More Logging Photographs

In the past I have shared numerous photographs of historic logging operations in Michigan (and other Great Lakes states).  I use these photographs and various logging tools as part of a classroom program.  Recently I purchased two additional picture postcards that show logging operations in northern Wisconsin.

The first image shows two teams of oxen being used to haul a sleigh load of logs near Rice Lake, WI.  Both horses and oxen were used as draft animals in the lumber camps.  Oxen are typically stronger than horses, but are slower.  

Two teams of oxen in harness near Rice Lake, WI - circa. 1900?

Like horses, oxen may be shod with metal shoes both to protect their feet and help them get a better grip on the icy logging roads.  While horse shoes are a single piece, oxen shoes were in two pieces to accommodate the ox's cloven hooves.  Shoeing an ox is more difficult than shoeing a horse.  While the farrier (person who shoes horses) can lift a single foot of a horse up off the ground to replace a shoe, when shoeing an ox, the entire weight of the ox must be suspended from a harness during the shoeing process.

One interesting aspect of this photograph is that the oxen are wearing harnesses.  In most photographs that I have seen showing oxen working in lumber camps, the oxen are shown using a wooden yoke rather than harnessed.  This photo from Mid-Michigan shows two pair of yoked oxen.

Loading the sprinkler, Clare County, MI (1885) - note the yoked oxen to the left of the photo

My second new photograph is also from Wisconsin.  This photo shows a piece of equipment called a "swing jammer" and a group of shanty boys near Lakewood, WI.  The swing jammer was used to load logs onto sleighs for transport.  Prior to the invention of the swing jammer, logs were "cross-hauled" up a ramp onto the sleigh by a team of horses (or oxen).  The swing jammer allowed logs to be lifted onto the sleigh.  Swing jammers consisted of an A-frame with a base and a series of cables and pulleys. 

A swing jammer near Lakewood, WI

A sleigh would be driven up onto the base of the swing jammer for loading - the weight of the sleigh acted as a counter-weight to the A-frame.  A pair of hooks attached to a cable would be driven into the ends of the log being lifted.  The cable ran to an arm over the sleigh and through a series of pulleys - the arrangement of this arm and some of the cables/pulleys can be seen in the photo.  A team of horses would pull on this cable, lifting/dragging the log onto the sleigh.  The loader could guide the log from the ground with ropes or chains or from atop the load with cant hooks.  Once the log was in place it would be secured with chains.