Among the Fastest Growing Trees on Earth.

To stand among those trees is humbling and yet enriching. To know that we're all part of something much greater than ourselves.
“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit” – an ancient Greek proverb
Great pics!

 

Thanks everybody for the kind words! A number of you asked questions about the cutting of these big old-growth trees.
Redwood makes terrible firewood, but fantastic lumber which is very stable and rot resistant.

Early on the two 2-man whipsaws were riveted together as this was before welding was invented in the late 1800's
Here you can see exactly that, just below the top mans feet the two saws are joined.
Of course they would use a shorter "misery whip" until they were deep enough in the cut to demand this crazy length.



Eventually one piece crosscut saws were made to length as you can see below. 1920's I'd guess.
Cash, these trees grew very slowly in their latter years too, with rings 100 years to the inch being normal.

The diamond shaped sticks tool (behind the men) is for sighting the exact direction of fall by placing it at the back of the face cut against the hinge wood.
Notice the axe men aren't on the ground but on spring boards. These notches are still visible today in many places, perhaps giving credence to the saying "Stumps don't lie."

Below is a two handled power saw from the late 40's and 50's.
There is a nice collection of these at "Trees of Mystery", and yes, Brad, bars ran to about 10 feet long with giant chains with big thick links.
But, you only needed half the bar length, compared to a two-man saw, because you could cut from both sides.



At 14 years old I got to be the swamper for a faller, I was the guy who helps carry saw, oil, fuel, axe, wedges, lunch, and hang on out on the end of the saw where, yes, there was a handle to help guide it. My Mom would have made me quit helping him had she known this. I was scared to death of the chain coming off and whipping out at my face or neck too!




The biggest saw I ever had to run (got to run?) was a Jonsered 111 like the one below (picture from internet).
They were super cumbersome out in the woods, especially on bushy steep terrain, but yeah, way better than what they had prior.
They had bars from 48 to 72 inches, weighed about 40 or 50 pounds. What a pig the 72" was to sharpen too - so you didn't dare dull it.

That's skip-tooth chain as outfitted, and it was run on long bars otherwise your motor would bog down.




Falling wedges will only swing a tree so far. Above is a hydraulic jack, still seated on the stump in it's own notch, with a remote pump. Yes, they were heavy too.




Above is an old fashioned Humboldt face cut (the square notch) with a snipe (the slope). Later this combination was simplified into the quicker but less accurate "modern" Humboldt face cut professionals often use today.

I felt fortunate to be in the woods logging at the sunset of the old growth era (the late1970's). We mostly knew how tragic this was environmentally, all could see the old growth era coming to a close, but loggers themselves were just cogs in the wheel, hourly employees or paid by production volume, and someone else would be willing to take those jobs had we refused out of conscience or otherwise - and it was very good pay. This was the only way of life the older guys ever knew. Please understand that - before judging them - blame the owners, or the politicians on the take, but these were good men with families that simply risked their lives daily to put food on the table.

 

Very cool post Buzz!!

 

That you so much for the history Leason Buzz. A different breed back then and yes, just doing their job trying to stay safe and make it home at the end of the day. Hat is off for all that have done this type of work.

 

Nice post!