, welcome his master's footsteps at the stable door."

"Father Woods saw all these things in his mind and there was no more. Things had started to go bad, where would it end? Would his son be the next to die? He and the mother hoped and trusted and to his ear came the sound of the running logs above the roar of the falls. A job and contract of that size going on and no boss. The men were good men but there needs a central figure to hold the organization intact. But who? He knew the answer….it was himself. It was his son's contract and no one else would he trust. It had been some years since he had been in connection with the river driving, young hands had taken on. But he knew the work and could direct and arrange, warn and caution. These young fellows were full of life and didn't always see danger but I guess we were all the same when we were young. Abb was going to pull through the pneumonia and the last logs were off the lake and were being tailed down the lagoon, followed by the booms four and five, chained together. There was quite an attempt, whole trees from forty to sixty feet long chained end to end. The point was the water was high and if they were sent through together, they would carry their chains ready for use at Rosseau Lake; otherwise the heavy chains would have to be carried down the river in the pointer or by manpower as well as the time of taking them apart and re-chaining together on Rosseau. The last logs were going down and Dr. McGibbon, who had been to see Abb, his patient, went out on the river bank to watch the procedure. On seeing Earl Duboise standing on the pier in the middle of the river, at the head of the spillway, with the wild water boiling all around him, the last of the plank dam at the rivermouth had been taken out to wash the river clear of logs. The doctor called to him and motioned him to get out of that place or get drowned. Earl laughed, jumped up and clicked his heals together, waved to the doctor and continued to feed the logs through the slide."

Note: Dr. McGibbon was one of the founding Doctors of the Bracebridge Red Cross Hospital in 1928, and had been a former Member of Parliament for Muskoka, in the government of Sir Arthur Meighen. I also had the benefit to have lived for many years in Dr. McGibbon's former house / medical office, on Manitoba Street in Bracebridge, beside Reynold's Funeral Home. The house was torn down quite a few years ago to make way for an office building.

Due to the lengthy of the story written by Bert Shea, I'd like to resume it again tomorrow. Please join me. It's a pretty incredible story. As for the logging industry……it was a beast.