Sawmill Operations 1950s

Logging days in Timber River. J.J. McFadden Lumber Co.
RedBubble products I created for this enterprise: www.redbubble....
Subscribe, share, click 'like' and leave a comment!
My second channel with sport, LEGO and soon more diverse stuff: / @comiquaze2226

[@3ppcli]

I worked in a small sawmill back in my younger day. The smell of the lumber being cut was absolutely intoxicating.

[@Nas_Atlas]

Thank you for this. My grandfather logged like this with horses and handsaws in Quebec and Manitoba. He dressed like these men long after he retired. I can see the impression such a life must have left on him. Seeing this I can imagine his life in a way I could never before. My heart jumped a little when I heard the name 'Dick' as his name was Richard. He could have been any of these men. He ate a boiled potato every day as far as I know. As hard as it was I can see a lot of joy and pride in these men doing their work.

[@micharris1761]

so cool to see. It's nice to hear about your grandfather the work he must have done, The pride I can hear in your voice. so nice.

[@danwright1794]

I grew up in Portland ore. I heard that the timber industry was the number one source of work. My dad worked for Rader pneumatics in Portland.

[@leonanderson4727]

Although it is an honor to watch the olden day loggers, all I can say is thank God for modern machinery.

[@comiquaze1]

Indeed!

[@jeffcampbell2710]

But we sacrificed men, tough men. Today, people are soft, and will not survive destruction.

[@basaltplainscreationsaustr1194]

Also sustainable practices have been long overdue.

[@comiquaze1]

@@basaltplainscreationsaustr1194 Indeed!

[@spanishfly7709]

We need to get the laziness out and get back to the good old ways of logging and become strapping young men.

[@idiotsevant71]

Love these old videos, if we had to do lumber like this now you'd never find enough workers. Amazing.

[@claymack1109]

You sure wouldnt. I would love to do it this way...talk about a workout eh

[@tt600pch]

@@claymack1109 I started working at 19 years old at a mill on the green chain in 1982. There were 7 guys that pulled all the green lumber from the mill and stacked on bunks for the carrier to haul out. Each man pulled boards of 2 sizes in his spot and rotated position every hour. There were guys that could and like to pull chain and the ones that didn't last til payday. It was good times with the guys working together. I was the exception of already being in shape from loading hay on trucks in the field. I miss my youth...

[@claymack1109]

@@tt600pch i miss mine to ive been workin since i was in high school

[@BWreSlippySlope]

It's honest work with teams of real men, if the pay was anything close to average you would have tons of men willing to work rather than do the customer service, work as neo in a cubicle, and complete BS of many of the jobs. Hell, most people go to work to shop online.

[@johnmoyer5515]

I bought myself a portable sawmill i have no heavy eaquipment i think its fun doing it that way

[@davidpaulmert800]

I am a grandson of a man who had a camp in Gaspe quebec.this video showed me how my family came to be.thank you

[@limestonecowboy9219]

I love the way this man narrates this movie..it almost makes you feel like you're there.

[@mr.fringeminority5426]

Oh, the narration in this is just great. "That man in the background took 5 potatoes, he's an Irishman."

[@comiquaze1]

It is priceless.

[@alexsweeny1223]

Having recently travelled to the Mississagi river area and Blind river, this video is fantastic history record of the industry that created those towns. Fantastic.

[@Le_chien_playz]

im leave there

[@firewoodprovidersnorthwest]

Simply amazing amount of work these men had to go through in those days, my Grandfathers, and Uncles would have been working somewhere in this field in the 1920's through 1960's.

[@danielfantino1714]

Thank you for offering us that very well preserved footage, filmed in the middle of nowhere. Thanks for that lumber company that preserved history and daily life of these fearless hard workers mens and horses in all wheater. Sadly how many of them have been killed or got life injuries. Narrator voice and tone with some pauses give the impression that he is telling us what he sees in the movie. That he really knows what is talking about and not reading a text. None of us could work like that for a week and still be alive to tell. Next time you see an old house being torn down with all cracked and scrapped wood in the container or dump truck...remember what these mens endured for what we now just considered a pile of scrap, junk wood...

[@riverraisin1]

So true about the scrap wood. And it's stronger than most any wood available today.

[@lindleybarrett4063]

It's absolutely amazing to be able to see this film, I'd love to see more of them!

[@nostalgianeverland592]

This video is a rare piece of North American history. What exceptional quality! I enjoyed every minute of viewing. Thank you for posting! Happy Holidays to you and yours. :)

[@ronsilva516]

History is always fascinating it gives you a glimpse in how thing wear done

[@BluntedBaboon]

9 Inch rounds left to rot, that is the most amazing thing in the first few minutes of the video. People now adays harvest that for board, pulp or even to burn.

[@rogerhester8795]

Clear days so pure

[@johnstudd4245]

I remember reading that back in the heyday of lumbering in Michigan back in the late 1800's when the work was all manual hand tools, that the average lumberjack would burn 6000 calories a day.

[@stevehunter261]

What an informative documentary. Very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[@comiquaze1]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@pnwRC.]

Fantastic video! Thanks for sharing this gem.

[@kenc4240]

Love These Videos ,Men Worked Hard Every Day For Next To Nothing For Pay And They Where Happy To Be Doing It Day After Day ,The Camp Situation Must Have Left Something To Be Desired !!!! Awsome Video

[@peteacher52]

A well presented, informative clip of nostalgia. The McFadden mill closed and burned in 1970.

[@comiquaze1]

Thanks for the nice words. I didn't know that it had burned down.

[@tomt9543]

Closed and burned, or burned and closed?

[@riverraisin1]

I wondered about that, since I traveled thru the town a few times in the 80's and 90's and don't remember seeing a mill.

[@fasx56]

What a valuable History of early logging before chainsaws came into wide use. Logging was very difficult and hard work then and dangerous to boot. logging is still difficult and dangerous today but modern equipment and many safety measures and regulations in place there are less deaths and injuries on the job. Problem for the past 40 years is that the US has run out of the easy timber to cut and the Old Growth. Lumber prices keep going up and so does the cost of having a home of your own. Thanks for making this video available.

[@kevinc.8869]

Many of these men appear much older than I would have expected.

[@DanielParadis-sr5nh]

When I was younger, I had a neighbor who worked the Canadian woods back in the 50's. They were Real men back in those days!

[@lingcod91]

Today I'd call them fools . . . but these men KNEW what they were doin'.

[@vernonjones3613]

Tough job tougher men great video thanks

[@professordogwood8985]

"The Mississaugee River", love it!

[@efs83dws]

My Dad was a timber faller. He started in 1945 when he was 18 and worked until he was 65. He had many broken bones, he was burned in forest fires, had splinters pierce his body including his eye, he got stung by countless bees. Those were real men who never complained while they built this nation (America) with blood sweat and tears.

[@wphubert]

Super film, so glad we can see it.

[@rayzeish]

All honours to the worthy, what men they were, xx

[@michaeledlin9995]

Hard work Hard men Little pay. At least what they took home was earned honestly. Something that is forgotten today.

[@Thej611]

I’m currently trying to model a few logging scenes from the 50’s, and this has been really helpful!

[@comiquaze1]

Wow very nice!

[@edofstad9675]

I logged in the 50s as a young man, a kid today, and this is NOT Northern Minnesota logging in the 50s. We were using chain saws, Homelite, McCullough, Mall two man saws, and skidding was done by small cats and John Deere and by the 60s skidders were in use. The dates appear to me to be early to mid 1940s.

[@comiquaze1]

It is not in Minnesota either.

[@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb]

A huge forest fire in 1948 ruined a lot of the timber in that area. Was the beginning of the end for the mills. Maclean's had an article called 'Red Hell on the Mississagi' that can be found online.

[@comiquaze1]

Interesting! Thanks for the info!

[@lucycats6282]

Peacework keeps people honest

[@micharris1761]

so cool to see what they went through. for a day's pay.

[@henrychubbs2823]

Great historical video. they really stress piecework which cheap for the employer but encourages risk taking by the logger.

[@TheJimprez]

I used to live in a small lumber town. There was a HUGE log pile near the train tracks, right in the downtown part of the city... That would NEVER happen today. It'd be miles outside now. I think a kid died, playing there when a big log rolled on him. At least that was the story that parents used to scare us away. Its gone now. I grew up there in the 1970s. Its changed. But not the people. Same rural vibe and attitudes.

[@goatgate3815]

Excellent content thank you very much.

[@comiquaze1]

You're very welcome!

[@BakoelGendoel]

Your video is amazing, thanks your sharing, have a wonderfull day my frienda. Full watching always..

[@comiquaze1]

Thank you! You too!

[@maceccollins1750]

If companies operated like that today, they probably couldn't afford the insurance. If they could get insurance at all. Trial lawyers would put the company out of business. Lot of men crippled and killed working like this. I have heard my grandpa talk about the dangers that existed in timber/sawmill industry. It was a dangerous profession at best.

[@comiquaze1]

Indeed. I used to work at my father's plant, it wasn't like this, but still, you had to be careful of everything you did.

[@redclayfarm6490]

still is a very dangerous industry

[@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb]

Logging is still the most dangerous industry based on accident data.

[@tomparth3398]

Imagine how much they could get done with a chain saw.

[@KennysTreeRemoval]

Tough as nail hard working guys

[@SuperBigblue19]

We need to have a "sucker" award where I work.

[@raginroadrunner]

Insane.

[@danielgant2214]

Sudden urge to call and thank my parents for putting me through college

[@comiquaze1]

My Dad made me work in his lumber yard so that I would go through college. ;)

[@danielgant2214]

@@comiquaze1 yeah, I worked many jobs before and through college, but not as hard as hanging on to one end of that crosscut saw. It’s like carrying drywall, I’ve done enough of that to know it’s not much fun!

[@1978garfield]

That was amazing.

[@jeffcampbell2710]

Men could not work like that today. I came on the tail end of this era, where we didn't have machines, because the average man couldn't afford it. If you had a tractor, you had something.

[@Wyatt_K]

my back hurts just watching this.

[@tanataotengahere5978]

Interesting video and very enjoyable to listen to and view, this be 'shade's' of me koro (grandpa.. Norwegian by decent )..a Bushman though he was in that era..'ea in kiwi land, though the trees them cut then were kahikatea, rimu, white pine and selected totara (wood for carving) most native trees of the bushland,.ruggerd, rough and damp conditions and yeah most of the trees were cut by handsaw with the use of the axe. 4:55..than 'slog' it out with the handsaw.. logging ops carried out as shown in this video..bully and logging trucks..have a photo of me koro with his handsaw on his shoulder searching for the next tree to crosscut..term giving to treefellers..as it is, t's a very interesting vid and a look at history bak then, give's one an idea of what them conditions were like .. comments below are very informative.. thankyou so much for sharing Comiquaze.. awesome 👍

[@tanataotengahere5978]

Kaapai, Kia Ora..(all good..live well)🔥💪✌️🙏👍🌞

[@fricknjeep]

hi there neat watching thanks john

[@victorriceroni8455]

I sure do miss this generation of men.

[@riverraisin1]

Other than a few pieces of motorized equipment, these tough men are logging the exact same way it was done 80+ years before this film was made. Those peaveys they are handling like bamboo canes are actually quite heavy. Thanks for giving me a visual of how logging was done in the old days. I've read many history books but had to use my imagination about what operations and techniques actually looked like. Also, weren't the "food boats" called Wanigans?

[@finallyfriday.]

Is any part of the operation not life threatening? Even the camp cook is at risk. Hats off to these MEN. Can't see millenials doing this.

[@Romans--bo7br]

Sam R.... I'll bet that the "Millennials" can't see doing it... or, Any other kind of Work, for that matter. Completely useless!.

[@finallyfriday.]

@@Romans--bo7br barnacles on the hull of the ship of mankind.

[@Romans--bo7br]

@@finallyfriday...... Well said!!

[@finallyfriday.]

@@Romans--bo7br I remember as a little kid being upset that I had to wait until I was 12 to get a real job. Now you have to wait until 16 and I've met many 'males' that are 22 or 23 that haven't had their first job yet. And they think they're 'men'.

[@Romans--bo7br]

@@finallyfriday..... I was 10 when I got my first "full time" job... doing "grounds keeping" and other indoor odd jobs at a nearby church... during the summer months & no school - which I kept until I was 15. At age 12 I added a 2nd job, part time after school and on Saturdays working in a Go Kart shop, assembling and setting up new racing chassis & engines (back when ALL "Go Karts" were built for one thing - racing, in the early/mid 1960s)... on Sundays I raced them as part of our shops, 5 Kart team. At age 15, I started working part time in a gas station, pumping gas (remember those days?!!? lol) and doing simple repair work.. ie; brake jobs, belt changes, flat tires, etc. That's when I "dropped" my very first job from age 10.... three jobs was more than I could "juggle" at the time. lol Yeah... in "today's world" I even know of some 30+ year olds that are Still living at home, mooching off of "mom & dad", or just "mom" (mostly, it seems)... and still haven't worked a day in their pathetic life... either that, or can't hang on to a job more than a week or two... if even That long!! My dad made sure from a fairly early age, that I understood, what it meant to work, save money and prepare for moving Out of the house and starting a life of my own, when I turned 18.... no "if's, and's, or buts" about it.

[@jamiedalluge9472]

A tip a the hardhat to all the early loggers. Never see men like that again

[@comiquaze1]

Yes, it was another era!

[@BluntedZephyr]

Is parents home in Elliot Lake is probably built with lumber in the film.

[@lowlifechris5833]

Wow is all I can say,them are real men.

[@YahRay-t6p]

Back when the wood was good

[@SheepofTheShepherd-nu3lz]

one dude be looking like Steve Perry

[@johncourtneidge]

Superb! Thank-you! What men they were! Quite how the pay and finances were worked out would have been good to know.

[@billnixon8320]

Each generation is ablidged by the technology that is at that time current with offerings of newer technology as it is made available based on the foresight and tempered with budgetary constraints by the judgement of the working-men management personnel. Again at that time, what is perseved to be advantages to routine operations is considered to be utilized to promote efficiency. Efficiency is held in the the eye of the beholder and whether that beholder sways authority to implement chnange. If technology never advanced from then untill now, our current population would have thrown themselves into the available work to be had as their forebears had done. Advancement in technology to improve through efficiency in mechanical, digital or theoretical disciplines is generally solely attributed to individuals or isolated collaboration of small groups of individuals to realize achievement of technological advancement and ultimately benefit humanity as a whole. There really is no difference from then to now how technology is adopted, except how reward is distributed and consideration on the supporting ecological environment we all live within. Bill N.

[@AWSmith1955]

Where can we get J.J. McFadden Lumber Co LTD sweat shirts, hats, tee shirts and bling?😂

[@comiquaze1]

You made me work this morning! I just created this: www.redbubble.com/fr/shop/ap/98307487?ref=studio-promote

[@teriyakiyaki3462]

Real men!

[@TheMilwaukieDan]

Now it’s all gone

[@YahRay-t6p]

Talking about a timberjack

[@localcrew]

“Sausageville” - wonder why they call it that.........

[@comiquaze1]

Good question. If only the past could talk... 😜

[@waynetaylor5227]

this would be an OSHA nightmare....piecework by the board? how many men died in these operations?

[@rgrimm3173]

This looks to be filmed at a time of chainsaws, or maybe they preferred hand saws and axes for the pine? Did I miss an explanation somewhere?

[@richardreid6377]

They showed one chain saw. I think it was filmed when chain saws were first being introduced.

[@rand49er]

Had to stop watching after the second reference to horses breaking legs at 4:26 mark.

[@keithclark486]

Well you missed the most interesting part where they took them to the horsepital.

[@daveunderwood6498]

Strange. Not a feminist in sight.

[@michaelsmith2723]

You wouldn't be there either.

[@daveunderwood6498]

@@michaelsmith2723 I was too young when this film was made. You one of those male feminists? Lipstick and all.

[@zygmuntkuzminski8312]

poor horses

[@glenkelley6048]

tHOSE Canucks are slow to modernize!

[@B_Don123]

why are the roads iced?

[@jonharrington4454]

Makes it easier to skid the log.less friction

[@leehansen4750]

In the spring they become MUD and a LOT harder to move logs over!

[@michaelsnell4034]

@@leehansen4750 And muddy logs dull saws at the mill way faster too.

[@lucycats6282]

No welfare checks back then

[@jamesrussell6870]

460 board feet, not linear feet..

[@secretsquirrel6308]

I caught it too but after thinking about it, in the context it was said, lineal is correct.

[@jamesrussell6870]

Lineal feet or what? 1x2? 1x6? 2x8?

[@jamesrussell6870]

Of what..

[@keithbenson4915]

Please explain to us the difference between a board foot and a linear foot ,I have no idea of the difference.

[@danielmock4047]

Sounds like Biden narrating