# There were giants in the earth in those days....



## Willway (Aug 16, 2012)

My father told of cutting timber in Virginia and West Virginia as a young man. He mentioned the huge size of these trees. There were huge trees where I was brought up, but nothing to compare with these. About 35 seconds into the video there is a huge log on a lo-boy trailer. If you look closely at the bark, you can see that that is an oak log!

Honor The Giants - 1080p - YouTube


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

It says those are pictures from Oregon, Washington, and California. But a lot of those pictres look like they were taken in New England. 

My dad used to tell me about working in out in the bush steam sawmills along the Tennessee/Kentucky border when he was a kid. The logging trucks all had no doors, so if/when the brakes gave out it was easier for the driver to jump. The timber surveyors all wore burlap bags around their legs - so when the rattlesnakes bit, they'd get hung up in the burlap, instead of a leg. The surveyors all carried large knives, and would cut the heads off. He said at the end of the day, some of those guys would have close to twenty snake heads hanging on the burlap. That was rough country then, and as far as I know, still is.


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## OutoftheWoodwork (Oct 4, 2012)

Wow, Dick. Thanks for sharing that video. Hard to find trees like that now. We've harvested and cut them all. Would love to see things revert back a bit... but alas, you can't stop progress, they say.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

I look at trees like that, and say, 'how many toothpicks could I make".....LOL.

Similar to Australia, in fact, some of those trucks looked like right hand drive.

My dad used to drive those "timber jinkers" just after the war... WW2....Around the Kempsey, NSW area.


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## Jerry Bowen (Jun 25, 2011)

jw2170 said:


> I look at trees like that, and say, 'how many toothpicks could I make".....LOL.
> 
> Similar to Australia, in fact, some of those trucks looked like right hand drive.
> 
> My dad used to drive those "timber jinkers" just after the war... WW2....Around the Kempsey, NSW area.


t h

I grew up in western Oregon, Douglas Fir country, I knew men that worked in the w 


oods in the early years when trees that were six feet in diameter on the butte were common, referred to now as old growth timber. The trees were so large near the ground that the men would have to use spring boards to get up high enough from the ground to start cutting. I'm talking about getting uo to where the tree was only that six foot through area, The spring board was as I recall, from pictures, about eight inches wide and five feet long. The men would cut small notches in the side of the trunk of the tree and stick one end of the spring board into that notch, then stand on the board and cut another one higher up and then put a second board in the higher notch and climb up on it. All of this to get high enough to begin to cut it down. By the way, all of this cutting was done with hand saws and axes, talk about dangerous work. Those days are long gone, but memories of those days are pretty much made from photos and stories handed down, the men that lived in that ere are for the most part all passed on. If anybody has a better recall of those days thao I do and find that I need to be corrected in anyway, please speak up.

Yes, lots of tooth picks in one of those big trees.

Jerry


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## 64 ford (Apr 21, 2013)

My father(1907-1985) was also a lumberjack from about 14years old and on.He logged in northern Minnesota cutting mostly old growth pine. Most of the trees were 5 foot diameter and larger and about 150 feet tall.They used 2 man saws and cut timber even at temperatures 20-30 below 0-fahrenheit.In the spring he worked on the log drives on the Mississippi river taking them to the saw mills where he often worked at the mills during the summer until the logging died out and he became a life long carpenter.
While logging he also supplied several logging camps with (illegal) deer meat -but that's
Another story!!
Dennis


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## OPG3 (Jan 9, 2011)

Joy and I have visited the Biltmore House up near Asheville, NC on several occasions. To me, the most interesting part is the photos showing the construction of the house and the development of the property. After trees were removed and land was cleared the lumber was made and a rail line was installed to bring-in many of the necessary materials. Some of the giant trees which were cut showed those "spring-boards" Jerry is talking about. It appeared to be quite dangerous. There were some very ingenious methods employed in the construction of that huge project. Much of the wood used in the construction was grown right there where it was utilized. All of the scaffolding was built to an exact stackable pattern - made entirely from oak! One singular architect oversaw every little detail of the construction - AMAZING! 

Otis Guillebeau from Auburn, Georgia


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Lumberjack Show - Wood Chopping Competition - YouTube


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