A large team of horses pull timber along a skid road, Washington State.
Vintage Logging

Vintage logging – Corduroy roads and steam donkeys

Each Saturday morning I review 10 vintage logging, forestry and saw milling photos. This week’s review of vintage logging is about corduroy roads. I only had a few remaining, so I topped up the weekly 10 with a few steam donkey pictures.

Click the images to see larger versions of the photos.

1913 hauling logs on corduroy road, Washington state.
1913 hauling logs on corduroy road, Washington state.

1900s Team of horses in front of an outdoor mill
1900s Team of horses in front of an outdoor mill.

1910 Logging with oxen.
1910 Logging with oxen.

A 1907 resource guide to Washington state describes Redmond as “a small village on a branch line of the Northern Pacific railway” where most residents farmed or worked in the lumber industry as loggers or mill hands. According to early residents, it was not unusual to see teams of up to 12 oxen hauling logs to nearby loading areas or sawmills. Some of these logs measured up to 17 feet long and eight to ten feet in diameter .
This photographic postcard, probably made in the 1910s, shows six oxen, yoked in pairs, dragging a load of logs over a skid road near Redmond. Workers built skid roads by placing smaller logs, called skids, across the uneven, muddy path. A crew member greased the skids to make it easier to drag the heavy logs along the road.


MacFarland Bros Camp
MacFarland Bros Camp

Oxen on corduroy road
Oxen on corduroy road

Oxen Team Pulling a logs on a pole road. Small logs served as cross ties for the logs to slide over.


A large team of horses pull timber along a skid road, Washington State.
A large team of horses pull timber along a skid road, Washington State.

1900s Log deck and steam donkey machinery at Fraser Valley Sawmill, BC.
1900s Log deck and steam donkey machinery at Fraser Valley Sawmill, BC.

1900s Preston Lumber Co.
1900s Preston Lumber Co.

1900s-Donkey engine, horse, and logging crew on a skid road.
1900s-Donkey engine, horse, and logging crew on a plank rod.

1900-1930 Bordeaux Brothers Logging Co.
1900-1930 Bordeaux Brothers Logging Co.

A Newfoundland born Canadian with a life long interest in woodworking, baking and anything else that peaks my curiosity.

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