From stump to ship: A 1930 logging film

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Published 2010-04-15

ARC Identifier 13585 / Local Identifier 95.287 - Department of Agriculture. Forest Service. Division of State and Private Forestry. Fire and Aviation Management Staff. (1986) - 1930 - The long log drive: a spring journey down icy streams and rivers moving logs from the forest to the mill for sawing into boards, laths, and clapboards. For more than 150 years, logging techniques remained the same. Men cut trees by hand and loaded them on horse-drawn sleds to be hauled over snow to the river. Skilled river drivers maneuvered the logs downstream, risking their limbs and lives every day. This film survives as a record of the long log business. Highly detailed scenes, filmed year-round, are uniquely enhanced by the original script, written to be read with the silent footage in the 1930s. The soundtrack is brought to life by Tim Sample, narrator and renowned Maine humorist, in the role of the filmmaker, Alfred Ames. - Copied by Thomas Gideon

All Comments (21)

@whisperwire 3 years ago

Not sure how I got here but sure glad I watched. A awesome TRUE step back in time. If YouTube had a best list, this should top the list!
@charlessummers2742 9 years ago

I'm sure that the gentleman who made this film would be so tickled to know we're all watching this in 2015 - and standing in awe at their work! Love it, just love it. Best parts: hard work, people everywhere, and that the narrator honours every worker by their full name!
@bugnfront 5 years ago

watching in 2018...I build a log home in 1994 by hand...I didnt know about PeeVees. peeled 5,000 feet of logs. and used a chainsaw...I have collected many old log tools...they use a ferrel saw horizontily back then...and a buck saw vertically...cross cut buck!...men were men then! I had great help by a man named Brad...he was a forester and Vikng by heritage. love the tree!!! Pine sol in my blood!!! no greater craft that is so dangerous and rewarding ..a Art in every sense...the toppers died more then any other job or craft..."widow makers"! I sooo appreciated this film!!!
@dedeye1 12 years ago

While hunting in the north woods of Maine I have stood on stumps cut with two man bucks and followed an old gouge from a log dragged thru the woods to the edge of a small stream by a team of horses and my imagination brought me along the journey much the same as this video did. Thanks for posting it!
@InHisImage1161 6 months ago

Spent a few years "cleaning up" after these power houses diving in Moosehead lake Maine for the saw logs that sank and didn't make the mills. We pulled up some corkers. Axe cut maple 30 inches at the stump, beautiful figured birch and lots of relics, boom chains to peeves and much more. Shipped several railcars of the prettiest wood you've ever seen to Wisconsin. Great experience.
@chrism.713 5 years ago

A fantastic look at the past. Every young person should see this movie and appreciate what it took to make a living in the 1930s.
@andrewczuba498 5 years ago

Still standing in awe of their work, for sure. And what impresses me most is that the narrator spoke of every man as a man that he knew, he spoke of the fact that they all owned their own homes, they ate together, worked together. there is a sense of respect and pride for the man and the work and the community which is sorely lacking today.
@piad2102 5 months ago

Love these old videos. I have deeply respect for all the hard working people, well, men. They sure were tough skinned. No whining, working insane conditions, cold, heat. Danger everywhere. Respect.
@fletcher3913 12 years ago

This is a wonderful history lesson. Thanks to all responsible for getting this on YouTube.
@bigger680 2 years ago

My great great grandfather was a camp carpenter for a logging company, his son my great grandfather was a camp cookie. This was back in the logging days of Michigan. Thank you for such a wonderful video.
@philgiglio7922 3 years ago

This is a national treasure...hope the National Archive has a copy.
@Spaceman_spliff 6 months ago

As a 27 year old chairmaker who starts with logs and ends with chairs (Windsors and ladderbacks) that apprenticed to be a chairmaker in midcoast Maine, this video is 11/10 friggin amazing. Maine was a wild place to be alive in the early 1900’s and earlier.
@tommy..980 2 years ago

I just ran across this in 2022 I absolutely memorized me… That’s when men were men… Loved the man accent and his love for all his workers… Thanks for whoever put this on YouTube
@4545harrypotter 5 years ago

September 9, 1968 at 11 O'clock at night I walked the gang plank out onto the "Queen Mary Log Sorter" on the Kennebec River Log Drive in Winslow, Maine. This video was 38 years prior but brings back a lot of memories of working the drives.
@randlerichardson5826 4 years ago

I enjoy watching these old logging videos I was a logger for 30 years I miss it to
@sonnygivens4549 5 years ago

It's amazing how he speaks of walking the river for the first time in 1879, at first I thought he said 1979 and had to Rewind...but it is so amazing that the man speaking on this recording had lived through the more lawless times of American history and now is video recording his work in 1930, it must be an amazing feeling to be able to record video for personal use like this after living most of his life in a slightly more primitive America , very cool.
@dur84 11 years ago

Thank you for working your tail off to build America. There's something to be said for getting out of high school and working for 5 years or so. No play just work and become a great American and not a whinny need a new iphone mine got a scratch.
@petersaupe7455 4 years ago

A film to show children what work was and a hard life their forebearer,s had.Real people in a real world.
@Antipodean33 2 years ago

Brilliant little doco and his cinematic skills were pretty good. Up at 4 work all day till dusk, tough hard life, imagine trying to find enough men of that quality nowadays.
@MrJterbush 4 years ago

This footage is truly priceless!