This post is part of a blog series revealing the table of contents of upcoming Issue Eighteen. As is our custom, we’ll be discussing one article per weekday in order to give you a taste of what is to come.
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Issue Eighteen T.O.C. – Michael Updegraff – “For Building a Nation: A Brief History of Lumbering in Maine”
The early American development boom needed lumber – lots of it. And the newly-minted state of Maine had endless forests. But much of the interior was inaccessible, and mill towns clustered mostly along the coast. Maine’s rivers and waterways had long functioned as highways and trade routes deep into the wilderness, but could they carry all of that needed raw material from the wilderness to the ports?
In Issue Eighteen, author Michael Updegraff shares the fascinating story of Maine’s lumbering industry. From the legend of the lumberjack to the almost unbelievable efforts of the river driver, the woods of Maine were the setting of a remarkable century of gritty physical exploits. Logging camps were raw but full of song, tough but brimming with skilled hands and razor-sharp axes. Men labored in subzero temperatures for weeks on end, felling, cutting, and skidding pines to prepare for the spring thaw when sawlogs would be dumped into every sizable river and stream for the violent journey downstream.
And keeping those logs moving was the purview of the river driver. With spiked boots and a well-known cocky swagger, these workers could dance across a river of rolling, bobbing logs to break up jams and keep the drive moving downstream. Many gained reputations that bordered on the superhuman – and many never made it out of the woods alive. But because of the combined efforts of the lumbermen and river drivers, those raw logs from the North Woods could become the billions of board feet necessary for the building of a nation.
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