Logging is one of the big industries in northern Maine. You see evidence of it all around. The white pine that is abundant in Maine has been logged for many years.
While we were in Ashland we visited the Ashland Logging Museum which has many artifacts from the early logging days in the area. The museum was established by members of the community who wanted to preserve their heritage. They donated numerous items to the collection that tell the story of logging in northern Maine.
The collection includes handsaws, power saws, peaveys, axes, wedges, and other items used to bring the lumber out of the woods. A replica of a log landing shows a man on top measuring the board feet of lumber and the mechanism used to bring the logs down to the water. Horses were an important part of the logging process in the early years.
I found the model especially interesting because I can remember my dad having a landing on our property in Oregon in the early 50s and he used horses to bring the logs out of the woods. In the late 30s he worked in a logging camp on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, and logged in Oregon and along the coast in northern California. He had scale sheets much like the one below, and they were always kept in a cookie jar--it never held cookies. Today that Shawnee Winnie Pig cookie jar is a collectible and it is one of my treasured keepsakes. I wish I still had some of Dad's old scale sheets to keep inside.
Life was not easy in the logging camps. The Ashland Museum has recreated a bunk and cook house as they were typically built.
One end served as the bunkhouse.....
....and the other end as the cook house. Note the big cast iron pots in the lower left hand corner. Bean-hole beans were cooked in them and the beans were a staple in the camps. To make them you dig a big hole three feet deep and line it with rocks. Build a fire in the hole and let it burn down to large embers and ash. Fill your pot with dry beans, salt pork or bacon, onions, molasses, and brown sugar, and cover with water. Put the lid on the pot and lower it in the hole and cover with a wet burlap sack. Shovel embers and ashes on top and cover with dirt. Wait about 16 hours and then dig out your beans. I don't believe I'll be trying the recipe anytime soon, but I can imagine they were pretty tasty.
There is also a blacksmith's building with all of the equipment that would be needed to take care of the horses and harnesses.
There are two sheds with some of the old equipment. The most notable is the Lombard steam log hauler. It was invented by Alvin Orlando Lombard in Waterville, Maine, and was the first practical tracked crawler and had skis in the front for steering. It ran on coal or wood and could reach a top speed of 4.5 mph. There were 83 built between 1901 and 1917. The could pull eight sleds at a time, carrying 40,000 to 100,000 board feet of logs. They required a crew of four, an engineer, fireman, striker, and steersman. The steersman was the highest paid man on the job, and his position was the most dangerous in the exposed position on the front of the machine. He had to contend with freezing weather, sparks, and the possibility of the Lombard jackknifing if the sleds moved faster than the engine causing an inevitable crash into the trees.
There is much more to see at the museum, and it provides a fascinating look back at early logging in Maine.
