The Old Neighborhood Sawmill And Log Carts

[Artfuldodger]

Amtrak runs from your area to the Savannah area. A train ticket, a car rental, and a couple of nights in beautiful Waycross Ga could get you that boat ride Pappy mentioned. I have taken the boat tour also. It’s a good trip. I suggest the cooler months if you are considering it.

Interesting, I've often thought about an Amtrak trip. We can pick one up in Denmark, SC which is only an hour away.

Looking at options to Waycross, Savannah might be the best option, they will bring a rental car to you. Jesup has a station but you'd probably have to work out something with Enterprise. They might would deliver you a car. It's only 38 miles from Waycross.

Like Redbow's wife, I wouldn't want to take a train ride now, even if they are operating. I know my wife wouldn't. Maybe about February would be nice.

Someone also mentioned that Rental places in Jacksonville, Florida would deliver you a rental car to the station. Waycross is an hour and a half from Jacksonville. Folkston is only 45 minutes to the train station. The station is north of Jax and on US1 to Folkston. The swamp park there is nice. They have an old homestead.


https://amtrakguide.com/directions/amtrak-to-savannah/

 

[Redbow]

Amtrak runs from your area to the Savannah area. A train ticket, a car rental, and a couple of nights in beautiful Waycross Ga could get you that boat ride Pappy mentioned. I have taken the boat tour also. It’s a good trip. I suggest the cooler months if you are considering it.

I worked for the railroad for 35 years, when I retired I could have gotten a pass to ride the passenger trains that ran on our line for free. I retired over 20 years ago, don't want to ride no Amtrak train. There isn't an Amtrak station for over 100 miles from us as I know of. I like the freedom of my automobile over my railroad tenure we never took a train trip we could have rode the other lines for half fare to anywhere in the USA, I'll pass.

 

[Milkman]

I worked for the railroad for 35 years, when I retired I could have gotten a pass to ride the passenger trains that ran on our line for free. I retired over 20 years ago, don't want to ride no Amtrak train. There isn't an Amtrak station for over 100 miles from us as I know of. I like the freedom of my automobile over my railroad tenure we never took a train trip we could have rode the other lines for half fare to anywhere in the USA, I'll pass.

I haven’t ever ridden a true passenger train. Only sight seeing ones.
However we are considering a Canadian Rockies trip.
My preference for travel over 500 miles is Delta. ?

 

[notnksnemor]

My Grandpa retired from the B&O Railroad in Hamilton Ohio.
I drove an engine (with assistance from the Engineer) at 8 yoa. Got to lever the throttle and still remember him telling me how many times to blow the whistle for each crossing we came to.
I've probably made 20 trips from central Florida to Ohio in the 60's.
Remember standing in the gap between cars for hours watching the sites.
I have his pocket watch with leather fob in my gun safe.

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

My Grandpa retired from the B&O Railroad in Hamilton Ohio.
I drove an engine (with assistance from the Engineer) at 8 yoa. Got to lever the throttle and still remember him telling me how many times to blow the whistle for each crossing we came to.
I've probably made 20 trips from central Florida to Ohio in the 60's.
Remember standing in the gap between cars for hours watching the sites.
I have his pocket watch with leather fob in my gun safe.

That’s kinda neat....we had the C&O railroad over in WV I always thought it stood for the Chesapeake & Ohio.

 

[Artfuldodger]

My uncle was an engineer with the Georgia & Florida. It's offices and shops were in Douglas, Georgia. I was thinking of traveling by Amtrak to Miami and then a shuttle to Key West.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

I have never take a real trip on a train. I have done day trips and such to tourist destinations, but never point A to Point B type trips

 

[Artfuldodger]

Up here in the hills in the 20's and 30's, before the chestnut blight killed all the big trees, my Grandpap logged those hills with steers. He would get up real early on Monday morning, get together all the things my Granny had packed for him that week, and he would walk the steers to the sawmill. Back then they took the mill to the wood, not the wood to the mill.

Pap said that he had those steers trained, and he would lead them into where the men were logging, and then lead them to the sawmill. One time. After that, the steers would walk back to the loggers who would use dogs to anchor the chains into the logs. Then the steers would pull the logs out to Pap. He would stay at the mill, and undo the dogs, secure the chains and send them back for another load.

He would stay at the sawmill all week long, making his bed on the soft sawdust pile. After work on Friday, he would walk the steers back home and spend the weekend with his family. It was a hard life but with the depression going on, any work was good work.

Pap told me a story once about a log that got away from the steers, and broke the leg of one of his steers. With things in such short supply, the steer became fresh meat for a few meals. They couldn't afford to waste anything.

He told me that when the chestnuts were in bloom, the entire mountain would turn white. Said it looked like a young snow with all those blooms. Chestnuts raised my dad along with his brothers and sisters. Without those trees, most probably wouldn't have lived. Maybe that is one reason I am so interested in seeing the chestnuts re-established and flourishing in the mountains

When you say dogs, you mean Cant hooks/dogs?

Was reading about a lumber yard in Nicholls, Ga.

The Southern Pine Company settled in Nicholls in 1895. There were many tram road tracks which The Southern Pine Company used to pull logs into the saw mill. Oxen were used to pull the logs out of the swamp. The Negroes would pull the logs off the trams with large canthooks.

I've seen them just didn't know what they were called.

 

[Milkman]

When you say dogs, you mean Cant hooks/dogs?

Was reading about a lumber yard in Nicholls, Ga.

The Southern Pine Company settled in Nicholls in 1895. There were many tram road tracks which The Southern Pine Company used to pull logs into the saw mill. Oxen were used to pull the logs out of the swamp. The Negroes would pull the logs off the trams with large canthooks.

I've seen them just didn't know what they were called.

View attachment 1043177

@BriarPatch99 lives in Nicholls Ga. maybe he knows something about it???

 

[NE GA Pappy]

When you say dogs, you mean Cant hooks/dogs?

Was reading about a lumber yard in Nicholls, Ga.

The Southern Pine Company settled in Nicholls in 1895. There were many tram road tracks which The Southern Pine Company used to pull logs into the saw mill. Oxen were used to pull the logs out of the swamp. The Negroes would pull the logs off the trams with large canthooks.

I've seen them just didn't know what they were called.

View attachment 1043177

this is what we called a log dog. You would take a sledge or wood maul and drive the sharp point into the log, then hook the chain into the harness of the animal. I have only used these with a tractor and hooked them to a draw bar. When you get where you are going with the log, you can hit the end of the dog, and it will pop out of the log, allowing for a quick turn around to get the next log

 

[Artfuldodger]

@BriarPatch99 lives in Nicholls Ga. maybe he knows something about it???

His family used to make some pretty good syrup too! The pioneer families are: Meeks, Halls, Waters, Bagleys, Vinsons, Cannons, Kirklands, Powers, Davis, Testons, Lewis, Tanners, and Taylors.

 

[Artfuldodger]

This one is in Valdosta but there used to be one in front of the stock yard in Douglas.
http://valdostamuseum.com/exhibitions/temporary-exhibitions/historic-log-cart/

 

[ryanh487]

My first job out of college was in the office of a lumber company. The walls were covered with old photographs from back when the red woods were getting logged with nothing but cross cut saws, axes, and mule pulled carts. Many pictures were of dozens of folks working on one tree, driving wedges into the trunks so they could run scaffolding on them to stand and hack/saw through the upper parts of the tree. Couldn't imagine the strength and determination required to walk into the forest with an axe every morning knowing you'd be swinging it at a living sky scraper all day.

 

[notnksnemor]

If it's round it's called a log.
After you take the first side cuts, it's called a cant.
Why is it called a cant?

 

[Redbow]

A CANT is a partially sawn log with at least one side flat. I don't know exactly why its called a CANT, maybe because you can't roll it easily anymore after cutting off the sides of the log.

 

[Redbow]

this is what we called a log dog. You would take a sledge or wood maul and drive the sharp point into the log, then hook the chain into the harness of the animal. I have only used these with a tractor and hooked them to a draw bar. When you get where you are going with the log, you can hit the end of the dog, and it will pop out of the log, allowing for a quick turn around to get the next log

I can't recall ever seeing a log dog but it seems like a good idea. I would not want to be hit by that thing if it came out of the log under stress...

 

[BriarPatch99]

@BriarPatch99 lives in Nicholls Ga. maybe he knows something about it???

I can show you some trussel(what is left) that crossed some the creeks as well as the tram roads that were used ...

Nicholls as first known ... was located about four miles North of present day on the old Dan Lott farm ... whose wife was one my Kirkland folks... When the Southern Pine Co. moved to present day Nicholls the post office was moved to the town 1895... the saw mill burned in Dec. 22, 1896 .... leaving most of the folks unemployed .... many went to the turpentine work .... Southern Pine built a new mill in 1897... Which cut 100,000 feet of lumber per day...

Passenger service came from Waycross in 1901....

A Cant hook is a wood handle with a steel hook sort like log tongs except just one tong...

My folks the Kirklands were one of the first five families in Coffee Co. In 1820...

My folks Moses Kirkland is the one who moved to Coffee Co.(1820) He married the daughter of Sampson Carver who happens to be part of artfuldogers folks ....

 

[Artfuldodger]

I can show you some trussel(what is left) that crossed some the creeks as well as the tram roads that were used ...

Nicholls as first known ... was located about four miles North of present day on the old Dan Lott farm ... whose wife was one my Kirkland folks... When the Southern Pine Co. moved to present day Nicholls the post office was moved to the town 1895... the saw mill burned in Dec. 22, 1896 .... leaving most of the folks unemployed .... many went to the turpentine work .... Southern Pine built a new mill in 1897... Which cut 100,000 feet of lumber per day...

Passenger service came from Waycross in 1901....

A Cant hook is a wood handle with a steel hook sort like log tongs except just one tong...

My folks the Kirklands were one of the first five families in Coffee Co. In 1820...

My folks Moses Kirkland is the one who moved to Coffee Co.(1820) He married the daughter of Sampson Carver who happens to be part of artfuldogers folks ....

Was there any history to Chatterton or Saginaw? I see that the Waycross Air Line Railroad went to Sessoms which is almost to Nichols. Maybe later it was ran to Nicholls for the lumber company.

 

[Core Lokt]

Memories and I'm not old at all. Best friends dad has a mill and we worked at it most weekends as a young fella. It would cut a boards up to 36" wide and had a 40' carriage on the cut side of the blade. Had a plainer mill too. Wish I had pics, I'll go by and get some of it. My barn headers that the trusses set on were cut there. 3.5"x7" 36' . Green light poles is what they were.

 

[BriarPatch99]

Was there any history to Chatterton or Saginaw? I see that the Waycross Air Line Railroad went to Sessoms which is almost to Nichols. Maybe later it was ran to Nicholls for the lumber company.

Saginaw was a Hercules Stump Co. Town ...buildings , schools, bar (the Green Lantern) ith convenient brotheln... Town stores .... Hercules "pulled " fat w/o is lighter wood ....place in train bond for Brunswick ...made dynamite out of it ... Fights and killing pretty regular ...call the sheriff and drag them out by the highway #32 type .deal ....Great Uncle plugged several there as he was owner...

Chatterton I known little about ...a store, church ...couple joints ... Mainly just train stop...